VidPro
Flashlight Enthusiast
I got this "universal" nickle based charger, because it will do lots of cells (8), and lots of sizes (4) .
i tried to meter test it for what the heck it is doing
and the alogrythm is so complex and changing i cant even tell you yet what it is
But i can tell you some of the things IT did well, that other things have failed at miserably. and I thought it was cool.
Knew the bats in it were charged:
ok just how did it do that? every other (grr) charger i have when you pull the power then plug it back in (power outage) it starts the charge cycle over again. by hitting V-drop one more time pulverising the battery at the end of charge signal, i hate that.
somehow this thing went back on after the power outage, i went over to check at how it was destroying the cells (like the other chargers WERE) and the cells in it are just parked all cool and all, and the readout says Done. (they were done) its a miracle i tell ya.
Treats a AAA as good as it treats an AA:
I think it even has seperate power FOR the AAA slots, or something, Each battery type goes in different slots, so it can treat each battery different, and on AAAs it certannly does. no more torturing my AAA batteries in a charger that is designed for AA , with AAA tossed in the side.
ample space between cells, instead of cross heating.
About Time they built a charger that quits destroying everything.
That was the important stuff, that i have despised with a lot of chargers.
-------------------------------------------------------
other stuff
Will do a "condition" or discharge before a charge, that is a must for me to purchace a charger anyways. Charge-discharge-then charge again, not exactally a simple discharge before charge, but i can live with it.
Has a soft charge mode:
it has a nice charge mode that goes about 1/2 speed , and pulses 50-50 and doesnt much heat up the batteries , yet they still terminate correct everytime (so far 200+) .
Has some sort of crasy slowdown , or voltage termination/adjustment at the end, i donno how exactally, but i am not getting the (usual) "are they Cooked yet?" charging. it is hard to read without a scope or data logger, as the thing is all over the place.
Took about everything I tossed at it, and didnt complain, and tried to charge it , some chargers will whine way to much about high resistance or low voltage batteries being put into it. it at least Tries without having to put them on a different charger.
it charge/conditioned some Cruddy D cells i have that were beloted, and after a few cycles on soft, some (as in minor) of the gas buildup,was reduced, instead of increased.
--------------------------------------------
didnt: or cons
it did not have a memory for the thing it was doing last, if i set it up for a condition on soft, and unplug it, it will go back to standard charge, which is usefull to start it after insertion, but not usefull for when the power goes off.
It WAITS till all the batteries are in one state (charged/discharged) prior to going on to the next cycle. so if you have Ds in there , at the same time as AAs , the Ds (taking longer to finish) will hold up the charge on the AAs. although it does easily handle having different batteries in the different slots (not same slots).
Other chargers i have CAN discharge one cell while charging another, and the opposite, this simply will not.
the display stuff is neer useless, but shows what is going on, just not really usefull for the capacity state , like actual Ma numbers of charge/discharge would. Its the big lotta battery charger, i can still test in something else, so its not a problem at all.
because each battery slot has its own (no springs) holder that fits each battery perfectally, and solid connection, insertion of cells is not as easy, like doing it in the dark and all, AAA being the harder slot of them.
it has a dangling power supply (seperate from the unit) , but i am not complaining after other units have (take up 2 slots of space) wall warts, and internal power units that Heat up everything. the power supply itself doesnt get hot like other things can.
AA and AAA cells still "seat" in the bottom, but beings they arent heating up much i suppose the "insulation" at the bottom isnt really a problem.
------------------------------------------
About the first time i have ever seen a charger that i could implicidally trust , and just toss the batts on and expect that it will do the job correctally, under varied circumstances THAT often occur.
It cost a bundle (grumble grumble) but i am really (and rarely) impressed, been using it for months and months, and i thought i should say Maha did a good job with this one.
next year it may melt into a pile but for the length of the test it is kicking butt and treating things better than other stuff does by far.
i tried to meter test it for what the heck it is doing
and the alogrythm is so complex and changing i cant even tell you yet what it is But i can tell you some of the things IT did well, that other things have failed at miserably. and I thought it was cool.
Knew the bats in it were charged:
ok just how did it do that? every other (grr) charger i have when you pull the power then plug it back in (power outage) it starts the charge cycle over again. by hitting V-drop one more time pulverising the battery at the end of charge signal, i hate that.
somehow this thing went back on after the power outage, i went over to check at how it was destroying the cells (like the other chargers WERE) and the cells in it are just parked all cool and all, and the readout says Done. (they were done) its a miracle i tell ya.
Treats a AAA as good as it treats an AA:
I think it even has seperate power FOR the AAA slots, or something, Each battery type goes in different slots, so it can treat each battery different, and on AAAs it certannly does. no more torturing my AAA batteries in a charger that is designed for AA , with AAA tossed in the side.
ample space between cells, instead of cross heating.
About Time they built a charger that quits destroying everything.
That was the important stuff, that i have despised with a lot of chargers.
-------------------------------------------------------
other stuff
Will do a "condition" or discharge before a charge, that is a must for me to purchace a charger anyways. Charge-discharge-then charge again, not exactally a simple discharge before charge, but i can live with it.
Has a soft charge mode:
it has a nice charge mode that goes about 1/2 speed , and pulses 50-50 and doesnt much heat up the batteries , yet they still terminate correct everytime (so far 200+) .
Has some sort of crasy slowdown , or voltage termination/adjustment at the end, i donno how exactally, but i am not getting the (usual) "are they Cooked yet?" charging. it is hard to read without a scope or data logger, as the thing is all over the place.
Took about everything I tossed at it, and didnt complain, and tried to charge it , some chargers will whine way to much about high resistance or low voltage batteries being put into it. it at least Tries without having to put them on a different charger.
it charge/conditioned some Cruddy D cells i have that were beloted, and after a few cycles on soft, some (as in minor) of the gas buildup,was reduced, instead of increased.
--------------------------------------------
didnt: or cons
it did not have a memory for the thing it was doing last, if i set it up for a condition on soft, and unplug it, it will go back to standard charge, which is usefull to start it after insertion, but not usefull for when the power goes off.
It WAITS till all the batteries are in one state (charged/discharged) prior to going on to the next cycle. so if you have Ds in there , at the same time as AAs , the Ds (taking longer to finish) will hold up the charge on the AAs. although it does easily handle having different batteries in the different slots (not same slots).
Other chargers i have CAN discharge one cell while charging another, and the opposite, this simply will not.
the display stuff is neer useless, but shows what is going on, just not really usefull for the capacity state , like actual Ma numbers of charge/discharge would. Its the big lotta battery charger, i can still test in something else, so its not a problem at all.
because each battery slot has its own (no springs) holder that fits each battery perfectally, and solid connection, insertion of cells is not as easy, like doing it in the dark and all, AAA being the harder slot of them.
it has a dangling power supply (seperate from the unit) , but i am not complaining after other units have (take up 2 slots of space) wall warts, and internal power units that Heat up everything. the power supply itself doesnt get hot like other things can.
AA and AAA cells still "seat" in the bottom, but beings they arent heating up much i suppose the "insulation" at the bottom isnt really a problem.
------------------------------------------
About the first time i have ever seen a charger that i could implicidally trust , and just toss the batts on and expect that it will do the job correctally, under varied circumstances THAT often occur.
It cost a bundle (grumble grumble) but i am really (and rarely) impressed, been using it for months and months, and i thought i should say Maha did a good job with this one.
next year it may melt into a pile
but for the length of the test it is kicking butt and treating things better than other stuff does by far.
Last edited:
