Test/review of Ravpower RP-BC015

HKJ

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[size=+3]Ravpower RP-BC015[/size]

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A four slot NiMH only charger from Ravpower that is USB powered.




The charger was in a cardboard box without much information.

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The box included the charger, a USB cable (Flat type), a instruction sheet and 8 AA NiMH batteries.

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The charger has a micro USB input. It only uses 5V and the supplied cable is with a USB-A plug in the other end.

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There are no buttons, only a fairly dim led for each slot. The leds is red while charging and green when the battery is full.



The charger has specifications on the back.

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The connection are the common two level style for AA and AAA batteries.

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[size=+2]Measurements[/size]


  • Below 0.8V the battery is assumed to defect and the red indicator blinks.
  • Power consumption when idle without batteries is 28mA from USB


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With a single battery the charger current is nearly 2A, it looks like it terminations on voltage and there is no top-off or trickle charge.

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The 3 other slots are similar, but for some unknown reason I have a lower charge current in them.

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The 3 high capacity cells are charged fine, but the curves make me doubt the termination is just voltage, the charger may be smarter than that.

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With AAA batteries the current is reduced to 1A, again the charging looks fine.

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A full cell is detected in about 5 minutes, this is fairly fast.

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The charger was not that happy about a weak charger or long cable (The leds where not stable). It charged the batteries fine enough, but the termination was a bit slow.

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With full power input the charger uses 0.5A charging current for all four batteries.

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M1: 35.6°C, M2: 39.4°C, M3: 40.4°C, M4: 37.1°C, HS1: 53.2°C

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M1: 38.0°C, HS1: 45.7°C

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The charger is starts in about 2 seconds when power is applied.

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The charger only has 1 charge circuit and will switch it between the slows. With one slot in use it will get all the charge current.

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With more slots in use the charge current will be distributed between the slots.

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The charger will not work reliable with a unstable voltage.



[size=+2]Conclusion[/size]

This is a compact charger with a total of 2A charge current, that is distributed between the batteries in the charger. This means a single battery will be charged fast and four batteries will take four times as long.

It passed all my test without any trouble, this makes it a good charger.



[size=+3]Notes[/size]


Ravpower batteries review

Here is an explanation on how I did the above charge curves: How do I test a charger

My USB charger tests
 
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