Can someone please explain the Xtar VC8 to me?

I've had this charger for about a month to charge my 21700 battery, and I can't figure out why it does what it does for the life of me. It's honestly the most annoying charger I've ever used.

First off, the only wall adapter I can find that works is from an older Samsung phone. Not the new one that came with my Note 9, but one that's years old from my S5.

Second of all, no matter what the level of the battery I charge is, it sometimes wants to charge at 2000mAH and sometimes I can't even get it to go over 200mAH. I noticed if I put it in the second slot it seemed to hit 2000mAH more often, but now that slot isn't doing it either and I'm currently charging a 3.6v battery at 230mAH.

It just seems like it does whatever it wants to with charge rates, and I can sit there and watch the voltage go up and down a tenth of a voltage back and forth, like it can't even figure out what it's doing. It's honestly the most annoying charger I have ever used. I bought this thing so I could charge at 1000+mAH since my Nitecore topped out at 750mAH, but if I would have known this is how it would act I would have just stuck to the Nitecore and not wasted the money on this.


EDIT: I just took the battery out of channel 2, put it in channel 3 and it read the same voltage of 3.66v and charged at 250mAH. I put it in slot 1 and now magically it's reading 3.77v and charging at 500mAh.


EDIT2: Forgot I made my original post here and saw that XTAR actually replied:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/v...od-for-21700&p=5366547&viewfull=1#post5366547

I guess that makes sense. But then my question is, what wall adapter can I use that will provide enough power? I don't want to have to use my laptop every time I charge a battery, but my laptop is currently charging at 967mAH.

Xtar and Anker, amongst others, make a USB charging hub which will be able to supply the high currents demanded by your charger. Then you can ditch the wall warts.
P

Would this work?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VH8ZW02/?tag=cpf0b6-20

That's the one I was thinking of, but it doesn't support QC 3.0 charging.
If you click on the "newer model" link on that page, there's one that does, which should give you the current supply that you need.
I like Anker stuff, it's nice and solid.
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There is an issue with all those USB chargers: none of them produces more than 3 A per USB-A port. With 8 slots it makes 375 mA per slot at best — pathetic.

I don't think there's anything else out there that will supply more current though.
Or is there? It's a shame Xtar didn't put two or even three power inputs on the charger, then it would be a lot more efficient.

P

Then maybe one using that new GaN technology?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TC53ZYD/?tag=cpf0b6-20

Ridiculous I have to look around just to power this thing.

It sure is.
That Ravpower charger is USB C, and I don't think your Xtar is compatible.
Try posting in the Xtar Fourm on here. An Xtar rep seems to keep an eye on it and may even help.
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peter yetman said:

It sure is.
That Ravpower charger is USB C, and I don't think your Xtar is compatible.
Try posting in the Xtar Fourm on here. An Xtar rep seems to keep an eye on it and may even help.
P

Click to expand...

The XC8 is USB C. I forgot about the forums here for Xtar, I'll check them out.

So it is. Then your Ravpower will do the trick.
Good luck, I hope you find your answer.
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The Ravpower seems support PD3.0, not QC3.0. As the XTAR VC8 uses QC3.0 fast charge protocol, you need to choose QC3.0 adapter to support higher power.

Ok, I ordered a 3.0a QC 3.0 adapter from Anker. It'll be here today some time so I will test. I will also say though that I have it plugged into my laptop again to charge a battery, and it's now charging it at 495mAH as opposed to 1970mAH before. So this thing still just seems to do what it wants, which is what is most frustrating about it.

Please let us know about charging with the Anker.
So sorry this has been a frustrating experience, good luck.
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Well what do you know.

It's finally behaving as expected. I would go as far as to say the charger is useless unless you buy the adapter. It should really come with one, there wasn't a single time where it actually did what I wanted until I got this Anker adapter. Now if I set it to 3000mA, that's what it charges at. If I set it to 2000mA, it changes immediately to that.

This is the one I got:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077HFFLMS/?tag=cpf0b6-20

Well done, I'm so pleased.
P

Well, I'm back. Went to charge my battery, which was reading 3.8v on the charger, and it's only charging at 496mA.

Seriously, what the hell is going on with this thing? I guess I'll go post in the Xtar forum. I'm going to put the charger in my Blendtec pretty soon.