First Look: iSDT T8 Battery Charger (BattGo)

First play with the iSDT T8 battery charger which combines high power with small size.
iSDT T8 on banggood.com
bit.ly/2eTGR0T

[@GadgetAddict]

It seems like a very capable charger but it would be nice if it could accept a lower input voltage for easier use with 12V lead-acids. But perhaps they put that low voltage cutoff to protect people's batteries from being over discharged? I'm impressed that little lipo can charge so quickly !

[@aspendell209]

"Unexceptionable performance on the power space ratio" they say on the Banggood ad. Gotta love their comprehensive mastery of the Aenglish language. LOL

[@bloodyl_uk]

Have you noticed how the ISDT T8 Battgo logo flashes and pulses during operation?

[@bloodyl_uk]

Hmm, must have been the camera constantly adjusting for the lighting as it doesn't appear to do it later on in the video.

[@jimmyjin4574]

That's a flash LED, not caused by camera

[@jamest.5001]

James Wade well it do don't it!! That's cool.. It would be nice if that was really doing that.

[@skydrones2012]

Best ever charger l got since 10 years! It really repair old unbalanced lipo battery !

[@blablablaqwd]

Please test it with more power. You can use a server power supply like a DPS-600PB. They are fairly cheap and output 47A at 12.15V. There are a lot of tutorials on how to mod them. With a little modification, you can even put them in series, so with two of them you get 47A at 24.3V, which is over 1000W. At 24V input you should get the max. power of this charger unit. Besides LiPos you can also charge your solar batterys at 30A@12V which is also quite neat. I'm curious if this little charger can do it reliably :)

[@aspendell209]

Yes, I'd like to see that as well. I happen to have 2 of those supplies Krz mentions that do indeed give me 25.2 volts @ 47A and I'd love to be able to use them to charge some of my 100A 7S Li-ion packs to 29.4 volts without having to go through a 15A Boost converter each time. So please try charging something at 30A+ with it. Thanx Julian

[@ScottEdmonds]

My supply is 24.2V @ 75A, unfortunately my capable battery mix is something around ~740W due to 35A output cap. Hopefully my charger arrives tomorrow and I can see how it performs at that output. Based on how well my SC-620 works, it'll be no problem.

[@ronniepirtlejr2606]

It looks like the resting voltage is trying to drop in the batteries so the charger is sending a microvolt back out to bring it back up.

[@realflow100]

THAT IS A MASSIVE GRAPEFRUIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@mikerhodes9198]

It almost looks like the smaller units were proof of concept models that function but at a far reduced rate. Then they got serious and went all out and created the T8 model.

[@Manawyrm]

The green "fast charge" is when it's still balancing, but has generally finished charging. The blue mode is the real finish :) The green phase can take quite a while with older and more unmatched packs. Also: Have you taken a look in the system menus? Hold one of the buttons for a while, you should be able to set a lower cutoff-voltage for the input side there...

[@JulianIlett]

OK thanks Tobias. Yes, there is a system settings page - the minimum input cutoff voltage is 11.6v - the maximum is 48v (which is a bit weird).

[@ScottEdmonds]

If I recall my SC-620 has a setting that maxes the W at 520W, and it charges at 520W despite it's 500W rating.

[@deslomeslager]

I would buy one, if I could set the maximum voltage. 4.15 is way to high, I'd love to use my batteries much longer (more often) than 500 charges. If I could set it at 4.00 Volt, I'd buy one immediately. I do like the 2 Amp balancing feature!

[@JulianIlett]

If you set it to Li-Ion, the target voltage range is 4.05v to 4.15v

[@deslomeslager]

Thanks. That is more like it. Just a 10th of a Volt lower than that, and it would get interesting. My desired working range would be 3.90 to 4.0 (I would like to play with the setting of course). The only other way I can come up with is using a very heavy relay or switch so I can put the sets of batteries in series and parallel (when not in use that is), then I would no longer need balancing either (after doing some manually sorting the batteries of course). How do car batteries (Tesla and such) load balance their batteries?

[@FlyingShotsman]

As a workaround, you could put a diode in series with each balance lead to drop ~0.6V, then set the charger to achieve your desired cell voltage. If you don't want to mod all of your batteries, you could just make a universal adapter with eight diodes and the required 9-pin connectors on each end.

[@deslomeslager]

Please take a paper and work this out for yourself. It is not going to work that way for many reasons.The micro processor would not be able to measure the voltages, and would do strange things.I need a solution capable of charging (and most of all balancing) to a voltage which I can choose (3.90V to 4.00 is most interesting to me). But if this device can't do it, there will be others. I would not mind having to build it myself using an Arduino, so I am watching this channel carefully for that reason!

[@FlyingShotsman]

Well, yeah, if you insist on it working, then no, it won't work! Lesson: don't post immediately after waking up...

[@pfeerick]

It will be really interesting to find out exactly what this 'Timing Auto-discharging Function' is that the BattGo batteries list in the specs, and was adjustable on the cell balancer unit. If it does what I think it does, it means the BattGo system must have have the facility to add a internal balancer unit to the battery, so it can self-discharge after that set time period? Making it really handy, especially when you have people who still think it's ok to leave lithium batteries fully charged, instead of at storage levels, particularly if you want longer lives out of your batteries without them puffing up.

[@beforebefore]

Nice review, nice charger! Yes, it is normal for cell impedance to be lowest at fullest charge level.

[@BladeScraper]

31:00 Yes I believe it is a hold current... I have the ISDT SC608, ISDT SC620, and ISDT Q6 Plus, and all of them maintain a small amount of current when the charge is finished.

[@OutdoorsIQ]

BladeScraper I wonder if it’s dangerous to have a small holding current like this. Most changers I’ve used cut off completely.

[@DupczacyBawol]

Juilian, what microcontroler is there inside? And please teach us how to build such power supplies/chargers with menus and graphics. Thanks in advance.

[@SrgBlackburn]

I have the Q6 charger and love it. Never discharges at the rate you set it too. Limitation of the cooling is my guess. Max ive seen it go to was 1 amp

[@junits15]

Whats the point of battGo? You can pull information about the cell over the 1 wire data link, but you still need to attach the balance leads for balance charging. In that case you can get cell voltages and info from there while charging. Other than telemetry data about the cell it seems like it doesn't add that much.

[@ahaveland]

Um... that "telemetry data" is the whole point!

[@alvarezfernandezmanuel]

I think anti-spark is on XT60 connectors, try connect them at last

[@cmj20002]

I like the ISDT D2 the best as it has two chargers in one and the power supply is built in so you just plug it into the wall. Not so good if you are in the field, but much better for my purposes.

[@iamdarkyoshi]

Their site seems to have some info on dev kits for battgo, I think it'd be cool to add battgo functionality to your bike pack!

[@handle_and_gretel]

check the settings (long press center button) for min. input... maybe it goes lower than 11.6v.. also, you can set a maximum wattage... on discharge the BL should only be used when cells are imbalanced, so just 10w for regular discharge...the discharge rating normally is for 1S and gets split with more cells..some charger even allow connection of external loads.. and impedance should sink with charge. just my 2cents and thanks for the review :)

[@GadgetAddict]

Oh wow, It does sound a bit like me lol.

[@JulianIlett]

It really does :)

[@lemontea2065]

So did you charge your bicycle battery with this charger? If yes, how did it cope with the task?

[@jeremyhall7259]

Of course you have a grapefruit right next to you!

[@kyoudaiken]

You don't? You are a weird person... O_O

[@RWBHere]

It's a standard U.K. breakfast item, and Julian did say, 'Good morning!'.

[@arekkazmierowski9657]

Great vid. No need to check the temp of balancing wires, they don't really get stressed until the end of charging. But great review anyway thanks a lot. Planning to buy this thing.

[@rizkyp]

the new isdt are Q6 lite, Q6 pro, and the T4 cube.

[@Sprengi86]

Have you tried holding the center button down for several seconds? I've been using an iSDT SC-608 for almost a year now and that's how you get into the System Menu to change various settings. I'd think the T8 has a similar menu to change the screen brightness, beep volume and look at the Firmware version.

[@aspendell209]

The faster you charge a lithium based battery, the longer it may take to normalize at max voltage. So instead of flash charging to 4.20v and then coming back in a couple hours to find that all cells have normalized or saturated down to 4.15v or less, the smarter chargers will keep current on the cells until they no longer drop below the set peak voltage. And yes, internal impededance does fluctuate with state-of-charge, but I highly doubt this unit is actually measuring impedance via injecting a 1khz sinewave and reading it's reflection. It's more likely just a calculated resistance reading (not true impedance) which is rather useless for cells..

[@skydrones2012]

Aspendell l think you wrong l have one t8 and it can repair old unbalanced 6s 16ah battery and l mean fix the cell capacity back to is original This charger stop all other cells from charging and fill the others until is ending charge and l made the test at 4.15 volt

[@thethoughtmaster]

The safe maximum should be 4.18v. The optimal should be 3.84v. First charge should be maximum then after should be optimal.

[@MattOGormanSmith]

My bike is still running on lead acid, so that's a module I'll be looking for, both until I can afford lighter batteries for the bike and after when the lead acid come inside to the benchtop.

[@ahaveland]

Go round laptop service shops and ask them for their old batteries - after a couple of months of ripping them apart and testing the cells, you should have a couple of hundred good ones that you can use to make a pretty big battery, and save a few hundred quid. Loads of videos here on harvesting 18650 cells! Start here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rJCXmJp6g5xlb5I by HBPowerwall. He uses over 4000 of them to power his home - worth following him!

[@MattOGormanSmith]

Maybe as a stopgap. I've watched RinoaSuperGenius do it. But new cells are getting better and cheaper. I'm more inclined to put new cells into old laptops too. I've got a stack of ancient thinkpads here.

[@rickworthington3062]

Will this monitor temperature as well?

[@ronniepirtlejr2606]

I hear that high pitch noise also all the time! I wonder if it is electronics?

[@WendysImpression]

Can you use any adapter you want? This looks like an interesting charger :)

[@mikerhodes9198]

Good review. I wonder if you took one of the cells down to say 2.9 volts and left the others at 3.9 volts if it would output to the one cell that is much lower until it reaches 3.9 volts before it raises up the other cells? Or does it increase all cells at the same time and stops on the cells that reach 4.2 volts first and then continue on the one cell that was lower? Or does it channel higher current to the lower voltage cell? I always wondered exactly how the balancing was performed. I suppose you could test this on the unit.

[@vgamesx1]

Most (if not all) chargers usually perform that latter, they output your set current through the main leads then once the cells go beyond a certain threshold of the others it will connect a resistor across that cell, although considering this charger is a tad expensive at $100, I would be a bit disappointed if it didn't also charge the cells over the balance leads.

[@rontan8433]

Are you using a VHS Handycam to record? Your content is amazing, but the light balance is horrendous to say the least.

[@JulianIlett]

I'm using Umatic

[@ThatGuy-nv2wo]

I think we all know why Julian always has a grapefruit on hand ;)

[@fysafysa]

Could you power this from a solar panel directly? And can you charge while the cells are loaded?

[@jamest.5001]

Are the charge and discharge voltages adjustable? And can it balance when charging starts?

[@nl1cat]

So it seems to do bottom-balance too ?

[@ericjackson7810]

I have to say that the cable on the XT60 that you used on that lipo seems VERY thin! could be dangerous!

[@km5405]

julien - have you ever played with the UC384 smps chip? got some cheap from china and having problems getting them to work to make a HV DC-DC converter

[@ericjackson7810]

Hi Julian, Do you know if you can set parameters in this charger, and then save them for future charging/Discharging?

[@DreStyle]

Wish they could charge at lower currents for smaller battery's :( My 106+ died.. I miss that charger

[@K_a_m_a_l_a_Harris]

So will it charge a shorty 2s battery @ 30 Amps from a 1000 watt power supply @ 12 volts or does it need a higher volts like 32v?

[@MrBrymstond]

Does this device have a boost converter built in? You were trying to charge a 16.8v with a 12v battery.

[@JulianIlett]

Yes, it's able to buck or boost.

[@AdamWelchUK]

Julian Ilett that’s quite neat then. I did happen to see this earlier this week on BG. Thanks for the overview.

[@nigellyttleton]

Would like to wait for a charger that can charge a 14s bike battery, the 8s charger is 1 step closer. The Q200 charger looks good value has 6 s inputs and 4 channels so I can charge my 14s with two 6s inputs and one 2s input which is not bad, the 6s channels at 100W each and the 2s at 50W so should charge very quickly . I soppose each charger has its own merits depending on your setup. Good Vid , glad I subscribed

[@nl1cat]

I am searching for 12s balance charging. How do you set that up on a q200?

[@RWBHere]

Battery ESR will drop as charge increases. Think of it logically: A charged battery can deliver more current than a discharged one, without terminal voltage dropping by a specific amount. Ohm's Law has to be obeyed! ;-p Thanks Julian.

[@Danjul89]

Thumbs up if you guys also want a 1kW test! :D

[@3dmixer552]

Can I charge a 130A lithium ion leisure battery from alternator via this charger?

[@jamest.5001]

3dmixer I have been looking to charge a 7s lithium battery (29.4v) from a 12 or 24v alternator. Have you found a way?? I'm thinking about getting one if these and giving it a go! 30a/30v it may take a bit to charge my 550ah liion bank. But better than nothing...

[@3dmixer552]

@@jamest.5001 These chargers for like 20 -30A battery packs max. If you want to charge a 550A battery pack this charger will be in flames. I Had a dc to dc charger which was capable of charging at 30A and max 300A battery pack. It was a huge unit that the entire back was heatsink and 2 large fans. This is a toy compared to that. This is good to charge drone batteries or maybe ebike batteries . Don't waste your money

[@paranoiia8]

I know it's weird question but it's better to blow air inside or take it out from device? I was making small project(docking station with battery inside) and because of small space I was wondering how to install radiators... This device look really cool and have nice design inside with that radiator and aluminium cooler but I wonder if it would be better to make it blow air inside through aluminum radiator and then though device holes...

[@petti78]

Not a weird question at all but a very good one and a very basic one. Typically you have to battle between conflicting interests. If you push air into the unit via a fan you can overpressurize the case and put a dust filter before the fan to keep the insides clean, which is great. But then again you end often up blowing the hot air all over the other components in the case apart from the main heat dissipator (this can be alleviated by design of course). Sucking air out of the case will underpressurize it, which mean every hole in the case will have airflow and dust going in which will make the unit dirty. I'd say a well designed unit has the fan blowing in via a filter but in such a way that the hottest part is near the exit ports so that the heat is taken directly out from the hottest part.

[@robfenwitch7403]

Batteries and grapefruit not included ...

[@johnnyjeppesen6992]

it sure is able to put the current from one battery to another... even with a larger discharge rate.... you just have to switch the two batteries around ;)

[@jeffsansoterra7743]

how bad does that fan sound in person?

[@robertheal5137]

Howbig is it in litres ?

[@cmj20002]

Using a battery to charge a battery seems stupid to me, for a lack of a better term. I would connect it to a laptop power brick to charge any of my batteries. They should charge more for it and offer a power brick, I hate chargers that don't come with a power source. Other than that it seems like a good charger.

[@vmailtk5]

high pitch squeal from the wife?

[@max246]

Wished to have one

[@stuartajc8141]

Grapefruit for scale!

[@jamest.5001]

I need one of these like for reals! So I can charge my 7s bank from my lead acid Bank! Graet review!

[@deimantaskivilius8483]

So if i got it right u charge a battery from a battery

[@pfeerick]

Yeah, you can do if you have a high capacity battery handy. It's more that the chinese have standardised on the XT-60 connector for hobby chargers as it's rated at 60A (hence the 60 in the name - XT-30 is 30A, and XT-90 is 90A). So you buy a power supply for the charger that comes with a XT-60 connector on it, or add one to whatever one you intend to use ;)

[@bren106]

Unexceptionable is the kind of word Google translate will throw into a sentence.

[@AmmarAbotouk]

Damn it's expensive ! Though seems like a very good charger !

[@BladeScraper]

Not really that expensive. ISDT are actually one of the more affordable LiPo chargers... if you think the T8 is expensive check out the iCharger 4010 Duo. And then realize that it still needs a 24-36V power supply as it's not built in.

[@AmmarAbotouk]

KpilotRCHelis I know the DC supply I didn't know about the price of other charger sorry . I am sused to cheap DC/cc supply

[@flagpoleeip]

Or have the engine running.

[@MikeDesertHunterHale]

The battery that your charging is puffing, lol.....

[@jamhough22]

I couldnt hear a high pitch noise on the video, i am 25 years old so my hearing is pretty decent.

[@ahaveland]

Nice capabilities apart from bailing out on low input voltage. Instead, it should reduce current draw to keep the input voltage above a settable threshold. It would then be able to make use of a solar panel or array for input without needing to babysit it and continually restarting. Because it doesn't attempt to hold a minimum input voltage, or understand MPP, as soon as you ask too much from the panels or a cloud comes by, the charger keeps trying to do draw as much as it's told to, and pulls the panel down until it drops lower than 11.6V and aborts. Infuriating. I look forward to seeing a firmware update to hold input voltage at a specified level, as my 300W Turnigy Reaktor does, so I'd be able to charge my ebike battery at up to 1kW from my portable solar panels in the field. They are an order of magnitude lighter than Pb batteries!

[@vgamesx1]

I'm not a battery expert or anything but I've never heard of any smart charger doing what you suggested... If you want that sort of functionality I would recommend looking at the CN3722 or the BQ24650, they do exactly what you said, you set the panel voltage to its MPP and the output to whatever then it limits the current in order to maintain MPP voltage, but of course you'll need another way of balancing cells such as a smart charger, although you should also be able to get away with using one of those cheap cell meters.

[@ahaveland]

In my video kzbin.info/www/bejne/mWeXlJecfdqon7M I explore doing just this using the Turnigy Reaktor lipo charger with two of my home made 100W solar panels - it is possible to get some serious charging ability. Since then I discovered that the charger allowed it's input voltage to be raised from its default minimum of 10V to the 17.6V MPP voltage I use, and it doesn't let the input voltage fall below that - it gets fairly decent performance out of the panels, even with variable cloudiness. I'd like more than 300W though, which is where the iSDT is more interesting due to its size and power density, but if it won't work well with solar panels, then I can't justify getting one - I already have a box of chargers for use at home, but only the Reaktor works well "on the road" with the panels. The CN3722 and the BQ24650 are tiny, and totally impractical for charging a 1.5kWh 48V 26000mAh lipopack!

[@juliusvalentinas]

I cant believe ISDT is stupid and did not put logging features into their flagship charger. They must be real idiots, since every competitor has it, iMax B6, Reaktor, Antimatter, iCharger. Can you recommend alternative to ISDT charger but with logging (not the ones mentioned above)?

[@deimantaskivilius8483]

Cool finaly someone gets me

[@reeseyme9613]

$100!!! i shall stick to imax for the moment

[@reeseyme9613]

for that price tag, you should be expecting a wall watt. but no

[@petti78]

Seems like it's the penultimate charger!

[@Okurka.]

Which one is the ultimate then?

[@petti78]

Dunno, let us know if you find it.

[@drteeth7054]

You cannot have batteries charging batteries for ever! Mains must come into it at some stage.

[@Roy_Tellason]

Or solar...

[@charlesdeens8927]

The must of wanted to use the word "exceptional", but probably spelled it wrong, and auto-correct recommended unexceptionable, which they decided to choose as the correct word.

[@Okurka.]

$99.99

[@BeefIngot]

1000 watts is crazy. Heck I just dont believe it. Pc power supplies only in recent years reached 1000 and this thing says it can do that im such a small package?

[@BladeScraper]

Not uncommon at all. LiPo chargers are much more densely designed as they don't care about noise so they use smaller fans and make more noise... PC power supplies are big because they're designed to be super efficient and quiet.

[@BladeScraper]

Check out the Revolectrix Dual Power Lab... max 2400W combined output, and must be used on a 220V circuit if you want to be able to use all that power. All used to charge LiPo batteries, usually for RC models. Other examples include iCharger 4010 Duo, Revolectrix GT1200, etc.

[@God-CDXX]

the second you said you had to have firm were free or not does not matter I lost interest completely

[@GroovyVideo2]

I purchased 2 things from bangood and both broke in 3 days - won't buy from bangood ever again

[@honestinsincerity2270]

Awesome video buddy. Gave me exactly all the info I was looking for when trying to decide between this guy and the icharger X6. Thank you!