Review of an XTAR VX4 Multi-Chemistry Battery Charger and Testing of High Discharge Rate Batteries

[@TheWebetmoi]

J'aime quand les test sont effectués aussi professionnellement, franchement j'apprécie. L'absence de fond sonore est également agréable, votre voix est ainsi claire et intelligible.J'ai cherché un chargeur d'accus 1,5 V et n'ai vu que celui-ci qui me convienne, votre test à fini par me convaincre d'en acheter un, merci

[@TorchHacker]

That Miniware MDP-L1060 DC Electronic Load looks handy!

[@TorchHacker]

I created a few graphs of charging and grading 1.5V Li-ion AA, 3.6V Li-ion and 1.2V Ni-MH cells with the XTAR VX4. The graphs mostly look good. Charging current appears to be limited based on the internal resistance that the VX4 detects. Grade mode for a 16340 3.6V Li-ion kept repeating the Charge-Discharge-Charge cycle. Perhaps the protection circuit of the cell is cutting out around 4.2V and then causing the VX4 to restart the grading process as though the cell was taken out and put back in.

[@Sylvan_dB]

Some of the newer 1.5v LiIon batteries have a low voltage indication, either as a step or series of steps. This has been implemented for gadgets that monitor battery voltage to provide a gauge or low battery warning.

[@Rafa-xl4uf]

No teardown?

[@darylfortney8081]

I just realized in the name VX4 the V is for Visible and X is for Mixer. So basically V means it has a display and X means it's able to charge any combination of chemistry. The C in VC I think means USB-C but this one is also USB-C so not sure. It was hard for me to decipher which of their chargers was the best since they have so many competing models and it isn't immediately obvious. Is it safe to say this is their latest best charger for 4 batteries? Just ordered off Amazon with 8 AA and 8 AAA 1.5v LiIon batteries and have a drawer full of older 1.2V Amazon Basics. Only thing I wish it also had was a tab for 9 volt battery charging.

[@anonanon3134]

the new vx4 and mx4, mx2, vx2, has a new "charging voltage slope analysis" that helps to detect end of charge time. It agregates DeltaV with voltage analysis.

[@lomeranger]

I bought the VX4 about a month ago to grade all of my 18650 cells. Cells with a higher internal resistance (I did the manual discharge method so my values are probably just relative to one another) fail in it, either constantly cycling charge/discharge/charge/etc… or switch to charge mode. I returned it and the new one did exactly the same thing. Am I missing something or do you think this is a flaw?

[@TheGmr140]

Cool, thanks for video 😊😊

[@tyronewalker5764]

Can it handle 21700 size cells?

[@KerryWongBlog]

Yes!

[@heinz-gerdoverkamp6002]

The little 1443-DC-converter-stripped Cell is not broken. It does just about what it should. Its nominal capacity is 1150mAh. 1150mAh x 3,6V = 4140mWh. With DC converter you should get about 2500mAh @1.5V = 3750mWh. The difference is lost in the converter. There's a really good FAQ at XTAR, explaining all this.

[@KerryWongBlog]

Ok, fair enough, the 2500mAh rating is calculated under the terminal voltage of 1.5V, not 3.7V Good catch!

[@sih8283]

Grad is a much better word than discharge as it's far more complicated than just discharging. It's first charges, then discharges and then charges again.

[@pchunter168]