VariCore V40 - universal charger unlike any other - China - review
I was just about to start the promised inverter tests, but this morning I got a long and eagerly awaited charger straight from China. Unfortunately, it's stronger than me and I have to check it out.
I ordered the "top version", the one for $ 20.99, the V40 model.
It is noteworthy that the set includes a 12V, 2A power supply in a very solid plug housing.
The charger is really universal and foolproof.
I will risk saying that it will charge up everything that fits.
As described in the auction, the charger has protection against reverse battery connection, short circuit protection (whatever that means) and protection against overcharging the battery (whatever that means). In the manual (interestingly - it is in the form of a hard booklet in two languages, of course Chinese and English), there is not a word about security features, so I will not check their effectiveness.
In the picture above, you can see some random links that I just had on hand when the photo was taken. And yes, the first from the left is 18650 of an unknown brand, once taken from a laptop battery and now from the flashlight that I carry on my belt. The second is an AA, Ni-MH link taken out of the mouse from the second computer, the brand of the link is also unknown. The third link is also Ni-MH, but this time AAA, which I got together with MaxCom walkie-talkies, and the last one is 14500 from friends from Aliexpress. Unfortunately, I did not have Ni-Cd, but the charger should also work without any problems.
As you can see in the pictures below - the charger "sees" a different link on each channel.
Now for some dry facts.
We have four independent channels at our disposal (there is also a separate USB 5V 1A output). We can insert a different type of battery into each connector and charge or discharge it.
On the backlit display, we have a number of very useful data, such as:
- channel number,
- operating mode,
- current voltage of a given cell,
- charging current of a given cell,
- time from the start of the measurement,
- the amount of currently "pumped" ampere-hours,
- and, perhaps most importantly, the internal resistance of the cells.
The charger has three basic functions:
Charger - Charging, we can choose (for each channel separately) charging current at the level of 300mA / 500mA / 700mA / 1000mA
Fast Test - Discharging. In this mode, the charger unloads the cells to a level that is safe for them. This is mainly to form Ni-MH cells. It also measures their capacity and remembers them on the display, but does not charge the batteries at the end of the test.
Nor Test - Discharge, capacity measurement and charge. In this mode, the charger discharges the batteries, remembers the result on the display, and then recharges the cells. This option is very useful when we leave the cells overnight for testing.
According to the specification, the charger supports the following types of cells:
26650, 22650, 26500, 18650, 18490, 18350, 17670, 17500, 17355, 16340, 14500, 10440, AAA, AA, A, SC, S.
A few more photos from the tests of 18650 cells:
...
It is neither my first nor the only charger, but I feel that it will be my favorite charger, mainly due to the measurement of the internal resistance of the cells, which allows for the rejection of "low" cells almost immediately.
It's hard to speak after one day of testing. The charger managed to do two full "charge, discharge, charge" cycles for two 18650 battery packs, which is eight in total. It worked well, and the measurement results were very similar to those I performed recently on another device.
For such money, only take, charge and enjoy the purchase.
Ps. One user pointed out to me that I didn't mention an important point. Well, the 5V USB output uses the energy stored in the batteries and does not work when the charger is connected to the AC adapter. So it's basically a PowerBank feature.
"5V USB is only as a 3,7V lithium battery output, the output current is 1000mAh (nickel metal hydride battery is invalided).
5V USB is invalided when the charger is connected to the adapter.
If can be effectively output when the 3,7V lithium battery is put into any slot.
V40 USB 5V output is suitable for most of the mobile elecrtonic devices, but due to we did not test all products, do not exclude that some of the 5V electronic products are not applicable. "
The same colleague accused me of incorrect information about the Nor Test mode.
Therefore, I am quoting a quote from the manual.
"Firstly, the charger charge the battery to be full electricity. Then to discharge the battery and record the elecrticity which is dispolayed on the LCD screen, until the battery is discharged (the end is twinkling, ant the real capacity is can be obtained) And then the charger the battery to be full electriciti again, but no to record. "
Let me translate this passage into ours.
First, the charger charges the cells to full capacity. Then it discharges the cells, measuring their capacity at the same time and, after the test is completed, saves it on the display. The charger then recharges the cells to full capacity, but saves nothing.
EDIT: February 20, 2018
Dueto the fact that the comments were overwhelming about the originality of this charger, as well as how to test the cell capacity, I allowed myself to do some additional tests and photos. You can clearly see that the charger measures the capacity when the batteries are discharged. You can also see that when charging quite old cells, the capacity measurement is sucked from the finger. Or maybe someone wants to buy a few years (maybe even ten years old) cell with a measured capacity of 4400mAh :)
FAST test and stored capacity measurement.
Landing. As you can see, after almost four hours, a lot more entered than we had just sucked out.
After about ten hours, charging is complete. The batteries were quite warm, but not above 45 ° C. As you can see, the capacity has magically more than doubled. A miracle or something .
NOR Test, here we go.
Test complete. Oh, and where are the rest of my Ampere hours? Could they turn into the heat generated by the cells during charging? The difference between fast test and normal test is due to my mistake. Fast was made at 500mA and normal at 1000mA.
Hope this will clear up your doubts. At least in terms of how to measure.
Best regards.
CMS.
I ordered the "top version", the one for $ 20.99, the V40 model.
It is noteworthy that the set includes a 12V, 2A power supply in a very solid plug housing.
The charger is really universal and foolproof.
I will risk saying that it will charge up everything that fits.
As described in the auction, the charger has protection against reverse battery connection, short circuit protection (whatever that means) and protection against overcharging the battery (whatever that means). In the manual (interestingly - it is in the form of a hard booklet in two languages, of course Chinese and English), there is not a word about security features, so I will not check their effectiveness.
In the picture above, you can see some random links that I just had on hand when the photo was taken. And yes, the first from the left is 18650 of an unknown brand, once taken from a laptop battery and now from the flashlight that I carry on my belt. The second is an AA, Ni-MH link taken out of the mouse from the second computer, the brand of the link is also unknown. The third link is also Ni-MH, but this time AAA, which I got together with MaxCom walkie-talkies, and the last one is 14500 from friends from Aliexpress. Unfortunately, I did not have Ni-Cd, but the charger should also work without any problems.
As you can see in the pictures below - the charger "sees" a different link on each channel.
Now for some dry facts.
We have four independent channels at our disposal (there is also a separate USB 5V 1A output). We can insert a different type of battery into each connector and charge or discharge it.
On the backlit display, we have a number of very useful data, such as:
- channel number,
- operating mode,
- current voltage of a given cell,
- charging current of a given cell,
- time from the start of the measurement,
- the amount of currently "pumped" ampere-hours,
- and, perhaps most importantly, the internal resistance of the cells.
The charger has three basic functions:
Charger - Charging, we can choose (for each channel separately) charging current at the level of 300mA / 500mA / 700mA / 1000mA
Fast Test - Discharging. In this mode, the charger unloads the cells to a level that is safe for them. This is mainly to form Ni-MH cells. It also measures their capacity and remembers them on the display, but does not charge the batteries at the end of the test.
Nor Test - Discharge, capacity measurement and charge. In this mode, the charger discharges the batteries, remembers the result on the display, and then recharges the cells. This option is very useful when we leave the cells overnight for testing.
According to the specification, the charger supports the following types of cells:
26650, 22650, 26500, 18650, 18490, 18350, 17670, 17500, 17355, 16340, 14500, 10440, AAA, AA, A, SC, S.
A few more photos from the tests of 18650 cells:
...
It is neither my first nor the only charger, but I feel that it will be my favorite charger, mainly due to the measurement of the internal resistance of the cells, which allows for the rejection of "low" cells almost immediately.
It's hard to speak after one day of testing. The charger managed to do two full "charge, discharge, charge" cycles for two 18650 battery packs, which is eight in total. It worked well, and the measurement results were very similar to those I performed recently on another device.
For such money, only take, charge and enjoy the purchase.
Ps. One user pointed out to me that I didn't mention an important point. Well, the 5V USB output uses the energy stored in the batteries and does not work when the charger is connected to the AC adapter. So it's basically a PowerBank feature.
"5V USB is only as a 3,7V lithium battery output, the output current is 1000mAh (nickel metal hydride battery is invalided).
5V USB is invalided when the charger is connected to the adapter.
If can be effectively output when the 3,7V lithium battery is put into any slot.
V40 USB 5V output is suitable for most of the mobile elecrtonic devices, but due to we did not test all products, do not exclude that some of the 5V electronic products are not applicable. "
The same colleague accused me of incorrect information about the Nor Test mode.
Therefore, I am quoting a quote from the manual.
"Firstly, the charger charge the battery to be full electricity. Then to discharge the battery and record the elecrticity which is dispolayed on the LCD screen, until the battery is discharged (the end is twinkling, ant the real capacity is can be obtained) And then the charger the battery to be full electriciti again, but no to record. "
Let me translate this passage into ours.
First, the charger charges the cells to full capacity. Then it discharges the cells, measuring their capacity at the same time and, after the test is completed, saves it on the display. The charger then recharges the cells to full capacity, but saves nothing.
EDIT: February 20, 2018
Dueto the fact that the comments were overwhelming about the originality of this charger, as well as how to test the cell capacity, I allowed myself to do some additional tests and photos. You can clearly see that the charger measures the capacity when the batteries are discharged. You can also see that when charging quite old cells, the capacity measurement is sucked from the finger. Or maybe someone wants to buy a few years (maybe even ten years old) cell with a measured capacity of 4400mAh :)
FAST test and stored capacity measurement.
Landing. As you can see, after almost four hours, a lot more entered than we had just sucked out.
After about ten hours, charging is complete. The batteries were quite warm, but not above 45 ° C. As you can see, the capacity has magically more than doubled. A miracle or something
.
NOR Test, here we go.
Test complete. Oh, and where are the rest of my Ampere hours? Could they turn into the heat generated by the cells during charging? The difference between fast test and normal test is due to my mistake. Fast was made at 500mA and normal at 1000mA.
Hope this will clear up your doubts. At least in terms of how to measure.
Best regards.
CMS.
CMS wrote 8213 posts with
rating 2402 , helped 239 times.
Live in city Warszawa.
Been with us since 2004 year.
Comments
Why is there no real U / V measurement in the test and possible comparison with the data on the display? I would ask you to perform these measurements with reasonable accuracy;> [Read more]
I can check my Lii-500. The prototype of this v40, only cheaper ... But that's only when I throw the next link for charging. And where do you get this information? In Liitokali it works completely... [Read more]
It is probably the correct result when the cell is discharged, not when charging .. Why do I need information about the amount of "energy loaded into the cell" if the cell has a high internal resistance?... [Read more]
The question is not when the correct result comes out, but how it works in this device. You put in a 3.6 V cell, it is charged to 4.2 V, discharged (I just don't know what voltage, because I have never... [Read more]
Hello I look at the prices and there is no confirmation that the Lii-500 is cheaper, maybe someone came across some promotions, but with the same suppliers the prices are comparable and the Lii-500 slightly... [Read more]
Because it's not a test. Besides, decide to either U / I or V / A. And from the instructions: https://obrazki.elektroda.pl/3481087500_1518079462_thumb.jpg I actually forgot to mention... [Read more]
Everything is clear only just realized that it is a test of cheap cells. I have decided, in the event of a possible charger test, to measure the voltages and currents. [Read more]
It is not a cell test. This is an article on the charger. I had to put some cells in to see that the charger is working and that it displays quite a lot of information. Some photos show cheap links, others... [Read more]
Nice charger. For the price, I think one of the better choices. I am wondering about the power supply. It looks impulse, so it would be useful to check the conducted interference and most importantly the... [Read more]
Thanks for the review description. I've been looking for a charger for a long time and I think I'll buy it. [Read more]
And I will insist on the cheaper Lii-500, not the more expensive clone. [Read more]
Hello And insist, I bought a VariCore V40 and you probably will not find whose clone is anywhere, but the price can be checked, we probably have a different Google because I had a VariCore V40 cheaper. ... [Read more]
I have to say something because comparing the Lii-500 to this charger from the post has nothing to do with, because the V40 is a copy of some Liitokala and that's it, I have a Lii-500, I tested it... [Read more]
Hello It's good that you are speaking, but you had the V40 in your hand to express yourself what is whose clone? Just out of curiosity, enter Liitokala in Google and find such a company ... Then... [Read more]
http://www.liito-kala.com Sometimes it's worth going to the other side of the search ... Looking at the addresses of the companies, it is very possible that one and the same factory is doing ev... [Read more]
Gentlemen, don't argue. The topic is about the VariCore charger and that's it. Colleague the sower , confirms that they are two different systems. His charger measures capacity while charging,... [Read more]
But how about charging? In the case of the NOR TEST function, the Liitokala measures the capacity at discharge This is clearly stated in this test: http://lygte-info.dk/review/Review%20Charger%20LiitoKala%20Lii-500%20UK.html ... [Read more]
Only that in the photos you can see how much was charged to the battery. For my part, EOT, because so far you have not posted anything that would confirm what you write. PS. When I was looking for a... [Read more]
It is true. The charger counts capacity ALSO during normal charging. However, this does not change the FACT that capacitance is measured during discharge during the test. Added after 1 [minutes]: ... [Read more]