SkyRC — IFA 2014 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

[MarioJP]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

It seems that this charger has too many flaws such as.. Problems with battery making contact when inserting the cells for one. Based on these recent posts . Are most on here having second doubts about the charger?

 

[kreisl]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

It seems that this charger has too many flaws such as.. Problems with battery making contact when inserting the cells for one. Based on these recent posts . Are most on here having second doubts about the charger?

My unit does not have problems with batteries making contact.

You don't have the charger.

You don't know from own experience what you're talking about.

My unit does not have problems with batteries making contact.

But probably this charger won't fit your bill anyway. It's okay it can't fit everybody's bill.

So don't bother. You can move on now. Thanks.

Btw check out HKJ's most recent charger review, the Skilhunt M4D. May suit you better!

 

[tjh]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

It seems that this charger has too many flaws such as.. Problems with battery making contact when inserting the cells for one. Based on these recent posts . Are most on here having second doubts about the charger?

No. HKJ's review was very favourable and the amount of cells it supports is fantastic. I bet there will be some small hardware iterations, but most of the issues can be fixed with a firmware update.

Of course it remains to be seen if SkyRC will keep putting out firmware updates - there's been so many products I've bought that are firmware updateable that never, ever get an update....

Most of the flaws people have found are edge cases, it doesn't seem to have any major fundamental flaws.

 

[billcushman]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

The SkyRC MC3000 is a complex and very fine charger. It has excellent performance but is not for everyone. Read the excellent HKJ review for a very complete analysis. I find the charger easy to program and use. It is way ahead of any other charger that I have seen for accuracy and capability. Once you become familiar with the charger it becomes very easy and fast to use. Thanks to SkyRC and Kreisl for making it a reality.

 

[MarioJP]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

My unit does not have problems with batteries making contact.

You don't have the charger.

You don't know from own experience what you're talking about.

My unit does not have problems with batteries making contact.

But probably this charger won't fit your bill anyway. It's okay it can't fit everybody's bill.

So don't bother. You can move on now. Thanks.

Btw check out HKJ's most recent charger review, the Skilhunt M4D. May suit you better!

Didnt mean to criticize. I was going based on others and just checking. My apologies[emoji2]

 

[kreisl]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

I'll embrace constructive criticism uttered by owners.

And i'll ignore all negativism or cynicism in this thread and the persons who've been uttering such.

We, the early adopters, are not beta testers but co-developers lol

Except for the added CE certification there won't be any changes in the electronics or hardware, only eventual minimal changes in the assembly. I am enjoying the firmware as it is and the rudimentary PCLS. DEX is sophisticated, highly mature software per se, and its mc3k support will be improved with our feedback and bug reports. I don't use or test the bluetooth app, in future i'd prefer a mc3k1 without bluetooth module but 25$ off more affordable.

My traditional stuff like flashlight, battery, charger, knife, multitool, usb thumb, tv, refrigerator, hair clipper, or keychain does not need to be smart. I don't believe in the future commercial success of SmartEverything.

 

[ilgrank]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

We, the early adopters, are not beta testers but co-developers lol

+1 for Kreisl

I've been one of the first to put up a pre-order (on GB) and I'm *really* satisfied with it, and I've encountered *none* of the abovementioned issues so far (apart from the Android app crashing,but never had been too much interested in it anyways)

What I'd like? A more feature-rich PCLS, with auto-sizeable graphs maybe or a better designed iterface.. or larger fan with the ability to cool the batteries too

Kudos to Kreisl and the great people at SkyRC for such a great piece of hardware!! :twothumbs

 

[retrocon]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

My traditional stuff like flashlight, battery, charger, knife, multitool, usb thumb, tv, refrigerator, hair clipper, or keychain does not need to be smart. I don't believe in the future commercial success of SmartEverything.

With you on that mostly. But it has a cool factor to switch from my TiVo app on my iPhone over to the MC3000 app to check charge status from the couch. Doesn't do much for my waist line, however ;-)

 

[JB]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

In my NiMH program I set TRICKLE C. to OFF, RESTART VOLT to 1.42 and DELTA PEAK to 0dV with the intention that it would restart charging in case of a premature 0dV termination. Imagine my surprise when I found the cell in the 0.05A TRICKLE charge mode at 1.37V some time later. It seems the RESTART VOLT option currently has no meaning whatsoever. kreisl, can you comment?

Interestingly, the manual sort of suggests it's not [fully] implemented; it says "What exactly will happen when the voltage has dropped <...>? That depends on the firmware version. Generally speaking, the slot restarts some charging."

The program was "Charge", not "Cycle", "Refresh" or "Break_in". The cell is virtually unused (only ever used for testing), it's certainly not the cause. What happened is (most obviously) trickle charge at 0.05 A after the 0dV termination, even though I a) set TRICKLE C. to OFF and b) never specified the 0.05 A value.

So you're saying that your battery finished charging normally, but then a trickle charge was still being applied despite you setting it to OFF?

Hmm... I've not had that happen, but I didn't specify any RESTART VOLT.

Secondly, I wonder if your program will work "with the intention that it would restart charging in case of a premature 0dV termination". If there is a premature 0dV termination, wouldn't the charger see it as an error? I thought the RESTART VOLT function will only kick in after a successful charge and thereafter if the voltage of the battery drops to the specified RESTART VOLT number. Maybe kreisl can clarify on this.

 

[B-2Admirer]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

So you're saying that your battery finished charging normally, but then a trickle charge was still being applied despite you setting it to OFF?

The charging ended before the cell was full because of a false 0dV positive, which this charger is very much prone to giving. Thus, the voltage was just 1.37 V or so, which is below the value I set for RESTART VOLT. Subsequent events I described already. So, once again, the RESTART functionality is messed-up and nobody appears to know what it really does, apart from applying the 0.05 A charge current that is.

Secondly, I wonder if your program will work "with the intention that it would restart charging in case of a premature 0dV termination". If there is a premature 0dV termination, wouldn't the charger see it as an error? I thought the RESTART VOLT function will only kick in after a successful charge and thereafter if the voltage of the battery drops to the specified RESTART VOLT number. Maybe kreisl can clarify on this.

I don't think the charger is clairvoyant, so I don't see how it could see a premature charge termination as an error (and if it could, it would make more sense just to continue charging). "Premature termination" is my judgement, not the charger's. I don't think the requirement for the voltage of a charged cell to be initially above the RESTART VOLT setting makes sense and since "something" happened in my case it's clear that there's no such requirement in the RESTART algorithm.

 

[B-2Admirer]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

We, the early adopters, are not beta testers but co-developers lol

As a co-developer, may I suggest adding a bit of intelligence to the 0dV detection, namely adding the ability to specify the minimum voltage at which this type of termination can happen? I believe no NiMH cell is full when it's below 1.40 V and this is where all false 0dV positives occurred for me.

 

[kreisl]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

give us more information on the battery you're trying to charge and the full set of program settings you're using. and we'll tell you the optimal program settings or 'll try to reproduce the charger behavior.

the last time i checked i was satisfied with the RESTART implementation.

feel also free to post the *.BMP generated by PCLS, so that we have some visualization of the behavior.

 

[JB]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

The charging ended before the cell was full because of a false 0dV positive, which this charger is very much prone to giving.

I've not tried charging a NiMH cell using 0dV. I'll try that this weekend to see if the charger gives a false 0dV positive.

 

[B-2Admirer]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

the last time i checked i was satisfied with the RESTART implementation.

That's good, but can you tell what that implementation is (what does the function do)? So far it's not explained in the manual or anywhere else.

I'm looking for information, advice is not what I'm looking for.

I've not tried charging a NiMH cell using 0dV. I'll try that this weekend to see if the charger gives a false 0dV positive.

Safe to say that it will depend on the (cell capacity) / (charge current) ratio. The higher it is the greater the probability of that happening.

 

[megawolf]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

My unit does not have problems with batteries making contact

+1, specially with aaa cells the contact is fine. I love this charger so much that I bought my first flishlight just to have more eneloops to charge :naughty:

 

[theburtse]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

Just received my charger! After 14 months of reading about it [emoji12]

Now, I'm charging my D cell and the app says something about eddy current....
What would be an appropriate value here?

Brgds to you all!

 

[Anders]

Re: SkyRC — IFA 2014 / CES 2016 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

Hi there theburtse.

Welcome as a Poster

I would choose 3A to those cells.

Anders

 

[sector9]

So what gives with the reporting of capacity on this charger?

I ran a refresh cycle overnight on 4 batteries: 2 AAA Eneloops and 2 18650 LiIons.

Slot 1: Eneloop AAA
Charger reported capacity 742 mAh
iPhone app reported capacity 867 mAh

Slot 2: Eneloop AAA
Charger reported capacity 767 mAh
iPhone app reported capacity 906 mAh

Slot 3: LiIon 18650
Charger reported capacity 3153 mAh
iPhone app reported capacity 3125 mAh

Slot 4: LiIon 18650
Charger reported capacity 3086 mAh
iPhone app reported capacity 3069 mAh

 

[JB]

So what gives with the reporting of capacity on this charger?

I ran a refresh cycle overnight on 4 batteries: 2 AAA Eneloops and 2 18650 LiIons.

Slot 1: Eneloop AAA
Charger reported capacity 742 mAh
iPhone app reported capacity 867 mAh

Slot 2: Eneloop AAA
Charger reported capacity 767 mAh
iPhone app reported capacity 906 mAh

Slot 3: LiIon 18650
Charger reported capacity 3153 mAh
iPhone app reported capacity 3125 mAh

Slot 4: LiIon 18650
Charger reported capacity 3086 mAh
iPhone app reported capacity 3069 mAh

I wonder, maybe one is reporting the discharge capacity and the other, the charge capacity.

 

[Mr Floppy]

I wonder, maybe one is reporting the discharge capacity and the other, the charge capacity.

That was my thought too but it is reversed on Li ion?