SkyRC — IFA 2014 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

[kreisl]

Re: 2nd gen dreamcharger presented on IFA Berlin 2014…

• (k#36) sometimes a finishing slot would not produce a completion beep, for example: only the 1st NiMH charge finish gets completion beep; so while discharging it, the other 3 slots finished charge without completion beep (UNCONFIRMED)

I observed this bug several times with NiMH Charge but i can't find a procedure to reproduce it reliably. It is not something important or urgent, or does anyone miss the 'Finished slot' program completion beeping?
Did you notice too that sometimes a slot shows finished (green SNB) and you can't remember having heard the completion beeping?

We might be hunting this bug all year long. It is there, it exists, that's why i've assigned an official k-number on the list to raise awareness. All k-numbers mean that they have been submitted to the maker team. I wasn't lucky with my re-hunting, maybe they are luckier since they're the code maker and should know better than me with my random testings. Crossing fingers.

I am giving up on this one for now. With much much luck this (unimportant) bug will have been exterminated in the 1.04 release. And if not, let's take it with humor and positively: the less completion beeping in de house, the more peace and tranquility in de family.




Moving on. kreisl.

 

[Devon]

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

Are you measuring the battery voltage after the load is off, after the charger has terminated?
If that is the case, it is normal for voltage to drop a bit.

The resting voltage must be measured....you can't measure the battery voltage too well when the charger is loading it with a higher voltage, only when it drops the charge.

It terminates lower than what's set....and no, the battery has not "lost" voltage.

 

[billcushman]

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

I just received the following message from Support at SkyRC.

Hello Bill,

Thank you very much for your information.
I have forwarded your message to PCLS engineer. And I will check with him
next Monday.

Thanks & Best Regards,


Karl Peng
Sales Department
SkyRC Technology Co., Ltd.
4/F,Building NO.6, Meitai Industry Park,Guanguang south road,Guihua,Guanlan,
Baoan district,Shenzhen,China / 518110
T:0755-83860222-806 F:0755-81702090
Email:[email protected]
www.skyrc.com

======================

To: Support <[email protected]>

Do you plan to add image resizing to the MC3000 PCLS. My laptop has 1366x768 maximum resolution. The bottom 1/4 of the screen is cut off. When I save the image it is OK. On the CandlepowerForum, many other have commented on this issue.

Thanks

 

[dssguy1]

Pointless discussion

 

[billcushman]

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

Don't think I did. Nobody spelled Eneloop wrong like he is hinting. And if he was going for "envelope", then he himself spelled that wrong.

So if I needed to double decipher two problems with his "joke", then I guess you're right I "missed it".

Go back to arguing incredibly minuscule details about the charger.

Quote Originally Posted by billcushman View Post
Devon, I too have lot of Envelops, probably about 40 AA and 16 AAA- I seldom need to charge more than four at a time. I have two MC3000s and if needed I also have two C9000 (9 years old). I also have a Liitokala Lii-500 and a Nitecore D4. At present the two MC3000 are all I use. If I used all six chargers I could charge 24 Envelops at the same time. In my case this will never be necessary. Charging a large number of batteries at once is normally only required by someone maintaining batteries for a fleet of flashlights that are used heavily every day.

I edited the original message #2418 shortly after Devon's reply and corrected the spelling of eneloop. I actually didn't type it wrong. The operating system auto spell corrector changed it to envelop and I didn't notice the change.

 

[MarioJP]

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

Can anyone explain. in li-ion program. Whats with the max termination voltage of 4.25v? Is it within specs for 4.2v cells? I never realized it went up that high. Just checking the safety features of this charger.

Once again,
Thanks

 

[Anders]

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

Li-ion with the traditional cathode materials of cobalt, nickel, manganese and aluminum typically charge to 4.20V/cell. The tolerance is +/–50mV/cell.
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries

Anders

 

[MarioJP]

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

Li-ion with the traditional cathode materials of cobalt, nickel, manganese and aluminum typically charge to 4.20V/cell. The tolerance is +/–50mV/cell.
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries

Anders

That answered my question. Has anyone bothered to set termination current to "Zero"?

Thanks

:thumbsup:

 

[kreisl]

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

of course it is not 0.00000000000A

but the current, if rounded on paper to 1 decimal, is indeed 0.0A. So. Zero. haha

 

[MarioJP]

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

of course it is not 0.00000000000A

but the current, if rounded on paper to 1 decimal, is indeed 0.0A. So. Zero. haha

Strange how it says Zero lol. This charger is really capable of topping-off your cells. I thought 50mA was low enough.

 

[kreisl]

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

In the current firmware Zero is around 8mA, not lower. In older firmwares it was much lower as recorded by my DMM in a mc3k slot, happy to share this 1.5yr old pic:

This was on the old hardware old firmware. I think that this could be done on the current hardware too but since mc3k is now a public commercial product the maker is less willing to release such experimental extremes.

8mA is good for now, i'd agree.

 

[billcushman]

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

MaroJP, please check your private messages.

I have been using PCLS on Windows 10 with a Monoprice Premium 3 foot cable for the last several hours running a discharge test. PCLS works perfectly with no problems of any kind.

 

[MarioJP]

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

8mA is good for now, i'd agree.

Good to know that Zero is not a 0 lol.

 

[C & R]

As a new member it takes a while to catch up on some of the threads. Reading all 2453 posts took me a few days off and on.


Thanks you Kreisl for your efforts in making this happen and sticking with it! I hope SkyRC understands how valuable you have been in supporting the product and providing a sounding board for the users.


I also want to thank the various members that have added so much to this thread.


Now off to order one from progressiverc.com

 

[billcushman]

As a new member it takes a while to catch up on some of the threads. Reading all 2453 posts took me a few days off and on.


Thanks you Kreisl for your efforts in making this happen and sticking with it! I hope SkyRC understands how valuable you have been in supporting the product and providing a sounding board for the users.


I also want to thank the various members that have added so much to this thread.


Now off to order one from progressiverc.com

Welcome to the forum. Be sure to download PCLS at ProgressiveRC. It is much easier because it is the .exe file directly. At the SkyRC site you get the .rar zip file. If your display isn't at least vertical 1000 pixels , the bottom of the screen will be cut off but everything works fine. On PCLS, the STAR button is START (that caused me to not recognize it). When you save the finished report, everything will be there. I recommend a Momoprice Premium USB cable if you encounter Cable Problems. PCLS works perfectly on my low cost Windows 10 computer. Have fun.

You should have your MC3000 Wednesday if you are a Prime member. Let us know if you need any help. My Quick Guide (many pages back) may help you write some useful programs, if you have difficulty.

 

[mrQQ]

the monitor software should really really prevent windows from sleeping while it's running, otherwise it ruins the whole logging session. Any idea where to report this?

 

[Devon]

the monitor software should really really prevent windows from sleeping while it's running, otherwise it ruins the whole logging session. Any idea where to report this?

Not a bug really, it's an OS issue in that you need to setup how your PC behaves I would have thought.

 

[DeJaVu]

Not a bug really, it's an OS issue in that you need to setup how your PC behaves I would have thought.

Maybe not a bug, but a missing functionality. As the pc going to sleep actually disrupts the app, it should be able to keep it awake.

 

[kreisl]

Maybe not a bug, but a missing functionality. As the pc going to sleep actually disrupts the app, it should be able to keep it awake.

my XP OS runs with the following settings for 39h+ (Break_in operation mode) and no problems:

problem solved. done.

 

[DeJaVu]

my XP OS runs with the following settings for 39h+ (Break_in operation mode) and no problems:

problem solved. done.

Understandable that it can be done through os settings, but it would be way more convenient if the soft would have the ability to keep the pc awake.
I have sleep disabled in my system, but there are people that need the pc to go to sleep under certain scenarios. So they shouldnt have to enable/disable sleep in CP each time they use PCLS (Some might not even know how).

My thoughts are that skyrc should add that, so there is one area less for potencial annoyances.
Im not an programmer, but I suppose it shouldnt be hard to do that when they revise pcls. If it is unrealisticaly hard, then alas, well have to live with it.