SkyRC — IFA 2014 — MC3000 charger-analyzer

[scoutfai]

Can anyone able to confirm whether the current SkyRC MC3000 EU Plug charger carried by Gearbest is the latest, revised version (where all the weaknesses of early production have been fixed)?

Thinking of getting one from Gearbest, although I wish to have a UK plug instead (I am from Malaysia), but EU Plug (closest to UK Plug that Gearbest carries) will do the job too.

The Gearbest link is here:

http://www.gearbest.com/chargers/pp_260893.html

 

[kreisl]

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

test done, we can see the influence of system temperature on the "battery temperature"

 

[hahoo]

amazing graph, thanks for sharing!
Does it say 96° Celsius for the battery? Must be a typo in the DEX graph, you could check the settings in DEX and in GSV, never mind.
Did you read the full manual? You can search for the term <temperature> in the PDF and read everything what the manual has to say about temperature and sensors. Imho the text is beautifully written and clear as Chinglish can be no offence

Btw there is some chance that your 4th slot sensor does not touch the metal stripe in the slot due to manufacturing tolerances. Even though the battery is warm, the sensor would then not register the battery heat properly because it is a millimeter too far away from battery. On my unit, i put extra thermal paste on the slot sensors to 100% bridge the distance between sensor and metal stripe. Lemme do a test with 4x Eneloop AA too and let's compare my DEX graph then, my pleasure.

Don't worry if your 4th slot sensor was soldered a millimeter too short and or not enough thermal paste was applied on it. But that should be the reason, not the relative location to the fan.

thanks for the reply sir...and yes it is in fact deg f , not deg c...

i have a very accurate fluke ir temp gun, that i have shot the batteries with, and the mc3000 is with in 1 deg-f or so, just about always:thumbsup:

is there a way to change that or not ?
if not, i can live with a C, instead of a F no problem

only big gripe with this beast, is it hard to get panasonic flat tops to make contact when charging
they need to make the top contacts protrude just the slightest tad more
its a pain having to suspend a big 18650 in the air to charge it

 

[kreisl]

Some NiZn consumers have reported that FW1.13 does not terminate the NiZn charging ever.
I have an old 4-pack of BPI NiZn AA's, cycled less than 10 times, and when i had tested the NiZn charging back then with older firmware versions, there was no issue.

Now i retested my now old NiZn's with the FW1.13 and indeed the charging doesn't seem to stop and the amperage graph does not look like as it should. The observation is that the current falls off too steep during the 1.90V CV-phase and then recovers to a steady-state level eventually, around 400mA in my example while the voltage remains steady at 1.90V. Definitely weird or unexpected, and maybe it is due to the age of my batteries or due to the firmware version, how could we know?

Then again i can't remember which firmware version i had tested my NiZn's back then with lol.
Maybe some of you have new NiZn's and old firmware and can test if the charging works as expected without issues?
In the meantime i am going to list this potential firmware bug in de list under k#88 np thanks for your attention.

 

[kreisl]

they need to make the top contacts protrude just the slightest tad more

good point and forwarded thanks!

:thumbsup:

 

[cpa]

Some NiZn consumers have reported that FW1.13 does not terminate the NiZn charging ever.
I have an old 4-pack of BPI NiZn AA's, cycled less than 10 times, and when i had tested the NiZn charging back then with older firmware versions, there was no issue.

Now i retested my now old NiZn's with the FW1.13 and indeed the charging doesn't seem to stop and the amperage graph does not look like as it should. The observation is that the current falls off too steep during the 1.90V CV-phase and then recovers to a steady-state level eventually, around 400mA in my example while the voltage remains steady at 1.90V. Definitely weird or unexpected, and maybe it is due to the age of my batteries or due to the firmware version, how could we know?

Then again i can't remember which firmware version i had tested my NiZn's back then with lol.
Maybe some of you have new NiZn's and old firmware and can test if the charging works as expected without issues?
In the meantime i am going to list this potential firmware bug in de list under k#88 np thanks for your attention.

You could downgrade your firm and test the same NiZn AA's and see what happend, couldn't you??

 

[kreisl]

You could downgrade your firm and test the same NiZn AA's and see what happend, couldn't you??

sure when i get to it :sweat:

EDIT: FW1.11 NiZn charging looks soso, interesting. Looks better but the observations could be related to the old battery condition. I must have tested my NiZn about 12 months ago, i got mine from GB. i have FW1.04c from Feb 2016 and will check that too.

 

[Shaysrebellion]

Its really disappointing that the link software only works on Bill Gates spy on everyone Winblowz. If you wanted to do folks a giant favor create software for Mac and Linux.

Winblowz is a giant virus infested, malware infested, trojan infested magnet. I moved to Linux years back and couldnt be happier. No crashes, no infections and its ---> FREE! Linux mint with cinnamon is the way to go.

Please consider a new thread as this one is too long to read.
Please consider a Linux Mac version of the software.

 

[cpa]

There is already an alternative software that runs under Linux and Mac. Just read this thread a little bit and you'll get all the information.
I have not got the charger yet, but I already knows it...

Mac OS & IOS are spyware infected as well BTW...

 

[Ravel]

Search for linux in the thread or for DEX or dataexplorer

 

[kreisl]

EDIT: FW1.11 NiZn charging looks soso, interesting. Looks better but the observations could be related to the old battery condition. I must have tested my NiZn about 12 months ago, i got mine from GB. i have FW1.04c from Feb 2016 and will check that too.

lol Fake News (not by me!) about the alleged charging problem with NiZn batteries. all firmware versions behave the same correctly. the problem was the condition of the batteries, their chemistry was dormant. after cycling the batteries 5 times the charging is now proceeding as perfectly as expected and also terminates as it should.

clearly, there is no problem with the NiZn charging algorithm or termination in the firmware. :ironic:

I am glad that i was able to demystify the 'issue'

so if you guys work with NiZn, watch out for dormant specimen and cycle them 5 times (or more), for example with -0.50A/0.50A, and check how their condition improves as can be read from the charger's behavior, the graphs in pcls or dex. EDIT3: and charge with an appropriate charging rate, not too high; the lower the better for every party involved. basically i am saying that NiZn batteries *uck :devil:, lol.

this is my official all-clear. and i am deleting the k# from de list (EDIT1: done. moving on, bye). thanks for your attention.

EDIT2: squirrels are awesome :twothumbs

 

[AA Cycler]

I knew it will come, I just did not know when. And it happened today. It has snapped. The spring in my charger has snapped, probably the pin holding the spring broke. Yes, the charger in question is from the early batch that was known for this issue. But you don't worry, your recently bought unit has reinforced pins and won't brake, so don't panic.

The sad thing is I've got 5 units and the first 4 ones are the early ones. :-( I fear there will be more snaps coming... Well, what can I do...

Here is my AA Cycler's Cycling Brigade - notice charger 3 channel 1 - it's gone!

I was hoping I will avoid this issue as I charge only AA (14500) cells and the snaps were usually reported by people charging longer cells - 18650. But no... Anyway, I've got my units from akkuteile.de, I am going to ask them if they sell the top plastic cover so I can replace it...

Note: the first 4 chargers were bought during March-May 2016 and are running since 24/7 nonstop. The spring broke after 10 month in use...

 

[bella-headlight]

Shouldn"t there be a 12 month minimum warranty on these as they were bought from the EU ?

 

[AA Cycler]

Shouldn"t there be a 12 month minimum warranty on these as they were bought from the EU ?

Yes, there should be 1 year warranty, but I have already voided it by opening and modding my units. The fans in my MC3000s brow most of the time and when they get too noisy (every 3 months or so) I open the cover and lubricate the fans. I have also cut off the grill beneath the fans to ensure better air flow... I am not going to try to warranty them, I will just try to get new cases if they are still available somewhere... EDIT: GB are still selling them...

 

[Mp0w3r]

Does anyone know if they fixed the problem with flat top batteries not making contact?

I read that some are using magnets to get contact.

 

[tjh]

Does anyone know if they fixed the problem with flat top batteries not making contact?

I read that some are using magnets to get contact.

You just have to move them around until they make contact. This will mean they don't make contact with the temperature strip. Not a big deal IMHO.

 

[ShineOnYouCrazyDiamond]

I knew it will come, I just did not know when. And it happened today. It has snapped. The spring in my charger has snapped, probably the pin holding the spring broke. Yes, the charger in question is from the early batch that was known for this issue. But you don't worry, your recently bought unit has reinforced pins and won't brake, so don't panic.

The sad thing is I've got 5 units and the first 4 ones are the early ones. :-( I fear there will be more snaps coming... Well, what can I do...

Here is my AA Cycler's Cycling Brigade - notice charger 3 channel 1 - it's gone!

I was hoping I will avoid this issue as I charge only AA (14500) cells and the snaps were usually reported by people charging longer cells - 18650. But no... Anyway, I've got my units from akkuteile.de, I am going to ask them if they sell the top plastic cover so I can replace it...

Note: the first 4 chargers were bought during March-May 2016 and are running since 24/7 nonstop. The spring broke after 10 month in use...

I have one of the earlier units as well. I had one pin break a few months back and another break within the past month. I just used screws (spare screws from RC cars - not even sure of size) that would thread into the silicon board a bit and it's worked fine. I did make sure there are no metal contact points on either side of the circuit board so I'm not too concerned about having replaced the plastic pin with metal - and I'm pretty assured it won't break again.

 

[kreisl]

here is an interesting:huh: fix suggested by an early adopter from Italy using part of a wrapped cable tie as plastic pin replacement :

( photo cudos to the original photographer )
​

 

[cpa]

Very good/smart/clever solution... :twothumbs

 

[maukka]

That's very clever. I'd been using my older MC3000 with snapped posts with some random pieces of fill to achieve contact. Took it apart and put some cable ties in there, but must've shorted something out while putting it back together since now I get the following error from the ADC (MCP3424-1 Err). Tried reassembling it and checking that everything's ok, but the charger doesn't seem to recover from it. At least I have a spare...