Test/Review of Charger Xtar VC4

[filibuster]

Looking to use the XTAR VC4, with a 6V solar panel and 4XD batteries. Will the VC4 handle the input range of 4.8V-6V?

How many watts is the panel?

The VC4 seems to do well at 5.25 to 5.5 volts so it's not too much of a stretch to get to 6v. The question is however, is your solar panel truly going no higher than 6v?

You may need to consider a USB Voltage Regulator Module to help hold the voltage at USB specs.

On a side note concerning D cell batteries, the VC4 will only fit and charge 2xD at a time in the outside slots. The two inner slots won't hold D cells.

 

[Weylan]

Sorry what I mean to do is use solar panel to charge 4xd batteries as buffer. And tap off of that. So the input is solar panel at 5-6V but that feeds into the D batteries as a buffer. The solar panel i use usually is a nice 10W and 7W and I hate clouds making the charger stop. So I usually use the 4x D cells as a buffer and let the D cells get what we can from the solar panel, and then use what I want from the D cells. Generally the 4xD cells stay about 4.8-6V. Which is usually where we want to be for 5V usb devices.

I often car camp with family and we use 20aH battery banks for iPads and this method charges the battery banks just fine but I wanted a way to charge headlight batteries of 18650 and AAs.

And the VC4 looked like a great candidate.

 

[Grijon]

Hello all,

I would like to suggest that the original review (Post #1) make some mention of the VC4's common inability to provide 1A to two cells at a time regardless of the power supply used.

HKJ does an excellent job with his reviews; I appreciate, trust and use them any time I'm thinking about a charger or battery purchase.

I purchased a VC4 after reading the initial review, with the bottom line that this is a good charger. I have only ever used the cable it came with. It didn't take long for me to discover that an Apple iPad wall wart wasn't enough to provide full charging ability to the charger, so I bought an even higher-powered wall wart. It, too, is frequently unable to allow 2 18650s in Channels 1 & 4 to charge at 1A, despite having plenty of power on paper.

So I did what I should have done in the first place and read deeper into this thread, where I see that I am not alone in this. I fully admit that had I read further than the initial post -the proper review- that I would have seen the problems, but I didn't and perhaps other potential purchasers won't either; the reason that I read only HKJ's post was that I trust him totally and thought that any problems would be explained in the review.

Please understand that I'm not faulting HKJ or his review in any way, but rather trying to help it in its purpose of informing potential buyers about the product before they make a purchase.

As always, thank you HKJ, for all the work you do for the community!

 

[Gauss163]

^^^ By now there are so many analyzing chargers with so many features that there is significant combinatorial complexity involved in making informed buying decisions. It would be very helpful if - like HKJ's battery comparator - we also had a charger comparator.

For example, this could allow prospective buyers to choose those options (rows) they wish to compare in a spreadsheet - which would make it easier to spot limitations such as that mentioned above.

 

[HKJ]

I did write something about the charger being sensitive to the supply voltage and I did also do at test at 5.2volt (When I do this the charger is usual very sensitive to voltage).

I do have some sort of comparator for the chargers: http://lygte-info.dk/info/roundCellChargerIndex UK.html
It do not have that many parameters included (The analyzer and usb output tables have an extra parameter).

 

[Nev]

Hello all,

I would like to suggest that the original review (Post #1) make some mention of the VC4's common inability to provide 1A to two cells at a time regardless of the power supply used.

HKJ does an excellent job with his reviews; I appreciate, trust and use them any time I'm thinking about a charger or battery purchase.

I purchased a VC4 after reading the initial review, with the bottom line that this is a good charger. I have only ever used the cable it came with. It didn't take long for me to discover that an Apple iPad wall wart wasn't enough to provide full charging ability to the charger, so I bought an even higher-powered wall wart. It, too, is frequently unable to allow 2 18650s in Channels 1 & 4 to charge at 1A, despite having plenty of power on paper.

So I did what I should have done in the first place and read deeper into this thread, where I see that I am not alone in this. I fully admit that had I read further than the initial post -the proper review- that I would have seen the problems, but I didn't and perhaps other potential purchasers won't either; the reason that I read only HKJ's post was that I trust him totally and thought that any problems would be explained in the review.

Please understand that I'm not faulting HKJ or his review in any way, but rather trying to help it in its purpose of informing potential buyers about the product before they make a purchase.

As always, thank you HKJ, for all the work you do for the community!

Check your iPad charger , because my vc4 charges 2 x18650 at 1amp & 4 x 18650 at .5 amps.

 

[vadimax]

May that be particular charger sample issue? Mine functions in accordance with its specification with Apple iPad wall charger (rated 2.4A). The only drawback — the poor adapter becomes rather warm under load (VC4 just cannot be 100% efficient, so it pulls more than 2A). So I purchased a more powerful USB charger to mitigate that heating issue.

 

[alkin]

Hi folks,

I own two Sony CycleEnergy 2100 mAh AA size batteries, and they still perform well after 7 or 8 years.


The past week I purchased an Xtar VC4 and charged these two batteries simultaneously (in slots number 1 and 2). One of them got 3400+ mAh of charge (under 0.5 amp. through my laptop's USB) and the other got 4300+ mAh of charge (and took around 2 hours longer).



Now, is that normal? The batteries are 2100 mAh max, do you think that the charger must have a defect?


Thanks
Alkin

 

[ChrisGarrett]

Hi folks,

I own two Sony CycleEnergy 2100 mAh AA size batteries, and they still perform well after 7 or 8 years.


The past week I purchased an Xtar VC4 and charged these two batteries simultaneously (in slots number 1 and 2). One of them got 3400+ mAh of charge (under 0.5 amp. through my laptop's USB) and the other got 4300+ mAh of charge (and took around 2 hours longer).

Now, is that normal? The batteries are 2100 mAh max, do you think that the charger must have a defect?

Thanks
Alkin

I've had a VC4 for a few years and used it over at my GF's place two weeks back. My misses termination quite a bit and did so then, so I just removed the longest charging cells and live with it.

It's probably trickle (low) charging them up and you got more input, much like the vaunted Maha C9000 low charges batteries during the break-in phase--1/10th of rated capacity for 16 hours.

If I ever have a kid, I'm going to name it Xtar, so I'm a fan-boy, owning 10-12 of them, but I never liked the VC4 much for the above reason. It's a 4 bay USB charger that I can use with my USB solar panel and even my 12vdc mother batteries, in a pinch, but it's not my every day charger--hence the reason I leave it at my girlfriend's place.

Chris

 

[sbj]

The charger probably did not recognize the Delta Peak.
I would select at the next charging 1,0A charge current.

 

[ChrisGarrett]

The charger probably did not recognize the Delta Peak.
I would select at the next charging 1,0A charge current.

Not when you're charging up 4 slots. 2 slots...sure. There are no manual charge rate settings on the Xtar VC4.

Chris

 

[Grijon]

Update: I now think that my VC4 is defective as it's having a terrible time charging my Fenix 16340s. After reading all the problems other users have had with theirs, I won't be buying another. I am very disappointed.

 

[Minimoog]

I use one of these still, but got so fed up with the supplies not being up to the task I made my own with a 100 Watt rating. Now the charger works fine and no missed terminations or pulsing display. However I will never again buy such a USB powered charger. Just not enough power to do the job right.

 

[tgo]

I've just ordered this, but didn't catch if it would charge unprotected (flat top) 18650's

Does it?

 

[jm79]

Good day, would be getting a charger for my unprotected samsung 30Q 18650s and AAA, AA batteries. Not a techie guy that much so I prefer and plug and play type that can charge my batteries with overcharging and safety protection. And also that will automatically charge them with correct voltage, etc. Mains are a plus. Any suggestion about the following and best of all I have chose regardless of price?

Nitecore D4/I4
Xtar VC4/X4
Liitokala Engineer Lii500

Thank you.