MiBoxer C2-4000 Charger Simple Review

MikeB.

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I received the C2-4000 charger from MiBoxer for review.


MiBoxer has taken our suggestions from the C4 smart charger and the C2-3000 chargers and put them in the C2-4000 charger, which I like much more then the previous charges I've tested myself.

Here is what you get with the MiBoxer C2-4000 charger, inside the box you have the charger itself and the 120 volt power adapter. The power input for the charger is 12 volt 2 amp, so this can still be powered from 12 volt power sources.

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Here is the C2-4000 compared to the other offerings from MiBoxer, the C2-3000 and C4 smart charger.

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When you plug the charger in the screen lights up and displays C2-4000, when you insert a battery it tests the voltage and internal resistance to determine the best charge amperage to charge the battery at. The display will then show the approximate battery percentage, time remaining to fully charge, mah that has been put into the battery during the current charge cycle, and scroll through the battery voltage, internal resistance, and charge current.

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The charger displays the same information when charging NI-MH batteries.

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With this charger you can also charge Li-ion 4.35volt, LiFePO4, as well as the Li-ion 4.2, and NI-MH and NI-CD batteries. The charger will auto select the NI-MH or NI-CD charge option automatically by the voltage of the battery, and default to Li-ion 4.2 volt for higher voltage battieries, you can manually change the charge setting for a different battery chemistry if needed. Just make sure you select the appropriate battery chemistry for the battery your charging as it will default to the standard Li-ion 4.2 charge voltage when you insert a battery with over 2 volts.

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Where this charger is different from the previous chargers from MiBoxer is that you can manually set the charging rate for the battery. For the Li-ion 4.2 batteries you can select from 0.2amp, 0.3amp, 0.5amp, 0.8amp, 1.0amp, and 1.5amp, which I think seems like a really nice range for the smallest to the biggest batteries you might charge. The NI-MH/NI-CD charge options are 0.1amp, 0.2amp, 0.3amp, 0.5amp, 0.8amp, and 1.0amp, which also seems pretty reasonable, it would have been nice to see 1.5amp option here too for the bigger NI-MH batteries, but at least it does have higher charge rate then previous models.

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The display is very nice and can be read weather the backlight is on or off, the backlight will come on when you insert a battery or press a button, after a while if nothing is done the backlight turns off automatically.

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This charger easily fits battery sizes from 10440 to 26650 as can be seen here, and has the charge rates appropriate for all of them.

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The charger does have a cooling fan on the top next to the power port, I don't see any ventilation anywhere else on the charger.

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So far I like the C2-4000 from MiBoxer, they really seem to be listening to our suggestions and making good improvements to their chargers. I hope they make a 4-bay version of this charger, it is simple to operate and still gives the user some options. For most people you can just plug it in and place the batteries into it and it will take care of the rest for you, but you can now choose some of your own settings if you desire.

I will update my thoughts after I get some more use out of the charger, so far I like what I see.
 
Last edited:

CuriousOne

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Oct 14, 2012
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813
Thanks for the review!
Too bad they haven't sent me it for review this time :)

I personally like the new features, but dislike fan and requirement of wall-wart adapter.

I vote either for built-in power supply version, as in C4, or Micro USB input with QC 3.0 support, as in Wismec Avatar charger.
 

CuriousOne

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Fan is noisy, fan is faulty, ask Opus 3100 users :D and properly designed circuit can handle large currents without the fan.
 

HKJ

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properly designed circuit can handle large currents without the fan.

It is not a question about large current but about power. When discharging you need to dissipate some power the solution are:
1) Use all of the charger as heatsink, this means both charger and batteries will heat up. Many chargers do this and to limit the heat they use a fairly low discharge current.
2) Add a fan, this means most of the charger can stay cool and it is possible to dissipate considerable more power than 1)
3) Add a large (aluminium) heatsink on the charger. Heatsink are rated for how much temperature raises for a specific amount of power.

2) and 3) may be combined to get the best possible cooling, some chargers do that

Note: Some hobby chargers uses another solution when discharging and avoid dissipate power, but that solution is not an option here.
 

CuriousOne

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So how much total power in charger?

say 20W, or even 30W.

So what?
there are PC power supplies which deliver 400W and are completely fanless. Or even more, I have CPU with 35W TPD and I'm using fanless cooler with it and it works just fine.
 

HKJ

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So how much total power in charger?

Enough that a fan helps it significantly.

So what?
there are PC power supplies which deliver 400W and are completely fanless. Or even more, I have CPU with 35W TPD and I'm using fanless cooler with it and it works just fine.

There is no way around this, either you accept high temperatures, large heatsink area or a fan. It is not really possible to cheap with physical laws.
 

KITROBASKIN

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I like the fan, it allows much higher discharge rates. IR pictures shows how well it works, batteries stay cool during discharge.

Wondering if there is a translation issue here, as I do not believe this charger can perform a discharge test for capacity. We are so fortunate to have the wealth of information that HKJ provides here on CandlePowerForums. Thankfully english is the language that is predominate, because so many of us would be lost if it was in any other language.

I never did get a return email from Leo at MiBoxer from a few months ago, but glad to see MikeB got the newest iteration to share his results. Having numerous Xtar and Nitecore chargers, it is the MiBoxer that gets used the most in this household, by far. Not sure how accurate the data is on the C2-3000, but really like to use the 'percentage charged' feature. This newest MiBoxer sounds like it is limited to a maximum of 2 Amps, based on the power supply. Would definitely like to see how the '4000' can be used off a 12 volt or 5 volt supply. For charging a pair of 26650 batteries, the 12V car connection using the C2-3000 showed more than a total of 2A if I remember correctly. The only time things got hot was when I experimented with a worn out 18650 while trying to finish the charge.
 

MikeB.

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Yes this charger can do the discharge battery capacity test. I personally think it was a smart idea to go with the 12 volt power input, as this makes it easy for car charger or solar power 12 volt input.

This charger can handle up to 1.5 amps charge on both cells at the same time. The C2-3000 charger was limited by the input power available to the charger.
 

evgeniy

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I bought MiBoxer C2-4000 2 weeks ago, in Gearbest.
I see on my C2-4000 very low termination currents, <0.01A, when charge 18650 Li-Ion, and final part of charging,
with currents of 0.05-0.01A, require additional 30-60mins, but this part adds <0.5% of capacity.
On reviews and tests I read about 0.1A-0.06A termination currents,
but when I bought this charger, I see termination currents <0.01A.
 

TinderBox (UK)

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MiBoxer charger are slow for NiMh battery`s almost all max out at 1amp, when li-ion cells can be charged at 3amp, I need a fast charger for my D cell battery`s

John.
 
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