Thanks for the Review,I was going to buy a LiitoKala Lii 600 to charge lithium ion 18650 batteries, now i have seen this review i've change my mind, i am sure the XTAR VP4+ is a excellent charger but is out of my price range, i gone for the Opus BT-C3100 V2.2 cost less money and i haven't notice any negative reviews.
@@de-bodgery Thanks for the reply,i will now try to cancel the order for the Opus BT-C3100 V2.2,right now i'm looking at the Youshiko YC6000 Professional Standard Super Fast Intelligent Battery Charger,what do you think compare to the XTAR VP4+.
The order for the "Opus BT-C3100 V2.2" had been cancel successfully,i have now made a purchase for one " XTAR DRAGON VP4 Plus",the reason are it didn't cost much more than the Opus BT-C3100 V2.2😃,i take your words the XTAR vp4+ is Excellent battery charger,i don't have right now to check out but when i do have, i gonna see if is better than my (2008 La Crosse BC 900) using with AA,AAA batteries,i will made a vid if anyone not seen a full complete La Crosse BC 900 with original retail box and all accessories, it will be in my video once i upload on youtube,lets see can a 15 year's old battery charger can equal or do better or worst than the XTAR vp4+ 🤭.
Didn't the Lii-500s have only 2 slots which did 2A charging, while the Lii-600 has 4 slots at 3A? Wouldn't that make sense with the 2 vs 4 temp sensors?
I think you are right. *** My Lii-500 is a few months old and it died just outside of the warranty period. It didn't stop working persay. It makes overly generous capacity measurements. A 21700 that ought to be around 4800mah is testing 5000 to 5200mah. I started seeing ambitious capacity results from it about a month ago, but they were not happening all the time. Then cells that I knew could not possibly have the capacities it was measuring started cropping up regularly. I then took several cells that had gone through test cycles on a Lii-600 or VP4+ and tested them on the Lii-500 and it would give results 200-400mah higher. It is now retired to charging only since it's capacity results are useless! I've said the Lii-500 was a turd since I got it and I think this has proven to be true!
The 500s handles both lithium-ion and NiMH cells. That is correct only for lithium cells in the 500s. NiMH cells are limited to 1A max regardless of number of cells and/or position. That's covered in section 6.2 of the user manual It would still be better to have a sensor for each slot/channel. When talking about low capacity cells, it's still easy on the 500s to exceed 1C charging current for cells that have that limitation.
@@lorandhorvath4466 You want to save money and not pay for what a VP4+ costs. I get it...I want to do that too. It's why I bought other cell testers like the Lii-600. Seems logical right? It's not...you commonly do get what you pay for and in the case of cell testers, the VP4+ costs what it does for good reasons. Just don't skimp! Get a VP4+. So far, I've been disappointed in everything else. I would like to see XTAR come out with a new version of the VP4+ with a better LCD. Other than that, It's pretty darn perfect as is! My only significant complaint is the LCD and it's usable, just could have been done more thoughtfully. *** The LCD will only display 2 channels at a time and never shows cell voltage. It also alternates back and forth between charge and discharge capacities. It's easy to record the wrong value. There is plenty of real estate on the LCD for charge and discharge capacities, cell voltages, etc for each channel all at once. There's also things like the bar graph that are completely useless! Cell Ir could be displayed at the same time as everything else too and it's not. Other than the LCD layout and how the data is displayed, the VP4+ is the BEST cell tester.
@@de-bodgery Thanks for your insight, I am considering buying a VP4+. What about the Vapcell S4 Plus? I have read good things about it, about the same price AFAICS.
@@lorandhorvath4466 I looked at the S4 briefly, but don't have one in my possession. I honestly can't say anything about it that you can't look up yourself. After I found the VP4+ and had looked at many other options, I quickly came back to the VP4+ and stuck with it.
Hi. Thank you for your video. It is very interesting. Here where i live VP4+ is 3 times more expensive than Lii 600. Do you think even so VP4+ is still worthier than Lii 600? Thank you.
Yes....without a doubt! Every product from Liito Kala I have tried has been unreliable and low quality. This is why they are so cheap! This is a clear case of "you get what you pay for". And that much lower price for a Lii-600 vs a VP4+ is because of the massive CUTs in quality and reliability! Watch this video. ua-cam.com/video/kcNaJI2KLHs/v-deo.html
@@de-bodgery I have the lii-s4 and its just malfunctioning after just a couple of light used. I am just a casual user and just wanting to charge some of my eneloop pros. I found something exactly similar to lii-600. The vapcell s4+ which I doubt to buy now because they looks similar to litoshit 👎and found some mix reviews about the test accuracy and the reliability.
I just got a Lii-500s and I don't like it much. If you start a TEST with for batteries at night before going to bed, the next morning the test will still be running. It seems like if you're not quickly removing the batteries once the testing is done, the test will start over again. That's quite dumb, you have to be right by his side to check the result otherwise it will start over and you can't see the mAh rating it got.
I've never seen this behavior with my Lii-500s or my Lii-600 testers. They both stop when a single charge-discharge-charge cycle completes. This is what Test mode does. Of course Liito Kala "quality" is quite low...so who knows what sort of problems you might have! My Lii-500S no longer does discharge capacity testing accurately. 3 of the 8 Lii-600's I have no longer do discharge capacity right either. They all test cell discharge capacities at 30-50% over actual cell capacity. *** There is a problem I've run across. Power will flicker. The cell tester won't reset back to its default setting of Charge, but will start Test again. I run my cell testers on a UPS so that AC power issues can't happen. Maybe you have noisy AC power and that's causing the cell test to restart?
@@de-bodgery It did fix the issue, the outlet had loose connections, you know when you plug something and it barely holds. I guess it was too big of a load for this bad connection and made it drop momentarily...
XTAR VP4+ is still 2x2a+1x2a. Charging large capacity batteries like Samsung 40T and 50S takes so much time. I hope XTAR will catch up and make 4x3a charger. What's your opinion on Vapcell S4+ charger?
Notice that I talk about "cell testers", NOT cell chargers. For just charging get whatever is cheap and charges however you want. For cell testing, that's a very different thing! XTAR VP4+ is the best option that I've come across.
Hi i have a problem for liiotkala 600 so i put this in my bag but unfortunately it has a little bit splashed by water i saw it after a while little bit wet so when i charge my batteries the screen automaticly turns on and touching the first cell so what should i do ?,i dont want to open the device because ,maybe i can make a mistake and this can bring me a worst result.
Unplug power...open it. If its still under warranty for a source such as Amazon...they won't check if you opened it and will just send you a replacement. Elsewhere...can't speak for them...maybe send it back for a replacement. Obviously I could not care less about warranty since I open stuff up just about imediately!
I just got the Liitokala LII-600 for $40 delivered, before seeing your video. Probably would have bought the VP4 plus if i saw this first. Lol After seeing your teardown it might explain why Chanel #1 and #4 seem to behave differently than #2 and #3. With heatsinks for mosfet #1 and #4 near the cell temp sensor those cells were reporting higher temps. Then i set up my laptop cooler to blow air underneath from top to bottom and it exits out the side vents. Now all temps are 44c-44c-42c-42c. I cant help but to think a mosfet woth a heat sink will behave different than one without heat sink since its internal temp will be different. And having them arranged in some random pattern in relation to all the other components like resistors which also might change value if the temp i different between them. Not sure if any temperature compensation circuits are here. I don’t know why they didn’t add a fan to exact the heat. I have a feeling a lot of the lack of repeatability this has is due to wild temperature differences throughout the components. I think you are correct this is measuring internal resistance not AC impedance as is the industry standard. I just watched a video showing the difference between the two tests and their results. And it also went as far as to say each test type represents a different characteristic of the battery. When the cells are cold the readings is around 50-60 but when warm its 30-40. So it does seem to reflect how temps affect ability to charge and discharge. Im currently running a test cycle on 4 Liitokala LII-35s flattop cells. To eliminate as many variables as possible I fully charged them, let them set for a few hours, then top them off with a 250 ma charge and started a test cycle with 1500 ma charge, 750 ma discharge, then 1500 ma recharge. All cells started the discharge cycle within 1 minute, but here after 4h 10m the discharge of each channel is: 3182-2877-2905-3156 Note: most of the test was done without laptop cooling blowing evenly across the bottom. Since all cells theoretically were discharging 750ma for 4.16 hrs they should all have discharged 3120 mah. Next clue, at 4.26 hrs, each cell voltage is: 2.78-3.09-3.04-2.87 volts That tells me the actual current is not exactly 750 ma for each cell but the current measurement is actually agreeing with cell voltages, or at least not on total defiance. Lol. At least the highest discharge isn’t also showing highest cell voltage. I bought this so i can test the cells, and match them for a 3p 13s battery. But so far it seems like a waste of time and money and just randomly placing cells in the pack have a better chance than testing and ensuring each 3 cell brick has matching mah as reported by this charger.
I found one source on the internet (so i must be true, lol) that for lithium ion cells, DC resistance is more important than AC Impedance because “The user need DC resistance because: It allows to compare cells to be used in a power application It allows to estimate voltage sag under load It allows to calculate the battery efficiency under load It allows to calculate how much heat must be removed from the battery through cooling” It further goes to say that there is no direct relationship between the two. But Impedance is easier to measure while DC resistance changes with SOC and temp. This source used 50% SOC and 25c as the standard for testing DC resistance. I think it’s confusing to most to call it resistance when its not really resistance like a resistor has, since electrons don’t flow through a lithium ion battery. While there is current from each collector to its terminal, unless that was improperly sized, the “resistance” is the freedom the ions have to move. If the ions can move fast then it will charge and discharge easily will less heat and less sag. If the active material is thin, the capacity is low but the C-rate is high. If the active material on the collector is thick, its high capacity but lower C rating. Ok, so since we want DC resistance matched in each brick of the battery so that all bricks sag the same under peak discharge, then we just need to see if any procedure can be used with the LII-600, such as all cells at 3.70v, 25c (or at least all the same temperature near ambient), then pop each cell into the same channel 3 times and take the lowest reading, with charge current set at 250 ma so it has the least effect on voltage and temperature of the cell. AC impedance, being small voltage changes 1000x per minute, probably measure the collectors and tabs current carrying ability and the ions are just wiggling back and forth saying “wtf? Make up your mind. Charge or discharge not both”. Lol. So not really going to show you the performance of the battery under a sustained high drain.
I bought a Lii-600 from their officiel store, chanel 4 always detect that a batery is plugged-in even if no batery is instaled at all, if you can help me what electronic composant to change because shipping back will cost me the same price as the tool it self and it will took lot of time, :( Any way as you said the IR display is faked for sur !!!!, because now even with no batery plugged-in, it still show the IR and show cinematic like the batery is charging or discharging lol
Do you know the seller wont send you another one without the defective one back? When I first got Lii-600 cell testers, I thought build quality was better than the Lii-500S, but still not great. I now have 8 of them. I have 2 that are testing cells and presenting capacity results that are much too high. I test those same 4 cells in another Lii-600 or a VP4+ and they test to capacities that I expect. 2 of my 8 Lii-600 chargers are now not very useful for capacity testing. The exact same thing happened to my Lii-500S. It started measuring capacities much too high! I've been telling people the Lii-600 is worth getting, but I have 2 that charge, but are useless for why I bought them! When are the other 6 going to start flaking out!? In between time, my 2 XTAR VP4+ chargers are about 1.5 years old, seen near continuous use the entire time and working perfectly! *** If you can't get the seller to send you another one without returning the one you have, open a dispute about it. That will probably get you a partial refund. If that doesn't work to your satisfaction, whatever payment method you used, open a dispute with them for a full refund. Hopefully it's not paypal...they don't give a shit about their customers any more!!! Get your bank or credit card company to get you a refund. *** Finally, are you in the USA? If you'd like, you could send it to me. I'm not going to tell you how to fix it. That's pretty complicated and there are specialized test tools you probably don't have. I'll take it apart and at least tell you if its worth the trouble. If it's not, all you are out is shipping to me. There's only a few things that I'll consider worth repairing. These chargers are intended to be throw away.
@@de-bodgery Thank you so much for your answer. sorry, Iam very far from the USA ... i opened a dispute agains the seller hopefully they refund some thing. I tested the tool this evening and you are 100% right .... every thing this tool show in the screen is FAKE, even voltage is fake, it update about every 10 seconds and the value is up to 7% diferent than the reality, and as you said the IR is only estimated not true at all.... i think i will order a vp4+ or biger tool, any way after the semi conductors crisis in Taiwan all electronic tools build after 2019 are pur garbage. this year i saw brand new tools that arrive from the factory with defective FTDIs and defective Mosfets...
@@technomax409 Yeah...I wondered about the chip shortages and what that might do to electronics as a whole. Seems that companies are using their seconds as parts for their products since they can't get the parts they can trust. *** This is far from a new problem! 1988 or so, there was a chip shortage then too. A bunch of flooding happened from a hurricane in the Asian countries that make IC's. The manufacturers spent a lot of time cleaning up afterwards since all their factories were flooded. It created a massive shortage of all kinds of IC's. RAM prices went crazy for about a year! Many companies made promises to build factories in the US and Europe so this would never happen again. As you can see...that never happened! And here we are again, just for a different reason. It's stupid, but there it is! *** I intended to buy 4 more Lii-600's about 2 months ago. They were unavailable everywhere I checked in the USA. I found them on aliexpress out of china. So far they are working OK...fingers crossed!
@De-bodgery They will never factory ICs in the USA and Europe. maybe they can make high tech RAMs and Processors, but cheap semi conductors never !!! Hourly weidge in USA is high and polution laws are very scrict, and as you know IC's business is one the dirtiest busniess in the world, they always need to hid it some where where they can dismiss their polution and pay their workers cheaply.
If you look at the vents on the side, you can see the logo "XSL" patterned in the holes... I don't believe Liitokala makes these (OEM'd out to XSL per-chance?), the old Engineer Lii-500 is clearly a different construction, and for my money it works better.... off to see if you have a teardown of the old Lii-500 too.
I saw those letters and didn't think anything of them. Once you see my Lii-500 teardown video, there's not a lot about the Lii-600 cell testers that are much of an improvement over the Lii-500S. It's better, but just a little. Based on the construction, I'd say both cell testers were made by the same company. *** The Lii-500 user interface is clunkier. Pull out the cells and drop in new ones and you have to do 100% of the setup all over again. The Lii-600 isn't as good as an XTAR VP4+ in this regard, but it's loads better than the Lii-500. Also the Lii-600 can charge faster than the Lii-500. The Ir test results are very inaccurate so that's not of any value. Personally, I'd choose the Lii-600 over the Lii-500 and I'd pick the XTAR VP4+ over the Lii-600. It's the best cell tester out there right now. *** The VP4+ can't charge as fast as the Lii-600. It does have much better build quality. Component quality is much better and beefier. It accurately measures cell Ir. Set it to do some task and it stays on that exact setting forever until you change it. Cell after cell after cell...no reprogramming! I have 3 of them now and I own an OPUS, 2 Litto Kalas, skyRC MC-3000 and a megacell charger. The best build, best components, best accuracy, best measuring consistency with the most features that matter...at least for now is the XTAR VP4+!!!
@@de-bodgery This thing looks similar to the vapcell s4+ and the only difference is the logo and the main lcd and the software. I can bet they made by some chinese oem factory and so I doubt to get the Vapcell even its currently on sale with a big discount. vapcell makes good cells but never heard on their charger before. If you can get one of those s4+ then pls. make a video and analyze its circuitry just to confirm my thoughts.
@@ibringthelastwords1358 Buy a VP4+...can't go wrong! This is the best price I have found for them. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B099KBXSYC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
@@de-bodgery VP S4+ probably is the Vapcell S4 Plus. A charger with 3 ampere charging power at each of it's four slots. Published in 2018. Since 2020 version 2.0 is available. The older version has been reviewed at "lygte info dk" (review in English). At first I thought the LiitoKala Lii-600 is largely identical, just with a better display and other keys. But maybe there are differences in quality? A teardown of the Vapcell S4 Plus would be really interesting! Greetings from Germany. 😉
@@BorrisOrloff Hello from the USA! Considering it costs $40 USD, I'm going to guess it's not remotely as good as the XTAR VP4+ or even the Lii-600. I can tell you the Ir measurements it will make is totally useless. This is true for all cell testers that try to use the spring loaded battery holder for Ir testing. This is a BAD idea for a multitude of reasons of which the biggest one is you need a 4 wire tester to measure cell Ir. The XTAR VP4+ does Ir testing correctly and as a result gets real Ir measurements. No other cell tester I've ever seen does reliable Ir testing! The Lii-600 costs about $60 and it's distant second place to the VP4+. The VP4+ costs what it does for very good reasons and as a result gives good cell capacity results and reliable IR results. You do get what you pay for! A $40 cell tester needs to have significant measures taken to get to that price point and that always means corners cut, poor design choices, lower quality parts, etc. I'm highly skeptical that the S4+ is worth bothering with! That $40 price point says it all! I'm fairly certain the S4+ is pretty awful and not worth the time. Probably similar is quality to the MiBoxer C4-12 that I took apart and then immediately sent back for a refund! *** 3 amps per cell charge current isn't really that useful for anything other than charging high capacity cells that support the current. Everything else, you are damaging them by charging them too quickly. Frankly 2 amps charge current is a much better maximum and something that you can use on just about anything. I'd like to do actual current measurements. I bet the S4+ charges at 3 amps maybe 1-5% of the charge time and all the rest it's charging much slower. I've seen this on a lot of cheaper chargers. Sure they might occasionally do the epic thing they are advertised as doing, but it's rare and most people will never check. If you want a charger, just buy whatever is cheap and does 2 amps. IF you want a cell tester, buy at least the lii-600 and if you want something that does a good job at everything, the VP4+ can't be beat that I have seen! *** Something I am interested in and just found is the Epoch X4 Touch. It's in the same price range as the SkyRC mc3000 ($100)...which proved to be full of cool specs, good electronics and good functionality. Problem was the software and firmware suck, the LCD and button interface is unusable and you are stuck using blue tooth and your phone app that doesn't work reliably. Maybe Epoch didn't screw up like SkyRC did? I'd consider buying an X4 to tear down in the near future! www.amazon.com/Epoch-X4-Touch-Lithium-Battery/dp/B09NTM76TJ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=U9HQB108D6MW&keywords=Epoch+X4+Touch&qid=1671597755&sprefix=epoch+x4+touch%2Caps%2C323&sr=8-1&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.006c50ae-5d4c-4777-9bc0-4513d670b6bc The biggest delineation I see between the X4 and the VP4+ is the LCD. If there is one thing that I wish XTAR would have done better it's the LCD and what it displays. I'm not sure the X4 touch is worth another $25 just for a pretty LCD touch screen. The VP4+ and the X4 appear to have identical specs and features. Maybe inside the case, the electronics are as good as the MC3000?
@@de-bodgery Hey, thank you for you video and comments. Did you have a chance to test ISDT C4 EVO? Looks like a cool toy but maybe it's cool inside too?
@@krakadzil ISDT products are usually pretty good. This one is OK. It's pretty limited in functionality due to its layout. I have no idea why they built it this way! They also screwed up on the N8. Cool idea and it supports all the cell chemistries, but then the bays fit AA and AAA only...WTF?! All they had to do was make it bigger so any cell size would fit and they chose to go with a compact form factor that isn't usable for the sorts of cells you'd buy these devices for! Great idea, poor execution.
One of my outer slots have been starting to show high capacitance values compared to same cell in another slot. Seems it has become worse after some 100 tests maybe. Was wondering if there is something that might age?
I've had 3 of them do that. People want something cheap and then expect it to be good and reliable. Why I tell people to get the VC4+. IMHO, it's still not awesome, but it's loads better build quality than the li-600!
@@de-bodgery I have another Xtar VC4SL just for storage mode but now I am trying an BT-C3100. One thing I directly liked is that there is no annoying beeping :)
Someone knows the maximum temperarure until sensor STOP charge to protect ??? I have a battery with 61° C and it does not STOP the charge, it is very hot. O.O"
It's a Liito Kala product and they are not very good. This isn't surprising that it won't stop charging. Seems your cell has an internal short and was probably dead flat when you attempted to charge it. I'd take it off the charger and test it with a volt meter. It's probably going to show a few millivolts at most. That cell won't take a charge no matter what you do.
I have bought this charger from aliexpress for 10 days. I found a technical problem. When measuring the internal resistance of the batteries it shows the maximum 116 mΩ. So measuring the internal resistance with another instrument shows a larger number, for example 150 mΩ. So there is a technical problem and it counts wrong. The funny thing is that the seller does what he does not understand. Probably not as they present him.
I did a video on several cell testers and the results they produced. I showed my test results from 16 cells that got tested by all 4 cell testers presented. The Lii-600 is completely useless for getting reliable cell Ir. I would NOT trust any Liito Kala charger to be reliable and for cell resistance...definitely NOT. The XTAR VP4+ uses 4 wire testing for Ir...like a real Ir tester does! All the rest test Ir through the battery charging terminals and that proves to be highly unreliable. ua-cam.com/video/e75Rhctddck/v-deo.html *** Gotta LOVE Chinese sellers! They will play stupid just to get out of taking care of issues! I've run into this many times myself. I've had a couple of Chinese friends explain it to me, but it's not any less annoying to me. They believe they are being polite and non-confrontational. I prefer straight answers and no bullshit!
@@ibringthelastwords1358 Or "dearest friend" or something else that is MUCH too intimate for the fact that they know you not even slightly! It is sort of weird.
@@de-bodgery You said it perfectly. AFTER SEIL SERVICE does not exist. They try to drive you crazy with the answers. Thank you very much, you helped me a lot
great video, seems like the Li-600 is not the best 21700 charger for me, might not be a good idea to run it at those advertised 4x3 Amps ;o] would be nice to see a teardown of Lii-S8 if it's equally bad
Think in terms of the price. 8 cell charger (Lii-S8)for the price of a shitty 4 cell charger (lii-600). I'll predict based on the price that the S8 is an even worse steaming turd than the 600! Just buy a VP4+...yes they cost more, but its for good reasons.
hello sir. not a techie guy, need a plug and play type that can determine the voltage and charge it accordingly. mains are a plus. confused between nitecore i4/D4, liitokala engineer lii-500, xtar VC4/X4. Any suggestion which is better among them for you. thank you sir.
Lii-500 is junk. Nitecore doesn't do cell testing and I'm not sure about the XTAR models you mentioned. If price isn't a problem the best thing out there right now is the XTAR VP4+. For a little less cost and loss of cell resistance testing, the Lii-600 is pretty good. For cell capacity testing, I have both the Lii-600 and the VP4+.
You cant get wrong with the nitecore and xtar but Stay away on liitoshit 👎 I have my lii-s4 and just malfunctioning after several months of light usage. they even near destroying one of my eneloop cells by leaving it uncharge while the other is fully charge but when i measure them they are not.
@@ibringthelastwords1358 Nitecore doesn't make a cell tester that I know of. They only charge. I don't care a lot about charge capacity by itself. Without knowing the discharge capacity, charge capacity is pretty meaningless. If you know of a Nitecore charger that does a proper charge/discharge/charge test on cells, please post the model. When I say "cell tester" I mean a device like the VP4+ which does a proper charge/discharge/charge test. The Lii-600 does this despite being a steaming turd.
Problem with discharging at 1 amp is that you are not testing like the manufacturers test for capacity. For that you need .5 amps. I had a BT-3100. It's fine for 18650's, but like right now I'm testing 900 new 21700's and the BT-3100 can only hold 2 of them. I gave it to a friend in favor of cell testers where all 4 bays can hold 21700 cells. I never used it, but the micro switch under the bottom cover for testing LIFE cells could be useful. Most cell testers don't do LIFE at all. I now have 3 of the Lii-600 cell testers. IMHO, since it can test 4 21700 cells at the same time, it's a better option for me than is the BT-3100.
@@de-bodgery I am trying to replace it with another one. Resetting the memory by quickly pulling out the power cord does not work. This is what the manufacturer suggested to me. Thank you for your reply.
@@TomWasilewski Resetting is just removing power. These chargers store no settings. Sounds like something stopped working in that channel of the charger. Get an XTAR VP4+...MUCH BETTER charger!
Yeah, but the Xtar VP4+ can cost more than *_twice_* as much and might be good enough for people who aren't pro-level knowledgeable about batteries and just wanna sus out the bad ones from a handful of harvested cells.
Xtar might be better but cmon, it costs 3x more than lii-500, and one thing it does better that you can notice is accuracy in measuring internal resistance. Is it worth paying 3x more? I would say no. Lii 600 also is not worth it. This is too much money to charge few half dead laptop cells that are almost trash. For that money i would rather buy new cells and not care about their condition cuz they are new.
You are entitled to your opinion and good luck with those highly unreliable and cheap cell testers! I don't trust the Lii-500 as far as I can throw it! For your use case where you are just charging crap cells, don't bother with a good cell tester. IF you are testing 100's and 1000's of cells like I do, then don't waste a nickel on the lii-500 and get the XTAR VP4+. I don't trust new cells to be anything until I test them myself. Your assumption that "new cells are all some how equal" is false. I know this as fact as NOT being true! See this video: ua-cam.com/video/tO3wJVmtkzM/v-deo.html
Which is better? Depends on what your uses are. If I had to pick just one, it would be the VP4+. My suggestion is to get a VP4+ so you can test cell Ir accurately. Then if you need more cell capacity testing, get Lii-600's so you can test lots more than 4 cells at a time. This is what I did. I have 3 Lii-600's for capacity testing and a VP4+ for capacity testing and Ir testing. *** Build quality and electronics design are lots better in the VP4+ than the Lii-600. The VP4+ is pretty accurate at measuring cell Ir. No other cell tester that claims it tests Ir is worth crap. They are all wildly wrong (usually 2-3X OVER actual cell Ir) except for the VP4+. If all you need is fairly inexpensive and reliable cell capacity testing, then the Lii-600 is $20 cheaper and does this job well. The Lii-600 also has a repair function that will try to recover flat or very low cells. The VP4+ does not have a feature like this.
@@Science-sans-conscience The VP4+ will not attempt to recover dead flat cells and the Lii-600 will. This is "repair mode". Refresh is basically discharge and charge to "wake up" the chemistry of lithium cells. The VP4+ and the Lii-600 both do this. The VP4+ is limited to charging at a maximum of 2 amps. The Lii-600 can charge at 3 amps. I don't care about this very much as I buy cell testers for capacity and IR testing and then periodically use them for charging only. VP4+ is the best at these tasks for all cell testers I have seen and tried! The Lii-600 Ir tests can't be trusted, but it does do capacity testing well. What I have done is bought 2 VP4+ cell testers so I can check Ir and cpacity. I bought many more Lii-600 cell testers for capacity testing. They are $20-25 cheaper and do this one job pretty well. I have 4 more Lii-600's coming as I have a something like 900 21700 cells I need to test and it takes a long time to test them. *** If I were to buy just one cell tester, it would be the VP4+...no doubt about it!
if you are just a casual user then dont buy any littshit! pick some xtar or nitecore charger that you can count for at least a year or so. If you are a geek then go find some opus or put some extra money for the vp4+.
It's a 500s... except for this long list of changes lol... it seems like a good product for a good price, half price of the xtar.. Why shit on it? Not everyone needs a super premium charger
Interesting results and comparisons. Thanks for taking time to report. Some questions/thoughts for future reports: 1) How did the measured mAh values compare to the mAh claimed on the cell labels? 2) Test some low mAh cells (like 16340 with 700mAh max). Legitimate industry testing tests mAh at 0.2C constant current. Do the chargers allow setting at anything close to 0.2C (e.g. 700mAh * 0.2 ~ 140mA) for the lower mAh cells or do they force using a higher current, for example 500mA? (of course, some sellers and cell labels claim wildly impossible mAh capacity like rechargeable 18650 cell has 5000mAh or a rechargeable 14500 cell has 1500mAh, etc) 3) Do the thermal sensors in the unit(s) report accurate cell temperatures if you are testing bare metal cells (e.g. labels removed)? I know that hand-held non-contact IR 'guns' are usually very inaccurate measuring temperature of shiny surfaces. If I'm going to be testing a lot of salvaged bare cells this would be nice to know. 4) Would be nice to have confirmed when the chargers accept button-top 21700 cells, and if they do whether or not the cells can be *easily* inserted and removed. I've run into chargers where I've had to use a plastic "spudger" (or a rugged guitar pick) to remove the longer cells when done testing.
Good review but sadly I had to give up watching due to the poor audio quality and background noise. Please consider a better microphone solution / recording set up.
You hear other equipment in the back ground. OF COURSE there is noise! It's incredibly SAD that your tolerance of things you find inconvenient is so low! While you are being critical of my video, lets look at what you've done. Oh look, one video in almost a year and that done on your phone with lousy sound quality! Meanwhile, I've lost count of how many videos in the past year I have made...lots more than one!
Oh yeah...one important detail: 6558 views of this video and only one complaint about the sound and video. Might want to go check your tolerance levels.
Better to stay away to liitoshit 👎i bought their lii-s4 before and its malfunctioning after just a couple of light usage in less than 6 months. I am just a casual user who needs to charge some eneloops and recharging them once or twice a month. Total waste of money 👎👎👎👎👎
You don't know what you are talking and have a clue about power electronics. Put 500s board together and put your glasses then you can see the more differences than caps.
So...are you an electrical engineer and went to school for an EE degree? Your not...hmmm...got to wonder then who is the one that doesn't know what they are talking about?
@@de-bodgery I am not old. This TO-220 mosfets for dummy load circuit so for discharging. Nothing to do with charging. You say 3 Ampere at 3:42. So, I think you mean 3 Ampere charging but I say again this mosfets are for discharging. This soic-8 package mosfets are charging they are synchronus buck converter to charge cells from 12V input voltage. Google dummy load, synchronus buck and educate yourself.
Thanks for the Review,I was going to buy a LiitoKala Lii 600 to charge lithium ion 18650 batteries, now i have seen this review i've change my mind, i am sure the XTAR VP4+ is a excellent charger but is out of my price range, i gone for the Opus BT-C3100 V2.2 cost less money and i haven't notice any negative reviews.
I like the Lii-600 a lot more than the Opus. It's a rather old design and not better than the Lii-600. I did have a C3100, but it wasn't very good.
@@de-bodgery Thanks for the reply,i will now try to cancel the order for the Opus BT-C3100 V2.2,right now i'm looking at the Youshiko YC6000 Professional Standard Super Fast Intelligent Battery Charger,what do you think compare to the XTAR VP4+.
The order for the "Opus BT-C3100 V2.2" had been cancel successfully,i have now made a purchase for one " XTAR DRAGON VP4 Plus",the reason are it didn't cost much more than the Opus BT-C3100 V2.2😃,i take your words the XTAR vp4+ is Excellent battery charger,i don't have right now to check out but when i do have, i gonna see if is better than my (2008 La Crosse BC 900) using with AA,AAA batteries,i will made a vid if anyone not seen a full complete La Crosse BC 900 with original retail box and all accessories, it will be in my video once i upload on youtube,lets see can a 15 year's old battery charger can equal or do better or worst than the XTAR vp4+ 🤭.
@@PaulCK Definitely my favorite! And why I have 8 of them.
@@de-bodgery I get what you saying,i am happy to say i will be joining you very soon😀,Everyone listen i'm in the XTAR vp4+ club😁
Didn't the Lii-500s have only 2 slots which did 2A charging, while the Lii-600 has 4 slots at 3A? Wouldn't that make sense with the 2 vs 4 temp sensors?
I think you are right.
***
My Lii-500 is a few months old and it died just outside of the warranty period. It didn't stop working persay. It makes overly generous capacity measurements. A 21700 that ought to be around 4800mah is testing 5000 to 5200mah. I started seeing ambitious capacity results from it about a month ago, but they were not happening all the time. Then cells that I knew could not possibly have the capacities it was measuring started cropping up regularly. I then took several cells that had gone through test cycles on a Lii-600 or VP4+ and tested them on the Lii-500 and it would give results 200-400mah higher. It is now retired to charging only since it's capacity results are useless! I've said the Lii-500 was a turd since I got it and I think this has proven to be true!
The 500s handles both lithium-ion and NiMH cells.
That is correct only for lithium cells in the 500s.
NiMH cells are limited to 1A max regardless of number of cells and/or position.
That's covered in section 6.2 of the user manual
It would still be better to have a sensor for each slot/channel. When talking about low capacity cells, it's still easy on the 500s to exceed 1C charging current for cells that have that limitation.
Running some tests on the Lii-600 and the Vapcell S4+ with the Panasonic 18650 3500 mAh battery. Will post results here later.
Lii-600 has several important differences...shunts resistance, discharge currents same for all slots(mosfets with/without radiator).
Thank you, wanted to buy this one :)
Will go for xtar or if you have any newer model suggestion. Must have discharge
Nope...VP4+ is still my go to capacity tester!
What about the XTAR VC4SL aka VC4 Plus ?
@@lorandhorvath4466 You want to save money and not pay for what a VP4+ costs. I get it...I want to do that too. It's why I bought other cell testers like the Lii-600. Seems logical right? It's not...you commonly do get what you pay for and in the case of cell testers, the VP4+ costs what it does for good reasons. Just don't skimp! Get a VP4+. So far, I've been disappointed in everything else. I would like to see XTAR come out with a new version of the VP4+ with a better LCD. Other than that, It's pretty darn perfect as is! My only significant complaint is the LCD and it's usable, just could have been done more thoughtfully.
***
The LCD will only display 2 channels at a time and never shows cell voltage. It also alternates back and forth between charge and discharge capacities. It's easy to record the wrong value. There is plenty of real estate on the LCD for charge and discharge capacities, cell voltages, etc for each channel all at once. There's also things like the bar graph that are completely useless! Cell Ir could be displayed at the same time as everything else too and it's not. Other than the LCD layout and how the data is displayed, the VP4+ is the BEST cell tester.
@@de-bodgery Thanks for your insight, I am considering buying a VP4+. What about the Vapcell S4 Plus? I have read good things about it, about the same price AFAICS.
@@lorandhorvath4466 I looked at the S4 briefly, but don't have one in my possession. I honestly can't say anything about it that you can't look up yourself. After I found the VP4+ and had looked at many other options, I quickly came back to the VP4+ and stuck with it.
What about XTAR VC4SL, is it better than Liitokala lii 600?
I just open the XTAR VP4+ is huge !! haha
Hi. Thank you for your video. It is very interesting. Here where i live VP4+ is 3 times more expensive than Lii 600. Do you think even so VP4+ is still worthier than Lii 600? Thank you.
Yes....without a doubt! Every product from Liito Kala I have tried has been unreliable and low quality. This is why they are so cheap! This is a clear case of "you get what you pay for". And that much lower price for a Lii-600 vs a VP4+ is because of the massive CUTs in quality and reliability! Watch this video.
ua-cam.com/video/kcNaJI2KLHs/v-deo.html
@@de-bodgery I have the lii-s4 and its just malfunctioning after just a couple of light used. I am just a casual user and just wanting to charge some of my eneloop pros. I found something exactly similar to lii-600. The vapcell s4+ which I doubt to buy now because they looks similar to litoshit 👎and found some mix reviews about the test accuracy and the reliability.
@@ibringthelastwords1358 Yes...avoid Liito Kala products and the clones. The clones are probably worse than the legit Liitto products.
I think I would be more incented to go for the VP4+ if it handled more types of lithium cells (especially LiFePO4 would be nice).
I just got a Lii-500s and I don't like it much. If you start a TEST with for batteries at night before going to bed, the next morning the test will still be running. It seems like if you're not quickly removing the batteries once the testing is done, the test will start over again. That's quite dumb, you have to be right by his side to check the result otherwise it will start over and you can't see the mAh rating it got.
I've never seen this behavior with my Lii-500s or my Lii-600 testers. They both stop when a single charge-discharge-charge cycle completes. This is what Test mode does. Of course Liito Kala "quality" is quite low...so who knows what sort of problems you might have! My Lii-500S no longer does discharge capacity testing accurately. 3 of the 8 Lii-600's I have no longer do discharge capacity right either. They all test cell discharge capacities at 30-50% over actual cell capacity.
***
There is a problem I've run across. Power will flicker. The cell tester won't reset back to its default setting of Charge, but will start Test again. I run my cell testers on a UPS so that AC power issues can't happen. Maybe you have noisy AC power and that's causing the cell test to restart?
@@de-bodgery I don't know that my AC is noisy, but that makes sense. I'll try another outlet. Thanks.
@@pmarquisYT Another outlet is unlikely to fix AC issues. The same AC flows in all your outlets. This is why I use a UPS. It cleans up the power.
@@de-bodgery It did fix the issue, the outlet had loose connections, you know when you plug something and it barely holds. I guess it was too big of a load for this bad connection and made it drop momentarily...
mmhh, lii-600 is enough for me.
XTAR VP4+ is still 2x2a+1x2a. Charging large capacity batteries like Samsung 40T and 50S takes so much time. I hope XTAR will catch up and make 4x3a charger.
What's your opinion on Vapcell S4+ charger?
Notice that I talk about "cell testers", NOT cell chargers. For just charging get whatever is cheap and charges however you want. For cell testing, that's a very different thing! XTAR VP4+ is the best option that I've come across.
@@de-bodgery Oh, I see your point. Thanks for clarifying.
Would you prefer VP4+ over SkyRC MC3000 as well (for battery testing)?
@@ZaarsShed Watch my videos
Hi i have a problem for liiotkala 600 so i put this in my bag but unfortunately it has a little bit splashed by water i saw it after a while little bit wet so when i charge my batteries the screen automaticly turns on and touching the first cell so what should i do ?,i dont want to open the device because ,maybe i can make a mistake and this can bring me a worst result.
Unplug power...open it. If its still under warranty for a source such as Amazon...they won't check if you opened it and will just send you a replacement. Elsewhere...can't speak for them...maybe send it back for a replacement. Obviously I could not care less about warranty since I open stuff up just about imediately!
I just got the Liitokala LII-600 for $40 delivered, before seeing your video. Probably would have bought the VP4 plus if i saw this first. Lol
After seeing your teardown it might explain why Chanel #1 and #4 seem to behave differently than #2 and #3. With heatsinks for mosfet #1 and #4 near the cell temp sensor those cells were reporting higher temps. Then i set up my laptop cooler to blow air underneath from top to bottom and it exits out the side vents. Now all temps are 44c-44c-42c-42c.
I cant help but to think a mosfet woth a heat sink will behave different than one without heat sink since its internal temp will be different. And having them arranged in some random pattern in relation to all the other components like resistors which also might change value if the temp i different between them. Not sure if any temperature compensation circuits are here.
I don’t know why they didn’t add a fan to exact the heat. I have a feeling a lot of the lack of repeatability this has is due to wild temperature differences throughout the components.
I think you are correct this is measuring internal resistance not AC impedance as is the industry standard. I just watched a video showing the difference between the two tests and their results. And it also went as far as to say each test type represents a different characteristic of the battery. When the cells are cold the readings is around 50-60 but when warm its 30-40. So it does seem to reflect how temps affect ability to charge and discharge.
Im currently running a test cycle on 4 Liitokala LII-35s flattop cells. To eliminate as many variables as possible I fully charged them, let them set for a few hours, then top them off with a 250 ma charge and started a test cycle with 1500 ma charge, 750 ma discharge, then 1500 ma recharge.
All cells started the discharge cycle within 1 minute, but here after 4h 10m the discharge of each channel is:
3182-2877-2905-3156
Note: most of the test was done without laptop cooling blowing evenly across the bottom.
Since all cells theoretically were discharging 750ma for 4.16 hrs they should all have discharged 3120 mah.
Next clue, at 4.26 hrs, each cell voltage is:
2.78-3.09-3.04-2.87 volts
That tells me the actual current is not exactly 750 ma for each cell but the current measurement is actually agreeing with cell voltages, or at least not on total defiance. Lol. At least the highest discharge isn’t also showing highest cell voltage.
I bought this so i can test the cells, and match them for a 3p 13s battery. But so far it seems like a waste of time and money and just randomly placing cells in the pack have a better chance than testing and ensuring each 3 cell brick has matching mah as reported by this charger.
I found one source on the internet (so i must be true, lol) that for lithium ion cells, DC resistance is more important than AC Impedance because
“The user need DC resistance because:
It allows to compare cells to be used in a power application
It allows to estimate voltage sag under load
It allows to calculate the battery efficiency under load
It allows to calculate how much heat must be removed from the battery through cooling”
It further goes to say that there is no direct relationship between the two. But Impedance is easier to measure while DC resistance changes with SOC and temp. This source used 50% SOC and 25c as the standard for testing DC resistance.
I think it’s confusing to most to call it resistance when its not really resistance like a resistor has, since electrons don’t flow through a lithium ion battery. While there is current from each collector to its terminal, unless that was improperly sized, the “resistance” is the freedom the ions have to move.
If the ions can move fast then it will charge and discharge easily will less heat and less sag. If the active material is thin, the capacity is low but the C-rate is high. If the active material on the collector is thick, its high capacity but lower C rating.
Ok, so since we want DC resistance matched in each brick of the battery so that all bricks sag the same under peak discharge, then we just need to see if any procedure can be used with the LII-600, such as all cells at 3.70v, 25c (or at least all the same temperature near ambient), then pop each cell into the same channel 3 times and take the lowest reading, with charge current set at 250 ma so it has the least effect on voltage and temperature of the cell.
AC impedance, being small voltage changes 1000x per minute, probably measure the collectors and tabs current carrying ability and the ions are just wiggling back and forth saying “wtf? Make up your mind. Charge or discharge not both”. Lol. So not really going to show you the performance of the battery under a sustained high drain.
What do you think about Lii 600, Opus 3100 or Xtar VP only for Nimh charge ? 🤔 Mainly some Eneloops/Ladda
There's also the XTAR VC4SL aka VC4 Plus. Pretty cheap, but I don't know how good they actually are...
I bought a Lii-600 from their officiel store, chanel 4 always detect that a batery is plugged-in even if no batery is instaled at all, if you can help me what electronic composant to change because shipping back will cost me the same price as the tool it self and it will took lot of time, :(
Any way as you said the IR display is faked for sur !!!!, because now even with no batery plugged-in, it still show the IR and show cinematic like the batery is charging or discharging lol
Do you know the seller wont send you another one without the defective one back?
When I first got Lii-600 cell testers, I thought build quality was better than the Lii-500S, but still not great. I now have 8 of them. I have 2 that are testing cells and presenting capacity results that are much too high. I test those same 4 cells in another Lii-600 or a VP4+ and they test to capacities that I expect. 2 of my 8 Lii-600 chargers are now not very useful for capacity testing. The exact same thing happened to my Lii-500S. It started measuring capacities much too high! I've been telling people the Lii-600 is worth getting, but I have 2 that charge, but are useless for why I bought them! When are the other 6 going to start flaking out!? In between time, my 2 XTAR VP4+ chargers are about 1.5 years old, seen near continuous use the entire time and working perfectly!
***
If you can't get the seller to send you another one without returning the one you have, open a dispute about it. That will probably get you a partial refund. If that doesn't work to your satisfaction, whatever payment method you used, open a dispute with them for a full refund. Hopefully it's not paypal...they don't give a shit about their customers any more!!! Get your bank or credit card company to get you a refund.
***
Finally, are you in the USA? If you'd like, you could send it to me. I'm not going to tell you how to fix it. That's pretty complicated and there are specialized test tools you probably don't have. I'll take it apart and at least tell you if its worth the trouble. If it's not, all you are out is shipping to me. There's only a few things that I'll consider worth repairing. These chargers are intended to be throw away.
@@de-bodgery Thank you so much for your answer. sorry, Iam very far from the USA ... i opened a dispute agains the seller hopefully they refund some thing.
I tested the tool this evening and you are 100% right .... every thing this tool show in the screen is FAKE, even voltage is fake, it update about every 10 seconds and the value is up to 7% diferent than the reality, and as you said the IR is only estimated not true at all.... i think i will order a vp4+ or biger tool, any way after the semi conductors crisis in Taiwan all electronic tools build after 2019 are pur garbage. this year i saw brand new tools that arrive from the factory with defective FTDIs and defective Mosfets...
@@technomax409 Yeah...I wondered about the chip shortages and what that might do to electronics as a whole. Seems that companies are using their seconds as parts for their products since they can't get the parts they can trust.
***
This is far from a new problem! 1988 or so, there was a chip shortage then too. A bunch of flooding happened from a hurricane in the Asian countries that make IC's. The manufacturers spent a lot of time cleaning up afterwards since all their factories were flooded. It created a massive shortage of all kinds of IC's. RAM prices went crazy for about a year! Many companies made promises to build factories in the US and Europe so this would never happen again. As you can see...that never happened! And here we are again, just for a different reason. It's stupid, but there it is!
***
I intended to buy 4 more Lii-600's about 2 months ago. They were unavailable everywhere I checked in the USA. I found them on aliexpress out of china. So far they are working OK...fingers crossed!
@De-bodgery They will never factory ICs in the USA and Europe. maybe they can make high tech RAMs and Processors, but cheap semi conductors never !!! Hourly weidge in USA is high and polution laws are very scrict, and as you know IC's business is one the dirtiest busniess in the world, they always need to hid it some where where they can dismiss their polution and pay their workers cheaply.
@@technomax409 Yes...this is true.
If you look at the vents on the side, you can see the logo "XSL" patterned in the holes... I don't believe Liitokala makes these (OEM'd out to XSL per-chance?), the old Engineer Lii-500 is clearly a different construction, and for my money it works better.... off to see if you have a teardown of the old Lii-500 too.
I saw those letters and didn't think anything of them. Once you see my Lii-500 teardown video, there's not a lot about the Lii-600 cell testers that are much of an improvement over the Lii-500S. It's better, but just a little. Based on the construction, I'd say both cell testers were made by the same company.
***
The Lii-500 user interface is clunkier. Pull out the cells and drop in new ones and you have to do 100% of the setup all over again. The Lii-600 isn't as good as an XTAR VP4+ in this regard, but it's loads better than the Lii-500. Also the Lii-600 can charge faster than the Lii-500. The Ir test results are very inaccurate so that's not of any value. Personally, I'd choose the Lii-600 over the Lii-500 and I'd pick the XTAR VP4+ over the Lii-600. It's the best cell tester out there right now.
***
The VP4+ can't charge as fast as the Lii-600. It does have much better build quality. Component quality is much better and beefier. It accurately measures cell Ir. Set it to do some task and it stays on that exact setting forever until you change it. Cell after cell after cell...no reprogramming! I have 3 of them now and I own an OPUS, 2 Litto Kalas, skyRC MC-3000 and a megacell charger. The best build, best components, best accuracy, best measuring consistency with the most features that matter...at least for now is the XTAR VP4+!!!
@@de-bodgery This thing looks similar to the vapcell s4+ and the only difference is the logo and the main lcd and the software. I can bet they made by some chinese oem factory and so I doubt to get the Vapcell even its currently on sale with a big discount. vapcell makes good cells but never heard on their charger before. If you can get one of those s4+ then pls. make a video and analyze its circuitry just to confirm my thoughts.
@@ibringthelastwords1358 Buy a VP4+...can't go wrong! This is the best price I have found for them.
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B099KBXSYC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
love to see a VP s4+ teardown
What is a VP S4+. I googled for this and found nothing.
@@de-bodgery VP S4+ probably is the Vapcell S4 Plus. A charger with 3 ampere charging power at each of it's four slots. Published in 2018. Since 2020 version 2.0 is available. The older version has been reviewed at "lygte info dk" (review in English). At first I thought the LiitoKala Lii-600 is largely identical, just with a better display and other keys. But maybe there are differences in quality? A teardown of the Vapcell S4 Plus would be really interesting!
Greetings from Germany. 😉
@@BorrisOrloff Hello from the USA!
Considering it costs $40 USD, I'm going to guess it's not remotely as good as the XTAR VP4+ or even the Lii-600. I can tell you the Ir measurements it will make is totally useless. This is true for all cell testers that try to use the spring loaded battery holder for Ir testing. This is a BAD idea for a multitude of reasons of which the biggest one is you need a 4 wire tester to measure cell Ir. The XTAR VP4+ does Ir testing correctly and as a result gets real Ir measurements. No other cell tester I've ever seen does reliable Ir testing! The Lii-600 costs about $60 and it's distant second place to the VP4+. The VP4+ costs what it does for very good reasons and as a result gives good cell capacity results and reliable IR results. You do get what you pay for! A $40 cell tester needs to have significant measures taken to get to that price point and that always means corners cut, poor design choices, lower quality parts, etc. I'm highly skeptical that the S4+ is worth bothering with! That $40 price point says it all! I'm fairly certain the S4+ is pretty awful and not worth the time. Probably similar is quality to the MiBoxer C4-12 that I took apart and then immediately sent back for a refund!
***
3 amps per cell charge current isn't really that useful for anything other than charging high capacity cells that support the current. Everything else, you are damaging them by charging them too quickly. Frankly 2 amps charge current is a much better maximum and something that you can use on just about anything. I'd like to do actual current measurements. I bet the S4+ charges at 3 amps maybe 1-5% of the charge time and all the rest it's charging much slower. I've seen this on a lot of cheaper chargers. Sure they might occasionally do the epic thing they are advertised as doing, but it's rare and most people will never check. If you want a charger, just buy whatever is cheap and does 2 amps. IF you want a cell tester, buy at least the lii-600 and if you want something that does a good job at everything, the VP4+ can't be beat that I have seen!
***
Something I am interested in and just found is the Epoch X4 Touch. It's in the same price range as the SkyRC mc3000 ($100)...which proved to be full of cool specs, good electronics and good functionality. Problem was the software and firmware suck, the LCD and button interface is unusable and you are stuck using blue tooth and your phone app that doesn't work reliably. Maybe Epoch didn't screw up like SkyRC did? I'd consider buying an X4 to tear down in the near future!
www.amazon.com/Epoch-X4-Touch-Lithium-Battery/dp/B09NTM76TJ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=U9HQB108D6MW&keywords=Epoch+X4+Touch&qid=1671597755&sprefix=epoch+x4+touch%2Caps%2C323&sr=8-1&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.006c50ae-5d4c-4777-9bc0-4513d670b6bc
The biggest delineation I see between the X4 and the VP4+ is the LCD. If there is one thing that I wish XTAR would have done better it's the LCD and what it displays. I'm not sure the X4 touch is worth another $25 just for a pretty LCD touch screen. The VP4+ and the X4 appear to have identical specs and features. Maybe inside the case, the electronics are as good as the MC3000?
@@de-bodgery Hey, thank you for you video and comments. Did you have a chance to test ISDT C4 EVO? Looks like a cool toy but maybe it's cool inside too?
@@krakadzil ISDT products are usually pretty good. This one is OK. It's pretty limited in functionality due to its layout. I have no idea why they built it this way! They also screwed up on the N8. Cool idea and it supports all the cell chemistries, but then the bays fit AA and AAA only...WTF?! All they had to do was make it bigger so any cell size would fit and they chose to go with a compact form factor that isn't usable for the sorts of cells you'd buy these devices for! Great idea, poor execution.
One of my outer slots have been starting to show high capacitance values compared to same cell in another slot. Seems it has become worse after some 100 tests maybe. Was wondering if there is something that might age?
I've had 3 of them do that. People want something cheap and then expect it to be good and reliable. Why I tell people to get the VC4+. IMHO, it's still not awesome, but it's loads better build quality than the li-600!
@@de-bodgery I have another Xtar VC4SL just for storage mode but now I am trying an BT-C3100. One thing I directly liked is that there is no annoying beeping :)
@@gamingSlasher I don't mind beeping if I get good functionality.
Someone knows the maximum temperarure until sensor STOP charge to protect ???
I have a battery with 61° C and it does not STOP the charge, it is very hot. O.O"
It's a Liito Kala product and they are not very good. This isn't surprising that it won't stop charging. Seems your cell has an internal short and was probably dead flat when you attempted to charge it. I'd take it off the charger and test it with a volt meter. It's probably going to show a few millivolts at most. That cell won't take a charge no matter what you do.
I have bought this charger from aliexpress for 10 days.
I found a technical problem.
When measuring the internal resistance of the batteries it shows the maximum 116 mΩ.
So measuring the internal resistance with another instrument shows a larger number, for example 150 mΩ.
So there is a technical problem and it counts wrong.
The funny thing is that the seller does what he does not understand.
Probably not as they present him.
I did a video on several cell testers and the results they produced. I showed my test results from 16 cells that got tested by all 4 cell testers presented. The Lii-600 is completely useless for getting reliable cell Ir. I would NOT trust any Liito Kala charger to be reliable and for cell resistance...definitely NOT. The XTAR VP4+ uses 4 wire testing for Ir...like a real Ir tester does! All the rest test Ir through the battery charging terminals and that proves to be highly unreliable.
ua-cam.com/video/e75Rhctddck/v-deo.html
***
Gotta LOVE Chinese sellers! They will play stupid just to get out of taking care of issues! I've run into this many times myself. I've had a couple of Chinese friends explain it to me, but it's not any less annoying to me. They believe they are being polite and non-confrontational. I prefer straight answers and no bullshit!
@@de-bodgery And they always greet you with "Dear" 😂
@@ibringthelastwords1358
Or "dearest friend" or something else that is MUCH too intimate for the fact that they know you not even slightly! It is sort of weird.
@@de-bodgery You said it perfectly.
AFTER SEIL SERVICE does not exist.
They try to drive you crazy with the answers.
Thank you very much, you helped me a lot
I have the 500S. Can I install the 220 uF x 16 V capacitors that the 600 has in it?
great video, seems like the Li-600 is not the best 21700 charger for me, might not be a good idea to run it at those advertised 4x3 Amps ;o]
would be nice to see a teardown of Lii-S8 if it's equally bad
Think in terms of the price. 8 cell charger (Lii-S8)for the price of a shitty 4 cell charger (lii-600). I'll predict based on the price that the S8 is an even worse steaming turd than the 600! Just buy a VP4+...yes they cost more, but its for good reasons.
hi if i dont discharge a lot, is this liitokala good ? ty
If all you care about is charging, jsut buy whatever is cheap.
hello sir. not a techie guy, need a plug and play type that can determine the voltage and charge it accordingly. mains are a plus. confused between nitecore i4/D4, liitokala engineer lii-500, xtar VC4/X4. Any suggestion which is better among them for you. thank you sir.
Lii-500 is junk. Nitecore doesn't do cell testing and I'm not sure about the XTAR models you mentioned. If price isn't a problem the best thing out there right now is the XTAR VP4+. For a little less cost and loss of cell resistance testing, the Lii-600 is pretty good. For cell capacity testing, I have both the Lii-600 and the VP4+.
You cant get wrong with the nitecore and xtar but Stay away on liitoshit 👎 I have my lii-s4 and just malfunctioning after several months of light usage. they even near destroying one of my eneloop cells by leaving it uncharge while the other is fully charge but when i measure them they are not.
@@ibringthelastwords1358
Nitecore doesn't make a cell tester that I know of. They only charge. I don't care a lot about charge capacity by itself. Without knowing the discharge capacity, charge capacity is pretty meaningless. If you know of a Nitecore charger that does a proper charge/discharge/charge test on cells, please post the model. When I say "cell tester" I mean a device like the VP4+ which does a proper charge/discharge/charge test. The Lii-600 does this despite being a steaming turd.
opus BT-3100 is still a king - discharges at 1A - when talking about cost-benefit
Problem with discharging at 1 amp is that you are not testing like the manufacturers test for capacity. For that you need .5 amps. I had a BT-3100. It's fine for 18650's, but like right now I'm testing 900 new 21700's and the BT-3100 can only hold 2 of them. I gave it to a friend in favor of cell testers where all 4 bays can hold 21700 cells. I never used it, but the micro switch under the bottom cover for testing LIFE cells could be useful. Most cell testers don't do LIFE at all. I now have 3 of the Lii-600 cell testers. IMHO, since it can test 4 21700 cells at the same time, it's a better option for me than is the BT-3100.
@@de-bodgery yes. You’re right !!
Very similar to Vapcell S4+
Helo,
How to reset this charger memory? I have one slot locked and when empty it shows charging.
Sounds broken to me...not that liitokala chargers are avery good...so this isn't all that surprisng
@@de-bodgery I am trying to replace it with another one. Resetting the memory by quickly pulling out the power cord does not work. This is what the manufacturer suggested to me. Thank you for your reply.
@@TomWasilewski Resetting is just removing power. These chargers store no settings. Sounds like something stopped working in that channel of the charger. Get an XTAR VP4+...MUCH BETTER charger!
Yeah, but the Xtar VP4+ can cost more than *_twice_* as much and might be good enough for people who aren't pro-level knowledgeable about batteries and just wanna sus out the bad ones from a handful of harvested cells.
Xtar might be better but cmon, it costs 3x more than lii-500, and one thing it does better that you can notice is accuracy in measuring internal resistance. Is it worth paying 3x more? I would say no.
Lii 600 also is not worth it.
This is too much money to charge few half dead laptop cells that are almost trash.
For that money i would rather buy new cells and not care about their condition cuz they are new.
You are entitled to your opinion and good luck with those highly unreliable and cheap cell testers! I don't trust the Lii-500 as far as I can throw it! For your use case where you are just charging crap cells, don't bother with a good cell tester. IF you are testing 100's and 1000's of cells like I do, then don't waste a nickel on the lii-500 and get the XTAR VP4+. I don't trust new cells to be anything until I test them myself. Your assumption that "new cells are all some how equal" is false. I know this as fact as NOT being true! See this video:
ua-cam.com/video/tO3wJVmtkzM/v-deo.html
@@de-bodgery dont get me wrong. If you are testing 1000 cells then good charger is way to go for sure. It will pay off. For me i guess not.
@@bobikbobikowy5458 yup buy cheapest possible if all you want is charging. I wouldn't even bother with getting a lii-500 if all I'm doing is charging.
@@de-bodgery today i bought lii-500 for 13$ with some discount coupons. Cant go wrong in that price.
which is better? lii 600 or vp4+?
Which is better? Depends on what your uses are. If I had to pick just one, it would be the VP4+. My suggestion is to get a VP4+ so you can test cell Ir accurately. Then if you need more cell capacity testing, get Lii-600's so you can test lots more than 4 cells at a time. This is what I did. I have 3 Lii-600's for capacity testing and a VP4+ for capacity testing and Ir testing.
***
Build quality and electronics design are lots better in the VP4+ than the Lii-600. The VP4+ is pretty accurate at measuring cell Ir. No other cell tester that claims it tests Ir is worth crap. They are all wildly wrong (usually 2-3X OVER actual cell Ir) except for the VP4+. If all you need is fairly inexpensive and reliable cell capacity testing, then the Lii-600 is $20 cheaper and does this job well. The Lii-600 also has a repair function that will try to recover flat or very low cells. The VP4+ does not have a feature like this.
Lii 600 : repair mode = refresh mode, you have also that on thé Xtar VP4+ ( Refresh mode, just see that on their official website )
@@Science-sans-conscience The VP4+ will not attempt to recover dead flat cells and the Lii-600 will. This is "repair mode". Refresh is basically discharge and charge to "wake up" the chemistry of lithium cells. The VP4+ and the Lii-600 both do this. The VP4+ is limited to charging at a maximum of 2 amps. The Lii-600 can charge at 3 amps. I don't care about this very much as I buy cell testers for capacity and IR testing and then periodically use them for charging only. VP4+ is the best at these tasks for all cell testers I have seen and tried! The Lii-600 Ir tests can't be trusted, but it does do capacity testing well. What I have done is bought 2 VP4+ cell testers so I can check Ir and cpacity. I bought many more Lii-600 cell testers for capacity testing. They are $20-25 cheaper and do this one job pretty well. I have 4 more Lii-600's coming as I have a something like 900 21700 cells I need to test and it takes a long time to test them.
***
If I were to buy just one cell tester, it would be the VP4+...no doubt about it!
if you are just a casual user then dont buy any littshit! pick some xtar or nitecore charger that you can count for at least a year or so. If you are a geek then go find some opus or put some extra money for the vp4+.
It's a 500s... except for this long list of changes lol... it seems like a good product for a good price, half price of the xtar.. Why shit on it? Not everyone needs a super premium charger
Because it's about half as good as a VP4+ and it's not half the price, just $10 less
доброго всем можно ли перенести силовае транзистеры на обратную сторону платы ???
Sure...that could be done.
@@de-bodgery Thank you
Teardown
Any comments on my test below?
Interesting results and comparisons. Thanks for taking time to report.
Some questions/thoughts for future reports:
1) How did the measured mAh values compare to the mAh claimed on the cell labels?
2) Test some low mAh cells (like 16340 with 700mAh max). Legitimate industry testing tests mAh at 0.2C constant current. Do the chargers allow setting at anything close to 0.2C (e.g. 700mAh * 0.2 ~ 140mA) for the lower mAh cells or do they force using a higher current, for example 500mA? (of course, some sellers and cell labels claim wildly impossible mAh capacity like rechargeable 18650 cell has 5000mAh or a rechargeable 14500 cell has 1500mAh, etc)
3) Do the thermal sensors in the unit(s) report accurate cell temperatures if you are testing bare metal cells (e.g. labels removed)? I know that hand-held non-contact IR 'guns' are usually very inaccurate measuring temperature of shiny surfaces. If I'm going to be testing a lot of salvaged bare cells this would be nice to know.
4) Would be nice to have confirmed when the chargers accept button-top 21700 cells, and if they do whether or not the cells can be *easily* inserted and removed. I've run into chargers where I've had to use a plastic "spudger" (or a rugged guitar pick) to remove the longer cells when done testing.
Good review but sadly I had to give up watching due to the poor audio quality and background noise. Please consider a better microphone solution / recording set up.
You hear other equipment in the back ground. OF COURSE there is noise! It's incredibly SAD that your tolerance of things you find inconvenient is so low! While you are being critical of my video, lets look at what you've done. Oh look, one video in almost a year and that done on your phone with lousy sound quality! Meanwhile, I've lost count of how many videos in the past year I have made...lots more than one!
Oh yeah...one important detail: 6558 views of this video and only one complaint about the sound and video. Might want to go check your tolerance levels.
Better to stay away to liitoshit 👎i bought their lii-s4 before and its malfunctioning after just a couple of light usage in less than 6 months. I am just a casual user who needs to charge some eneloops and recharging them once or twice a month. Total waste of money 👎👎👎👎👎
You don't know what you are talking and have a clue about power electronics. Put 500s board together and put your glasses then you can see the more differences than caps.
So...are you an electrical engineer and went to school for an EE degree? Your not...hmmm...got to wonder then who is the one that doesn't know what they are talking about?
@@de-bodgery I am not old. This TO-220 mosfets for dummy load circuit so for discharging. Nothing to do with charging. You say 3 Ampere at 3:42. So, I think you mean 3 Ampere charging but I say again this mosfets are for discharging. This soic-8 package mosfets are charging they are synchronus buck converter to charge cells from 12V input voltage. Google dummy load, synchronus buck and educate yourself.