The Miboxer C4 smart charger is the first smart charger I have owned and so far I like it. Unlike my other non-smart chargers, this one recognizes what battery you put in it and will perform a charge on it for that type and size of battery inserted.
In the box, you receive the C4 charger, an AAA slot conversion tray, the AC adapter plug, and instructions. This charger does have a port on it for a DC 12v car charger power cord, but this power cord is not supplied and is not in the box.
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| Front of the box |
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| Back of the box |
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| Side of the box |
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| Content of the box |
The instructions are in both English and Chinese and do cover all aspects of using this charger. The English instructions are on one side of the page and so small they are almost not readable and need to be bigger. The other side of the page has the instructions in Chinese. Do yourself a favor and download the PDF version so you can enlarge them from here: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiwto6k8pLRAhXs7IMKHTQfBPcQFggaMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.miboxer.com%2Feng%2Fdown.html%3Ffilepath%3D1&usg=AFQjCNFrL9GnGYTrSm3UKVYY0Vbb3B_yCA&sig2=xm08p_MqJqSbSkMlXyGlnQ
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| Instructions in English |
The info Miboxer wants you to know:
- - Charging load max for each slot is 800mAh
- - Each slot charge independently and can charge different kinds of batteries at the same time
- - Compatible with Li-on (4.2v/4.35v), LIFPO4 (3.6v) batteries
o Battery Specification:
§ 10340/10350/10440/10500/12340/12500/12650/13450/13500
§ 13650/14350/14430/14500/14650/16500/16340(RCR123)
§ 16650/17350/17500/17650/17670/18350/18490/18500/18650
§ 18700/20700/21700/22500/22650/25500/26500/26650
- - Compatible with Ni-MH / Ni-Cd(1.48v)
o Battery Specification:
§ AA / AAA / AAAA / C
- - Compatible with DC(12v) car charging as well as AC 86-265v Input
- - Can charge Li-ion and LifePO4 @ 800mAh in all four slots or NiMH and NiCd at 300 mAh on hi or 150 mAh on low
- - Can fix, repair or recharge tripped lithium batteries and slow charge depleted cells back to health, if not it will display ‘Err”
- - Slot 4 (only) can be used for capacity and resistance measurements
- - 3 year warranty
When you plug this charger in and once the batteries are inserted, the charger will decide the default charge settings for each battery and start the charging using the default mAh unless you manually change them by pushing the mode button. You must do this for each slot if you desire. You can change the default of 800 or 300 mAh to 400 or 150 mAh. Batteries that are less than1000 mAh, should be charged on the lower rate. The display only shows the data for one slot at a time and you must push the slot button to switch between the different slots in order to see the info for each battery. To test this I used an AAA (800mAh), AA (2100mAh), 18650 (3000mAh) and a 26650 (5000mAh) batteries.
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| Four different batteries charging for testing |
As you can see (above), slot C1 defaulted as 150 mAh because it is under 1000 mAh in size. This did go up later to 600mAh as it got closer to being finished (see below). The display shows you the current voltage, the selected charging mAh, the charging time or battery capacity (rotates between the two), the battery type, charging mode and the charging current (high or low).
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| Slot one at 600 mAh before finished |
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| Slot two at 300 mAh charging |
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| Slot three at 800 mAh charging |
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| Slot four at 800 mAh charging |
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| Slot two shows battery is FULL |
To test the battery capacity measurement that you can do in slot 4 only, I chose the 18650 (3000mAh) battery that was almost full. To get to this function takes a few steps. Put battery in charging slot 4, press the “Mode” button till the battery capacity reading is all zeros and blinking in the display screen, press and hold the “Mode” button to choose on /off for the capacity measurement function. The three little boxes with up and down arrows display on the right side of slot 4 when in this mode. They disappear when this function is turned off. The charger will charge the battery first using the default mAh. Once fully charged, it will drain the battery using a constant drain mAh that you can select. If you select High it will drain at 400 mAh and if you select Low, it will drain at 200 mAh. I selected the Low at 200 mAh. Once totally drained, the charger will recharge the battery to full again. To go threw all three steps, this overall process took a very long time and completed in 6.5 hours and that was with an almost full battery to start with. Add another hour on a drained battery.
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| Battery in the capacity measurement mode |
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| Up/down arrows right of the slot 4 indicated battery capacity measurement is turned on |
All my batteries are fairly new and I couldn’t test this, but there is another function the C4 charger has is an activation function for over discharged Lithium batteries. When placed in charging slot C4, it will auto detect the battery & active it. If the battery is unable to be activated, the charger will decide the battery is damaged and the charging slot will display "Err" and stop charging. It will also display “Err” if you insert the batteries the wrong way and reverse the polarity or there is some kind of a short circuit and it will not start the charging process.
The good:
- - Each slot works independently of each other
- - Charger knows what battery types are inserted and charges accordingly
- -You can manually override and change the charging mAh or the discharging mAh
- - You can charge different types and sizes of batteries at one time
- - You can fix, repair Lithium batteries
- - Display is nice, big and easy to read with large characters
- - Charger is well made and can charge multiple types and size batteries at one time
- - Instructions are easy to read and cover all the functions of this charger
- - For the price, you get some functions other chargers don’t have that cost more
The bad:
- - The display is big enough that it could display more info if they have it
- - DC car adapter power cord is not supplied and in the box
- - Need more slots, 4 is nice but nowadays, everything needs batteries and I need to charge more batteries at one time
- - Change the mAh and increase the power and amps for both chargings and discharging to speed things up, these big batteries take a lot of juice but I need them charged fast
- - Instructions need to be on multiple pages and the font size a lot bigger
Overall, this is a very nice smart charger that is just a little underpowered and undersized. It works ok as is and will do what you need it too, but it does take time and is a little slow for me. I currently have eight drones and each transmitter take 4-6 AA batteries, so I need them charged and ready to go fast if I didn’t plan ahead and charge batteries the day and night before. If you have time and only need to charge a few batteries at a time and can let batteries charge overnight or during the day, then this will work well for you. It’s a nice little smart charger that once they add a few more things too, will be a great charger. A really good start for Miboxer on their first smart charger to hit the market.
DISCLAIMER: This was offered at a discounted rate in exchange for an honest review. I rely on reviews from the community when making purchases, so I believe in giving honest and unbiased reviews to help others. I am not obligated to leave positive feedback and receive no compensation for doing so. I am not associated with the seller in any way.
My Rating: 5 Stars
Found on Miboxer at: http://www.miboxer.com/eng/p1.html
All the pictures I took in one small video:
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