HuanGao Universal Dual Channel AC Charger HG-1206W

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This is a cheap charger from Fasttech (sku:1192300), it is supposed to charger both LiIon and NiMH batteries, but when I put a NiMH in the charger the led flashed red.

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I got the charger in an envelope, there was no instruction sheet or any accessories with it.

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The charger is with a foldable US plug.

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But also support 230VAC.

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There is a single red/green led on the charger. The led is red while charging and green at any other times.

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The charger uses sliders in metal rails and they work fairly well. It can handle batteries from 30mm to 69mm in length.

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The charger can handle 69 mm long batteries including flat top cells.



Measurements charger

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The charger uses a CC charging (Constant current), there is no CV (Constant voltage) phase. This means there will be a significant voltage drop when the charger terminates, as can be seen here the voltage drop is enough to restart charging.
To get a full charge on the battery the charger uses a rather high termination voltage.
The charging speed is a bit slow.

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Second channel is the same.

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Using a cell with less capacity will make the charge faster.

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And a larger cell means longer charge time.

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Using an older cell means termination problems due to higher internal resistance. The charger is jumping in and out of charge mode at a fast pace.

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This cell has the same problem, but at a slower rate.

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And here the charger terminated fine, but will probably restart again soon.

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Charging two cells will halve the charge current, this means it need more than 15 hours to charge two 3100mAh cells.

Temp2211

M1: 33,5°C, M2: 33,0°C, M3: 46,6°C, M4: 42,8°C, HS1: 79,8°C
Somewhere in the charger there is a hot electronic part, but the cells stay cool.

Startup

The charger starts immediately, but it takes a few second to stabilize the current.

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It is the same with two cell, except the current is lower (I have changed the current scale).

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This curve shows the charge current, depending on battery voltage, I started at a low voltage and slowly increased the voltage.
There is not any termination in the 1.5 to 2.0 volt range, where I would have expected a NiMH voltage termination.
It looks like the charger will charge NiMH, but without any termination.


The charger passed an isolation test with 2500 volt, but failed a 5000 volt test, this makes the charger acceptable for 120VAC usage, but doubtful for 230VAC usage.


Conclusion

The charger works and can be use with 120VAC for LiIon, but I do not like the over voltage or the missing CV phase. There is also the doubtful NiMH charging, due to the led flashing red every time I tried, I did not do any test curves.

Basically you get what you pay for: A cheap, not very good charger, but it can be used for LiIon in an emergency.



Notes

Here is an explanation on how I did the above charge curves: How do I test a charger