Charger FT2000





I got this analyzing charger from DX, it has more modes than the typically analyzing charger.




I got the charger in a retail box.



The box contained the charger, a power supply and a instruction manual.



The charger uses a external 12V power supply.



The user interface is a display and 7 buttons.
The buttons numbered 1 to 4 must always be used to select a slot with, before parameters for that slot can be changed. It is possible to select a slot and change mode when it is working.
Mode is used to change between the different modes.
Display is used to change parameter to display, it can also be used to change between adjustable parameters.
Current changes charge current or charge time for timed charge.

With one or two batteries the charger current can be 200, 500, 700, 1000, 1500mA, with more batteries the 1500ma current is disabled.
Discharge currents are: 100, 250, 350 and 500mA




The charger uses the usual two level slots for AA/AAA cells and it looks like it has a temperature sensor for each battery.






Measurements

• The background light stays on for about 15 seconds after last keypress
• It will discharge batteries with about 0.7mA when not powered.
• It will charge a battery when it has at least 0.8 volt, below that voltage is will show "Err".
• Any battery above 1.40 volt will be reported as full, but can still be charged.
• The voltage display is within 0.03 volt. It will always measure voltage with current off.
• Charge will restart charging after power loss or battery insertion.
• Default charge current is 0.5A (500mA) and charger will reset to that after a power loss or battery removal.

Charge mode

This is the default mode and the default current is 500mA.
It is possible to select between 200, 500, 700, 1000, 1500mA, if 1500mA is select the charger will only charge two batteries.



The lowest charge current the charger can deliver, it looks like it terminates on voltage.
The display shows 2620mAh in 13:36, this is a very optimistic value.



The same with the 0.5A charge current.
The display shows 2446mAh in 4:53, this is a very optimistic value.



Maximum charge current.






All the above looks like voltage termination, but the cells are about full. The current is not the rated 1A, but only 0.8A.
Display says 2732mAh, 2648mAh, 2741mAh, 2685mAh again very optimistic values for 2000mAh cells.



It looks like the temperature may just have started to increase, i.e. a good termination.
Display says 3591mAh in 3.35



Here the temperature is increasing.
Display says 2447mAh in 2:26



Display says 3453mAh in 3:27



Display says 782mAh in 1:33



Fairly fast detection of a full cell.



With 4 cells something went wrong, it did not fill any of the cells, but they got a lot of heat.
Display says 1587mAh, 1783mAh, 2014mAh, 1395mAh



Using my 12V power supply the charge looks much more realistic.
I.e. the supplied 2A power supply may be faulty/weak (I did not use any time on analyzing it).



M1: 40,6°C, M2: 47,3°C, M3: 50,2°C, M4: 44,0°C, M5: 67,3°C, M6: 51,6°C, M7: 50,3°C, M8: 59,9°C, HS1: 74,5°C
Also on the IR photo the warm batteries are obvious and it can be seen that the charger gets rather warm.



The charger uses between two and 3 seconds to start.



It looks like it start with a higher charger current, probably to analyze for alkaline batteries, then it switches to regular charging.



The current is regulated with a "fast" pwm (50hz)





This is maximum charge current.



Discharge mode

Default current is 350mA, it is possible to select between 100, 250, 350 and 500mA.



The discharge looks nice.
Display shows 1989mAh in 23:47, this looks to be about correct.



Maximum discharge current.



Using all 4 channels will make some heat.
Display shows 1673mAh, 1732mAh, 1745mAh, 1699mAh (The cell where charged on the FT2000)



M1: 32,2°C, M2: 37,4°C, M3: 37,4°C, M4: 32,3°C, M5: 47,8°C, M6: 30,2°C, HS1: 61,1°C
Discharge do not heat the batteries as much as charging.



The charger uses pwm to discharge the batteries.


Charge refresh mode

Discharge batteries, followed by a charge. The charge current is selected, the charge will automatic select discharge current (Half charge current, but limited to 500mA).



The display shows 2742mAh in 2:44. this must be the charge cycle.


Charge test

Charge, discharge and charge again. The charge current is selected, the charge will automatic select discharge current (Half charge current, but limited to 500mA).



Display shows 1682mAh in 2:38, this must be the discharge cycle.


Timer charge mode

Timed charge, the -dv/dt detection is still active and will terminate if the battery is full before the time is gone. Time can be adjusted from 1 hour to 19 hour using the current button. Then pressing the display button will make it possible to adjust current with the current button.



Here I used a 10 hour setting and the charger terminated way before that time, i.e. the battery full termination is still active.



Using a 1 hour setting, the charge terminated after 1 hour, without filling the battery (as expected).



Repair mode

The repair mode will do a slow charge, a slow discharge and a fast charge to try restoring a battery. It is not possible to select currents.





It can take a lot of time, 2100 minutes is 35 hours.



Internal resistance

The charger do not have an internal resistance mode, but will continuous measure it. Selecting it on the display settings will show it.



It is not perfect, but can be used for an estimate.



Testing with 2500 volt and 5000 volt between mains and low volt side, did not show any safety problems.



Conclusion

The charger looks very interesting and has more functions than most analyzers, but the precision is not very good.
The one I got did have a problem with the 3 button, pressing very hard on it a couple of times returned it to service.

It looks like the capacity measurement is most precise when discharging.

As it works now I cannot recommend it. It can be used, but the precision is way to bad for a analyzing charger.



Notes

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