Charger Fenix ARE-X1





Fenix makes flashlights, but also has chargers and batteries. This is a very simple charger and power bank for 26650/18650 cells.



The charger comes in a blister pack. The specifications on the back of the pack are not very good, everything about the power bank is close to misleading (The purpose of a power back is not to discharge cells and it do not deliver 4.2 volt).



The pack contained the charger, a usb cable and a instruction sheet.



The micro usb power input connector and the usb power output connector.



The led is the only user interface on the charger.
The led is red while charging and green when finished.
While usb output is loaded it will flash red.



The plus connection is slightly raised, this makes it possible to use the charger with flat top batteries. The minus connection is a spring, this limits the battery length to between 65mm and 71mm, this means just about all 18650 and 26650 batteries. Some other sizes can be charged with a spacer.





The charger can handle 71 mm long batteries including flat top cells.



Measurements on charger

• Batteries will be discharged with 0.06mA when power is off.
• Batteries will be charged with 0.2mA when power is on.
• Below 0.5 volt the charger will charge with about 4mA.
• Below 2.9 volt the charger will charge with 300mA.
• Above 2.9 volt charging will be with full current.
• Charge current is never fully turned off and will keep the battery voltage high.

The charger curve is CC/CV, but something is wrong with the termination. The charger do not turn the current completely off, but trickle chargers. This is not recommended with LiIon.
It looks like the charger uses a switching converter, but it only do any good at the start of the charge.



Because the charger begins reducing current at a fairly low voltage, this cell is in the "CV" phase during the full charge, making it slower.



No problems with this cell.



Again the early "CV" phase and a long charge time.



M1: 36,6°C, M2: 36,1°C, HS1: 52,0°C
The cell and charger are fairly cool, but the regulator in the charger is heated.



The charger needs about 1 second to start up.




Usb output/Power bank

• Output is 5 volt, not 4.2 volt as the specifications says.
• Usb output is coded as usb charger (DCP)
• Usb output turns off after 5 second with a load below 56mA

The output voltage is 5 volt and it can deliver about 1.1A, before it starts to drop.



Using it as a ups do not look good, the output voltage is too low for that.



Nice stable output voltage at 0.5A load.



At 1A load it do not look very good, it can maintain stable output for 15 minutes, before the voltage starts dropping.



The noise is 9mV rms and 105mVpp, this is very good.



At 1A as long as the output voltage is stable the noise is 14mV rms and 108mVpp, again very good.



Conclusion

The charger works, but is not that good. It is a good idea to remove batteries when it shows done.
The usb output works fine at 0.5A, but is not strong enough for 1A.

The charger is acceptable.



Notes

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