Seeking AA charger recommendations

I'm currently using two LiitoKala Lii-S8 chargers, and I'm not particularly happy with them. They're overly bulky, being capable of charging anything from AAA to 26700, and while they're capable of charging cells at 2A current, this only applies to four out of eight slots, and then only for Li-ion cells, not for Ni-Cd, which are limited to 0.5A regardless of slot. I've got two Retra Pro strobes with superchargers, so that's sixteen AA cells between them, plus an Inon torch that uses another three AAs, so I carry forty Eneloop Pros in my photo bag, plus an assortment of 18650, 21700 and 26700 cells for various torches. 

Therefore, I'm looking for two eight-bay or a single sixteen-bay charger that is as compact as possible, only charges AA/AAA Ni-Cd cells (no need for Li-ion compatibility to bulk things up), but can supply 2A to all cells simultaneously. Don't really need testing/reconditioning functionality, as I will still be packing a 4-cell LiitoKala Engineer charger that does all that. Powering by USB-C would be a plus, as I already carry a multi-outlet 100W USB-C power supply, but again, not critical. 

Google doesn't turn up anything immediately obvious. Does such a device exist, or am I looking for a unicorn? 

I'm in pretty much the same situation as you with the Retras + Superchargers and the Inon torch.

I thought about a 1 or 2  8xAA chargers but came to the conclusion, based on a  recent liveaboard trip around Saba, that it was overkill and having 2x 4xAA units worked fine. Charging is normally around 3-4 hours after 2 dives and having 32 charged batteries for the Retra (plus 6 for the torch) worked out ok. 

 I have the EBL USB-driven AA chargers which are compact, easy for traveling, and run off a USB charger which also has a USB-C charging port.

Not really the info you were looking for maybe just a different point of view.

Maybe a unicorn? 8bay x 2A each = 16A, when most home power outlets are rated up to 15A only. At least that is how I understand when most specs for 2A charging is limited to 4bays at most.


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55 minutes ago, Pomacentridae said:

Maybe a unicorn? 8bay x 2A each = 16A, when most home power outlets are rated up to 15A only. At least that is how I understand when most specs for 2A charging is limited to 4bays at most.


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That's not how it works. 8x 2A at 1.5V (being generous with the charging voltage here) translates to just 24 watts, or about 0.25A at 110V even with a significant allowance for circuits inefficiencies. 

I've used an 8 bay Maha charger for many years, they have a number of different models, don't know that they would be a lot smaller than the ones you have.  They do have various models and have the option of turbo and standard charging.    Some models default to fast and others default to soft charge.  Fast is 2A for all cells and soft is 1A.    I have had it for at least 10 years and works perfectly - I'm still using cells I bought around that time in my torches and they are still good - so it must be doing something right.

I use the 1A charge rate mostly as it's better for the cells.

That's not how it works. 8x 2A at 1.5V (being generous with the charging voltage here) translates to just 24 watts, or about 0.25A at 110V even with a significant allowance for circuits inefficiencies. 

I am using VC4 - its the older version, micro USB, but works perfect with AA/Li-ion (i am also carrying Inon strobes) They have recently released newer, USB-C version, supporting QC.3.0 protocol, called "VC4 Plus". Both are 4 slot chargers, but small enough, that they are easy to carry. I have used to carry 8 bay charger but gave up due to its bulkiness (Gyrfalcon 88),  4 bay is more than enough as long as you carry spare batteries to swap, rather than only one set.

They have a fast (4.1A) USB-C charger, ST2, but only two slots sadly and no AA support. If you are looking for pure AA, Ansmann Powerline 8 is pretty decent, albeit simple, and rather small for an 8 bay. It's not USB powered though.

As for a great, in depth, charger review and comparison you can look here

https://lygte-info.dk/info/indexBatteriesAndChargers UK.html

I was recently on a liveaboard and one of the other guests was a pro, I borrowed his Titanium Innovations 16 bay charger which was great. Super fast charge (4h) and shows individual cell progress. Pretty compact too. 

As an update, seems XTAR has now released two new 8 bay chargers:

BC8  -1.5V Li-ion & 1.2V Ni-MH AA/AAA

https://www.xtar.cc/product/XTAR-BC8-Charger-190.html

VC8 - up to 8x21700, also AA etc

http://www.xtar.cc/product/XTAR-VC8-Charger-125.html

21 minutes ago, makar0n said:

As an update, seems XTAR has now released two new 8 bay chargers:

BC8  -1.5V Li-ion & 1.2V Ni-MH AA/AAA

https://www.xtar.cc/product/XTAR-BC8-Charger-190.html

VC8 - up to 8x21700, also AA etc

http://www.xtar.cc/product/XTAR-VC8-Charger-125.html

Thanks, the USB-C feed is useful, but unfortunately both are limited to 0.5A charging rate when using all eight bays.

Yeah, sadly battery chargers really taking advantage of USB C are rarer than hens teeth, despite it being 2022. . And 8 bay ones are virtually non existent it seems.

Ha, so i have just found this by some accident - 8, 16 and 24 bay chargers, that look pretty decent (though according to some reviews automatic battery type detection is sometimes an issue)

https://www.isdt.co/n8-n16-n24.html?lang=en

The 8 bay is USB-C 18W powered, 16 and 24 bays are 36W/48W and DC jack only.

Or a 4 bay, USB C 36W..this is what has actually led me to the above, ordering now

https://www.isdt.co/c4evo.html?lang=en

Huh, I believe I've actually seen those in the wild, @alextyrrell uses a pair of 8-bay ones... now I'm intrigued. Looking at manual though, I can see that N8 uses micro-USB rather than USB-C. The manual is light on details though - 18W input does line up neatly with 1.5A*1.5V*8, but it exceeds the 1.5A*5V rating of a micro-USB socket, and it doesn't account for the charger's own consumption. The manual also says that input voltage is 5-12V, but I can't find a 12V option in USB-PD spec - it's supposed to negotiate between 5V, 9V, 15V, 20V, 28V, 36V and 48V, but that doesn't cover 12V delivery. However, the N16, with a DC adapter, is probably a good companion to a pair of Retras with superchargers.

1 hour ago, Barmaglot said:

Huh, I believe I've actually seen those in the wild, @alextyrrell uses a pair of 8-bay ones... now I'm intrigued. Looking at manual though, I can see that N8 uses micro-USB rather than USB-C. The manual is light on details though - 18W input does line up neatly with 1.5A*1.5V*8, but it exceeds the 1.5A*5V rating of a micro-USB socket, and it doesn't account for the charger's own consumption. The manual also says that input voltage is 5-12V, but I can't find a 12V option in USB-PD spec - it's supposed to negotiate between 5V, 9V, 15V, 20V, 28V, 36V and 48V, but that doesn't cover 12V delivery. However, the N16, with a DC adapter, is probably a good companion to a pair of Retras with superchargers.

Hmm that is strange. Could be a manual error, like one often finds when translated from Chinese. Could be also that the manual refers to the older version. It seems that when it was released it was indeed MicroUSB only. Found even a test done by HKJ in 2019:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/test-review-of-isdt-n8.459896/

"From USB the charger reports 10W available (2A).
Power consumption from USB when idle is 130mA with display on and 95mA with display off.
Uses 12V from QC and reports 18W available (1.5A)."

However website now says USB C...so it could be this is the new version just under the same name. C4 for example was also originally released as MicroUSB, and now re-relased as C4 Evo with USB-C. Or the website is wrong...

EDIT:

Found another test, this time from 2021, stating it has USB-C. Link in Germish though:

https://www.sir-apfelot.de/test-isdt-n8-akkuladegeraet-33456/

C4 Evo has arrived...Below pic next to Xtar X2 charger (cant compare to VC4S as i am not home-home at the moment) and credit card sized DAN thingie. Display was on high brightness hence camera did not capture the battery outlines etc, only the brightest elements. Ran 4 Eneloops at 1A each, went pretty well though temp range on batteries was 43-46 degrees, so a bit toasty.

Charger is pretty small, in fact so small i am now tempted to order the N8 after all, since it is only 1/3 or so longer

Got my ISDT N16. Here it is next to a Liitokala Lii-S8, Lii-500, XTAR FC2 and a credit card:

The casing is metal, so it should be pretty good at dissipating heat, but it still gets plenty warm when operating. There is a USB-C port, but it can't draw power from it - I'm guessing it's only used for software updates and the like. A shame, since I have several high-powered (65-100W) USB chargers that could save me another wall wart in my luggage.

It has change/discharge/reactivate/analyze functions, but the setting is global for all sixteen bays at a time. Current draw can be set from 0.1A to 1.5A in 0.1A increments, which is also global. Total power draw can be capped, with 36W being the maximum setting. However, when charging sixteen cells at maximum rate (1.5A setting) reported current draw was 0.9A~1.1A per cell (it varied between batteries). I also had several cells that the Lii-500 refused to charge or test, showing weird voltage readings (1.8V in some cases, over 4V in others), and the N16 managed them without issues.

Since I'm carrying 40x AA, 2x 26650, 2x21700 and a few 18650s (unless I'm planning to shoot fluorescence, in which case I need more 18650s), I think I can make do with just the N16 and FC2 in my dive photo kit bag.