WF 188 Issues

Hi Guys,
Have been looking around this forum for some time but this my first post on LPF!

I recently bought a WF-188 charger from Kaidomain for charging up a 32600 and a 32650. The setting is 3.7v 600 mA. I tried the 300 mA setting as well. The problem is sometimes the LED starts blinking up and sometimes it just stays green. The behavior is completely erratic.

I PMed some experts but thought it would be best to put the query in public and see if anybody has similar issues with this charger.

I don't have a multimeter to diagnose the issue further, might get one in the morning though. Any advice before I return this unit?

Does this happen on both channels or just one?

Jacob32123 said:

Does this happen on both channels or just one?

Click to expand...

Both the channels, I also tried 2 batteries - separately and together. Same results.

You could try this and see if it works. I had a slightly similar problem and this method helped me out. Have a read of the whole thread

http://laserpointerforums.com/f67/wf-188-charger-questions-65967.html#post948052

azzman372 said:

You could try this and see if it works. I had a slightly similar problem and this method helped me out. Have a read of the whole thread

http://laserpointerforums.com/f67/wf-188-charger-questions-65967.html#post948052

Click to expand...

I was just reading that but the problem seems a bit different. Also, if i fiddled with it, wouldn't it void the guarantee on the unit?

EDIT:The charger just starts blinking its green LEDs now (for both the channels). Anybody experienced such a weird problem at all?

Update: Even after I soldered brand new wires to the rails, the LEDs still kept blinking. Either a faulty voltage was being indicated or the unit had some other serious problem. I finally filled a PP case against kaidomain showing all the proofs and won.

I can tell you that I have bought and tested over 25 WF-188 chargers. And every one of them that I got from cheap suppliers like KD, DX, or Ebay, came without the blue box, and all did not work properly...

But all of the ones that I got from lighthound, were brand new in the box. And all of them have worked flawlessly. Over 20 from lighthound. No problems...

I'd be interested to see the circuit board of thsoe that came in a retail box as opposed to the ones that came with no packaging, or in bubble wrap bag.

I've always suspected that one company outsources their manufacturing, and the manufacturer decides to make a few extra bucks on the side. I mean, they already have the dies and equipment to make these housings, just have to find an investor who wants to undercut the original creators' price.

BShanahan14rulz said:

I'd be interested to see the circuit board of thsoe that came in a retail box as opposed to the ones that came with no packaging, or in bubble wrap bag.

I've always suspected that one company outsources their manufacturing, and the manufacturer decides to make a few extra bucks on the side. I mean, they already have the dies and equipment to make these housings, just have to find an investor who wants to undercut the original creators' price.

Click to expand...

I got one in today that came in the blue Box etc and it does not charge all the way up.

Its charges to 4.18 MAX for Lithium cells and 3.33v for Lifepo4 cells.

It also is very Fiddly with knowing that i put a battery in to charge.

Going to rewire it and see how it goes.

Man I had high hopes for this charger.

Nothing wrong with 4.18 though...

IMO it is. All my other Chargers charge to 4.20v on the Money. Never Less.

I dont like this. I charged some more cells and they came out to 4.16v.

I charged a total of 8 cells in it with a range of 4.14v-4.18v. Only 2 out of the 8 where 4.18v.

Iam Rewiring it now so Hopefully it Fixes the issue.

I bought it Solly to charge larger cells. I guess if this doesn't fix it then i will just continue to use my power supply.

Mine came in the blue box but it was not from Lighthound. Which i new i should have gotten it from.

Please be sure to post back about the re-wiring.

Interested to see if it will make a difference...

The charging curve is pretty steep when it's full, though. 4.2V is probably something like 0.1% more "charge" than 4.18.

Cyparagon said:

The charging curve is pretty steep when it's full, though. 4.2V is probably something like 0.1% more "charge" than 4.18.

Click to expand...

Yeah were probably talking about 1 minute of run time or so. No big deal really...

This charger seems to be a lot of trouble, especially those from the Chinese sellers. I would rather take a smaller charger and wire in leads with magnets on the end to charge those massive 32650s or 32600s.

Hmm. Odd issue with mine. Sometimes the left channel shows solid red and the right when I plug it in. Neither channel will detect a battery. Usually after some fiddling I can get it to detect the cells and it charges them right up to their expected capacity +/- .01v. Looks like I may have to try qumefox's mod since I suspect it's their notorious shitty rail system not allowing the proper detection of a cell being inserted or removed. FWIW while I did order it from KD it came in the full retail box. I'll report back once I get the mod done. I was hoping this charger would eliminate the other three I have laying around but so far that hasn't happened.



Ok here's an update. I did the mod and the right channel works flawlessly now. The left channel is still showing up a dim red. I noticed when I had it apart that there was either rust or corrosion on a number of components on the board. I think I'm going to toss this one and get one from Lighthound. Actually I'll probably put it on my Christmas list since every year my mom and brother gripe that I buy too much stuff around the holidays then have no gift ideas for them. :san:

Hmm. That means I'll have to either use it sparingly or rig up a spacer for my WF-139 to charge the RCR2s for my 589.