Nitecore i4 and i2 charger teardown (update p2)

[ARG]

Re: Nitecore i4 and i2 charger teardown

I'm surprised they used those long legged LED's. I thought they were SMT LED's and light pipes.

I guess this was cheaper.

 

[midnighttattoo]

Re: Nitecore i4 and i2 charger teardown

mmmm just got my i2 and the centre led on one channel doesn't work ..I haven't sent back because its a pain in the arse and I suppose I can live with it just annoying is all.

 

[Lazerbeak]

Re: Nitecore i4 and i2 charger teardown

Thank you for the i2 teardown djQ :beer:

Does your Uncle's heat up compared to the i4? Mine does :thinking:

~ LB

 

[midnighttattoo]

Re: Nitecore i4 and i2 charger teardown

Actually this just gave me the balls to strip it and look at it
One side of one of the led legs had no solder..
MENDED woo hoo. Thanks man +1

 

[Zakkusus]

Re: Nitecore i4 and i2 charger teardown

That was a great tear down, sorry hear about your i2. Just out of curiosity when you plugin your i2 does it make a hissing noise?

 

[Lazerbeak]

Re: Nitecore i4 and i2 charger teardown

Thank you Zakkusus. No hissing sound I just noticed the batteries and charger warmed up and the i4 doesn't so I just stopped using it. Might be normal, just don't like batteries getting warm. The i4 works great. Maybe a bad solder shorting something?

~ LB

 

[Zakkusus]

Re: Nitecore i4 and i2 charger teardown

Yeah I agree LB there might be a short somewhere... time to send it back. My i4 which I purchased from csshih (he still has an awesome deal going on) is working perfectly and I couldn't be any happier with it.

 

[Lazerbeak]

Re: Nitecore i4 and i2 charger teardown

I was just helping out with the last GB and am happy with the i4 so I just never bothered. I'm just lazy that way.

~ LB

 

[Flaminpyro]

Re: Nitecore i4 and i2 charger teardown

Very nice review, pictures sure make it the best :gj:

 

[scumbagatheist]

Re: Nitecore i4 and i2 charger teardown

I wish I'd come across this earlier! I guess it got buried by "best 50mW green lazors" threads all week.

Thanks for this teardown and thread! I will be bookmarking it for future reference.

 

[midnighttattoo]

Re: Nitecore i4 and i2 charger teardown

That was a great tear down, sorry hear about your i2. Just out of curiosity when you plugin your i2 does it make a hissing noise?

no not mine . ive heard cells make a similar sound

 

[djQUAN]

Re: Nitecore i4 and i2 charger teardown

I'm surprised they used those long legged LED's. I thought they were SMT LED's and light pipes.

I guess this was cheaper.

Yup. I work in car audio and tooling for custom light pipes aren't cheap.

Thank you for the i2 teardown djQ :beer:

Does your Uncle's heat up compared to the i4? Mine does :thinking:

~ LB

I charged an empty battery and the i2 did heat up much more than my i4. I unplugged it before going to sleep. I didn't want to wake up to fireworks haha going to do further testing later.

Actually this just gave me the balls to strip it and look at it
One side of one of the led legs had no solder..
MENDED woo hoo. Thanks man +1

Glad you were able to fix it. The LEDs (along with the connectors) appear to be manually soldered during assembly.

That was a great tear down, sorry hear about your i2. Just out of curiosity when you plugin your i2 does it make a hissing noise?

I've had that issue with cheap chargers before but not with this i2 or i4. It's either a poor loop compensation of the converter feedback or the transformer is not completely potted in varnish.

Very nice review, pictures sure make it the best :gj:

Thanks!

I wish I'd come across this earlier! I guess it got buried by "best 50mW green lazors" threads all week.

Thanks for this teardown and thread! I will be bookmarking it for future reference.

No problem.

no not mine . ive heard cells make a similar sound

You'd want to throw those away quick! Hissing might mean it's gassing and might explode.

 

[csshih]

Re: Nitecore i4 and i2 charger teardown

I charged an empty battery and the i2 did heat up much more than my i4. I unplugged it before going to sleep. I didn't want to wake up to fireworks haha going to do further testing later.

A fully loaded up i2 actually uses the same amount of power than an i4. there's less space for heat dissipation so I would say that the i2 getting hotter than an i4 is relatively normal.

Craig

 

[djQUAN]

Re: Nitecore i4 and i2 charger teardown

A fully loaded up i2 actually uses the same amount of power than an i4. there's less space for heat dissipation so I would say that the i2 getting hotter than an i4 is relatively normal.

Craig

It does? but the back label says on the i2 0.5A x2 and on the i4 0.75A x2 or 0.375A x4. There are also parts differences on both showing bigger parts (i2 = smaller transformer and drum core inductors, i4 = larger transformer and toroid inductors, bigger diodes)

I forgot the input power rating though. I'll check them again tonight after work. The i2 did start to smell after about an hour so I stopped there. Need more investigation.

 

[Lazerbeak]

Re: Nitecore i4 and i2 charger teardown

A fully loaded up i2 actually uses the same amount of power than an i4. there's less space for heat dissipation so I would say that the i2 getting hotter than an i4 is relatively normal.

Craig

Thanks Craig :beer: figured it was something like that.

~ LB

 

[csshih]

Re: Nitecore i4 and i2 charger teardown

It does? but the back label says on the i2 0.5A x2 and on the i4 0.75A x2 or 0.375A x4. There are also parts differences on both showing bigger parts (i2 = smaller transformer and drum core inductors, i4 = larger transformer and toroid inductors, bigger diodes)

I forgot the input power rating though. I'll check them again tonight after work. The i2 did start to smell after about an hour so I stopped there. Need more investigation.

Oop. I could be wrong. I just read on nitecore's site that they both have an input of 10W. Hm.