Hey friends!


I have just received this charger from Gearbest for review. 




First impressions:
From the moment of unboxing it, I really liked it. My other charger is four times bigger and only has 90W of output.
The first thing I had to do was to find a way to power this thing as I only had flat LiPos. Not a big deal, this charger is well worth the effort.
Then I started charging a battery and noticed that it only uses its fan when really needed. Do you remember (or still have  ) the old imax b6? It was constantly using its loud annoying fan, even while charging a 3S pack at 0.1A. This one stays silent.

When you connect a battery to the balance plug, it immediately shows the cells' voltages (which is a huge plus, at least for me).
It is clearly designed for field charging, so it has an XT60 power connector. I will get some old but big cells and make a big pack out of them for this purpose. You can also set a low-voltage protection so you will not over-discharge your battery.

The screen looks surprisingly good, it is clearly visible, even in sunlight.

Several guys on other forums mentioned that there is no detailed manual in the box. While that is true, this is not really a problem. First, the product has an incredibly simple menu system, you need absolutely no manual. Second, there is a detailed manual here on the manufacturer's website, they just don't put it in the box.


Upgrading the firmware:


When it comes to updating the firmware, you have two choices. First, you can buy the official scLinker which is just a glorified USB to UART adapter or you can grab some old headphones and get creative. I opted for the second one  Oscar has written a great tutorial on this, you don't have to worry, it is very simple. Tutorial

Settings menu:

You can reduce the maximum input power so the charger does not overload a less powerful adapter.
There is an option to set an input cutoff voltage so you will not over-discharge the battery you are charging from.
The brightness of the backlight can be changed, I use LOW for recording videos of the charger, HIGH is clearly visible in the sunlight.
It is possible to set the volume of the buzzer, and fortunately, it can be turned off.
You can choose from English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and Japanese.
The part which got me excited was that two of the same chargers can share their firmware with each other.
Here it is also possible to do a self-test and check the current firmware version.


Task menu:
You have to choose what to do with the battery (Charge, discharge, storage), then select what kind of battery it is. It supports a wide range of batteries (LiHV, LiPo, LiIon, LiFe, Pb, MiMH, NiCd)

If you connect the balance plug, the charger selects the right cell number by itself.

After that, you can just set the current and hit start, it is pretty straightforward.
What really surprised me was what happened when I intentionally set a wrong cell count and hit start. The charger started charging with the right cell count, it just realized that I have made a mistake. I think this feature can prevent lots of "oops" moments.


Main screen:

This is the screen you see after the charger turns on.
If there is no task running, the top half is grey. While charging, it is red, it is pink when discharging and purple while storaging.
It tells us how many amps are going to or from the battery (if discharging, it is negative) and how many mAhs have been charged or discharged.
Under this, there is a bar which shows the voltage of the battery connected on the right. It figures out the voltage even if you only connect the balance plug.
The first page shows individual cell voltages when possible, the last one shows the input voltage, the battery voltage and the charger's internal temperature.
While charging, there is a page between previously mentioned two, it shows each cell's internal resistance.




Video review:



<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/J2AE4ncwjTY?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Pros:

• Simple, easy to use menu
  
• Very small
  
• Silent
  
• XT60 connectors everywhere!
  

Cons:

• Screen attracts fingerprints, looks prone to scratching
  

Verdict:
I can recommend this charger to everyone. If you have no charger or looking to upgrade you current one, this is a great choice. If you think 150W/8A are not enough, it has a big brother called SC-620 which can outout 500W/20A, you can buy it here. Back to this charger. I think this product is a revolutionary compared to classic 4-button chargers.

If you are interested in buying one, you can buy it here here from Gearbest. They are running Black Friday sales right now, you can check it out here and here

Edit: forgot some links, sorry about that