Quoted:
Obviously, I'm quite late jumping onto the Eneloop bandwagon, but thinking through an option -- for times without electricity -- of charging them from a battery bank (which in turn is charged via solar panel). For that to work, the battery bank (one of the larger cell-phone charging type devices) has to connect to an eneloop charger that can be powered via USB. I.e. stage 1: solar to battery bank, stage 2: battery bank to battery charger.
However, the best one I can find is this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00U26ONVE?tag=vglnk-c102-20
XTAR vc4
...which does not have a discharge function, I believe.
Thus, my question is two-fold:
1. Does such a thing exist - USB-powered charger that has a discharge function? Trying to avoid buying multiple chargers, if I can.
2. If discharge function isn't that important, what are the best chargers people are using today?
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I have an Xtar VC4 among my 6 Xtar chargers (VP2, XP1, WP2 II, MP1S, MC1+) and it's a nice charger that needs a strong 2.1A-2.4A USB wall wart. Xtar sells them, but I use a 12w 2.4A Apple block.
That being said, it's a decent, if not a bit slow, charger with 4 slots (~500mA vs. ~1A for 2 slots). It only shows what's placed into a discharged cell, not a value upon discharge--the better method.
Discharge is a nice function to have, as you can charge up the batteries/cells, then do a 1A discharge and find out the capacity of the batteries/cells and then match them up in pairs, or quads.
You really won't find an 'analyzing' charger that runs off of 5v USB, so you're looking at 12vdc chargers, much like the Maha C9000 Wizard One (NiMH only), the Opus BT 3100/3400 (NiMH and Li-Ion) and the Liitokala Lii 500 Engineer (NiMH and Li-Ion).
They can run off your 12vdc car cigarette socket, or a 12vdc solar panel, or a 12vdc wall wart/120vac.
Those three are at the top of the heap, although there are others out there.
NiMH batteries like Eneloops and Fujitsu LSD (low self discharge) offerings (Fujitsu owns the NiMH technology and factory and makes Eneloops for Panasonic) don't develop "memory", so that's not a concern.
For strictly NiMH batteries, the Maha C9000 is still the king of NiMH analyzing chargers, but it doesn't do Li-Ion cells, which you will want to get in to, at some point down the road.
This leaves the Opus BT-3100/3400 v. 2.2, or 3.1 for a multi-chemistry analyzing charger, or the Liitokala Lii 500 Engineer. I have the BT-3400 v. 2.2 (2.80v discharge cutoff for the Li-Ion cells, as the creme de la creme, but both are 12vdc, which is fine for me.
Good luck, Chris
ETA: VP2, not VC2