BC168 18650 Charge Capacity Testing Question

[Stever]

I just started using my BC168 with some 18650 laptop batteries for a bike project (6 in series). I believe the BC168 can tell me what the capacity is of each battery but I'm having trouble figuring out how to do it. The manual doesn't cover it :/ The charge and discharge appears to work as expected.

I did notice that while charging you can press one of the middle buttons such as Balance and it will flash numbers on the screen that might be total mah stored to the battery so far, is that correct? I'm thinking I just need to wait until the charge cycle is done and press it and record the numbers, but not totally sure that's what I'm seeing. The numbers were something like 0750 for each battery, which seems low for 18650s. I'm also assuming that I'm reading it correctly, with the "07" stacked on top of the "50" meaning "0750". I had initially assumed that the capacity would be displayed on a discharge, but it looks like that's incorrect.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[agniusm]

it does not have this function

 

[Stever]

Not cool

Can anyone suggest an inexpensive unit that will give me mah for each cell in a pack?

Thanks

 

[agniusm]

Icharger

 

[mushymelon]

It will tell you how much energy goes back into a cell. If you charge very slowly 0.5 amps it will get you within 5%.
Not the most practical for testing purposes, but It is a tool than can be used to compare cells.

 

[mushymelon]

Also these little suckers work, inexpensive too.
Get the 4 wire holder for resistance testing.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-12V-Battery-Capacity-Tester-Battery-Life-Internal-Resistance-Analyzer-/171761180936?hash=item27fdc3a108:m:mTEy0WVq_pFiSjCxSzUdcFQ

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/171820708028

My setup

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/download/file.php?id=179163

 

[Stever]

That is one serious Rig!!



I played a little with the BC168 tonight, I have 6 cells partially charged. Cell 1 and 3 were around 3.6V and the other 4 were in the 2.5V range after they sat for a long time.
Looking at the pictures of the BC unit, it does appear to be displaying mah put into the cells during charging, or at least these are numbers that kind of resemble what I would expect (900mah for the partly charged ones and 1350 for the low ones), the numbers pop up if I hit Balance while in charging mode (the manual makes a cryptic reference to doing this).
Have to play a little more to confirm it. These are used batteries so I'm thinking they've lost some of their capacity.