this post was submitted on 24 May 2025

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[Review] SkyRC MC5000 battery charger and analyzer – a worthy successor to the MC3000? (infosec.pub)

submitted 4 days ago by SammysHP@lemmy.world to c/flashlight@lemmy.world

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As a flashlight enthusiast, you might be interested in this new professional battery charger and analyzer for checking and maintaining your batteries.

The full review is available here

English review at BudgetLightForum
German review on my website

Summary

For many years, the SkyRC MC3000 has been considered one of the best chargers for round batteries. The user has full control over the charging process and can set not only the charging current but also many other parameters. It can also connect to a PC or smartphone for settings and data logging.

And here comes the new SkyRC MC5000!

I was really looking forward to the SkyRC MC5000: a modern design with a large color display, innovative scroll-wheel input, charging currents of up to 5 A per slot, Bluetooth connectivity and advanced analysis features.

All in all, everything has worked so far, but the range of functions still seems somewhat limited. Many enhancements could potentially be introduced through firmware updates, such as expanded parameter ranges, more effective use of the status LEDs and possibly even support for 1.5V Li-ion batteries. The absence of program memory slots is particularly disappointing. At this price point, a PC interface for control and data logging should also be included.

In its current form, the SkyRC MC5000 is still a long way from being a real successor for the MC3000. It is not a bad device by any means, but it does not yet fully meet the expectations I have for a professional charger in this class.

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[–] toadjones79@lemm.ee 12 points 4 days ago (1 children)

And I'm over here like "red light turned to green so I'm good."

I'm glad you guys know and do all this battery stuff because you create a wealth of knowledge I can pull from when the time comes. Speaking from my experience with flashlights, which I am still in awe of the knowledge and how useful it is/was when it came time for a new light.

Thanks for the review.

[–] sxan@midwest.social 2 points 4 days ago (2 children)

🤝

I am willing to spend money on the best battery charger that doesn't require me to know anything about batteries. I know the value of having tools over which you have fine control and can tune, but that's, like 0.01% of all the tools I use - the rest, I have at best superficial knowledge of the field, and have no time or interest in becoming an expert; and giving me fine grained control over the tool is only increasing the chance that I'm going to damage something.

To me, value is in the tool knowing more than I do, and doing the right thing. For battery chargers, that usually means a toggle for fast/slow charging. I know enough to know that faster charging is usually less healthy for the battery, so if I have time, slow. If I've run myself out of batteries, fast.

And I'm not even sure that rule holds for modern batteries! It's something I learned so long ago I should be suspicious about the knowledge.

So, yeah. I'm sure this is great for some people, but for me, charge me more because the charger is smarter than I am, not because it's dumber.

[–] MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The thing is it's not possible for a charger to know how fast a battery should be charged, as that varies widly between different types of cells. It would require RFID tags on each cell or something like that.

[–] sxan@midwest.social 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

So it's not technically possible; that's fine. If the charger can't tell, I guarantee I won't be able to, either.

[–] MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The cell will have a model number on the side you can use to get the datasheet, which lists the max charge rate.

Alternatively just use 0.5c rate on everything which is easy.

[–] sxan@midwest.social 1 points 3 days ago

Yup - already more work than I want to do. I do not have a heterogenous cell collection, so I'd need a spreadsheet to track everything and consult it every time I needed to charge.

That's what I was saying about there being some domains where the knobs and dials are valuable to me, and a whole lot more where the value is in the tool being more knowledgeable than I am.

This charger sounds great for battery wonks. I prefer smarter charges so I don't have to fiddle with battery charging; there are other things I'd rather be spending my time on.

[–] Zak@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Several chargers in the $20-40 price range measure the battery's internal resistance and pick a reasonable charge current based on that. Many of those have an override for charge current but it would be convenient to have the option of just fast or slow based on that measurement.

The rule still holds. Charging fast is harder on batteries. It's true for phone batteries too, so all these new phones with three-digit charging wattage are likely to wear out quickly.

[–] fourish@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

I like my Lii600 except for the incessant beeping. It would’ve been simple to include an option to turn the sound off completely.

I may open mine and clip the beeper right off or do the tape over the beeper mod that is quite popular.

[–] solrize@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago

The manufacturer web site is almost unusable and doesn't have an ordering button. There's a "Where to buy" link way at the bottom, that doesn't work for me. Web search shows this is about a US$ 200 charger. Ouch. Thanks for the review but yikes. Also I don't want to install a phone app to use or update the charger. You are right that the missing features being important (PC interface, bidirectional USB charging).

[–] nanook@friendica.eskimo.com 1 points 3 days ago

@SammysHP Again, the devices in question actually use three cells (4.5v nominal) will tolerate 4.8 but not 4.05. So can't substitute one cell for two in series. Could probably regulate down from a higher voltage but then you get the noise issues again.

[–] nanook@friendica.eskimo.com 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

@SammysHP That's great except just how many primary batteries do you need to replace before this thing pays for itself? Pricing is not justified. I spent a whole of $30 for a unit from popular mechanics of all places. it charges every chemistry except lithium ion, I have separate chargers for those, does so individually for each battery so I can put say an NiMH in one slot, an alkaline in another, and it will charge as appropriate for each.

[–] SammysHP@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I live in a world of mostly Li-ion batteries around me, NiMH come second. Primary (alkaline) batteries? Nope, never use them because of their poor performance, environmental problems and because they leak.

Not all of my devices can charge their Li-ion batteries. A simple charger is enough in most scenarios. You only need an analyzing charger if you want to monitor and maintain the performance of your batteries.

[–] nanook@friendica.eskimo.com 1 points 4 days ago (2 children)

@SammysHP The reason I use Alkaline in some applications is I have some devices where voltage is important and they will not run on 1.35 NiMH voltage but they will run on 1.6 Alkaline voltage. But I agree, performance is bad. Unfortunately the 1.5v lithium ion cells aren't really 1.5v, they're 3.7 or so and regulated down. This causes two issues, the regular introduces a lot of RF noise, and the voltage is flat right up to the point of complete exhaustion so you can't tell when the battery is ready to crap out.

[–] Zak@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I have some devices where voltage is important and they will not run on 1.35 NiMH voltage but they will run on 1.6 Alkaline voltage.

It's presumably not your doing, but I have to note that's a terrible design. Under light load, an alkaline hasn't even expended a third of its energy by the time it hits 1.35V (example test result).

[–] vaionko@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 days ago

And then there's some Ikea smart stuff that reportedly only work reliabli with NiMH cells lol

[–] SammysHP@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

This causes two issues, the regular introduces a lot of RF noise

Yes, unfortunately that is true …

and the voltage is flat right up to the point of complete exhaustion so you can’t tell when the battery is ready to crap out.

There are many models with a voltage warning (either dropping to 1.1V or slowly decreasing voltage):

If there are two batteries in series, you could also try a single LiFePO₄ (with protection circuit), as it keeps a rather stable voltage around 3.2V.

[–] scrion@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

What I would be interested in: does it have feature parity with the 3000?

[–] SammysHP@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

It has a few features more and a few features less. Depends on what you need.