Decent Battery Charger?

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Decent Battery Charger?

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

1402 posts

Uber Geek

#1602750 2-Aug-2016 10:48

muppet:
timmmay:

Do they do a better job at charging standard NiHM batteries?

......
At the end of the day though, they all charge your batteries. Which does a better or worse job is very subjective. ....

For NiMh there is also a concept of the "burp" charging or negative pulse charging which aims at minimising the heat. I've built the "burp" charger. That is does the job nicely even slightly improving battery performance. But that is not for the average person to be bothered with... And expensive..

You can charge AA NiMh easily with the constant current charger you can build yourself - not a big deal :-)

muppet

2568 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1602900 2-Aug-2016 13:47

RUKI:
muppet:
timmmay:

Do they do a better job at charging standard NiHM batteries?

......
At the end of the day though, they all charge your batteries. Which does a better or worse job is very subjective. ....

For NiMh there is also a concept of the "burp" charging or negative pulse charging which aims at minimising the heat. I've built the "burp" charger. That is does the job nicely even slightly improving battery performance. But that is not for the average person to be bothered with... And expensive..

You can charge AA NiMh easily with the constant current charger you can build yourself - not a big deal :-)

I was fairly sure all the testing that's been done has shown no advantage to burp charging at all. Lots of people pushed it years ago with patents behind them, but no one's ever come up with any solid evidence, have they?

I think it's also true that no one can day for sure that dv/dt is any better or worse than voltage termination+ trickle charge.

neb

11294 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1603114 2-Aug-2016 17:31

timmmay:
Interesting. What does it tell you that the Maha doesn't? Is there any practical value of the additional information - ie how does it help people wanting to charge batteries?

I had an older Maha that only indicated whether it was charging or the charge was complete, the newer C9000's have a bit more info, but the Opus one is more comprehensive, a separate display per cell for voltage, charge rate, charge delivered, etc. Given that they do the same thing and cost about the same, I got the Opus because of the extra info. Most of the time you don't need it, but when you do, it's good to have available. A friend of mine had an older Maha and was having issues with some AAAs, be brought them over here and found that two of the cells were stuffed (I can't remember the details but the charge rate was showing odd things). So that was a case where the extra info was useful. OTOH if you've got a Maha and you're happy with it, there's no pressing need to switch to an Opus.

richms

28169 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1603121 2-Aug-2016 17:38

I got one of these - Liitokala Lii-500 Smart Charger

http://www.gearbest.com/chargers/pp_228907.html

Not sure how good it really is yet, but it takes 12v not the annoying 3v that some others do, came with a ciggy plug cable.

Richard rich.ms

neb

11294 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1603122 2-Aug-2016 17:38

muppet: For a comprehensive all-in-one charger, look at the Opus BT-3100

It tells you lots and can charge NiMH and Liion

There's also the SkyRC MC3000 which has upgradable firmware and is able to be controlled from a PC or via a Bluetooth app on your phone. It'll graph voltage, current, capacity, internal resistance and temperature.

I got my Opus based on reviews in the candlepowerforums.com forums, where people will post 20-page technical analyses of chargers with charging curves across all manner of different conditions. For LiIon chargers, go to a vaper's forum, they really know their 18650s. I got a Pila based on reviews there, someone had run charging curves for a whole pile of chargers, some were all over the place, some were mostly OK but with odd spikes and glitches, but only the Pila was a direct overlay of the smooth charging curve from Panasonic's data sheet. I certainly wouldn't use the charger that comes free with the cells when you buy them off Aliexpress or similar...

muppet

2568 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1603129 2-Aug-2016 17:52

Yeah, I bought my MC3000 based of HJK's review on CPF. And some of my feedback there has been incorporated into the latest v1.11 of its firmware.

neb

11294 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1603137 2-Aug-2016 18:04

muppet: Yeah, I bought my MC3000...

(Googles). Dammit, serious geek lust :-). OTOH I've never been a fan of the slider-style battery tabs, they always seem to be somewhat flimsy and I'm never sure they'll make a good contact. The rest of it looks amazing though.

Sharesies kids

Free kids accounts - trade shares and funds (NZ, US) with Sharesies (affiliate link).

richms

28169 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1603138 2-Aug-2016 18:07

Does the bluetooth one let you tag each battery with an ID (hopefully a barcode) and then track its performance thru time? That would be good if it did.

Richard rich.ms

redherring

85 posts

Master Geek

#1603195 2-Aug-2016 19:55

It's alive!

For what it's worth, if anyone wants to know how the Nitecore D4 is...

It's fine. It charges batteries nicely and stops when it thinks they are charged enough. I haven't had any batteries die since using it. It does not connect to bluetooth devices, make coffee or do my tax returns.

blakamin

4431 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1603215 2-Aug-2016 20:44

One of mine. https://www.google.com/search?q=efest+luc+blu6&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjo8rHeqqLOAhXI24MKHWYXBWwQ_AUICigD&biw=1366&bih=677

I also have the Luc V4 and S2.

timmmay

20578 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1603223 2-Aug-2016 20:59

My Maha C9000 (smart, individual info per cell) and 801D (8 cell, smart but no display) are pretty old now, probably the better part of ten years. Back then it was the best available. I think that they're ten years old and still work as good as new is testament to their quality :) I can also run the C9000 from my big 12V 33AH batteries in an outage if I need to, I have the right cable, that charges AA cells that can power my LED lanterns and various other things.

Athlonite

1828 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1603294 3-Aug-2016 07:38

redherring:

It's alive!

For what it's worth, if anyone wants to know how the Nitecore D4 is...

It's fine. It charges batteries nicely and stops when it thinks they are charged enough. I haven't had any batteries die since using it. It does not connect to bluetooth devices, make coffee or do my tax returns.

Thats the same charger I have and I'd have to agree it has enough info it to let you know what is going on without being to technical and does a good job of charging my 18650 LiIon batteries for my security torch it also does a nice job of charging my AAA and AA Nimh batteries aswell

muppet

2568 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1604064 4-Aug-2016 09:33

richms:

Does the bluetooth one let you tag each battery with an ID (hopefully a barcode) and then track its performance thru time? That would be good if it did.

No. I'm not even sure how that'd work, the charger can't tell the difference between batteries.

It's very, very detailed in what it can do, but if you want to track each battery you've got to do that yourself.

Given it's abilities though, it's not hard to discharge/charge a battery to get an idea of how "healthy" it is. You can even just pop a NiHM in and it'll calculate its Internal Resistance. The higher it is, the more unhealthy the battery is. High IR is what causes the crappy batteries to heat up when charging (you probably know this)

timmmay

20578 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1604068 4-Aug-2016 09:37

I just keep batteries in sets. The C9000 tells me when they're duds, I tend to retire sets and use them for remotes and such. I have around 60 AA cells, for camera flashes and battery packs. I looked at NiMH D cells for my emergency LED lanterns, but they're pretty expensive, so I got a bunch of AA to D plastic shells so I can use my existing batteries in the lanterns.

muppet

2568 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1604069 4-Aug-2016 09:38

timmmay:

I just keep batteries in sets. The C9000 tells me when they're duds, I tend to retire sets and use them for remotes and such. I have around 60 AA cells, for camera flashes and battery packs. I looked at NiMH D cells for my emergency LED lanterns, but they're pretty expensive, so I got a bunch of AA to D plastic shells so I can use my existing batteries in the lanterns.

Yes, this is what I do too.

The IR function is nice to quickly "weed out" any odd balls I find lying around though.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4