Has anyone built their own charger?

Eugene · Nov 14, 2006

http://www.maxim-ic.com/quick_view2.cfm/qv_pk/1666
If you have a light or something with multiple cells it looks like it would be pretty easy to make a charger for it rather than remove the individual cells and charge them one at a time. I'm thinking the sodded mights with the AA to D cell adapters or my hand held radio with 8 batteries. I could build a small circuit with a chip like this programmed for 8 cells so I wouldn't have to remove them for charging. The spec sheet says they can charge while powering the device.

MrAl · Nov 14, 2006

Hi Eugene,

I do this with one of my Li-ion powered lights. I connect leads to charge.
It's quite easy really.
The problem is with other tech cells like NiMH it's not that good to charge
them in series. It's better to charge them separately. This would required some
sort of multiple pole connector to bring out leads to every single cell.
It ends up being a bit of trouble when you have more than two or three cells
in a light, although i guess it can be done.

Eugene · Nov 14, 2006

I'm trying to decide weather or not to convert some nicad powered devices over to nimh and one radio has 8 AA's in series. Its kind of a pain to pull them out and charge them individually and the pack has a nicad charger built in. But OTOH I would like to standardize on one type rather than buy a bunch of each.

MrAl · Nov 15, 2006

Oh i see what you mean.

I think you could try slow charging them in series. I am currently doing a little
experiment like that myself, but just started a few weeks ago.
I had a device that used NiCds and i didnt feel like replacing the things because
they were too small anyway (dont hold enough charge for my liking).
I replaced the two NiCd cells with larger NiMH and charge them in series with low
current (slow charge). I'll know how this works out in the long run in a year or two
from now.

Eugene · Nov 15, 2006

Yea, I;'m trying to do the same. The battery pack holds 9 AA Nicads but I don't have any nicads, but I try to minimize the number of sizes and types so I'd rather not have a bunch of nicads and nimh's if I can get by with just NiMH.

Has anyone built their own charger?

Eugene

Flashlight Enthusiast

MrAl

Flashlight Enthusiast

Eugene

Flashlight Enthusiast

MrAl

Flashlight Enthusiast

Eugene

Flashlight Enthusiast

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