How to Charge 18650?

I've got an old power pack for a Sony videocamera thats still good but dont have the camera for it. When you take the cover off it consists of 2 x 18650s with one large circuit board at the end. Is their any way or anything I can buy to charge these badboys?

check out this post

Yeah I know they make 18650 chargers obviously but would I need to take the computer off of the end? What does it do anyway?

Clickie said:

Yeah I know they make 18650 chargers obviously but would I need to take the computer off of the end? What does it do anyway?

Click to expand...

Ummm what??? Take what computer off of what end of what? His link is to a battery charger. It charges Li-Ion batteries like the 18650. Are you saying the circuit board is soldered onto the end of the battery? That seems silly. Picture?

I obviously don't know what model battery this is, but that will be Sony "Info-lithium" circuitry which provides information on the battery condition to the camera.

More importantly, it will also contain a protection circuit for the battery, so if you disassemble it you will be left with 2 unprotected 18650s. Be very careful not to charge them above 4.2v, and don't let them discharge below 3.0v. Some chargers rely on protection circuits in the batteries to terminate at 4.2v, so don't assume yours will do so automatically with unprotected cells.

The computer must be the protection-circuit, like DM51 says, will shut down charging above 4.2v and discharging below 3.0v.

You can use the charger from post #2 to charge your cells.
But then you woul have to be sure you don't overdischarge them.

You can still use the 18650 cell and add an inividual circuit for them.
Be sure to check:
- http://stores.ebay.co.uk/LEDSEE-ele...ies_W0QQcolZ2QQdirZQ2d1QQfsubZ4QQftidZ2QQtZkm
- http://www.batteryjunction.com/prcimopfor3l.html
and - https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/155147

I might be attempting the same mod, as I have 8 of these unprotected cells from Laptop Battery-packs.

How many amps are your cells ?

Cheers !

EDIT: This one should be very interesting: http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2578

Bombelman, I haven't really looked into different available PCBs, but the one you mention in your edit has 4.275v +/- 0.45v charge limit and a 2.40v +/- 0.20v discharge limit. I would suggest 4.15v and 3.0v as better protection limits. My personal preference for discharge rate protection would be 2C, but some people seem to like overdriving their batteries.

True that, but still have to find those...
Maybe that's why the D*ll laptops were exploding like all hell broke loose !

I don't know the best place to look for them. If you can source the same ones AW uses, they are very reliable. Someone else may chime in here with info.

I'm not saying those particular PCBs you mentioned are dangerous, but more than 4.2v in the cell will badly decrease its life. It probably isn't until you get above ~4.4v that you risk things turning really nasty.

SilverFox gave some very interesting stats on cell life yesterday:
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/1902424&postcount=4