which charger to use with 17670?

I purchased a fivemega creation and need to figure out which charger can be used with the following setup. GRAY HA Type III with charging port battery adapter and male connector. I plan on running AW's protected 17670 with a WA1185 Hola bulb.

A simple way is to use the (single cell) Li-ion charger from digital camera. but you need to find a way to get the connections from the charger to the 17670.

And for some charger who need to detect the temperature sensor to activate the charging cycle, you need to cheat the charger. Usually a 10k ohm resistor between the "T" terminal of the charger and ground can do the job.

I used a small PCB insert into the battery bay, connected wires to 2 small magnets which attached to the Li-ion cell to be charged and add a 10k R on the PCB.

I've always used the DSD charger for all my 18650's and 17670's. Never had a problem, and it's only about $6 at dealextreme.

Ended up getting a pila 4 stage.

JamesWong, I have always wondered about batteries of phones/cameras, and whether they can only be recharged in the specific unit, is the cutoff circuitry etc in the phone/camera etc?
Can you elaborate a little on this? What voltage/current rating of charger is appropriate since most of the PSU/chargers seem to have different values.

Today, most digital camera (not DSLR) use single cell Li-ion. The cutoff voltage is 4.2V. This can be measured just after the camera is fully charged.

The current output of this kind of charger is usually 300-800mA, this can be found from the label of the charger.

For general Li-ion charging rule, the charging current should be below 1C. For 17670, the capacity is >1500mAh (Mine is 1800mAh). So it will be safe to charge 17670 with lower than 1500mA. 99% of camera charger has current <1500mAh.

For other Li-ion, as long as the C rating is higher than the charger, it can be used.

Exceptions are :
Some special Li-ion with 3.0V rating and maximum 3.6V charging voltage.
Some old Li-ion with 4.1 terminating voltage.
Mobile phone charger which plug into the phone directly. The charging circuit is inside the phone, not the adaptor.

Hope this can help.

Thank you, great info to know!
I have lots of mobile phone chargers, and two sony digicam chargers lying around.
So I wont be able to use the simple two wire mobile charges as you said.
For the camera chargers I suppose I have to figure out the pinout.
More things to play with!

JamesW's advice is good. Just make sure you get the polarity right and the chargers have a suitable output. They must be dedicated Li-Ion cell chargers.

0.5C - 1.0C is ideal, but it won't matter too much if you slip below 0.5C, which is probable with small phone or digicam chargers. It will just take you a longer time to charge the cells (ie if it is 0.3C, the charge will take ~3 hrs, if it is 0.2C it will take 5 hrs.)

Do not charge at 0.1C or lower, as this is a trickle charge which is unsuitable for healthy Li-Ion cells and the charge may not terminate properly.