Battery balance charging?

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mr.squatch

mr.squatch

Enlightened
Joined
Jun 2, 2007
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Planet Houston
I'm trying to figure out how to best charge five emoli. I can charge em slowly 2 at a time on my lithion charger via clips n magnets, but there's no way to get em to charge exactly the same. I was wondering, what'd happen if I connected the +'s all together and the -'s all together and charged em as a single unit? Would the charger charge all five? Would it change from red to green when complete? They should go all the way to 4.2v but my charger won't take em past 4.05v :( So I'd settle for a way to get em all to 4.05v at the same time and equally balanced. I don't mind if it takes a few hours, I always have something or another charging around here. Any other ideas greatly appreciated too


g
 
You are talking about "parallel cell" charging, which works just fine. When you connect all 5 cells the way you describe, it changes from 5s1p to 1s5p, and the voltage will equalize between them when you connect them together. Just make sure they are not at significantly different starting voltages before making the parallel connections (< .5 V), although this also is of little concern with safe Emoli (vs. Lithium Cobalt).

Your charger will see this 1s5p as a single 3.7V battery with a huge capacity, and charge it as if it was a single cell...i.e. if you are using the 26700, that would 15,000mAh...so hopefully you have a beefy power supplied charger. :eek:

This was a set of 3 magnet leads I made for Silverfox that I'm demonstrating holding up 3 D cell batteries. Obviously, I would not have connected the negative terminal ends, since they are not rechargeable cells.

 
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I don't know how chargers work, I'm just starting to understand volts and amps and the basics. I know I can't charge my lithium batts with a nimh charger, but I couldn't tell you why. I doubt my little ultrafire 2x18650 charger puts out enough juice for this idea. Does it? Any way I can boost it up? Or do I still just need to get a better charger. If I could buy one charger that'd charge my nimh AA's, c's and d's, and also my lithium batts from cr2's to emoli, I'd gladly pay a couple hundred bucks for it just so I wouldn't have 15 chargers like I do now. haha. But not knowing how it all works, it's hard to pick something like that out. :( Still searching, thanks for the info Lux

g
 
mr.squatch said:
If I could buy one charger that'd charge my nimh AA's, c's and d's, and also my lithium batts from cr2's to emoli, I'd gladly pay a couple hundred bucks for it just so I wouldn't have 15 chargers like I do now.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure there are "universal" chargers that can do that, and they do indeed cost like a couple hundred bucks. I can't recommend one since I don't have the need to own one, but I'm sure someone here can help with a suggestion.

LuxLuthor, that looks like a pretty neat "helping hands" gizmo you got there. I'd love to know where you got it?
 
Hello Mr.Squatch,

The one big problem with multiple chemistry chargers is that you run a risk of making a mistake and charging using the wrong chemistry algorithm. The multiple chemistry chargers have safeguards built into them, but it is still possible to screw things up.

If you are willing to discipline yourself to follow a check list while charging and double and triple check your set up before charging, and are willing to keep an eye on things while charging, you may want to check out the Bantam BC-6. I don't have one of those, but have heard good reports from people that do.

Tom
 
Hello mr.Squatch.

I own one of those Bantam BC-6, just got it.
So far I am pleased with it, haven't used it yet with multiple li-xxx.

If you look at this thread you will find some useful information.
Aircraft 800 in first post use a charger with a connected balancer but this isn't nessecary with Bantam BC-6, it has a built-in balancer.

DN/Tenergy 4P in that thread only charge li-xxx cells but there is several others that is capable of all type of cells, Bantam BC-6 is one of them.

Companys in China produce copies of Bantam, these copies (Imax) and several others has not the same internals so they aren't so popular at Rcgroups:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=746574

Here is my solution with BC-6 and Voltcrafts battery holder with multiple cells.
With single cells a clamp will do just fine as a holder.

Here is a review of Bantam BC-6.

Anders
 
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Anders - you hit right on the head as to why I didn't go with the DN/Tenergy and went with the Triton series chargers - they do LiPo, Li-Ion, NiCad, NiMh, and Lead Acid. The flexibility of being able to do nearly every battery type I own (flashlight and non-flashlight related stuff) made that choice easier.

-Steve
 
Thanks for the advice guys, I searched deeper last nite and found three truly universal chargers that did all the things I want. Cheapest was 169, the rest were 200-250. I think I'll go ahead and get one and toss the rest of my chargers in the drawer. I like that I can set it and let it go to where I want it to and let it do the work. I want something that'll slow charge some unprotected low cells and that'll hot charge some emoli upto 4.2v. I think I've finally found the magical machine that'll do it all. Thanks again for all the help guys.


g
 
Regarding the Bantam BC6 and generally speaking, the most popular balance harnesses are of the Align/Dualsky type, followed by Thunder Power and Polyquest/Hyperion. For charging cables, the far and away most popular option is the Dean Ultra Plug (or JST for 3S and smaller packs).
 
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The balance cable needs to interface between the brand of battery pack balance plug you have and the charge balancer plug. So it really doesn't matter what harness is the most popular, rather it is a matter of getting the proper one for your setup.

I just bought the BC-6 to see how it works as compared to my Tenergy/DN, Hyperion 1210i with LBA-10 6s balancer.
 
JetskiMark said:
I would also research the new Cellpro 10s.

It will charge 1 Pack of 1s-10s or 2 Packs [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]of 1s-5s simultaneously.

Regards,
Mark
[/FONT]
Click to expand...

So that has two built in 5s balance charge circuits, and does 10A charge rates. Nice. Only downside for many new users (vs. the AC connection of BC-6) is it requires a separate 12V DC power supply....but the BC-6 only does 5A charging rate. Pro's and Con's to all of them.
 
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