Desperately seeking charger...

[MMACH 5]

My 18650 battery charger fried out last night (it made a loud pop and then quit working). I can order a new one from DX but I'll need to recharge my batteries before my commute to work on Monday.

Is there a store that carries chargers for 18650 batteries anywhere in the North Texas area? I don't mind driving a bit to get there.

I also don't mind going the DIY charger route, but again, being pressed for time, any parts I need for the project would have to be available locally.

As a final option, is there anyone here who lives in the North Texas area that has an extra 18650 charger that they would be willing to sell, rent or loan out? Just until my DX order arrived.

Thank you.
Sincerely,
Almost Drained in Dallas

 

[Tekno_Cowboy]

Lighthound is in Texas. If you give them a call they might be able to get you some rush shipping with saturday delivery.

 

[buickid]

Any decent hobby shop should carry a decent RC charger. Expensive option, but probably one of the most guaranteed. But yeah, try LightHound

 

[MMACH 5]

Thanks for the replies. Lighthound is south of Houston and if I have the charger shipped overnight, I'll be paying $34.

I have an old charger for an R/C car at the house. It was for a 7.4v battery pack. Could I gut my fried recharger and use it as a holder, with the R/C charger wired into it?

 

[old4570]

Much Maligned Ultrafire WF-139 [ Mine works fine ]
Or the less known Trustfire TR-001 [ Again mine works fine ]

 

[Justin Case]

If you have a Li-ion charger for a camera, you might be able to tap into its terminals to feed your 18650s. You could also try a cell phone Li-ioncharger, removing the cell phone batt and tapping into the batt terminals inside of the phone.

One potential glitch is that these makeshift chargers typically have 3 terminals. Depending on what the function of the 3rd terminal is, trying to charge a "foreign" cell might not work at all.

Also, note the output charge current and output voltage magnitude to make sure it is compatible with charging an 18650. If you have an idea as to the remaining capacity of your 18650s, then you could do a timed charge. Probably unwise to depend on the makeshift charger to terminate the charging correctly anyway. In any case, I would babysit the makeshift charger for the entire charge duration.

 

[MMACH 5]

Thanks Justin!
You nailed it. My digital camera battery charger matches the same voltage and mAh output as the 18650 charger (it turns out the R/C charger I mentioned above is for NiCad so there's just too much juice for Li-ions).

And by the way, my wife is going to be in Houston this week so she'll stop by Lighthound's store and pick up a new charger for me.

Thanks again everyone!