Dsd wall plug died...Need new charger recomendations...

[Stillphoto]

Opened up my Dsd charger's wall plug and found this:

No wonder it's been acting up on me.

What charger can you guys recommend that will charge protected 123a, 18650, and 17670 batteries?

Doesn't have to have any bells /whistles, but I'd prefer it to be somewhat robust.

 

[Stillphoto]

Anyone?

 

[mudman cj]

I would recommend the Pila IBC charger. It is available at Bugoutgear and J.S. Burley's, but the latter are out of stock right now.

 

[HEY HEY ITS HENDO]

highly recomended
....... http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1251

 

[Mr Happy]

What do you mean when you say "wall plug"? Is it like a low voltage power adapter? In which case you could simply replace it with a generic one of the same specification and continue to use your existing charger. What is written on the specification plate of the broken adapter?

 

[mudman cj]

Mr Happy is on to something. Many people have successfully used cell phone charger power supplies to run the DSD. I didn't bother to mention it because you said you wanted something robust.

As for the Ultrafire, it is known to overcharge unprotected cells. I also don't like the way the adjustable contacts stick on mine and it requires the use of spacers to charge CR2 or CR123 size cells. Other than that it is fine.

 

[Mash]

My understanding is that people have used some Nokia chargers succesfully for the DSD charger.
If you do a search I think you will find references for this.

 

[Illum]

DSD chargers are 5.5V/450ma

my nokia [ACP-7U] charger outputs 3.7V 340ma...performance sucked [batteries would be in charging mode for longer time and the wall wort would be hot enough to melt the plastic surrounding the prongs
I think a 5V wall wort [see iomega] might work, not sure though

 

[Norm]

I have read posts where folks say they have used a nokia charger as a replacement.
Norm

 

[Stillphoto]

Hmm, as I might have a nokia charger that will fit around here, I'll investigate that as a short term fix.

Thanks for the input guys, I'm liking the looks of the ultrafire 139 charger, after modding it to charge 123's using the horizontal slots.

In a slightly different direction, is there "one charger to rule them all?" Say, all of the batteries I mentioned above, plus the emoli / a123 or whatever they're called? Would be nice to plunk down money for a charger and not have to worry about it ever again.

 

[MikeV]

I've had pretty good luck with this charger.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.6105

Mine charges very fast and cuts off at 4.17V

Should work ok for the 18650's and 17670's cell but you would need something else for the 123A's.



Mike.

 

[jlien]

I'm having issues with my DSD charger as well.

I charged 2 pairs of trustfire RCR123A's yesterday, and put them into my Romisen RC-F4 torch, only to find that they have a run time of less than 5 minutes, and a very dim output afterwards.

This occurred to both sets, does this sound like an issue with my DSD charger?

I have placed a support ticket with DX, and they will get back to me I guess, but in the meantime I suspect I might have to get a new charger, my Spiderfire SF-CR8 flashlight is arriving soon and I want to be able to use it!

Currently considering this unit: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1236 does anyone have any experiences?

 

[mudman cj]

That depends. Can you measure the voltage across the batteries after they come off the charger? That will help a lot.

 

[jlien]

That depends. Can you measure the voltage across the batteries after they come off the charger? That will help a lot.

I don't have a multimeter handy, unfortunately.

I left a pair to charge while I slept. I'll see how well they were charged.

Edit:

Ok managed to borrow one, both batteries show about 4 volts?

That should mean the battery is fine right? However light output from the flashlight is very dim

 

[mudman cj]

4V is a little low for the charger to terminate. You could get more energy into them unless they are bad. Damaged cells will not hold as much charge as good ones. I would put them back on the charger and measure them as soon as the light goes green. They should be closer to 4.15-4.20V. If they then decrease back to 4V after a little while they are shot. The light should still be able to get enough current from them unless they have developed high internal resistance. :thinking: You could test them using the right resistor to see how they hold voltage under a load. You need one with 3 to 5 Ohms of resistance that can handle the power (5W to 3W minimum respectively). Another option is to order some high quality cells such as the ones sold by AW.

 

[nzgunnie]

My DSD power supply went . Actually it went POP, and let out the magic smoke.

I have a 5.7v 800mAh nikia charger, works great with my DSD. Battery charging is cutting off at 4.15v. The 5.7v does not appear to be an issue, using a multi meter and measuring between the contacts while charging, it's still putting out 4.15v to the cell.

 

[Stillphoto]

Well I had a need arise that called for charging some batteries, so I opened it up, cut the cord off, snipped off the wires and drilled through the holes to clear some room for the wires to be resoldered. Well actually drilled one hole (for the blue wire), the other hole (for the pink wire) shared space with the leg of a capacitor. I gave the wires enough room and replaced the strain relief before soldering, soldered it up and it's good as new for now.

Thanks for all the info guys, in the future I'll probably pick up one of the ultrafire 139's and mod it so that the 123 slots work too.