hobby charger and proected cells

[Willie]

I recently purchased the Thunder AC6 hobby charger, since I got into RC cars and thought this charger would be good for charging 18650s as well.

When I got the unit and read the manual, it stated that batteries with internal protection should not be charged.

Why is this? Should I not be using this for protected cells?

 

[sparkysko]

That's a good question. I used my thunder power charger to charge a protected 14500 and it didn't blow up, if that makes you feel any better.

 

[VidPro]

because the protection can kick in , that is the main reason.
when the protection kicks in it becomes a open curcuit, so the charger wont even see the battery existing there.
and
when charging in series, and NOT using balancing, which is a dumb thing to do, one cell could be so far out of wack with the other cells, that the protection on that cell has kicked in. but that is a GOOD thing.

and depending on the protection amp rating where the short curcuit amps protection kicks in, a excessive high rate of charge from a hobby charger would kick in the protection. if the hobby charger uses a lesser charge alogrythm that doesnt do the proper charge for a li-ion, the charger will not be able to charge it fully, as it will cut out.

and depending on the protection again, there is a slight resistance change, wherin the voltage read under charge/discharge would be higher/lower than the actual voltage.

if the charger is working properly and the user isnt going crasy with the settings, and the user always balances any series pack items, the only flaws will be the protection doing what it is supposed to do. as hobby chargers can be set to do things they shouldnt do to a battery the user in this situation with or without the protection can make all the differences in the world. the discalimers just keep them from being around when the user fails.

 

[sadtimes]

The only charger that I use is a Triton 2....

http://www.electrifly.com/chargers/gpmm3155.html

Which is a hobby charger... works very very well for all of my cells.. including my AW's 18650's (protected) and my "D" 10,000Mah NiMh for my P7 mag....

It is very smart though.... For Li-Ion, I tell it the Mah of the cell and it picks the charge current... and it cuts off at 4.09v not 4.2 (which is bad)...

For NiMh I tell it the actual charge current up to 5.0A

I do not charge any of my cells in series... Li-Ion or Nimh... but i do use magnets on the leads for the NiMh's and I have a single 18650 cell holder from Turboferret, but before that I used the magnets on them as well...

I wouldnt worry as long as your doing single protected cell charging and not in series... just my 2 cents though..

 

[Willie]

Thanks for the replies.

Yes, I only plan on doing single 18650 right now. So if the protection kicked in on that, then I would not be able to charge it?

 

[VidPro]

Thanks for the replies.

Yes, I only plan on doing single 18650 right now. So if the protection kicked in on that, then I would not be able to charge it?

if you set the rates all correct, most hobby chargers wouldnt have a problem with the protection, if it does, then its not really using a proper charge alogrythm for them. even if its a stupid alogrythm for charging it should charge them up mostly anyways.

just keep the rates Normalised which is below 1C or about .5C for a nice way of doing it, and see where you get.

 

[sadtimes]

Thanks for the replies.

Yes, I only plan on doing single 18650 right now. So if the protection kicked in on that, then I would not be able to charge it?

I doubt that you will see the protection kick in from a hobby charger...

 

[Willie]

Wouldn't protection kick in from running it too low in the flashlight? That's what I'm talking about. It will look like an open circuit to the charger.

 

[sadtimes]

it will reset itself...

 

[VidPro]

. . . as soon as it gets a bit of charge headed in its direction, depending on the protection type.

 

[rizky_p]

agree on that.

never had protection kicks in with mine either. If your hobby charger triggers overcharge protection then it is a junk. I think it is safer to charge protected batteries instead of unprotected one, just in case some people charged them in series just like they charge Ni-Mh in series.

it is weird to see the statement in the manual. It is like saying better to have the battery charged than having you house in fire.

I doubt that you will see the protection kick in from a hobby charger...