PILA IBC Charger; Manual?

[ronemca]

Mine didn't come with one, and I wanna be sure I'm doing it right. Can anyone send me a PDF or a link please? Or...is is pretty basic to use the thing? Does it matter which comes first; plug in AC cord or insert cell(s)? Do I have to press the reset button at any point? Many thanks!

 

[SilverFox]

Hello Ronemca,

The Pila IBC charger is straightforward to use.

You plug it in and the green lights will come on with the red lights flashing. Put your battery in and the light will change to solid red indicating that it is charging.

If the battery is protected and has tripped hard at low voltage, it may not immediately start charging. This is when you use the reset button to reset the protection circuit.

Tom

 

[ronemca]

Thank you for the reply! If I may...

If the battery is protected...

It/they are AW's.

...and has tripped hard at low voltage...

Sorry - I'm not completely clear on this.

...use the reset button to reset the protection circuit.

In the battery or the charger?
:wave:

 

[SilverFox]

Hello Ronemca,

Some protection circuits trip hard. That means that they need a little extra voltage to switch back to allow the battery to function. Normally this is not an issue, but some older cells had this "feature." The older Pila chargers were set to 4.6 volts, and that was a high enough voltage to trip back those circuits. The IBC charger is set to 4.2 volts, and there can be a case where it will refuse to charge a cell that has been hard tripped. That is where the reset button comes in.

You can sometimes get the hard trip by driving a cell under a high current until the low voltage cut out trips.

The protection circuit is attached to the battery.

Tom

 

[ronemca]

Awesome! Nicely said, Tom. Thanks very much.

 

[LuxLuthor]

It's your lucky day. I scanned my booklet which is a fold out, so I numbered the pages at top. Hopefully, no one from Pila will mind me doing this in the interest of safety and proper use. There is also a mode of flashing red & green on if a cell is defective. Enjoy!

Pages 1 & 2

Cover, Pages 3 & 4

Pages 5, 6, & 7

 

[ronemca]

:thanks: That was very thoughtful! And it also means I don't have to ask the last kweshchun I wuz gonna ask!

I hope their dire warnings about "Pila only" cells are kindof like those mattress tags we all know of.

<shhh>

:tinfoil:

 

[LuxLuthor]

:thanks: That was very thoughtful! And it also means I don't have to ask the last kweshchun I wuz gonna ask!

I hope their dire warnings about "Pila only" cells are kindof like those mattress tags we all know of.

<shhh>

:tinfoil:

I use the two Pila chargers on unprotected Li-Ion (before I knew the downsides of them), all of AW's Li-Ions, and even on Emoli Lithium Manganese cells. It used to be that only the Pila cells had higher Amp output ranges, but AW's newer versions for about a year have had the 5.5A output PCB limit, and are cheaper/easier to get.