LiitoKala Lii-100 Battery Charger - Single cell Ni-MH / Li-Ion / LifePo4 500mA/1A USB - US$3.90 (~AU$5.39) Shipped @ Banggood

100

Affiliate

Go to Deal

Cashback

llama on 08/07/2016 - 03:44 banggood.com (234 clicks)
Last edited 08/07/2016 - 03:55

This post contains affiliate links. OzBargain might earn commissions when you click through and make purchases. Please see this page for more information.

Fabulous single-cell multi-chemistry charger for about $5 each
Buy 3 and they are US$3.62 AU$5.01 each.
Good reviews, great bang for the bucks!

Proper changing algorithms and voltage termination
1.2V Ni-CD & Ni-MH
3.7V Li-Ion
3.2V LifePo4
3.8V Li-Ion
- It Auto-selects the first 2 of those voltages, or override manually for 3.2 and 3.8V
- Defaults to 500mA charge, a 2-second button hold will manually override to 1 Amp

Runs off 1A USB port, seems to include a MicroUSB cable.
Bonus function as a USB Power Bank if you drop a Lithium cell in it (say a 18650)

I have other more advanced chargers, dischargers, analysers, testers, etc. I bought these as a quick and easy to use charger for the family to use. Will connect three up to a 5 port Blitzwolf Mains to USB adaptor.

Review by HKJ: http://lygte-info.dk/review/Review%20Charger%20LiitoKala%20L…
BudgetLightForum discussion: http://budgetlightforum.com/node/43690
Mods to adjust voltage and current: http://budgetlightforum.com/node/44086
Teardown (Russian): http://www.mobilpower.ru/article_info.php?articles_id=25

Cheers!

Related Stores

Banggood

• 

  furythree on 08/07/2016 - 04:55

  what is a trustworthy 18650 battery?

  i dont know too much about LiOns, but are there other common batteries other than 18650? any particular reason why the 18650 is bigger than say consumer rechargable batteries?

  • 

    wwwsam on 08/07/2016 - 06:59

    Many ways to answer the first question but I guess a trustworthy 18650 is one that is known to be well built and meets its rated capacity. Popular ones are from Panasonic, Sanyo, Samsung, LG, Sony etc.. of course watch out for fakes. Also generally good idea to stay away from brands with "fire" in its name.

    Other common (but much less common) Li-ion sizes off the top of my head include:
    * 18350 (Usually to use in series where usually an 18650 would be, or smaller torches)
    * 26650 (For high current and high capacity applications)
    * 14500 (AA sized Li-ion, popular for boosting output of those OzB zoomie cree torches. DO NOT replace AA with these unless it is rated for these as it'll fry it in a matter of seconds!)

    18650 is extremely popular due to their wide spread usage in things like laptop battery packs (the chunky ones) and more recently tesla cars, electric bikes, hoverboards etc. They are pretty energy dense and provide good voltage Also somewhere along the line, they became the standard for most hobbies due to them being readily available and great capacity for size. For comparison, a typical eneloop is ~1000mAh and 1.2V, whilst a typical high capacity 18650 is ~3400mAh and 3.7V.
    However, the capacities come at a cost, if mishandled or if the proper safety measures arent in place, they will readily vent their stored energy, becoming a fire and health hazard.

    • 

      furythree on 08/07/2016 - 18:51

      thanks for the explanation

      what rating are you looking for with the 14500 ones? a preliminary look shows that they are intended to be high capacity rechargable AAs. how would an average person know when NOT to use them?

      • 

        wwwsam on 08/07/2016 - 23:27

        Assuming by "rating" you mean "capacity", 14500 usually sit at ~750 to 850mAh.

        The average person should assume that 14500 is never to be used where a AA is used.
        Devices that are designed for AA (maximum ~1.5V) cannot take the higher voltages of 14500 (~3.7V) and will fry.
        In all honesty, it is probably best not to have 14500 around the house as other people might mix them, leading to fried electronics.

        Usually 14500 compatible devices, such as the typical ozbargain torch here: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/251571 will state in it's description it is 14500 or lithium compatible.
        From personal experience, these torches shine much brighter with 14500 due to the higher voltage. However in terms of runtime they are probably around the same if not less then your typical eneloop.

      • 

        furythree on 08/07/2016 - 23:43

        @wwwsam: this makes so much more sense

        is there a reason why the voltage drops as the battery gets used? is it because it pushes the same amps?

      • 

        wwwsam on 09/07/2016 - 00:40

        @furythree:
        I have not really looked into why the voltage drops through usage, so cannot really help you there (sorry), but all batteries experience this drop.
        However the drop characteristic is dependent on the battery chemistry.
        (ie. my Panasonic NCR18650Bs tend to have fast drop from 4.2V and stabilise around 3.8 for most of its charge, whereas my Sanyo tends to stabilise at a slightly higher voltage).
        The voltage drop shouldnt be too big of a concern (unless you plan to..say..use it as a 3.3V power source. Big problem as typical lithium charge goes from 4.2V down to 3.0V).

        As for amp output through its charge, I couldn't find anything on it, but it's generally a bad idea to push very high amps from lithium batteries (even shorting it for half a second will cause it to go warm).

      • 

        furythree on 09/07/2016 - 06:21

        @wwwsam: ah ok

        i was just wathcing some videos of ppl taking laptop batteries apart and a distinct sign of dead batteries is low voltage

      • 

        wwwsam on 09/07/2016 - 09:24

        @furythree:
        Ah yes, when taking laptop batteries apart, (especially older laptop battery packs) there may be cells that are well below the 3V minimum. You will find these hold almost no charge at all and should be binned.
        Also the cell it is in parallel with usually is fairly worn too (if you try to revive it by cycling).
        Depending on the age of the pack, the rest of the cells may need to be cycled at lower currents to come back to life. But at this point, their capacities are usually severely reduced already.

  • 

    Jackal on 08/07/2016 - 07:36

    This is the reason why poorly made Li-ion batteries are so dangerous:

    The positive and negative terminals are not isolated/insulated safely, which can easily result in a short circuit (ie any metal wire/component connecting the two terminals) and subsequent fire or explosions

    Didn't really understand what lots of OzB'ers were talking about regarding the danger of these batteries until I looked into it myself…

    • 

      garage sale on 08/07/2016 - 08:31

      Same with mobile phone batteries ……but they are so essential we accept it

    • 

      llama on 08/07/2016 - 08:56

      +1

      This is the reason why poorly made Li-ion batteries are so dangerous:

      The positive and negative terminals are not isolated/insulated safely, which can easily result in a short circuit (ie any metal wire/component connecting the two terminals)

      Errrrmmmm… well made Lithium batteries are made exactly the same way. As are AAA,AA, in fact all cylindrical batteries. And Lead Acid batteties - they have exposed terminals too… have you ever ever dropped a spanner across a car battery?

      The Youtube video you lined to is not a normal failure mode, and even the best Lithium in the world would fail under those same circumstances. A decent battery would not last 2 minutes, it would vent a LOT quicker than that.

      You need to do a lot more looking and reading.

      • 

        Jackal on 08/07/2016 - 08:58

        What makes the knockoffs so dangerous then?

      • 

        llama on 08/07/2016 - 12:32

        @Jackal:

        The knockoffs aren't really much more dangerous that genuine cells. In some ways they are actually safer as they have heaps les energy inside them to expel. The "***fire" brands used to only have 1/10th the capacity of genuine cells (typically about 3000-3500 mAh), but now days I think there are some "fires" that accidentally get made with over 1000mAh capacity!

        All lithium cells are "dangerous" because they don't tolerate over-charging AT ALL, and if you let the voltage fall below acertain amount (say 2.0V) then recharge again, they often go bang. This is caused by the chemistry inside being irreversibly damaged by overcharging and under-voltage.

        Once that chemistry gets damaged, they somehow short out internally… and once that starts it kind of avalanches until all the energy is out of the things. The Lithium cells have low internal resistance, so they can delivery HEAPS of amps… the short circuit current on a 18650 can easily reach 1000 Amps, and that makes big heat!

        Good batteries (intended for consumer use) have a "Protection Circuit" built into the end of them to protect against these catastrophic events. Some of the fake batteries have the circuit boards, but no components mounted! Some devices have external protection, so the batteries have no protection internally - when harvested and re-purposed, these unprotected cells are dangerous.

        In the olden days, a lot of fake 18650s used to be recycled from old laptops, and those cells were old, abused (let to run right down) and unprotected. Those were the ones that tended to go boom. Now days, they manufacture new cells so cheap that most of the cheapo batteries are fairly "safe".

        They all will blow up if punctured. Quite amazingly violently. But not when you are making a YouTube video about how dangerous they are…. watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqPFuzRIANs

      • 

        wwwsam on 08/07/2016 - 13:31

        @llama:
        Just wanted to add that protection circuits are usually added by a third party and not the cell manufacturer themselves.

        A protection circuit only usually protects from overcharging, overdischarging, shorting(in the form of overcurrent protection). However their tolerances are usually a bit less then the ideal, so overcharging, overdischarging can still occur but to a limited degree.
        Also as the protection circuit is only an add-on board and acts like a buffer to cell failure, it can be circumvented under abnormal usage/storage.

        If you look at a cell phone battery, theres a plastic part that covers the top of the battery, also containing the terminals. That is where the protection circuit lies (similarly on protected 18650, though usually at bottom, provided the circuit isnt a dud). The reason why most li-ion mobile batteries dont vent in your hands is because it sits in the safety phone where the protection is allowed to do its job, and there is a proper charging circuit. However, there have been exceptions which seems to generally be caused by badly manufactured cells, improper mobile charger or excessive usage (phone heats up from usage, battery heats up from discharging or fast charging at same time, boom). Google: "mobile phone explosion".
        So when handling high energy li-ion cells be wary of signs such as excessive heating, puffing up etc.

  • 

    Jackal on 08/07/2016 - 07:49

    Also, fake 18650 batteries compound the danger by using potentially flammable fillers in the tube of the battery to fake the weight of a real battery.

    Beware buying cheap batteries online.

  • 

    doperst on 08/07/2016 - 13:13

    Gearbest.com sells good quality 18650 batteries. Look for batteries that cost $4-5 per piece with lost of reviews. Here is an example

• 

  llama on 08/07/2016 - 06:46

  +1

  what is a trustworthy 18650 battery?

  Anything that doesn't have "fire" in the brand name :-)

  are there other common batteries other than 18650?

  Sure, they come in a large range of sizes.

  A 14500 is the same size as a AA Alkaline. 14mm diameter and 50mm long.

  A 26500 is the same diameter as a C Cell, but a bit longer.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battery_sizes#Lithium-…

  any particular reason why the 18650 is bigger than say consumer rechargable batteries?

  Yes, because it is bigger. The bigger they are, the more energy they contain.

  A normal kind of 18650 size Lithium is (say) 3200 mAh - at a nominal 3.7V that is 11.840 Watt Hours or power.

  An AA NiMH rechargeable is about 2400mAh but only 1.2V, so it holds 2.88 Watt Hours of power (about 1/4)

  A 14500 Lithium is the same size as AA but runs to about 750mAh at 3.7V, which is 2.775 Watt Hours.

  To build a laptop pack out of AA-sized cells would take 4 times as many. With Lithium, the more cells the more complicated they are to charge evenly… so they try to keep the cells as big as they can.

  I am changing my gear over to LifePo4, since it has most of the advantages of 3.7V Lithium, but can be recharged heaps more times, and is far less "delicate" of charging / discharging. Also, they don't go upo in flames like other chemistries.

• 

  dekkar on 08/07/2016 - 10:28

  Could you use this with a solar panel (something like a Goal Zero) to recharge your C sized batteries?

  • 

    llama on 08/07/2016 - 12:35

    I suppose you could, but I don't know what circuits the Goal Zero has to make it useful as a power supply.

    Generally, you'd be better off just using a proper solar charge controller. The PCBs come from Ebay, and you'd generally try to use a higher voltage of solar (than 5V that this uses) so that the amps required would be lower.

    • 

      dekkar on 08/07/2016 - 14:54

      Thanks for the reply. Thr Goal Zero is just designed to charge USB devices. Phones etc. But I have been trying to work out a way to charge batteries off it.

      I had no idea there were these USB type battery chargers, didnt find any a few years ago when I was on the hunt! Have bought one, will give it a go.

      • 

        llama on 11/07/2016 - 22:09

        +1

        The Goal Zero seems to be a big battery bank anyway, so no drama with the 500mA default charge current that this thing delivers.

        There are smaller, simpler and lighter ways to charge Lithium cells off USB if you are prepared to hack things a little bit. The TP4056 is what you need… look at this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw4psECqpwI

        The module with 3 chips (incl DW01 chip) is for unprotected Lithium Cells. Find them on eBay for $1 each by searching "micro usb lithium module" and looking for the photos with 3 large black chips. Better price if you add "5pcs" ($3.52) to your search.

        The simpler module with just one main chip is perfectly fine for more common protected Lithium Cells. These are slightly cheaper.

        By default these modules charge at 1000 mA which is perfectly fine for any decent size 18650 or whatever. You can google for a data sheet and re-solder 1 resistor to charge at a lower current if you want.