It’s a pretty popular RC hobby brand with a good reputation. I really do not understand why they put this great interface on a dedicated fixed length cell charger given that there are so many minute and large lengths of common cells like the 18650!
Hi, below are additions since last update and the BLF INTEREST LIST file linked to in post #1 have been updated too.
The interest list count now stands at 566 chargers.
If there’s no real progress by this summer, you can forget about the next 9 years. A feature list and perhaps some rough schematics is nice, but the real work is getting a reputable company to agree to build it. They’re the ones that are going to determine whether it’s going to get done, or not.
IMO, the better way to go would have been to pick an existing charger, and get the company to modify the firmware to add (or subtract) the features that are wanted. If new injection moulding is required, or expensive machining, there’s no way this is getting done for anything close to the price. You might not get 100% what you wanted, but 90% is better than 0%.
BTW guys, this project will have to be put on hold…
I just reread an email from DLYFull and this is what they had to say:
Dear BlueSwordM,
Firstly, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family.
I am sorry the UC4 charger is pending because of higher price with no big wholesale customers. So my boss asked my engineer team to stop it for other projects. Was not okay for this.
We know BLF projects usually are successful, but my boss was not agreeing even with the design sent by you. He said current chargers are good enough to make money and not risk with completely new designs.
But the good news is that we are going to make a advanced charger which will better than the UC4 which is suitable for the battery engineers. We have talked
about the functions last week. It is so complicated charger, so we will need many time to check functioning features . It may be started at 2020, total will cost about 1 year
to finish. All function and appearance will be designed by ourselves.
So once the project is working, I will let you know and tell our team to consider all feature that you mentioned. It has been very good working with you. I think I may find a way for you to work in the design process,
but don’t know about result from boss.
Best regards,
Jeff
TLDR: They are considering building a charger similar to mine, but with their stuff instead, for which I understand.
TLDR2: I should get myself a 3D printer to do some prototypes.
TLDR3: Since they are not working with me right now, I guess I should build a functioning basic charger prototype for the casing.
TLDR4: I just got someone else to work with me, so project should go a little quicker.
Sounds like they’re taking your charger ideas and making it for themselves. If they do indeed copy your charger, make sure to let them make a bunch of money off the design before turning your lawyer loose on them.