Good afternoon, I’m hoping to get some suggestions for a charger that can take a USB input and charge multiple cell types – especially CR123 and 18650. Does anyone know of a USB charger that can take care of 18650s, 123s, and ideally NiMH AAs as well? I can keep using Lithium primaries for the AAs, but would really prefer not to carry multiple chargers.
Reason for my requirements: I recently have received a Biolite stove to use backpacking. For those unfamiliar with this device, it converts excess heat energy from a solid biomass fuel fire into a continuous 2 Watt @ 5 Volt USB output.
Minimizing weight is always a goal for backpacking equiment. Unfortunately I am not standardized on a single cell size and had no reason to prior to getting this new toy. Many of my devices will charge right off the USB output (GPS, Camera). However, I currently carry CR123 batteries for my Steripen, AA Lithium primaries for my Spot Connect, and 18650 for my headlamp and Jacob A60 (thanks to recommendations from here). There is a new model of Steripen with an internal battery, so I can eventually get rid of the 123s. The capacity and *durability *of the 18650s allow me to carry fewer spares (and if I get the charger maybe no spares) compared to the 123s, so I really do want to keep using the 18650s and not 123s for my lighting. In the past I tried some 123 lights and have just not been able to rely on these cells as much. Perhaps my home DSD charger could be killing some of them, but the 18650s from it have always been reliable.
Welcome to BLF! So far there is nothing that can do that off of USB. The only charger that can reliably do both is the Intellicharge i4. It can run off of normal mains or 12 volt which I had thought the biolite stove could do to. If not then that wouldn't work.
Then you would need 2 seperate chargers. However this could easily be done without having it weigh to much by getting some form of nimh charger and a Cottonpicker charger .
Or if the cottonpicker is to expensive you could get one of these to charge lions and add this to monitor voltage.
Did you get the biolite off of Kickstarter? How do you like? I considered ordering one but ended up getting a Goal Zero panel instead.
I was a pre-order of the second edition. I believe the kickstarter one didn’t have the USB port and I think that is the one that had 12V taps. Tech specs say it is indeed 5V and not 12…
I haven’t used it in the field yet, but for a device of its size that is just a bit over 2 pounds it is amazing on how sturdy the build is. I am particularly impressed with how securely the peltier tec /fan/charge unit (orange thing) attaches to the stove unit. One of the fold out legs swings out over a cylinder on the base of the orange thing to ensure it isn’t going to easily get knocked off.
That cottonpicker charger thread is long! I’ll have to spend a bit of time reading through it…
Thanks for the suggestions. With that eBay charger would you send the male USB cord —> female port —> solder some leads to to the PCB —> attach leads to the battery? Could you use something like RE magnets to easily stick the leads to the cells?
Those cottonpickers are cool! I couldn’t see the images while in the office today, but now that I am at home I can tell you I will be ordering one. I posted a few questions in that thread and will have one jumping the puddle soon enough. Thanks again for the suggestions!
Thanks again scaru for all the advice here and the links and advice on CPFMP. It has probably been 4 years since I had been on that site - I had registered there long ago when I ordered 3 nice LiteFlux SSC lights - then later an absolute garbage LumaPower Avenger light. One brand and one reseller will never get my business again after that fiasco!
I think I am going to have to make a fire in the biolite and figure out where to put the probes on my dmm to watch how many ma are being produced. Do you have any knowledge on that by any chance?
The outermost 'pins' of the USB plug are the current, the innermost two the data. If you don't have small probes, you may wish to sacrifice a cable in order to get a good contact.
Chicago, I did end up sacrificing an USB cable to measure the output, thanks for the advice. It stayed a very steady 400 mah.
Scaru, the cottonpicker I got was the 400 mah single mode, and it was in the nice new aluminum enclosure!
The negative battery lead magnet was kind of hard to keep stuck to the bottom of a 18650 cell, I think it was due to the angle it was soldered at and the rotation of the wire. I just stuck a bigger RE magnet to the tiny one and problem solved
