Here are two features I would like to see in future advanced chargers.
1. Display actual charging current
It would be nice if ACTUAL charging current is displayed during charging. For example, when a charger is set to push 2A into a battery, the charging current slowly decreases as the battery fills up. I would like to monitor that information. I find the following information useful in my current charger: voltage, configured charging current, charged capacity in mA, time, internal resistance, and temperature. I would like to see actual charging current in addition to the information listed above.
2. Improved contacts
I would like improved contacts. I like chargers that displays detailed information of charged batteries, especially that displays internal resistance. I understand internal resistance measured in most chargers are inaccurate, but it still is an useful piece of information. However, the internal resistance measured usually depends on the goodness of contact between the charger and batteries. If I squeeze the contacts for better electric connection, I usually get better IR measurements. If the metal contact that are usually used in the chargers are improved, then I think the measurements can be much more reliable.
A charger with 4 point measurement for the IR and a storage mode (3.7V). Battery size from 16340 to 26800. Cell chemistry: Li-Ion, Ni-MH, NiCd and LiFePO4.
Thank you for your suggestion. This kind of battery is more suitable for fast charging of high current batteries instead of small batteries
The higher power of usb-pd is used in the charger. It is expected that there will be some difficulties, mainly in terms of cost, protocol and current distribution
18650 to 26800 works for me. I have plenty of chargers for smaller batteries. I only charge one or two batteries at a time, but a four slot with slot 1 & 4 for 26800 would work too. Storage voltage and 4.0v options would be nice, but not required for me. I can just check the voltage every now and then, lol. I do not like chargers that get really hot. High quality with whatever extras you think will sell best. Thanks for asking.
It could be improved by making the top part of the positive terminal a bit bigger, and by adding a small nipple on that big bit so that flat top 10440 and 14500 cells easily fit.
I managed to short a flat top 14500 cell in my S4+ charger and it left a burn mark on the insulation ring.
I agree that keeping a standard barrel plug (Or whatever is currently used) would be cheaper but I would like to see consolidation of power input ports from manufacturers across industries.
It’s not a deal breaker for me though, just something that’s nice to have. Ultimately you have to decide from a business perspective whether it’s worth pursuing.
I usually charge to full, but since 90% of my batteries are in storage at most times and not in actual use, they have less lifetime because they are stored full. Charging to 80% of energy (that is 4.0V?) will make them both suitable for storage and for normal use.
Come to think of it, my ideal setting would be 90% instead of 80, as a compromise between usability and battery lifetime. Maybe a charger could have user settings for 70, 80, and 90 ?
Do you mean that the service life when I charge to 4.20V is much shorter than that when I charge to 80-90%? If not, there is no meaning. It is expected that the new charger will increase the storage function to 3.70v
If you need such a program, you need a very high-end charger to appear
It is equivalent to adjusting different charging voltages
I found this on batteryuniversity.com. I'm not sure how old this specific data is (which generation of batteries is used to generate these numbers?) but the article had its last update in nov 2021. It shows that for maximum service life you should charge to 3.95V (so not 3.7V as I always thought), but changing from 4.2V to 4.05V already more than doubles the service life of the battery.
CHARGE LEVEL* (V/CELL)
DISCHARGE CYCLES
AVAILABLE STORED ENERGY **
[4.30]
[150–250]
[110–115%]
4.25
200–350
105–110%
4.20
300–500
100%
4.15
400–700
90–95%
4.10
600–1,000
85–90%
4.05
850–1,500
80–85%
4.00
1,200–2,000
70–75%
3.90
2,400–4,000
60–65%
3.80
See note
35–40%
3.70
See note
30% and less
Table 4: Discharge cycles and capacity as a function of charge voltage limit
Termination voltage is a requirement. I want to charge my batteries to 4.1V not all the way to 4.2. So, a configurable termination voltage. Note this is for a battery that is going to be used soon and is a different concept from storage voltage.