Review / Measurement: Charger module with TP4056 controller

I hope it is even possible to find some honest ebay or other free shipping sellers of these

I believe it’s the equivalent protection IC’s that are round and on the bottom of 18650’s (more or less) example possibly 2A output (I believe for more they use more chips)
I would like to know if reverse polarity protection built in with the protection IC or if you put them in backwards will it smoke the protection IC as well

Datasheet for the 8205A IC

so, out of 6 enquiries This one is the most promising answer, for this item:

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for this item:
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/5V-Micro-USB-1A-Lithium-Battery-Charging-Board-Charger-Module-/400698052359?ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:CA:1123

ordered one to check it out

@vex_zg

:frowning:

From my experience such answers don’t necessarily mean that it is true. I also made a lot of enquiries to sellers that advertised boards with original chips. I asked if the board is 100% the same like in listing photo, including chip logo etc. Most of them answered that the board is exactly the same. So I chose one seller that had a 99.8 % feedback score, decent amount of sales and specialized in electronic components. But the board I received from him not only had cloned chip, but was of different design too. At least he shipped by Singapore Post so it was quick and he refunded me too. After that I again made similar enquiries to sellers advertising boards with original chips. But this time I’ve added that if the chip is not an original one as in their photo I ask for full refund. Some didn’t answer, some wrote that they can’t guarantee that chip is original because they don’t see the boards themselves and sell what they get from their suppliers. And only one, if I recall correctly, wrote that his board is 100% the same. But once again this is not necessarily true.

this one also said they have genuine chip:

@kaiser: I’ve bought also from “chipworld” some modules because the pictures showed genuine TP4056. What I’ve got are lookalikes with 4056ES/B1443D (Logo is kind of a “C” with a dot in the middle - it looks like this 「图」优势供应AD4056ES 4056ES AD4056 4056E1A线性锂离子电池充电器图片-马可波罗网 or this http://jimlaurwilliams.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Chip2014.jpg but laser-engraved). I’ve started a dispute on eBay and asked the seller to send me items that match the pictures. The answer is for a refund a have to send them back. Did you send back yours for a refund? Is there somewhere more information/tests about this exact clone version 4056ES? It might be even better than the original or much worse…

Antenne, I haven’t sent mine back and the seller didn’t ask for it. But I guess the difference in my case was that I asked before ordering if I get a board with genuine chip and I didn’t. So when I first complained he asked me to just try it and claimed that this board is just as good. But I insisted that I wanted the original chip because it’s well tested and safe to use, whereas this one is of unknown quality. He refunded me after that. I wouldn’t have sent the board back to him even if he asked because that would cost a lot more than the board itself.
Pavithra_uk has done some testing of these boards we got. It’s not as good as original, but usable.

Thank you for your answer. You are right, I’ve read this part (Pavithra_uk’s results in the other thred) too and these are the same boards I’ve got with all the equal markings. Did you used any of them? I think the biggest risk would be if the termination voltage is not accurate enough (>4.2V). For most applications it wouldn’t matter if the charging take a little longer than possible with genuine TP4056.

Antenne, tell the seller it costs more to ship it back to china than its worth. The seller of course is already well aware of that, he is just hoping you will give up and go away.

I haven’t seen anyone chart the charge profile of any clone chips yet. So we don’t even know if they are proper cc/cv.

I wonder if it anyway possible to mod these cheap usb charger boards to adjust the final voltage? my TP4056 10440 charger is only charging to 4,17v and because the small 10440 battery has so little energy to begin with, i would really like to get a charger that charges it to 4,2-4,25v.

I understand it is possible to charge lithium battery to 4,25v but you lose half the possible charge cycles, from 500 to 250, but because these small battery is relatively cheap i would happily exchange some charges for more lumens and longer runtimes, and just replace them when they can’t keep up anymore.

You don’t only lose charge cycles, capacity will be degraded. Your working against yourself by overcharging.

Yes i know capacity will be degraded, that is the nature of the best unfortunately.

And the capacity degrading happen with all lithium battery, for every cycle you get a tiny bit less, i would like to exchange a bit more capacity for a bit more loss of capacity per cycle.

And because i often only discharge them to max 3,3v i think it could possibly even out in the end.

But as i said at least i would like to charge them to 4,2v, so is there any way to fix these boards so the charge to full capacity?

I don’t agree that i work against my self if i would slightly overcharge, i can easily discard a battery that doesn’t fully charge at the expected time anymore, and buy another one.
And until that happen i would gain more output and more runtime, exactly what i want.

It might be possible to increase the termination voltage by providing the chip a ground that is actually slightly above ground. 0.03v. Input voltage can vary though. You need to start with stable voltage then pull the 0.03v off that.

Instead you could just try a few chips until you find one that hits 4.20v.

Another way to near 4.2V termination voltage is reduce charging current by changing programming resistor

Instead of stock 1A, if program to 250mA, termination current will be 25mA (or 12mA for some boards) then battery can reach 4.2V

Thanks for the ideas Halo & Pavithra

I already have reduced charging current to 130mA because i am charging a 350mA 10440 battery, and it is with that reduced charging current i only get 4,17v.

@Halo, how would i provide the ground slightly higher? is it by somehow feeding the - on the 5v side with a to start with 0,03v load?, do you have any idea how i could do that? maybe by a battery or a adjustable powersupply……
Or do you mean that i should pull 0,03v of the 5v power source i use to power the board?

below 4.2vdc that is the batteries internal resistance resting/stabilization point…trying to get it to EXACTLY 4.2vdc will rarely happen…

If it stays well above 4.1vdc after a “full” charge the battery is still good…if it starts going much below 4.1 after the charger says it’s charged then it might be time to retire that battery as it is no longer anywhere near it’s 80–100 capacity anymore

I put 2.2K resistors on mine…I get right at 500mA charge current and the batteries terminate much closer to 4.2vdc…takes a LONG time…but that is the nature of the beast…lower charge current but also less stress on batteries and more charge cycles but much much longer charge times

Hi Kaiser,
I do not know what the additional BAT- connection is for yet, It may be that they are common battery grounds.
On the original board a MOSFET (8205A) disconnects the negative battery terminal when the battery voltage drops too low. I am hopeing that the EN connection will do the same from an outside signal.
R & G connections are for a 3 pin dual colour LED.
I have ordered some to test and will let you know my findings.
I am trying to create a type of 5V UPS for a Raspberry Pi.

Hi John,

If you find anything usefull about this type of TP4056 please let us know.
I already received mine and used for what it was intended for. I had a cheap Tesco branded cordless screwdriver. I wasn’t using it much because batteries didn’t last long and it takes quite long to charge. But since I had some laptop-pull 18650 batteries I thought it might be interesting to replace original batteries with one 18650 and use TP4056 board for charging. Conversion went quite easy. Only thing that motor refused to work when connected to P- so I’ve soldered it to second B- instead. I don’t know why because multimeter was shoving the right voltage. But I’m not that good with electric stuff so can’t tell the reason. Maybe it’s something obvious :slight_smile: Anyway, the screwdriver works and charges now.

Just had an email from the supplier. He states that the EN pin does nothing.
Looking at tghe photo of the board it looks like it goes to 2 pind on the chip next to it.
This could be a DW01x chip as pin 1 & 3 on that chip go to a MOSFET gate