Hobby Chargers

So, lets start of with some discussion around hobby chargers.

Why aren't more of us using hobby chargers to charge our flashlight batteries? Sure, they are more expensive but in return they offer so much more versatility that they almost pay for them self. I'm using my Turnigy Accucel 6 for all my flashlight batteries, Li-ion 18650, 16340, 10440, NiMH AA and AAA and even the battery pack for my cordless drill. In all cases I can set the charge current from 100mA to 5000mA and the charger always shows the amount of current it has charged the battery with. In this way I can keep track on the state of my batteries and know when it's starting to get time to discard the battery. I can even set the end volt of Li-ion batteries to 4.10V if I feel the need.

The biggest problem, aside the price, is that they are a bit more cumbersome to use with all the settings and battery carriers but with all the above mentioned advantages that's manageable.

Here are 2 pictures that show how I'm charging 2 green UltraFire 18650 in parallel, one in a carrier and one with magnets.

As you can see I'm using a safebox to charge the batteries in case something goes wrong during the charging. Fire safe but not cat safe. :)

I don't remeber exactly how much I paid for my Turnigy but around $50-60 with a power supply and shipping. Well spent money.

So, why aren't YOU using a hobby charger? :)

iCharger 106+ here!

Most versatile charger for its price (i think i paid $70 for it?) and im using a multi voltage laptop PSU set to 16 or 18 volts (keeps current down) which i had around. I was using a computer PSU before from off the street on verge collection days, but the laptop switchmode is more compact and more efficient.

In particular, the iCharger has up to 10? battery type memory, but I usually just need to set charge current only. It detects how many cells I have and charges accordingly. (I have Balance leads connected)

Do i sense a tiny distrustfull attitude toward li-ion safety? XD

With added cork to help prolong the fire!

. I was going to but the accucell 6 for like 30$..I have lots of power supplies but the odd way they don't give you any connectors and it seems like a very B,S, setup .. no ends on the leads , no paperwork , they don't sell the item at all by telling you how it works , why you need it or what it can or cannot do .... so I just think it's really lame salemanship on their part and not adding a power supply or finishing the ends is like an undone thought .. oh yeah a mannual ?? Maybe ?? No ?? ok not .. hey i don't need more projects

I have one like this in mind but I didn't know I could find the adapters for 18650s or RCR123's. Does it come with all the adapters or do they sell seperately?

I recently got a Powerex for my NiMHs and I tasted the joy of capacity measurement and fine tuning a charge. I guess I now need something like that for my LiIons, and if there isn't a compact one doing this I might get a Turnigy for this. From Hobbyking??

okwchin: Sounds like a great charger, I can understand that you're satisfied with it. I use the power supply Hobby King suggested, 15V, small and does what it should. Also it fits perfect in the safety box together with the charger and all the leads. A neat little package to carry around in the travel bag.

Regarding the cork. I know it looks really stupid and I knew someone would comment on it. :) It's actually there of a reason, I wanted something none metal in the bottom of the box and this peace of cork was what I had lying around. :) One reason of using the box is that it's quite sealed so even a small candle goes out by itself in about 1,5 minute, so I'm not worried about a big fire. And in case of a big explosion I think it will work excellent as a shrapnel box. All in all, this charger and the safety box makes me feel very safe when charging my Li-ion batteries.

Boaz: Sorry if I don't fully understand you, english is not my main language, but what do you mean with "no ends on the leads"? And regarding your other thoughts about power supply and manual, those things weren't a problem for me. A friend of mine uses an old PSU from a computer and is happy that he didn't have to spend extra money on it, myself I just bought the power supply. I like being able to choose. The manual I have on my computer...

Kokopelli: You get a pair of alligator clip and a Dean connector (but that's not of interest for charging flashlight batteries), the rest you have to make yourself (maybe that's what you meant Boaz?). I bought a couple of RCR123 carrier locally, cut the ends of 2 of them, glued them togehter and then I had an 18650 carrier. Easy :)

I also use magnets and a metal disc with wires soldered to it. With this setup I can charge basically every kind of battery. I'll add a picture of my carriers for reference.

Hobby chargers usually don't come with alot of paper work, but this is definitely the case with budget models! They don't come with connectors, because in the hobby market, you are most likely going to be using something different to what they supply, and in a $30 charger, providing 10 different types of 50A rated connectors is not going to help with the cost!

Providing a power supply is also half the cost! As even the budget charger is meant to be able to provide 50-100 watts of charging power, so you will need to provide a supply capable of something like 5-10A at 12V, which could add $20 to the charger. The other reason is that these chargers are somewhat meant for use in the field, off your car 12V battery. Our 18650 chargers dont provide more than a couple watts of charging power and these are significantly cheaper and easier to power (practically a phone charger power supply is enough, as opposed to a laptop sized switchmode power supply)

Im coming from the RC hobby background, and this is definitely the norm in a "hobby" charger, and I can understand why they are sold as they are, including the loss of a functional manual in budget versions. They are usually simple enough to use anyway, and most of them have a similar basic user interface.

The Accucel 6 can be had for 22.99 now. The manual can be had on-line. Seems like a good deal since I already have a couple power supplies from another hobby.

Arghh, I had to order that Turnigy and, I did :)

BTW, there are Turnigy LSD NiMH batteries at HobbyKing and I also ordered a bunch of them after reading some very good reviews. Shipping is increasing by weight for sure but the package weight reporting feature is nice. So I ordered 8 x AA's and 1x AAA to stay in the next shipping range (which means an additional $5 shipping).

Li Ion goes to 4.1V, on LiPo it goes to 4.2V.

I've been looking around for MH-C9000 since everyone seems to say it's the cream-of-the-crop, and won't burn down my house. The cheapest I could find was on eBay for $64 shipped, kinda pricey, but most people say it's worth it. But this charger seems to be more versatile, and I could use it for my 18650s as well. Should I be getting one of these instead?

I haven't ordered mine yet. I think I'll wait until you fellows let us know what you think.

DOes the Maha C9000 do Lithium?!? I thought it was only NiMH.

If it does do my 18650s then JOY!

No. Only NiMh and NiCd I'm sorry to say. But it does those very nicely if you need the analyze, refresh and cycle features.

Yeah, that's right. That's why I'm saying this hobby charger would be more versatile, since it can do both Lithiums and NiMHs. I like the Maha for it's cool and seemingly well thought out functions, but if the hobby charger can do both, then maybe I should let the cool charging and refreshing algorithms go. Decisions...

Kokopelli: Nice, I hope you're going to like it.

kragmutt: Well, the MH-C9000 looks like a great charger that's for sure. The Turnigy has the same functions but only one charging bay, so if you're going to charge a lot of NiMH with different capacity the MH-C9000 would be a better choice.

I use my Turnigy to charge the batteries for my Fenix L2D and since I use them in series I also charge them in series (after checking the volt on both of them). But that's about the only frequently used NiMH light I have, so the NiMH wasn't the main reason I bought it. The MH-C9000 would be a time saver if you use a lot of NiMH.

Thanks for the advice Volk. I hadn't realized that the Turnigy won't have multiple channels. Alright, now I gotta save up $65... anyone know where to get a cheap one in Canada? They seem hard to come by here. Actually, everything seems hard to come by here. The cost of low population density I guess.

VancouverBattery.com has them. Arbutus & Broadway area. I bought mine from a small dealer back east. Thomas Distributing sometimes has a good price.

Sounds good, but they list $70, so it'll come to $78.40 with tax. I checked Thomas, and they charge $20 shipping to Canada... oh well. eBay it is then. Thanks for the advice.