Charger for 10440, 14500 and 26650

Batteries and Chargers Chargers
1

i search a charger for 10440, 14500 and 26650

I hesitate between:

Miller ML-102 (7.50:money_mouth_face:
Xtar WP2 II (16.50)
Xtar WP2 (10.60)
XTAR MP1

otherwise do you have a better suggestion

Thanks

2

10440 will need a much lower charging current then 26660.
Really need either two chargers or one thats adjustable quite low. I don’t recall seeing an adjustable one that actually goes low enough.
Miller ML-102 Should be around 1.5a charge current (since it lists “Double TP4057”). Certainly too much for 10440.

3

The WP2II have 500ma and 1a

4

Perhaps foursevens Single-bay Smart Charger

Charges 14500, 16340 (RCR123A), 17670, 18500, 18650, 26650
Li- ion (4.2V) and LiFePO4 (3.6V)
Current: 500mA or 1A
Plus you can charge from USB, car adapter 12V or wall/outlet

5

Really 500ma is still too high for 10440. People do it when they don’t want to find a lower current charger but it increases your risk (of venting / fire) & reduces the life of the battery. You want 300ma. Now it doesn’t sound like a big jump from 300 to 500ma when you see some chargers doing 1500ma but to a 10440 it is a big difference.
If you can solder you can get a tp4056 usb charger on ebay for $1.65. Add a different resistor & it should be happy to do 300ma. Certainly can’t get cheaper & its a quality chip. Unmodified they do 800-1000ma & it seems two boards can be doubled up for 1600-2000ma.

6

I would second tp4056 with mod for 10440 only but if you prefer regular ones,go for the one with USB input up to 1A. Then you have 2 different power supply(power adapter) typically 300mA for 10440 and 500mA or above for the rest of the battery types.

Hobby charger can be considered too.

7

How about Intellicharger i4?

8

Yes, only if 10440 are charged in pairs. With single 10440, the charging current going to be little high.

9

For small batteries (i.e. 10440 and smaller) CottonPicker has a nice little charger, he is selling them on cpfmarketplace.

10

Ok for 10440 I will buy the tp4056 but what is the modification I need to do

and for 14500 and 26650

11

I thought it has independent bays and could regulate the current for each bay?

12

The cheapest boards have a tiny surface mounted (smd) resistor that need to be replaced. Some other boards (like these) have holes for the resistor but those boards have no usb jack… (could cut a plug off a usb cable or get one board of each type & link the power input)
RPROG resistor / charge current mA
5 k ………………. 250 mA
4 k ………………. 300 mA
3 k ………………. 400 mA
2 k ………………. 580 mA
1.5 k ……………… 780 mA

Somewhere there is a picture of one with the smd resistor replaced with a standard one but I can’t find the thread :weary:
Picture of the size difference & location of RPROG / current resistor Review Charger TP4056

13

ML-101, 102 and 103 have max 1A charge current.

14

Your right ML-102 is 1A HKJ review
I was going by the fact that Fasttech lists ML-102 as having “double TP4057”. If set to max each can do 1A if heatsinked well or ~800mA if not. So you could bump the ML-102 up if desired. Current select switch mod anyone?

15

Hi,

I’m searching for a way to have just one small travel charger for ALL my battery needs. I just ordered the Nitecore i2 and the only batteries it can’t charge safely are those with a (real) capacity below 500mA. I would pay twice (or even thrice) as much for an i2 which could do 10440 and 10250 without damaging the batteries.

Given that such a charger doesn’t seem to exist at ANY cost, I was wondering whether it’s feasible to use a resistor in series with the 10440 (or indeed 10250) to bring the charge current down to the appropriate value.

The only problem I can think of is that while this could work in a “dumb” charger, a smart charger may get confused and it may mess with the way it senses the state that the battery is in.

Thanks in advance :).

Regards,
Michal

16

A resistor would screw up detecting when the battery is full.
There really aren’t any “dumb” li-ion chargers. Its either smart or it will blow up batteries. Lots of dumb ni-mh charger are available since ni-mh don’t “rapidly disassemble” like li-ion. Instead they just slowly kill your ni-mh batteries.

There is just no way around needing a second charger for 10440 & 10250. Those tp4056 usb charger boards are small, compact.
The Adafruit Micro Lipo or LIPOnano are a bit smaller even and both do 100mA or 500mA. Adafruit comes set to 100mA.

17

Thank you for the clarification. Makes perfect sense.

You also just reminded me that I have a tiny LiPo micro charger PCB somewhere! I must find it :stuck_out_tongue:

EDIT: And I just found it. It’s one of these: Lithium Polymer USB Charger and Battery - Retail - RTL-09876 - SparkFun Electronics

18

Oh hey!
Welcome to BLF! :beer: :bigsmile:

Just noticed your join date & post count.

19

Thanks :slight_smile:

Flashlights and the batteries and chargers that power them are like a pandora’s box. I can foresee this forum consuming a lot of my time in future :stuck_out_tongue:

Regards,
Michal

20

Yea, it seems quite a few people have fallen for pandora’s box and wound up with large collections of flashlights. Plus a lighter wallet. Anyone who might be low on financial will power should consider running far away. :ghost:

That sparkfun one seems to come preset to 500mA. Don’t see instructions for switching it. Cut that tiny 500mA bridge & solder the 100mA side.

~ Edit ~

I should correct something I said.
“There really aren’t any ‘dumb’ li-ion chargers.” Thats not true. Unfortunately there are indeed some bad li-ion chargers. I just wouldn’t call them ‘dumb’ so much as dangerous. They are only sold because regulations can’t reach chinese sellers.
Ni-mh dumb chargers are timer based and will just reduce the life of your batteries. Certainly better to get a smart ni-mh charger but its ok to use a dumb one. Even battery manufacturers sell dumb ni-mh chargers.