Mini-review: DSD charger - Less crappy than expected, slightly.

Batteries and Chargers Chargers
1

I decided to get some measurements on my DSD charger, and I'm surprised - it actually shuts off rather than trickles. Voltage rises to 4.23 or 4.24, then charger cuts off, light turns green, voltage slowly dropping to 4.10-4.15ish depending on the cell.

I'm not sure how it senses the cell is present, but it seems to be a very, very high impedance circuit - merely touching the cell to either terminal turns the light green, as does touching one of the contacts - you don't need to actually have the cell in, or touch both contacts. So I don't think it's trickling to sense the cell, either.

LED blinks red/green with no batteries, red while charging, green when charged.

All four sets of contacts are simply wired in parallel (based on them all having the same voltage when any one is used - I haven't taken it apart), which works fine if you put in reasonably-matched batteries, but if you put a completely dead battery in one side and a fully charged one in the other, I can see the maximum charge/discharge rates being exceeded as the good one charges the drained one.

Batteries are a bitch to get out if you put two 18650s in - you need to either pry them out, or flip the charger over and whap it against your hand. Protected cells just barely fit, but do fit. Larger protected cells, like the ultrafire 3000s, won't fit at all.

Overall construction quality feels flimsy at best, and I can't imagine the life expectancy is very good, especially if roughly handled.

The ac adapter whistles. No sign of any agency approvals, but they'd probably just be fakes anyway.

English translations are some of the best I've seen lately... or, at least, best for providing amusement.

Charge time is rather slow, especially with two good 18650s.

Absolutely no differentiation between positive and negative contacts - both are identical. Must look at markings to get polarity correct. Would be very, very easy to get a cell in backwards.

But... it doesn't trickle!

Here's some photos:

--Bushytails

2

I picked one up from a US reseller/Flee-bay about 2 weeks ago.

Seems to work as you have noted. I need to break out my meter to confirm what's really going on.

Protected cells are a challenge, but even my XTAR 18700's fit. Oh so barely, but they do fit. 2x 18700 fit as well, but getting them back out was way more of a headache than worth the fretting about possibly damaging the cells.

It took ~5 - 6hrs to make the LED flip to green on my XTAR's that arrived @ 3.83V from overseas. (Got sidetracked on some other projects, and forgot to note the clock ticking.) When I pulled mine they read 4.21V.

I'll need to drain a couple of cells to re-test/re-charge.

From what I've read though, isn't this charger's ability based upon the power adapter/wall wort's capacity? I thought I've read threads discussing picking up a 800mA Nokia cell phone adapter (ACP-12U) to shorten its charging time. (probably a topic well discussed here already)

3

I've got one. It seems to overcharge quite often, if left until green. Also, sometimes it goes to flashing red-green. What's the upper voltage cut-off of protected TF flames? And yes, it takes forever to charge, but I supposed it's good for the battery. I don't let it go to completion anyway.

4

If you live in a place that uses more than 110V for its AC supply, avoid this one as the resistor inside the PSU burns at 200+V. It seems to work a lot better at 110V.

Fortunately a Nokia phone charger (The older, larger pin size) works just fine with these. The 800mA rated ones work quite well.

The original PSU that comes with it used to be a fire hazard. I doubt the design has improved.

DSD charger PS is POS! | Candle Power Flashlight Forum!

At 230V you will be lucky if the PSU works twice.