I got tired of my 2 bay charger, tired of charging 1 battery at a time on my hobby charger, and didn't want to buy another separate charger for my many different batteries. So I thought, why not mod my old NiMH charger to charge more batteries on my hobby charger?
I can now charge any size LiPo, NiMH, Li-Ion, LiFe, NiCd all on one charger up to 4 batteries at one chemistry at a time! What's great is that it can also benefit from the functionality of my hobby charger. I.e. charge, discharge, cycle, selectable charge or discharge rate up to 5A, and has a monitoring software.
Charger ready to be taken apart:
Oh no! Security screw!
Easy fix, used my Dremel to cut a notch in my screwdriver:
Old chargers' guts:
Charger board taken out:
Used 14 gauge silicone wire for the main leads and 20 gauge wire for the balancing leads:
Also used an extension 4S JST connector and cut out some perfboard for securing the spring contacts:
Voila! completed!
Banana plug posts for easy use:
Now charging 4 26650 batteries for my 4D incan:
Thanks for looking!
Happy Easter everyone!
Nice work, good idea :)
Great job! 
Nice! Good use of an old charger, I may just have to try this.
Thanks guys! I'm glad you like my mod! :)
Very nicely done!
Thats a sweet mod al-right !
It would be so easy for someone to market something like this that is already ready for a hobby charger. It would be great to have.
Awesome mod, thanks so much for sharing. So many smart talented people on here that aren't shy to share there masterpieces, makes me proud.
Thanks :)
It's a pretty simple mod! The only bump would be finding a good battery holder/cradle.
very good,you are nice!
Nice mod! I really need to get a hobby charger.
Thanks Johnny and slary! Hobby chargers are pretty awesome, esp the ones that come with the monitoring software plus they aren't that expensive.
i'm a little slow! 2 clarify, u gutted the charger and turned it into a carrier for the hobby charger? what about to li ion in series and nihm in parallel business? or is it now only a li ion charger? nice job either way!
Thanks! No problem! I took apart my old charger and used it as a carrier for cells to use on my hobby charger. I'm pretty sure many hobby chargers charge in series so that's how I wired them. It can charge NiMH, NiCd, LiPo, LiFe, Li-Ion, and SLA/Pb batteries. Really depends on the function of your hobby charger. :) :beer:
With three more jacks for access points on the plus side you could easily charge 1x, 2x, 3x, as well as 4x cells at a time. Now I need to find a cheap slider based charger. Thanks for showing how it could be done.
Plus those chargers are cheap and easy to come by. Thrift store anyone?