I've used a hobby charger on and off quite awhile now. Because of the frustration of tangled leads and magnets wanting to do what magnets do best, stick to each other and tie there leads in knots, I bought a few normal chargers to charge batteries and used the hobby charger mainly for testing batteries.
With the C83 light I made using four 32650 batteries and only having a three bay charger to charge these batteries I decided I had to revisit using the hobby charger with a cradle that prevented the frustrations.
With no plan in mind the scavenge for want of a better expression, of stuff started. The main platform was originally from a packing crate, the quad I bought twenty years ago for along forgotten job and the aluminium angle was scrounged from somewhere sometime knowing one year it would come in handy.
I have a ICharger 208B which uses a separate balance board. Different looms were made depending on how many batteries are being charged at the time. I do have all the parts ordered including heavier wire to custom make new leads. These were cobbled together while I'm waiting for the parts to come in.
The batteries here are two 18650's and a single 17650. The 25mm quad was spaced so there was no movement of these batteries with them sitting on the base.
The four 32650 batteries that instigated this cradle. I made the cradle to hold six batteries in total.
Nice setup I haven’t gotten to that level of need yet, as little magnets have worked well enough for me so far with my hobby charger and mostly single cells.
If the cells are closely matched then it shouldn’t matter if they are charged in series (with balance lead attached). Being closely matched there should be ‘little’ balancing done.
If you charge unmatched cells in parallel it may take a little longer but they will all end up at the same voltage. If one is a bad cell it will take even longer since the bad cell will keep dragging down the voltage on the rest. Then you have the task of finding which one.
If a bad cell is in series on a hobby charger then you can see on the charger which cell it is.
You have less idea of how matched the cells are when parallel charging.
For those that dont know as CC may be confusing some members here with his thoughts on parallel charging. Charging batteries with a hobby charger with balance leads as in my cradle here the charger will automatically sense each batteries voltage and adjust each cell to be near enough to be identical in voltage at the end of the charge cycle.
Yes you can charge different sized batteries with different voltages as long as the charge current is not to high for the smallest battery. This is painfully slow though, if one battery is 4.1 volts and one at 3 volts at the start as the charger will only charge at a very small rate.
Each to there own as to whatever way members here want to charge their batteries. If I use my hobby charger for charging more than one battery I always do it this way.
For anyone interested theres a good thread here with a ton of information.
You have made your point more than once CC. Can we please move on. Its about the cradle. It appears that if there is more than one way to do something your way is the only correct way. I'm sorry guys for posting this up as it is just totally wrong. Looks like I have some firewood.
Lets not blow whats being discussed out of proportion, I dont think CC is telling anyone what to do, just raising a point about the subject. Just as anyone who wants to go to the extra effort of balance charging with balance leads can do so, those who heed his advice can feel confident in what they are doing in its stead.
I haven’t gotten to that level of need yet, as little magnets have worked well enough for me so far with my hobby charger and mostly single cells.
