lol ok then
“populated” when referring to a charger is used to talk about the number of spots used up by cells.
As you can see in the above image, neither of the two spots are populated.
That’s what people mean when they say a charger is not “populated”, although this may not be obvious to people who’s first language isn’t English.
I knew what he was saying, he used populated correctly.
Those are nice PCBs, even if they aren’t fully populated yet 
All my stuff happens on prototyping boards. I should try a custom PCB service sometime; judging by the work I see here on BLF, it seems like an interesting learning experience.
I want 10 bay charger, but too cheap. I was eyeing some DigiKey cccv. Can easily make the 18650 taco holders. Then need to find a ac DC transformer. . Too scared I may be missing some safety. Would like a momentary volt readout button. Maybe one meter connected in parallel to all bays. . Press momentary on switch per bay to get readout while charger switched off.
Very nice! So, are you planning to share your pcb files with us so we can make our own chargers as well? :innocent:
I can see one potential safety issue there: what happens if someone presses two of the momentary meter reading switches at once? If the cells they’re connecting are in substantially different states of charge, a large current will flow.
May I suggest a rotary switch to select the cell you want a reading for, with a single momentary switch to activate the meter?
That looks really nice. I have charged my Panasonic batteries HARD a couple of times. Stupidly needing cells before rushing out the house so I just dumped two in each Opus and charged them both at 2A per cell.
They didnt get too hot but I appreciate it probably wasnt best for the cells.
A couple hard 2 amp charges on those cells will make littlebto no difference in total lifetime. Its when you charge it daily above 1 amp. The newer cells can handle the higher current much much better. Any 10+ amp cell can be charged 2+ amps. It will still shorten its life some but can be done much easier then on these old high capacity cells. Its old technology. The new imr cells designed for powertool packs hg2/30q etc have a max charge rate of 4 Amps. Construction workers need a pack charged in a hour. Time is money But then at 4 amps charge 20amp discharge you only get 250 cycles and the cells are toast around 2000mah. When a battery reaches 70% capacity manufacturers consider it dead/done. The vtc5a had a max charge rate of 6 amps
@MRsDNF - Thanks
@dekozn - I will keep it like that without case. Unfortunately, i have not found a sliding battery holder for PCB mounted
@Phlogiston - Thanks. You should try it, since prototyping board is getting cheap nowadays
@degarb - 10 slot ?! You have a lot of battery right there 
@chrisc - Thanks. in my test with 1.5A they just barely warm
@DavidEF - Here’s my layout, its quite simple circuit
All 4 slot is already mounted and test
Slot 1 - CV 4.14X Volt
Slot 2 - CV 4.19X Volt
Slot 3 - CV 4.20X Volt
Slor 4 - CV 4.20X Volt
Output current is varies about 1.54 - 1.58A
Yes, slot 1 is to low for me. But i’m to lazy change the controller
Since my application was 3 + 1 battery. 3pcs for K40M and 1pcs for L2, so i will leave it as is
Thanks for reading my post
@ tjeret,
Well Done!
Looks great, and works well too. Nicely captured Pictures.
Thanks for sharing.
Cheers,
S-L
P.S. Don’t forget to mark the cell in slot one, if you haven’t done so already!
Where did you get the charger circuit with the pins already attached?
Where did you get the charger circuit with the pins already attached?
It’s his own design. Very nice!
Neat layout, nice dude.
Very nice design, great build.
Thx for sharing!
This looks extremely interesting and I’m curious how versatile the controller is.
You mentioned a “TP5100” controller chip, do you have a link to a datasheet? I somehow only get obscure links via google…
Thanks a lot.
Toadjust charge voltage you need to calibrate the sense resistors
Sorry, I mean the TP charger circuit with the pins already attached
What was total cost?
@Splott-Light - Thank’s. Not yet, but definitely will add a marking
@itsonlyme - You mean this circuit right ? I made it myself too
@Hikelite - Thank’s
@HarleyQuin - I should show’s at top of the searching result “TP5100” with google. Yes a Chinese datasheet
I can not read Chinese but motsly it’s about the same as TP5000 datasheet with different pinout, voltage, battery config.
@Lexel - IIRC, In datasheet i could not find a way to adjust the “Constant Voltage” value.
@degarb - about $50ish for 2 set. This is not include parts that i already have like inductor, resistor, capacitor, etc