I’m looking for a portable slow charger for travel. Something that can charge both my LiPo 14500 and rechargeable AA NiMH batteries. I like the kind with just magnetic button contacts because it doesn’t matter what size the battery is. But I’m not sure if they work well with all button top and flat-top batteries. And this example image was from a alie* Trustfire brand, which I’m not sure has reliable safety features.
I have a large nitecore charger, but it’s annoying to use because I have to set the slower charging mode each time and it’s clucky to work with those sliding metal contacts. A small, slow charger that doens’t take a lot of room would even work better than my large charger at home.
The trustfire specs say output is 1A (max 1.2A), which is a little unclear, it might be a bit of a high rate for some 14500 cells, I don’t believe it does NiMh though. The Olight/4Sevens/DarkSucks one did Lithium ion & NiMH but was discontinued.
Way back in the day, when the charger options were either Pila ( $$$ ) or Trustfire (questionable reliability), there was a chap on CPF by the name of Cottonpickers selling USB lithium ion chargers with magnetic tails and 3-selectable charge currents, along the lines of 50ma, 200ma and 500ma, it appears you want something like this, but these have been discontinued for …10 years?!
Is there a particular reason you want a slow charger? Note that NiMh dV/dT charge terminarion algorithms seem to work better at higher 0.5+C rates.
I suspect you could DIY a solution for the 14500’s quite easily with a “lithium charging module” and an AA holder - I’ve not looked at these for a while so I’m out of touch with the current go-to microcontroller, but the current for most of these can be changed by swapping a SMD resistor.
I suggest the AA holder because I find magnetic lead chargers quite un-satisfying to use as the cell doesn’t feel like it’s firmly in the charger…
An alternative would be to source a 14500 compatible light with built in USB charging, and treat the light as a sturdy, mostly waterproof, battery charger with illumination function.
As you can see, options for a true NiMh travel charger are a bit slim, is there any way you could consolidate to only carry 14500 cells?
Yeah, I know about the Olight UC charger. It’s too bad that’s no longer available.
I haven’t seen any 14500 lights with chargers built into the body of the light. For portability/edc, it makes sense not to build in more footprint to a AA size light. But for longer travel trips, a small charger to pack in your check luggage would really be a peace of mind. I’m not super handy, so I’d rather get something that is pre-built and not likely to break.
Not sure exactly what you have or what your needs are. Another travel possible choice would be a flashlight with the charger built into the battery like the Acebeam K1. Just plug in the Type C usb directly into the battery and you get charged. https://budgetlightforum.com/t/acebeam-k1/231834
Good point, the K1 is a pretty good set of features. Laser and UV is pretty nice. It’s such a big light, they could totally add a in-body USB charging for people who like that kind of thing!
I’m very tempted by the K1 though, thanks for suggestion. I wish it wasn’t so white.
If you can find a foursevens mini turbo mkii, I believe they came with a magnetic charger.
**maybe contact Jason Hui @ Prometheus Lights a.k.a. DarkSucks a.k.a. FourSevens and ask if he’d make a run of those chargers? I believe it was a full hand over (including IP and designs) when David Chow sold Foursevens to Jason many moons ago.
