I received the Trustfire 14500 and 18650’s I ordered. So I connected the Nitecore UM20 to the Anker 14W and set it out in the sun. Charged them up just fine. When I ordered the UM20 I didn’t realize that it was li-ion only. Not a big concern or anything. But that puts me into looking into a charger that would do AA/AAA sized batteries that also uses a USB cable. I see a couple of different types on Amazon but don’t have any firsthand experience with the brand so I’d like to see others input.
Recommendation would be appreciated. As always, many thanks
I have the Soshine SC-S7 which charges both chemistries. Single cell charger though.
It has a handy display which gives a fairly good indication of capacity. It has 12v & usb mini socket for power.
I have the predecessor to this - the sanyo NC-MDU01. It’s an excellent charger and has independent bays although only one blue light that shows when it’s charging and when it’s finished (flashing and solid).
It will do one or two aa’s or one or two aaa’s - nimh. This charger is small and excellent for travel particularly. If you have a bunch of batteries to charge it may not be the best as it isn’t really quick - (850 ma for one cell and 450 for two).
The sanyo is discontinued but I have recently seen that Panasonic has brought out one that is almost the same. Found the information. It’s the Panasonic BQ-CC14.
The Panasonic seems to be about as common as hen’s teeth. I have not found a current source so suspect it may be discontinued too. Below is a link to the thread I started asking the same question as yours.
Below are links to two Soshine chargers. the first is a 4 AA power bank that can charge the on board batteries per the write-up. The second appears to be a more sophisticated universal charger that can even recharge 9 volt batteries. Supposed to work with Lithium Ions as well as NiMH. Note that the USB connectors on both are the older mini USB rather than the currently more common micro USB per the photos.
The Soshines seem to be about as good as you are going to get with USB input power capability currently. Per customer reviews the other versions on Amazon seem to have minimal electronics and are using a timer rather than monitoring battery voltage for proper charge termination.
