I have been thinking about it and am actually curious. What advantage do people find in using a USB charger/power supply for a battery charger?
I know most people have USB C chargers for their phones, but I think often they do not have enough power for this. It adds some complexity and cost to the charger for the chip to control the USB connection. With another potential failure point. Good high power USB wall chargers are pretty expensive, many time they cost more than the charger. Also, I notice that the wall charger is mostly an extra cost option even when buying the cell charger new.
So, why should I consider USB power for my new charger? I am really interested and willing to learn something that I have not thought of. Maybe I am missing something…
1) One less point of failure? If your charger power supply breaks, it’s harder to replace than a USB supply.
2) less to carry with you for travel (why I use USB powered chargers, but I use a 1* or 2* 18650 charger so different category to the 4* bay chargers).
3) People likely already have usb supplies for other gear, so the charger is cheaper than those which also come with power supplies.
1. Still not happened to me, if you don´t have a exotic charger you will get a typical 12V-supply without problems
2. OK, thats a point.
3. Also one of my points.
Maybe to have the option to use the charger on a Powerbank? Or on a car adapter. Both options are a bit strange. A Powerbank have at charging and discharging irreversibilities. For some chargers with 12V-input exist car adapters but I´m driving very rare so long time to charge somting to full.
Maybe some ppl also think about the price difference between chargers without Power Supply and chargers with?
However, I have some chargers with USB-input because I want these chargers, not because of USB.
Skyrc NC1500: Worked so far with every adapter, even with Samsung.
Nitecore UM2/UMS4: Worked with most adapters, have problems with Samsung
ISDT C4 EVO: Strange behaviour with some (powerfull) supplies, sometimes the charging of single cells stopps, sometimes it make a restart at inserting a cell.
Xtar VC4SL: Generally a failure, can max. deliver the half of the stated power. Stops often charging maybe of instable behaviour with ALL supplies I tried.
Think I figured out the problem with my Xtar VC2SL (old cells). Might look into the Xtar VC4SL. I have had chargers with there own power supply. Not against them. I use a small solar panel , and charge in my vehicle. I don’t need a fast charger. 2 am for all 4 bays would work for me.
Yeah part of my problem with understanding has been the definition. I get built in, no external power supply required. I admit, this type of design has its appeal. Nice and neat, plus they take up less space and save the clutter of all of the power supplies (I have 6 to 8 chargers on the bench at any one time).
All of my chargers have external supplies, but stock they are AC/DC power bricks. Switching supplies. They are electrically noisy though, so I have replaced them with transformer based regulated 8 amp supplies (I also use radios in the same room). I made up dongles so I can accommodate the different size barrel connectors for all of the chargers. A couple of those have been in regular service for over 10 years. I still have all of the original supplies as well.
But my question was the above versus USB power supplies. I can easily see this for one or two bay chargers for travel (but I have some old 2 bay chargers having a fold out plug to go directly into the wall for this). I agree, it is sort of a no brainer. Just carry one USB supply for phone/tablet and charger.
For 4 bay chargers and above, I don’t trust the USB chargers. Especially for long term, high power charging for hours at a time. I was looking for a good 100 watt USB supply recently. There are way too many reviews saying they die within a short period of time. Too much power and complexity in too small a package? And the Brand name ones (Anker) cost $100 to ~$150 (but still have an alarming number of reviews about short lifetimes) .
Anyway, thanks for the responses! It gave me things to think about.
Don´t know the Lii600, I remember that the lii500S is only a mediocre NiMH-charger, Liito are more focussed on the LiIon-site. HJK have tested the 500S and found it the termination works not very reliable, and he tested cells which are unproblematic like Eneloop and Fujitsu
The technical data seems similar to the S4, the difference I see is the discharge current, the Lii600 can do 4x 250/500/750mA, the Vapcell can do in 2 slots 250/500mA, in the other two slts 250/500/1000mA
I use many NiMH, many different types and the Vapcell terminate even with cells which are problematic for most other chargers, even some “good” chargers like pure NiMH-chargers and Nitecore UM2.
And the Liito Kala are very expensive for me, even if I order directly from China
I have a Nitecore UMS4 because when I bought it a year ago it was one of the few taking long protected 21700 cells
Sometime when charging Liion cells I set the charger to the LiPo setting that terminates at 3.7V for cells I plan to store away. I can still set the charging current with this setting.
Any concerns in doing this? Does this change other charging behavior besides terminal voltage?
Thought so. You should be fine to use that setting. Only thing is, and it’s not really a problem, but it’ll go into CV mode at 3.7V and probably stay there for quite awhile while it tapers off. That’s fine, it’s not an issue, but it’s doing that because it thinks its topping off the last few percentages of an almost fully charged battery and it’s slowing down essentially so it doesn’t overcharge it.
Obviously with a lithium ion that whole process isn’t necessary at 3.7V, so you could speed it up by using the regular charge setting and just pulling the battery when it’s a little above 3.7V. Would save you like half an hour and have the same result. Or just let it do that if you aren’t short for time, shouldn’t matter. Battery might come out a little below 3.7V though. But that’s all I can think of.