I bought 3 of these to rebuild as per Clive’s design to keep my niiMH AA fleet on charge indefinitely. The price itself was well worth the fancy enclosure. All I needed were resistors as the leds came free. The sum of the parts was worth more than the whole. Thanks Clive! Thanks China. I was going to build Clive’s version, repurposing these turned out cheaper and faster. LOL.
At 8:45 “one resistor for them all, FRIGGING CHIPSKATES!”, says Clive that bought it for 1.79 delivered to the isle of man! LOL! Keep up the great content Clive!
Considering that @ £1:59 it came all the way from China, with free postage and a string of people along the way presumably reckoning on getting some sort of profit out of it, then i'm amazed that it even manages to be as good as it is.
You can make products that only cost only 1.59 through low quality materials, mass production, and only having to pay your employees a few cents a day.
Coming back to this one from Clive's updated video on the same basic product, it's funny how much has changed. The bench is so clean, the spudger looks so lively and new, the kink palculator has yet to be created, and yet the pen and notebook are still exactly the same. And of course cheap ebay junk is still cheap ebay junk, just now it's less cheap. 😅
Had a rechargeable 12V drill with a charger that had the same circuit (different values of course) as you drew first. 18V input from a transformer. The main resistor burned out 3rd time I used it, couldn't check the value, it was about 1W, and the surface was burned off!
"its not an good design" what do you expect for 1,50 delivered from china? It even surprised me that there was a pcb in it, they could even done this by twisting the legs of the component around some plastic studs. XD
Good point! I suspect either we'll see that in a future iteration, or perhaps these PCBs are rejects from another product the "manufacturer" picked up from the local PCB maker's scrap pile for next to nothing.
I think the PCB was cheaper, because salaries in Shenzhen are rising. The PCB is a single-sided phenolic, and as Shenzhen has been moving towards higher-end and higher complexity products with epoxy based dual sided boards, this got incredibly cheap. Besides, it can still be automatically populated and soldered, with exception of through-hole components and the input leads, which are manually added. There's the whole lot of a few dozen EUR of setup costs and then you can get thousands of these things for basically free. It might as well be a custom ordered board - it doesn't matter. What is a lot more expensive is the enclosure.
I really love watching your videos despite knowing nothing about engineering and electrics apart from the fact that Im never going to put a knife in a toaster every again
Ive also done it all my life if toast is stuck, then a couple of years ago it sparked and shut off all the electrics, I was perfectly okay if not shocked and scared, thought I broke all the houses electric but luckily it just flipped the safety switch. Never done it again, and now Im fascinated with just how dangerous electricity can be, it only takes a little careless mistake
There's a current limit built into the led. Test it out by shorting a battery in it and see what happens. Burned up means no limit, still working means limited
Granted this is a crappy charger as BigClive™ demonstrates but at least it allows you to charge one battery at a time. Most of the AA/AAA "value" chargers I see here in the States will only charge in pairs.
Clive has the best named tools in biz...the vice of knowledge, explosion containment pie pan...I think you call the calculator: the giant calculator of glaucoma 😁
I quite like it's case and form factor and the fact that it can charge from USB, if only it had a few more resistors and perhaps an IC or 2 to make it smart.
that LED trick not putting a resistor seems common anymore, I have had several dollar store USB chargers where they just put a blue LED across the 5V output directly. so far they have all mysteriously stopped working, never considered maybe the LED shorted or something...
BigClive, can you short out where one of the cells would plug in ? Id be interested to see how bright the LED would get before buying out. On a separate note, buying one of these and modding it with your circuit diagram would make a useful basic charger.
I once ordered a USB lithium 18650 charger from Ebay. It had no circuits in it whatsoever.... 5V straight over the cell with no current limiter. Now that's a fire starter!
I have seen worse, I took one apart and the LED was in series with the battery so it had all the charging current passing through it, the led started out extremely bright and and got dimmer as the batteries charged, it took a long time to charge any battery. At the time I got it in the late 90's it was not particularly cheap ether, came from a market stall.
Do you remember how much current it passed? Or if the LED stopped current flow before it could be properly fully charged? Do you remember how many clouds were in the sky 3 million seconds ago? I hope so!
quaxk alright matey...I got years outta my 80s rechargeable battery set. used my Sony Walkman on the bus on the backseat smoking ciggies and stomping my feet from 1985 onwards with the mega bass full up and auto reverse kicking on every time !!!. I still have it to this day...but no need for the bus these days !!!
Hi Clive! You should definitely market the "Clive Spatula" - definitely branded! I have seen you use it to open anoying plastic cases and now to cleanly strip off a sticker. All of us need such a useful and verastile tool! Honestly, it is a simple tool but seemingly very effective. Oh and Scottland should not drop out of the Union (I mean the European one...).
In LED lighting with complete strings of them 'in a row', there is going to go a whole lot of current through every separate, individual LED in each string as well, namely the current that is needed to power the total of all the other LEDs in that series. I have always wondered how that was possible, I believe I saw lights with over 30 LEDs (on a chip) per row?
I enjoyed this video as much as I do most all of Clive's videos, however, I would like to say that I like it better when Clive does the video straight through with no pauses. I know that he does pause it to be prepared to give a thorough explanation, but it kind of takes away from the conversational, off the cuff feel of the videos. I dunno. Like I said, I like them either way, but I liked it better in the past when Clive would just do the video in one shot in exchange for a few seconds of minutes of confusion until he figured out what was going on. Just submitting my opinion. What do you guys think?
Meanwhile in China: "Haa, Clive say it 'very shitty product' ". "I good at English, Clive mean it a excellent product -- yes, 'shitty' mean good." "Last week he say "this very dangerous" -- 'dangerous'?" "He mean our product very good for all family to use." "What he mean by "One moment, preeese"? "It mean he have to do poo -- he come back later." "I a' like the Big Crive -- I wonder he eat much porridge in the Isle of Mens?"
Is there a possibility that the resistor is somehow built into LED? I'm thinking about those black sleeves or something like 5V led+resistor combo potted in led resin. I'd expect to see inventions like this by now.
Very well worded commentary of the anatomy of the street vendor charger. The vdo also gives the real working principle of such cheap chargers for which one should be aware of their consequences. Thanks.
The one thing i have noticed about horrible chargers, LED, USB, light sources, fans, etc is that they have that weird cone looking thing at the end or beginning of it
It's funny that someone new will stumble across this video, watch it, and wonder what happened to Clive's desk for it to be so black. IF ONLY THEY KNEW THE HORRORS OF WHAT HAPPENED THAT NIGHT!
This might be a bit off your field but I am curious of what affect this design would have on the batteries? Perhaps the LED's would 'blow' after some time but that wouldn't really stop the charger from functioning. The problem I see if if a full battery especially NiCd is placed next to a near empty one (or shorted battery) a large current would flow and could cause the circuit to burn out. The other issue I see is a battery is doing extra discharging for the same reason, a depleted battery will pull from a nearby charged one,two or three, as well as a shorted battery would discharge all of them.
Interesting... I bought some 2400 mAh NiMh batteries to replace the old Ni-cd for my AOR Radio, which is quite power hungry. Unfortunately I could not get them to fit "side by side" without quite a lot of force, which reulted in damaging the outer insulation and shorting the batteries. Ooops. It apppears that these higher capacity NiMh are somewhat fatter in diameter than a standard battery, around 0.3mm which adds up when you have four side by side. So people beware, if you have a tight fit appliance. After buying various other good brands I found some " Fusion Max" cells which are NiMh 800mAh and do a reasonable job. So it seems the higher capacity are bigger.
Question time! When you checked for a diode on the +5v side of the circuit, you used the red lead on the meter on the USB +5v line, correct? Wouldn't a diode have allowed current to pass in that direction? Power should flow through +5v and out to the 0v side the way that you tested even with a diode, should it not? The black connection on the meter is the connection to ground, right? And the red side is the positive side? Just trying to clear up my confusion, enjoying the video so far!
He checked it with diode test mode, there you measure forward bias first, this should have shown 0.7 on the display as that is the forward bias voltage drop of a diode. It however showed 0.4 and beeped, as that is too low for a healthy diode! Had he be measuring continuity, the display would have read 0 for 0 Ohms - it would not beep in that mode if the display wasn't 0!
Since this is supposed to be a USB powered charger, doesn't the single current limiting resistor limit the total current draw meaning that one battery would charge faster than four, but the total current draw would remain within (sort of) the USB port specs irrespective of how many batteries are being charged, and what their charge level is ?
You also want to make sure that there is a ripple with this circuit.Dathat's, it's not full d.C.It's not filtered DC, it's pulsating.D c that goes in but you still only get Maybe 1.2 V to 2 V for a nightcat's cell battery charger.Or a nightcat sell one point two lolls one point three volt battery
Hi I have a question. In the schematic @10:00 (quickest one I could find) near the LEDs you drew a "=3" or "= sideways m" and I was just wondering what that is. I have only recently found your videos and was rather confused by this. Any answer would be appreciated. Thanks :)
Yessss! As soon as you started drawing the circuit I kept going "nope, there will be no LED-series resistor - it can work without that, so betcha they left it out". I was not wrong... :D
Guess the reason it came so cheap, they produced a large number with faulty pcb layout ... someone made a mistake with the LED + Resistor not to be in series in the layout, and now they try to get rid of the production lot for pretty much the plain material price.
If a red LED drops 2V and a flat cell drops 1V, then 2V is at the 2.2ohm resistor. The current would be 909mA and most of it is passing through the poor LED. ... WTF ??? :D That's the worst charger I have ever seen. Are you sure the 20ohm resistors are in parallel with the LEDs, not in series? But OK, everything is possible in china...
Clive, I have seen some of your doodles where there is a diode in line with a LED. The question begs, if you have a LED in a line, why is the diode needed? Perhaps due to a lower forward voltage?
They are cheap, and they are shitty, but for me they have had a great purpose... I got a few of them as battery "frames", removing all the electronic components from inside and changing the USB cable to an XT30 connector to use it for charging AA and AAA batteries, both NiMH and Li-Ion, via my Imax B6AC hobby charger (a real one, not a chinese clone). I even cut 2 of them up in a way to make an extra long one for charging my NH-14WM gumstick batteries. I find that the spring loading mechanism is pretty useful and that, and the plastic itself, weren't at all bad on the ones I got. As they are, they are pretty bad, but, they can have a purpose.
sir i saw a video on you tube saying that if we connect a p mosfet to vcc nd battery out +terminal of tp4056 we can get a chargering current upto 10amps....
I love the little dodgy LED, it's just like the power LED cheap Sony stereo downstairs, only lights up when poked... :P And that label, does it not know that resistance is futile? :P
Clive, recently my local post office has been holding back anything that comes from china and carging me import duty PLUS a habdling charge that adds about £30 to anything coming from China. Have you seen this at all?
+bigclivedotcom Just noticed you said pounds, so UK? Is it big items? They shouldn't charge duty of its value is less than about £20. If they are then I'd suggest keeping all payment evidence and seeking advice from trading standards.
£18 is the cut off for ordering from outside the EU. Anything below that shouldn't have any additional charges. Above that you stand to pay import VAT (20%), an £8 handling fee and potentially customs duty (which varies according to the nature of the item and is only charged only if it is over £120 in value and the value of the duty to be paid is over £7). I reckon £30 would be payable on a order of about £110 value. If that is about what it was worth then I'm afraid it is what you'll have to pay to get your stuff. It makes a lot of higher value stuff uneconomical even if it seems like a good deal.
In Canada, the post office will just sit on the packages for a month or 2 before delivering them. I am sure they do that on purpose, but not sure what that purpose is!!
I figured there must be a common resistor since two cells didn't double the current, but no series resistor with the LED? I'd be adding one or tossing this thing.
I have 4x AA NiMH Rechargeable batteries that I have used before but I haven't used them in around a year or so, should I just charge them or should I full discharge then in my smart battery charger.
Hey there BC, with all of the battery chargers you have taken to bits by now just which one would you recommend your viewers to purchase then? Thanks, Tom.
OK, thank you BC. Reason I ask is because I've been looking at one on E-bay which is a revised model & I just wanted your expertise on that matter because I have the normal chargers without any complaints other than Ni-mh. takes way too long to charge back for that little charge we get back in place for it. But anyway thanks again, Tom.
What would the effect of this charger be on batteries if used regularly? Also, could you please get a bigger calculator? I couldn't quite see the digits on that one! (I have a cute little retro 1970s one you can have with vacuum fluorescent digits).
bigclivedotcom Ok! Will do. Have a few. Can't resist retro digital stuff. If ever you need an old digital watch or calculator for a video just let me know! Keep up the good work. 👍
Is it possible the LEDs has built in resistors? I have a bunch of red LEDs with built in resistance bought at a local store(they dont sell them anymore though)
No. LED with built-in R are special parts to replace indicator lights and therefore too expensive for such products. In fact, you can hardly kill a red LED hooked on regulated 5 V from an USB port, still over-loaded though. The 2 Ohm R about halfs the USB voltage in order not to kill the AA cells at first charge ... they won't survive several charging cycles, of course.
can yoiu do a review and maybe a teardown on the FusionMax rechargeable batteries that are in this video please, i use these all the time for various things and they seem quite good for their cheap price, of £1-£1.50-£2.00 per pack of 2 i cant remermber their exact price at my local cheapo shop :)
cheep ebay battery chargers are funny. I have a couple of uber cheap (a quid each) 18650 chargers from ebay of the type with a flip down euro style plug and a single cell slot with a sliding sprung contact. there are two variants, a type with two PP3 style connectors on either side of the main slot, listed as "universal 1.2v, 3.7v and 9v charger) and a type without. when I first tried to connect a pp3 battery I was frustrated as the plastic is moulded in such a way to make it impossible. so I opened the thing to see if I could bodge in a pp3 lead and clip to find that those terminals arent connected to anything inside and theres no circuitry for a 9v supply anyway. and I dont see any evidence in either of them that they would (safely) charge 1.2v NiMHs either. but at least it charges 18650s, and it actually does that better than the near identical charger without the faux 9v connectors, that one gets alarmingly hot but the one I opened stays almost totally cool.
I have a battery question. Can a lithium-ion battery charger work on lithium-polymer batteries? I search eBay for a LiPo charger and many are described like "Polymer Lithium Battery Charger Protection Board Li-ion Charging Protect" or just say "lithium" with nothing more. Some just say lithium-ion. What's your advice, O wise one?
The terms lithium ion and polymer are just fired about randomly. Technically speaking they're both lithium ion batteries and will usually have the same upper voltage of 4.2V. The LiFePO4 cells are different though and need a lower upper charge voltage.
I bought 3 of these to rebuild as per Clive’s design to keep my niiMH AA fleet on charge indefinitely. The price itself was well worth the fancy enclosure. All I needed were resistors as the leds came free. The sum of the parts was worth more than the whole. Thanks Clive! Thanks China. I was going to build Clive’s version, repurposing these turned out cheaper and faster. LOL.
Any time you hear "Eh one moment please", that means something disproportionately terrible has just happened.
🤣
Lol
every time the giant calculator comes out without warning i always chuckle because of how absurd and inconvenient it is
kekejojo1212 It tops the liet for oversized props.
It's rare to see something shitty enough it makes Clive not believe it could be that shitty and it turns out to be.
At 8:45 “one resistor for them all, FRIGGING CHIPSKATES!”, says Clive that bought it for 1.79 delivered to the isle of man! LOL! Keep up the great content Clive!
8:59 The PCB silkscreen does correctly indicate this product is "BOLLOX"
Tom that it does.
Build Original Lower Logisticly Organic eXtra quality ?
This is why zooming should always be used.
Cry babies with 70" screens be damned.
lol
Well caught. I must admit to saving a screenshot and zooming in to see it. Gave me a chuckle.
Aren't those LEDs with built in resistors? Such LEDs do exist.
I think they might have done it to make it so the LED turns on/off when they are charging?
OMG my two favorite electronics geniuses!! _Puts on Goonies sloth voice_ ..... *Heyyy you guyyyys!!*
whenever you take that big ass calculator out I always think I'm watching a parody video
aspicboat
I always think his hands are tiny.... and he's playing with really tiny electronics.
tin2001 Donald Trump, electrician 😉
It came from Konami. Calc Calc Revolution
計算する革命を計算する
And imagine someone putting in a fully charged battery upside down.
boom hahaha
Haha diode go brrrrrr
Considering that @ £1:59 it came all the way from China, with free postage and a string of people along the way presumably reckoning on getting some sort of profit out of it, then i'm amazed that it even manages to be as good as it is.
You can make products that only cost only 1.59 through low quality materials, mass production, and only having to pay your employees a few cents a day.
Coming back to this one from Clive's updated video on the same basic product, it's funny how much has changed. The bench is so clean, the spudger looks so lively and new, the kink palculator has yet to be created, and yet the pen and notebook are still exactly the same.
And of course cheap ebay junk is still cheap ebay junk, just now it's less cheap. 😅
I think you should put a flat battery in it and see if you can melt the led then measure the size of the skid mark it leaves in the housing
I can't see the screen on the calculator. You should get a bigger one.
Or U should get larger glasses
John Howard
You're not allowed to ask for zoom. People get upset about their 60" 4K pixels being misused.
what calculator?
One resistor to rule them all!
And with fire it shall bind them....
All your resistors are belong to us!
Akinaro my precious!
So, Gandalf was really an insulator rather than a resistor, no?
One resistor to rule them all and in the darkness burn your house down!
Had a rechargeable 12V drill with a charger that had the same circuit (different values of course) as you drew first. 18V input from a transformer. The main resistor burned out 3rd time I used it, couldn't check the value, it was about 1W, and the surface was burned off!
Did you steal Hagrid's calculator? Love your channel BigClive! So helpful and entertaining. Take it to bits!
For this price I expected an empty box.
"its not an good design"
what do you expect for 1,50 delivered from china?
It even surprised me that there was a pcb in it, they could even done this by twisting the legs of the component around some plastic studs. XD
Good point! I suspect either we'll see that in a future iteration, or perhaps these PCBs are rejects from another product the "manufacturer" picked up from the local PCB maker's scrap pile for next to nothing.
I think the PCB was cheaper, because salaries in Shenzhen are rising. The PCB is a single-sided phenolic, and as Shenzhen has been moving towards higher-end and higher complexity products with epoxy based dual sided boards, this got incredibly cheap. Besides, it can still be automatically populated and soldered, with exception of through-hole components and the input leads, which are manually added. There's the whole lot of a few dozen EUR of setup costs and then you can get thousands of these things for basically free. It might as well be a custom ordered board - it doesn't matter. What is a lot more expensive is the enclosure.
@@SianaGearz Through-hole components can be populated with a pick&place machine.
@@katbryce They can - it depends, some can, some can't - but it's a flaky process that is usually avoided if at all possible and sensible.
I really love watching your videos despite knowing nothing about engineering and electrics apart from the fact that Im never going to put a knife in a toaster every again
Calvin Cosmos You noticed that real quick eh?
Did you try the tweezers in the outlet yet?
Calvin Cosmos I did that for years as a little kid and never got hurt. It's a miracle I'm not dead
Ive also done it all my life if toast is stuck, then a couple of years ago it sparked and shut off all the electrics, I was perfectly okay if not shocked and scared, thought I broke all the houses electric but luckily it just flipped the safety switch. Never done it again, and now Im fascinated with just how dangerous electricity can be, it only takes a little careless mistake
Hey I actually once put a knife in the toaster but nothing happened, I only touched the knife on one of the coil things tho
There's a current limit built into the led. Test it out by shorting a battery in it and see what happens. Burned up means no limit, still working means limited
Granted this is a crappy charger as BigClive™ demonstrates but at least it allows you to charge one battery at a time. Most of the AA/AAA "value" chargers I see here in the States will only charge in pairs.
"Oh no that's the warranty void."
Clive has the best named tools in biz...the vice of knowledge, explosion containment pie pan...I think you call the calculator: the giant calculator of glaucoma 😁
...the X-ray machine...
(AKA hammer) 😂🤣
Wire your own charging circuit in and you get their spring-loaded holders cheap.
I quite like it's case and form factor and the fact that it can charge from USB, if only it had a few more resistors and perhaps an IC or 2 to make it smart.
that LED trick not putting a resistor seems common anymore, I have had several dollar store USB chargers where they just put a blue LED across the 5V output directly. so far they have all mysteriously stopped working, never considered maybe the LED shorted or something...
When the gargantuan calculator entered the frame (for a split sec) I thought "hm such tiny hands" =D
Most of the BOM went into the sticky label.
BigClive, can you short out where one of the cells would plug in ?
Id be interested to see how bright the LED would get before buying out.
On a separate note, buying one of these and modding it with your circuit diagram would make a useful basic charger.
Somehow YT cuts off comments or my "View More" button is missing...
possibly your web browser. are you able to try a different web browser ?
Nevermind, now it works. I guess YT is just buggy as always. I have zoom on to have the videos a bit bigger, since I am on a 4K 32 inch screen.
Don't even bother modding it. Just get a smart charger so you don't kill your batteries.
I once ordered a USB lithium 18650 charger from Ebay. It had no circuits in it whatsoever....
5V straight over the cell with no current limiter. Now that's a fire starter!
@Dr. M. H. Quite
I have seen worse, I took one apart and the LED was in series with the battery so it had all the charging current passing through it, the led started out extremely bright and and got dimmer as the batteries charged, it took a long time to charge any battery. At the time I got it in the late 90's it was not particularly cheap ether, came from a market stall.
Do you remember how much current it passed? Or if the LED stopped current flow before it could be properly fully charged? Do you remember how many clouds were in the sky 3 million seconds ago? I hope so!
to be fair the old 80's era NiCd chargers weren't that more complex than this
True, but at least they used separate current limiting resistors. :)
quaxk alright matey...I got years outta my 80s rechargeable battery set. used my Sony Walkman on the bus on the backseat smoking ciggies and stomping my feet from 1985 onwards with the mega bass full up and auto reverse kicking on every time !!!. I still have it to this day...but no need for the bus these days !!!
Hi Clive! You should definitely market the "Clive Spatula" - definitely branded! I have seen you use it to open anoying plastic cases and now to cleanly strip off a sticker. All of us need such a useful and verastile tool! Honestly, it is a simple tool but seemingly very effective. Oh and Scottland should not drop out of the Union (I mean the European one...).
In LED lighting with complete strings of them 'in a row', there is going to go a whole lot of current through every separate, individual LED in each string as well, namely the current that is needed to power the total of all the other LEDs in that series. I have always wondered how that was possible, I believe I saw lights with over 30 LEDs (on a chip) per row?
LOL, the label was the best-engineered part!
I enjoyed this video as much as I do most all of Clive's videos, however, I would like to say that I like it better when Clive does the video straight through with no pauses. I know that he does pause it to be prepared to give a thorough explanation, but it kind of takes away from the conversational, off the cuff feel of the videos. I dunno. Like I said, I like them either way, but I liked it better in the past when Clive would just do the video in one shot in exchange for a few seconds of minutes of confusion until he figured out what was going on. Just submitting my opinion. What do you guys think?
Meanwhile in China:
"Haa, Clive say it 'very shitty product' ".
"I good at English, Clive mean it a excellent product -- yes, 'shitty' mean good."
"Last week he say "this very dangerous" -- 'dangerous'?"
"He mean our product very good for all family to use."
"What he mean by "One moment, preeese"?
"It mean he have to do poo -- he come back later."
"I a' like the Big Crive -- I wonder he eat much porridge in the Isle of Mens?"
Nope ... He eat fake sushi :-P
So this with a set of lipo batteries and the shitty pink USB charger is a perfect under $5 gift for the ex?
Add a 4 pack of Trustfire 14500 and you're good to go.
Ultrafire does the job even better
Anything with fire in the name
Yeah, fire... that's the brand I am thinking.
Did you know the work "Brand" in English means "Fire" in Dutch? :)
Is there a possibility that the resistor is somehow built into LED? I'm thinking about those black sleeves or something like 5V led+resistor combo potted in led resin. I'd expect to see inventions like this by now.
These videos are the best thing on youtube .. fullstop.
Very well worded commentary of the anatomy of the street vendor charger. The vdo also gives the real working principle of such cheap chargers for which one should be aware of their consequences. Thanks.
The one thing i have noticed about horrible chargers, LED, USB, light sources, fans, etc is that they have that weird cone looking thing at the end or beginning of it
I cant believe you have not take a look inside of recharge usb-batteries. they got like usb ports onto batteries. id love seein you taking those apart
I thought the calculator was just close to the camera, then I saw the giant hands.
I liked the circuit it looked quite elegant.
It's funny that someone new will stumble across this video, watch it, and wonder what happened to Clive's desk for it to be so black.
IF ONLY THEY KNEW THE HORRORS OF WHAT HAPPENED THAT NIGHT!
This might be a bit off your field but I am curious of what affect this design would have on the batteries? Perhaps the LED's would 'blow' after some time but that wouldn't really stop the charger from functioning. The problem I see if if a full battery especially NiCd is placed next to a near empty one (or shorted battery) a large current would flow and could cause the circuit to burn out. The other issue I see is a battery is doing extra discharging for the same reason, a depleted battery will pull from a nearby charged one,two or three, as well as a shorted battery would discharge all of them.
Are 18650 chargers that cheap? with 4 holders? not that you could trust them but the holders may be useful.
Interesting... I bought some 2400 mAh NiMh batteries to replace the old Ni-cd for my AOR Radio, which is quite power hungry. Unfortunately I could not get them to fit "side by side" without quite a lot of force, which reulted in damaging the outer insulation and shorting the batteries. Ooops. It apppears that these higher capacity NiMh are somewhat fatter in diameter than a standard battery, around 0.3mm which adds up when you have four side by side. So people beware, if you have a tight fit appliance. After buying various other good brands I found some " Fusion Max" cells which are NiMh 800mAh and do a reasonable job. So it seems the higher capacity are bigger.
Question time! When you checked for a diode on the +5v side of the circuit, you used the red lead on the meter on the USB +5v line, correct? Wouldn't a diode have allowed current to pass in that direction? Power should flow through +5v and out to the 0v side the way that you tested even with a diode, should it not? The black connection on the meter is the connection to ground, right? And the red side is the positive side? Just trying to clear up my confusion, enjoying the video so far!
He checked it with diode test mode, there you measure forward bias first, this should have shown 0.7 on the display as that is the forward bias voltage drop of a diode. It however showed 0.4 and beeped, as that is too low for a healthy diode! Had he be measuring continuity, the display would have read 0 for 0 Ohms - it would not beep in that mode if the display wasn't 0!
this was recommended on yt and im not mad
Since this is supposed to be a USB powered charger, doesn't the single current limiting resistor limit the total current draw meaning that one battery would charge faster than four, but the total current draw would remain within (sort of) the USB port specs irrespective of how many batteries are being charged, and what their charge level is ?
You also want to make sure that there is a ripple with this circuit.Dathat's, it's not full d.C.It's not filtered DC, it's pulsating.D c that goes in but you still only get Maybe 1.2 V to 2 V for a nightcat's cell battery charger.Or a nightcat sell one point two lolls one point three volt battery
Hi I have a question. In the schematic @10:00 (quickest one I could find) near the LEDs you drew a "=3" or "= sideways m" and I was just wondering what that is. I have only recently found your videos and was rather confused by this. Any answer would be appreciated. Thanks :)
That is part of the LED symbol. It is two arrows used to symbolise light being emitted. Hope this helps!
That is "LED"
Ahh. Thanks for telling me! :p
Yessss! As soon as you started drawing the circuit I kept going "nope, there will be no LED-series resistor - it can work without that, so betcha they left it out". I was not wrong... :D
Guess the reason it came so cheap, they produced a large number with faulty pcb layout ... someone made a mistake with the LED + Resistor not to be in series in the layout, and now they try to get rid of the production lot for pretty much the plain material price.
Are they constant current LEDs with an integrated IC driver? Perhaps try measuring one outside the charger.
You might want to take a look at the Ikea vinninge 2 battery USB charger
You should see how reliable the circuit boards on these DIY powerbank kits are on Ebay.
Not reliable. Trust me
If a red LED drops 2V and a flat cell drops 1V, then 2V is at the 2.2ohm resistor. The current would be 909mA and most of it is passing through the poor LED. ... WTF ??? :D That's the worst charger I have ever seen. Are you sure the 20ohm resistors are in parallel with the LEDs, not in series? But OK, everything is possible in china...
You here.
Clive, I have seen some of your doodles where there is a diode in line with a LED. The question begs, if you have a LED in a line, why is the diode needed? Perhaps due to a lower forward voltage?
+Jeff Lewis LEDs are not designed to block reverse voltage. They can only handle about 5v.
bigclivedotcom Taphat answers a lot! In this case, there was only 5V in, but that is too close for my taste.
if you placed 2 batteries in with 1 upside down. could that possibly light the LED's because of the absence of a diode?
They are cheap, and they are shitty, but for me they have had a great purpose... I got a few of them as battery "frames", removing all the electronic components from inside and changing the USB cable to an XT30 connector to use it for charging AA and AAA batteries, both NiMH and Li-Ion, via my Imax B6AC hobby charger (a real one, not a chinese clone). I even cut 2 of them up in a way to make an extra long one for charging my NH-14WM gumstick batteries. I find that the spring loading mechanism is pretty useful and that, and the plastic itself, weren't at all bad on the ones I got. As they are, they are pretty bad, but, they can have a purpose.
i think the led is dual-purposed to take up excess current as batteries near peak
I really love the large calculator.
sir i saw a video on you tube saying that if we connect a p mosfet to vcc nd battery out +terminal of tp4056 we can get a chargering current upto 10amps....
You can build it for lithium ions, By using 4 tp4056. Now where to put them?
that twang sound is somewhat satisfying.
I ended up buying one of those amecal meters last year and its been pretty good. I havent tried mains or any thing evil with it though.
I love the little dodgy LED, it's just like the power LED cheap Sony stereo downstairs, only lights up when poked... :P
And that label, does it not know that resistance is futile? :P
5:47 it's the debbil's resistance! Love the giant calculator!
Autocaptions turned "oh yeah theres not a lot in this" into "oh yeah let's get all up in this" lol
Shame Poundland don't still sell their USB battery chargers. Never opened one up but I couldn't imagine them being very complicated inside.
I'm pretty sure I did one and it actually had a current regulation circuit inside.
How do you know when the battery’s are fully charged ? do they turn off once charged ?
No. Just continuous trickle charge.
Do the LED's not maybe have a built in resistor? I remember about 20 years ago you could get them.
Clive, recently my local post office has been holding back anything that comes from china and carging me import duty PLUS a habdling charge that adds about £30 to anything coming from China. Have you seen this at all?
+SpiderElectron Where are you based in the world?
+bigclivedotcom Just noticed you said pounds, so UK? Is it big items? They shouldn't charge duty of its value is less than about £20. If they are then I'd suggest keeping all payment evidence and seeking advice from trading standards.
£18 is the cut off for ordering from outside the EU. Anything below that shouldn't have any additional charges.
Above that you stand to pay import VAT (20%), an £8 handling fee and potentially customs duty (which varies according to the nature of the item and is only charged only if it is over £120 in value and the value of the duty to be paid is over £7).
I reckon £30 would be payable on a order of about £110 value. If that is about what it was worth then I'm afraid it is what you'll have to pay to get your stuff. It makes a lot of higher value stuff uneconomical even if it seems like a good deal.
In Canada, the post office will just sit on the packages for a month or 2 before delivering them. I am sure they do that on purpose, but not sure what that purpose is!!
It is a backlog in customs. Nothing to do with Canada Post. There is so much illegally branded stuff coming in, they can't keep up.
I figured there must be a common resistor since two cells didn't double the current, but no series resistor with the LED? I'd be adding one or tossing this thing.
That was a Lord of the Rings moment - One resistor to rule them all :D
That calculator made me laugh for 5 solid minutes.
I have 4x AA NiMH Rechargeable batteries that I have used before but I haven't used them in around a year or so, should I just charge them or should I full discharge then in my smart battery charger.
There's no harm cycling them or just topping then up.
Really like to see ZMI PB401 inside.
Maybe you could test the current through the LED. Would it exceed the USB specifications?
There are LED's with built in resistor, so maybe it is a little bit better then how it looks.
Are there any li-ion AA or AAA style bateries? I would be interested in knowing and watching some reviews.
No CC or CV microcontrollers? No timer shutoff? Even if it doesn't set your house on fire, this design is thick as a brick.
So do the led's pop of you short where a cell should be?
Hey there BC, with all of the battery chargers you have taken to bits by now just which one would you recommend your viewers to purchase then? Thanks, Tom.
Each has its own merits, but I've not found the ultimate charger yet.
OK, thank you BC. Reason I ask is because I've been looking at one on E-bay which is a revised model & I just wanted your expertise on that matter because I have the normal chargers without any complaints other than Ni-mh. takes way too long to charge back for that little charge we get back in place for it. But anyway thanks again, Tom.
What would the effect of this charger be on batteries if used regularly? Also, could you please get a bigger calculator? I couldn't quite see the digits on that one! (I have a cute little retro 1970s one you can have with vacuum fluorescent digits).
+Stephen Cresswell Covet that.retro calculator. They're increasingly rare.
bigclivedotcom Ok! Will do. Have a few. Can't resist retro digital stuff. If ever you need an old digital watch or calculator for a video just let me know! Keep up the good work. 👍
Is it possible the LEDs has built in resistors? I have a bunch of red LEDs with built in resistance bought at a local store(they dont sell them anymore though)
No. LED with built-in R are special parts to replace indicator lights and therefore too expensive for such products.
In fact, you can hardly kill a red LED hooked on regulated 5 V from an USB port, still over-loaded though.
The 2 Ohm R about halfs the USB voltage in order not to kill the AA cells at first charge ... they won't survive several charging cycles, of course.
Am I the only one curious to see what would actually happen when you stick a 0v battery in ._. ?
For 1.5 Money, it's amazing it even works, heck, most of the money was probably spent on shipping and packaging.
I would have liked to see the issue with the LEDs demonstrated by shorting the terminals so they pop.
can yoiu do a review and maybe a teardown on the FusionMax rechargeable batteries that are in this video please, i use these all the time for various things and they seem quite good for their cheap price, of £1-£1.50-£2.00 per pack of 2 i cant remermber their exact price at my local cheapo shop :)
Clive, is it possible to make a proper usb aa/aaa NiMH charger by using your simple circuit? Can I ask what values to use please?
cheep ebay battery chargers are funny. I have a couple of uber cheap (a quid each) 18650 chargers from ebay of the type with a flip down euro style plug and a single cell slot with a sliding sprung contact. there are two variants, a type with two PP3 style connectors on either side of the main slot, listed as "universal 1.2v, 3.7v and 9v charger) and a type without. when I first tried to connect a pp3 battery I was frustrated as the plastic is moulded in such a way to make it impossible. so I opened the thing to see if I could bodge in a pp3 lead and clip to find that those terminals arent connected to anything inside and theres no circuitry for a 9v supply anyway. and I dont see any evidence in either of them that they would (safely) charge 1.2v NiMHs either. but at least it charges 18650s, and it actually does that better than the near identical charger without the faux 9v connectors, that one gets alarmingly hot but the one I opened stays almost totally cool.
It seems like they had a pile of components in a bin and the boss said make something from this junk and so they did.
Is it possible these LEDs have built-in/internal resistor?
What do you expect for the price grizzle guts?
I have a battery question. Can a lithium-ion battery charger work on lithium-polymer batteries? I search eBay for a LiPo charger and many are described like "Polymer Lithium Battery Charger Protection Board Li-ion Charging Protect" or just say "lithium" with nothing more. Some just say lithium-ion. What's your advice, O wise one?
The terms lithium ion and polymer are just fired about randomly. Technically speaking they're both lithium ion batteries and will usually have the same upper voltage of 4.2V. The LiFePO4 cells are different though and need a lower upper charge voltage.
Thanks! You're a big help.