anyone got any suggestions or circuit diagrams for charger? discovered a cheap supplier of 18650 batteries, dirt cheap so just bought a dozen to play with (were just over a quid each including shipping if anyone is interested)

the charger I've got is pretty crap, struggles to charge 2 and even then I don't think the charging cycle is hugely efficient. was thinking of strapping a few in parallel to make a decent sized battery pack

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Imax B6. Will charge up to 6S, using a standard JST-XH balance plug. Needs a 12v supply. All available from the bay.

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There is no point faffing around making a charger when you can buy one of these:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Imax-B6-LCD-Screen-RC-Lipo-NiMh-Li-io-n-LiFe-Battery-LiPro-Balance-Charger-/330915718524?pt=UK_ToysGames_RadioControlled_JN&hash=item4d0c1d257c 

Do a spot of homework before playing with your batteries. For example, if you stick a flat one and a charged one in parallel, the charged one will charge up the flat one as fast as it can. I am not sure if they have built in protection circuitry (I suspect not), so you can very easily exceed their spec if you don't know what you are doing. Exceeding the spec of a lithium battery might cause fireworks.

Chris.

I'd probably have a diode or 3 in there to prevent any reverse current issues and to protect individual cells. Ta for the ebay link

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Info about chargers from a major company that makes the charger chips (Analog Devices)

In my experience cheap batteries and cheap chargers are a waste.

As for some of this cheap far east electrical stuff some of it beggars belief from a safety point of view and could cost you dearly.

Ampere hours can be a bit of a misnomer.

http://www.analog.com/static/imported-files/tutorials/ptmsect5.pdf 

Lozz.

I have a B6 myself, and I can vouch that it is a decent bit of kit at an incredibly low price.

If you put diodes with each battery, you will lose 0.3V (best case - Schottky diode). This might be significant if you are powering a white LED directly from the cell.

Chris.

There are fakes around, it's a growing problem especially in consumer electronics and electricals, some of the stuff coming into the UK can be lethal to say the least.

Lozz.

There are fakes around, it's a growing problem especially in consumer electronics and electricals, some of the stuff coming into the UK can be lethal to say the least.

Lozz.

I too have the B6. I charge everything from single cells to 3S3P packs to big LiPo packs. If you use a decent driver it will have protection in it.

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Not denying that it doesn't, the point of my post was to suggest that if a known reliable product is up for sale by a reputable retailer at a certain price then if the same "apparent" product is offered by some mystery outfit at a cheaper than cheap price then it's your gamble.
Like I say electrical fakes are a big problem, saw the other day a standard 13 amp plug fuse rated at 3 amps, under test it took 30 amps to blow, your house can be well alight by then, the fuse looked externally like the real deal, also have had reports of dodgy X rated capacitors from the far east, nasty. Plug top chargers are another one the fakes can easily explode, 13 amp plugs also, there is a specification laid down in the UK both in electrical and physical terms for plugs and sockets etc, there is a lot of nasty and very dangerous being flogged off at the moment.

Lozz.

Interesting
A lot of the Chinese boards have chips with the manufacturer and serial sanded off. I pondered on this because if they were counterfeit why bother!
Struck me that they could be genuine but they do this to them because if you buy the 'branded' chips on their own they cost more than the PCB they are mounted on bought from China.
Its all very murky.

another one
I saw a lamp charger someone had built around a Chinese manufacted PCB designed for mains input. He had an 110v transformer between the PCB and the mains input although the board had its own mains isolating transformer.
Lack of confidence?

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Yes Roy, murky indeed, no serial or batch number = no traceability unless you get into forensics, comparative build quality is usually a good indicator.

Lozz.

I have compared a genuine B6 and a clone back to back. Within .001 of a volt. I don't know which one is on if I don't look under it for the hologram. It works. I can't speak for other devices, but this one, coupled with. Knowledge about the cells themselves, is good to go.

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If it's not made by the original manufacturer or under license from them then it's a fake being made by criminals, do criminals care about your safety? do criminals care about your money? It's a no brainer really.

Lozz.

No, they don't care, but if it works, it works. I've been using mine, with all sorts of cells (Li-Ion, LiPo, NiMH, Pb...), and capacities (1100mAH NiMh to 33,000mAH Pb). I have not had an issue once, with anything. It shuts off at the correct voltage, uses the correct CC,CV curves, and is very configurable.

As stated, I tested it, back to back, with the original (genuine) unit. I've also tested a number of others after I informed the owners (RC people usually) that they are *not* genuine. All have been within .001v, (on a Calibrated Fluke meter), which is down to rounding errors at that point.

If someone hasn't got the knowledge to test a unit performs correctly, then I'd strongly advise staying away from Lithium cells of any description altogether, they're very .nasty when things go wrong.

As said, the sole difference is the hologram... even the bloody molding marks are identical.

People can pay make a choice by themselves, I was just stating things I had observed. It is a no-brainer for me, but with an opposite outcome to yours.

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No, they don't care, but if it works, it works. I've been using mine, with all sorts of cells (Li-Ion, LiPo, NiMH, Pb...), and capacities (1100mAH NiMh to 33,000mAH Pb). I have not had an issue once, with anything. It shuts off at the correct voltage, uses the correct CC,CV curves, and is very configurable.

As stated, I tested it, back to back, with the original (genuine) unit. I've also tested a number of others after I informed the owners (RC people usually) that they are *not* genuine. All have been within .001v, (on a Calibrated Fluke meter), which is down to rounding errors at that point.

If someone hasn't got the knowledge to test a unit performs correctly, then I'd strongly advise staying away from Lithium cells of any description altogether, they're very .nasty when things go wrong.

As said, the sole difference is the hologram... even the bloody molding marks are identical.

People can pay make a choice by themselves, I was just stating things I had observed. It is a no-brainer for me, but with an opposite outcome to yours.

I hear what you are saying and that's fine but it might reach a stage were genuine manufacturers say well why should we bother to develop new products if we are going to get cloned out of existence, it was going that way with the music industry with illegal downloads etc until it was tightened up.
I guess we will have to agree to disagree on this one.

Lozz.

We will indeed. I will refrain from commenting on "Illegal Downloads" as I won't stop if I do... :curse:

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No worries.

Lozz.

:offtopic:

There's every possibility and to some degree likelihood that some of these are not fakes, just not authorised.

folks outsource their manufacturing to china because its cheap adn they want to maximise profit. the chinese are utterly devoid of any morals whatsoever, they will manufacture 'x' for the client, then make a heap more for themselves and they get resold by chinese third parties. the manufacture claims to know nothing about it when questioned. We get a lot of stock direct from china and I've bought stuff from the UK distributor of certain items and have been offered the identical items direct from the factory that manufactured for the company in the UK - often at a tenth of the price.

what do you do? its hard to do the right thing when the likes of amazon and especially ebay direct sales from china are slaughtering the UK retail sector.

and it affects every single sector, electronics, especially oem components, jewellery, clothing, fishing tackle, hardware you name it

was recently offered Plastimo marine bulkhead steering compasses (uk rrp £140) for a tenner each including shipping. bought one out of curiosity and took it to bits - you can actually see where the plastimo logo has been scrubbed from the moulds when the outer cases were injected, inside... the logo is still there.

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Absolute nail on the head, look what I posted.

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So is
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Imax-B6-LCD-Screen-RC-Lipo-NiMh-Li-io-n-LiFe-Battery-LiPro-Balance-Charger-/330915718524?pt=UK_ToysGames_RadioControlled_JN&hash=item4d0c1d257c 
a fake or genuine? It looks very good value for money.

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