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Alternative battery charger (£0.99)

Posted: Mon May 30, 2016 5:21 pm
by kappe
I'm building the battery pack using these AA size batteries:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01 ... TQJS2FX0FC

and looking around i've found this little cheap charger:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HiLetgo-Rechar ... on+Battery

My questions are:

1) why is soooo cheaper than the Adafruit one?
2) Can i charge the battery using the B+- connector and power the pi zero using the OUT+- connector at the same time?
3) do you see any issue with this charger?

thanks :)

Re: Alternative battery charger (£0.99)

Posted: Mon May 30, 2016 6:20 pm
by Popcorn
From what I can decipher from that Google translate English, it seems that you can charge and get output at the same time as long as you are using a 2A power source (>1A at least). I think the Adafruit has a bit of a premium on it because of all the extra pin outs, but you are right, it shouldn't be $20+. More like $10. Anyway, I think you would be fine to use it as long as what they say matches what it does.

Re: Alternative battery charger (£0.99)

Posted: Tue May 31, 2016 6:50 am
by sander
Does your charger also boost the voltage to 5V? The alternative one on the wiki is also cheap and does supply 5V:

http://sudomod.com/wiki/index.php?title ... wer_Supply

Re: Alternative battery charger (£0.99)

Posted: Tue May 31, 2016 7:00 am
by kite
Also that battery is NO WAY 5000mAH.. also it is BIGGER than an AA (so bear that in mind, it is 18mm diameter, and 65mm long). You CAN get 3400mAh 18650's (look for the panasonic ones, they are like >£5 each) which are actually 3400mAh..

Re: Alternative battery charger (£0.99)

Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2016 3:45 am
by mamo
The 18650 are not AA size, the ones you are looking for ist 14500. This board you mention is a TP4056, which can charge one battery and can output the battery voltage as far as I know (haven't tested them yet). I'm planning on using these boards and 4 14500 in the battery compartment and wire the output of the boards to the powerbooster.

Re: Alternative battery charger (£0.99)

Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2016 8:31 am
by Robvp
The charger board doesn't seem to have the 5v output, just input, I've found the charging circuits inside the powerbank batteries to be decent replacements for the powerboosts, I have one that outputs 1a and powers the pi just fine, the other circuit linked above is pretty good too.
There are some power banks that output 2.1a and cost around 4-5 bucks at walmart, I will get one of those if my 1a powebank can't power the screen properly

Re: Alternative battery charger (£0.99)

Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2016 12:08 pm
by kappe
Thanks guys, really useful informations, i'm using this approach in order to secure the pi zero and keep in place the various components:
Image
so i want to use AA batteries and the original battery space.

I've found the alternative charger even in uk :)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Quality-Li-ion ... ply+Module

Re: Alternative battery charger (£0.99)

Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2016 2:41 pm
by aruipal

Re: Alternative battery charger (£0.99)

Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2016 11:18 pm
by murdurturtle
I would not use those batteries. Get on some vaporizer sites and the most common batteries are the samsung 25r (2500mah), lg hg2 (3000mah), and the sony vtc4 if you can find real ones.. (2100mah). You do not really want to cheap out on these shady batteries.

I have used a couple hundred of those charging boards. They work well. Lookup keystone for high quality battery holders.

Re: Alternative battery charger (£0.99)

Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 6:04 am
by Bubble
18650 meens 18mm diameter and 65mm long
14500 meens 14mm diameter and 50mm long, which is the size of an AA ;)
Sony stopped production of VTC4 & 5 a long time ago (if you see those batteries on the market, those are no more produced by Sony). If you want to go for 18650, choose Samsung, LG or Panasonic.
+1 for Keystone 18650 battery holders : Model 1042 for single battery, 1048 for dual. I use those on my ecigs builds :lol: