New Charger for dNaNo Batteries

[kevtse]

Bought a new AC Li-Ion/Poly charger for dNaNo batteries. First had to made a few mods to the charging station.

Cut away the original charging unit board:
http://images4.fotop.net/albums4/kevintse/dnanomods23apr2009/tn_R1155046.jpg

Solder on the connecting wires and make a hole on the side of the charging station:
http://images4.fotop.net/albums4/kevintse/dnanomods23apr2009/tn_R1155050.jpg

Here's my new AC charger which is a TLP X15. Cost is around USD60.
http://images4.fotop.net/albums4/kevintse/dnanomods23apr2009/tn_R1155058.jpg

After charging an empty dNaNo battery here is the result:
http://images4.fotop.net/albums4/kevintse/dnanomods23apr2009/tn_R1155078.jpg

Final Capacity: 138mah
Final Voltage: 4.21V
Charging current: 0.3A
Charging time: 33 minutes

Good thing is I no longer have to use AA batteries and I can now "top up" the batteries as the stock charging station would not allow you to charge unless the battery has less than 40% capacity.

Kev

[payaso]

Awesome job. I love to see people make their own way.

Kudos.







silla

[-J-]

Nice job. I've been wanting to do something like this for a while.

[Pierro]

Hello!

I made a cheaper hack just a few days ago...

And here are the pics of the modification of the Dnano charger:
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/3466/spa0103.jpg (http://img27.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spa0103.jpg)

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/3835/spa0102uxf.jpg (http://img27.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spa0102uxf.jpg)

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/6232/spa0101f.jpg (http://img27.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spa0101f.jpg)

Works really nicely and don't destroy the Dnano charger.

I use a simple regulated universal voltage adapter.
This one can get output voltage from 1.5 to 12V. with 1000mA at 12V (1400 at 6V).
It also contain different plugs.

And I can use both of the power sources. Cells or Adapter. ;)

[-J-]

Solder on the connecting wires and make a hole on the side of the charging station:
http://images4.fotop.net/albums4/kevintse/dnanomods23apr2009/tn_R1155050.jpg

I'm doing this to my charger as I type this, and I have a quick question. Do you solder the prongs that are not touching what's left of the stock charging unit board to what's left of the board as well as the wires that do to the charger, or just the wires that go to the charger? Do that make sense? I appreciate it.

Also, did you notice any performance gains over charging with the stock charger when driving?

[kevtse]

Hi J,

Sorry don't know what you mean...can you try to rephrase?

As for performance I really don't notice any difference.

Kev

[-J-]

Now that I reread that a couple times, it was pretty confusing. :p

All you have to do is solder the wires that you're going to plug into your charger onto the stock charging terminals right?

[kevtse]

Yep that's right J!

Kev

[-J-]

Cool thanks.

[-J-]

I do not recommend this mod to anyone with a Hyperion intelligent charger, or any intelligent charger for that matter. I'm not throwing off on Kevtse. It's a neat mod, but it blows the fuse on Hyperion intelligent chargers.

My theory is that because these batteries were designed to be charged using AA batteries, which are low voltage and high in internal resistance or IR, when you plug the battery into the charger, because there isn't enough IR to cause the charger to register that a battery is there, the voltage being sent to the battery to determine it's specs increases unil it's too much for the fuse to handle, and the fuse blows. This may not be the case for some, but I just wanted to let people know what happened to when I followed these direction the the 'T' and used an intelligent Hyperion, li-po capable charger.