Adjustable Battery Charger

I have so many batteries of various types and im tired of having chargers for each one and then needing special one off chargers for any potential battery packs. Instead I would like to have a single charger that can be carefully set to the parameters of any 3-12V battery.

Do these exist? I cant seem to find anything that covers that range. All it would need to do is provide 300mA-1or2A current and monitor 3-12V charge states. Seems like a perfectly reasonable task to me. :thinking:

Any ideas or suggestions would be very appreciated!

Helios

Something like this maybe?

I use an IMax B6 that has been re-flashed with Chealil-Charger firmware. It makes for an excellent custom battery charger that can charge almost anything. It's got built in settings for Nicd/Nimh/LiIon/LiPoly/LiFe/Li 4.35 volts(new 18650's)/Pb batteries. Plus it has custom settings if none of these fit. It takes a bit of know how, and a "good" B6 clone (requires Atmel Mega32 MCU) but gets you a super versatile charger for around $25.00.

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/cheali-charger
-Jim

A bench power supply will charge any battery you can imagine. It also, as the name might suggest, doubles as an incredibly versatile power supply. The catch is you need to know the charge voltage and current, and program those two values yourself.

Cyparagon said:

A bench power supply will charge any battery you can imagine. It also, as the name might suggest, doubles as an incredibly versatile power supply. The catch is you need to know the charge voltage and current, and program those two values yourself.

Click to expand...

But it won't shut down when finished will it? This was my first thought.

The hobby chargers are a great suggestion. I remember researching them years ago but forgot the term. Thanks!

JimMc said:

I use an IMax B6 that has been re-flashed with Chealil-Charger firmware. It makes for an excellent custom battery charger that can charge almost anything. It's got built in settings for Nicd/Nimh/LiIon/LiPoly/LiFe/Li 4.35 volts(new 18650's)/Pb batteries. Plus it has custom settings if none of these fit. It takes a bit of know how, and a "good" B6 clone (requires Atmel Mega32 MCU) but gets you a super versatile charger for around $25.00.

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/cheali-charger
-Jim

Click to expand...

Wow, how do you flash custom firmwares? I have a couple B6s and some of the stock limitations drive me nuts (like the inability to set low discharge voltage to something other than 3V)

This is the one I have used for many years and find it to do the job just fine, the Germans make some good stuff

It works great for charging and discharging so you can chart the capacity of any of your cells, this model is good up to 7 amps.