Made in China

LoopyByteloose

Confession is good for the soul, or so people say. I have had a stack of 9 Li-ion 18650s sitting around for about six months and was quite wary about charging until I saw the Parallax board. The only problem is that shipping to Taiwan tends to limit how often and how much I buy from Parallax. So I have been waiting until I got a big enough order.

In this case, I was visiting the local electronics supply and decided to check out their 18650s to see what quality they were. At some point, it seemed like it was time to convert everything to 7.2 Li-ion. Too my surprise, I found a nice double 18650 charger for only about $10USD, so I bought one. Arriving home, the only documentation it offered is in Chinese, and not the Traditional Chinese - the Simplified Chinese. It will take me weeks to sort that out. And, I am pretty sure this is a mainland China product. That in itself is okay as many things are fine that come out of China.

But low and behold, this "automatic battery charger" (as the English label claims) has one huge drawback - there is absolutely no indication of where the + and - ends of the battery belong. I know, I checked it with a multimeter and am now trying it out. But it is a rather serious omission - especially when labeled "automatic". Hopefully it includes reverse polarity shut down, but I've no idea. You get what you pay for. Right?

Throughout Asia, there are tons of examples of quick adoption of new technology without any real understanding of the basic safety requirements. This is one of them.

Back in 1994, I took a public city bus in Kaohsiung and found some sort of an alarm going off at nearly every stop. A close investigation showed that the bus driver was having to top off brake fluid every time the this particular alarm went off. Needless to say I decided to walk. Fortunately, Kaohsiung now has all new buses. But sometime progress is a choppy affair.

I still am very careful not to get anywhere near cranes when out and about - rigging is definitely not up to USA safety standards. Hopefully, I won't blow up the charger or batteries on a test run.

lanternfish

Loopy Byteloose wrote: »

Confession is good for the soul, or so people say. .......
I still am very careful not to get anywhere near cranes when out and about - rigging is definitely not up to USA safety standards. Hopefully, I won't blow up the charger or batteries on a test run.

I like your comment about rigging. Here in Dunedin New Zealand I work for the only Dunedin lighting company that has industry recognised/trained riggers yet our non-trained competition seems to get a lot of work. No accidents yet but give it time ...

LoopyByteloose

Here in Kaohsiung, I see bundles of rebar pulled up many stories with a single choker all the time. So far I haven't seen any slippage that would dump a load, but that definitely isn't the way OSHA would like it.

W9GFO

At first I thought this was a rigging error but upon a second viewing, I think it is operator error.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R56EeRdgFs

LoopyByteloose

Looks more like a rigging error - neither of the hooks drop and the slings are still as high as they ought to be. But it is hard to say as the operator(s) may have bumped the boat.

Safety First to all and make sure you test your new battery charges in a safe environment - especially if you can't read the instructions and don't know the origin.

bill190

Good point so far as safety. I read somewhere that a battery charger like that caught on fire.

Publison

LiPo batteries have to be looked after while charging.If they have any psychical damage, they could catch fire. That's why they sell these charging bags.

Watch to video showing how violent theses fire can be.

NiMH are not immune to overheating, as pointed out by Phil:

http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?120396-Never-leave-a-plugged-in-battery-charger-unattended!&highlight=Battery

I have the exact same charger, and it does not leave my sight anymore.

LoopyByteloose

I have had Li-ion and Lead Gel cells dramatically fail during charging. It is best to add a thermal sensor and a relay to kill the charge if there is too much heat during charging and the charger is going to be left unattended. Excessive heat is never really a good thing during charging as it may damage the battery and create high internal pressures. This is an ideal project for a BasicStamp, even the BS1. I have a rig with a solid state relay and electrical outlet that holds the charger.

Alternatively, charge in a fire safe place - like the concrete floor in the garage. And if you are leery of explosion, cover the battery charger with a coffee can and put a rock on top. At least that is some containment.

Precautions are there to be taken. Safety first.

And PLEASE NOTE - Parallax's Li-ion Propeller Backpack is sold with batteries that have internal thermal protection. It is best o buy both the charger and batteries from Parallax (read the docs) so that you have a very safe system. It may be that Not all 18650 Li-ion batteries are protected.