Simple NiMH battery charger (with PCB files)
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- Опубліковано 5 жов 2024
- A gloriously dumb USB powered NiMH and NiCad battery charger that will guarantee a full charge every time, but only if you're not in a rush. A trashy 500mAh cell will take about a day to charge, while a luxuriously high capacity cell could take most of a week to charge - but will be charged right to the hilt and not be harmed in the process.
The unit uses low current trickle-charging at between 20-30mA to ensure a safe charge at a low enough level to allow the inherent feature of self catalysis of end of charge gas bubbles back into liquid electrolyte with low pressure buildup.
Can also be powered by a 5 or 6V solar panel and will use whatever solar energy there is to put some charge into the cells.
The PCBs can be cascaded with a common power buss to create an array of up to 40 charge positions from a common 1A charger.
Each cell is charged completely independently from the others and has a diode to prevent backfeed when power is removed or there is no solar power available.
Individual LEDs to indicate charging status. Choose whatever LED colour you like. Power indicator LED is optional and can also be any colour of LED.
There are four 3mm mounting holes for feet or for mounting the PCB to a panel. I'd recommend against having the panel loose amongst metalwork on a bench in case the back gets shorted out.
This trickle charging system is perfect for the newer NiMH low self discharge cells. It's basically creating a better than fresh-out-the-pack level of charge.
Here's a link to the gerber zip file for getting PCBs made. UA-cam prevents a direct link to a zip file for security reasons, so you will have to copy and paste the link into another browser tab.
www.bigclive.com/NIMH.zip
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
www.bigclive.co...
This also keeps the channel independent of UA-cam's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
#ElectronicsCreators
Clive, man, I'm a professional myself and I know my stuff. I don't watch your channel to inform myself. One day I stumbled across your videos and just got stuck, just watching you and listening to you. You know why? You are the Bob Ross of electronics, just brilliant. It's just a dream, your calm way of explaining things and your skill. It puts a smile on my face to see someone who lives the technology the way I do and also gives the knowledge of the basics of electronics and physics as naturally as others take a breath of air, which is unfortunately no longer so self-evident today. that's why it's so nice that there are people like you who know what they're talking about. So please keep up the good work, you have my absolute respect.
I am the opposite to you. I am not a professional and I started out only knowing a bit. But I completely agree. I like these videos for all the same reasons. And I am learning a ton. It’s trickling in.
Well, pretty much the same for me. I don't have formal education in electrical or electronic engineering, but have been designing, building, modding, restoring and servicing stuff for over 20 years now, some aspects of electronic engineering I know very well, others - not so much, and I think it's fine. As long as I can use my brain to look for the info I need and solve problems, that is. Clive's videos are so calming (Mr Carlson's also are) that I treat them like ASMR :)
People who can explain complicated things in an uncomplicated way are true gems. Getting folks excited about something they never thought they’d understand is incredible.
I heard a story about a man, he thought so much of himself and so little of others that everytime he saw someone the threw his head back, one day as he was passing someone he threw his head back and did not see what was in front, tripped and landed on his face!
LMAO Bob Ross. You've hit the nail on the head right there.
Who is also always soldering resistors in the same direction, just because it looks nicer?
Indeed 100%. In German people would say: "Ordnung muß sein.", which translates to: "Order must be.".
Component dress is important. It irks me when they're not all around the same way (it's also harder to read them for servicing)
@@SomeMorganSomewhere I usually don't bother with polarised aluminium capacitors though.
Totally dude. I wouldn't have it any other way. Indeed, with resistors horizontal to the PCB I always take the time to bend their leads at right angles with the bend the same distance from the body of the resistor.
We actually hired some fresh-out-of-college Electronic Engineers in our office/lab. And they were assigned a design project to replace an old circuit with modern technology. However their book knowledge didn't cover about power capacities and they installed resistors that were too small wattage wish for their new circuit. And yes, as one would think, that magic smoke came out of them. I decided to play with them and asked if they installed the resistors in the correct polarity. They all looked at me with a questioning look and said resistors didn't have polarity. And I say sure they do. Why did you think the color bands are closer to one side? WOW, the looks turned into confusion and they stated they didn't think or know about that. Other more experienced engineers heard me and watched without laughing. Those new engineers started looking over their new circuit and figuring out how they installed the resistors... I let them go for a while and than I had to explain to them that they have to understand power requirements as well as values. Later I and the older engineers had a pretty good laugh after that... True story!
Just had a thought. Start trickle charging and the wine kit. Both would finish up around the same time, very convenient.
I always wondered which would win, batteries or wine
We know he had more 🍷
"Don't worry about dinner, honey. I've got it covered."
"Oh that's sweet. What are you making?"
"I'm making chicken fettuccine alfredo. It will be complimented with a nice chianti I made myself as well as some nickel metal hydride for a little extra zing."
17:17 - Always cut those with the middle (or back) of the blades. If you try to cut them with the tip, the tip breaks and flies at the speed of sound towards your remaining good eye.
I hope that wasn't typed on a Braille keyboard !😎🥴
@@kennethbain4290 - No, luckily I was able to get a guide dog that knows how to use a regular keyboard.
That one-handed soldering method is exactly the same method I use. It does "just happen" somewhere along the line while accumulating forty-something years practice.
I used to solder like that at age 16. At fourty years of soldering I started using pick and place robots.
I do the same thing, but with a lot less experience. It's something that happens when you don't own a set of helping hands.
That one-handed soldering method is exactly the same metod I use. It does "just happen" if you watch enough Big Clive's videos and think "well, that's way more convenient than try to prop the things on the desk without any retention device" 😁
Me too. I would have slightly splayed those leads outward, to stop them slipping out while soldering.
@@richardhemingway6084 - or bend inward slightly, accomplishes the same thing
I was put off rechargeables years ago. Bout some very good quality batteries and a very good charger. After about a month, the charger just would charge two of them. If it had been a straight forward charger like this, I would almost certainly still be using them. Very nice Clive.
Do you mean about
@@espero_dev No, it should have said bought but I sausage fingered it.
@@espero_dev He means "bought"
you can "resurrect" the battery by touching it to the contacts of a charging battery. This will put a tiny bit of voltage into it, pushing it over the threshold that the charger recognizes as "battery inserted".
@@nrdesign1991 Or just bridge the positive contact with the one next it with a paperclip, assuming there's a charging cell in the adjacent slot. You only have to hold it there for 1-2 seconds, max.
"Color vision is not needed for electronics" -- thanks, I agree and like that encouragement!
(My color vision is fine, but it's really good to know I'm not the only one having trouble reading some of the metal film resistor values. And I always measure values, just to be sure.)
The colours do indeed shift / fade due to the odd blue background. I always double check metal film resistors.
SMD resistors just have the values printed on, no need to remember the annoying color system
My great grandfather was a colour blind electrician for 10 years.
The day war broke out he became a sniper.
He actually killed Hitler !!!
I keep a pocket microscope close by. It makes it easier to see the colors.
@@tommihommi1 Thanks Capt. Obvious
Clive, if you had used 1.5 Hz (or 0.5 Hz) LEDs as charge indicators you could say that it was a charger with "Pulse Charge Technology".
I almost did use flashing LEDs.
@@bigclivedotcom (Edit: yes, stupid question, since the LEDs are warm white, which is already high voltage.). Stupid question: does that work with the higher forward voltage of those LEDs? (I guess it could be called a charging indicator that automatically goes off when they're full-ish?)
@@joshmyer9 It does work. They will get a bit dimmer at full charge.
Ha! That's a good one :)
@@bigclivedotcom Hat es einen Überladungsschutz?
You could use painters masking tape, that does not leave residue. Or you can do what I often do: just put the pcb on the desk and chase it around with the iron because it stars to crawl as the components and wires and the iron itself push it around and then I begin to hold it down and barricade with things like screwdrivers and pliers and sometimes it works :D
After trying to wrangle 4 wires and an electrolytic capacitor, I remembered my usual trick of taping everything down to the bench before soldering. Usually I reach for a bit of Kapton tape, but there was a bunch of blue tape in the area, so I used that. Worked like a charm.
Also great for keeping flux off the bench.
I always drop everything on the floor. Except for my PRECIOUS Sol Station.
What also works is something like blue-tack. Although tape is easier if everything lines up nicely, like on this board.
I use a large blob of bluetac or something similar - it doesn't like too much heat though. My fingers aren't as tough as Clives yet, I end up burning myself on the hot component.
Here's me using a sponge to hold the bits in place
Searching for “axial lead bender” came up with the shaping tool. I have had one for a few years. They are also on thingiverse if you want to print them. Search for lead bender.
Thanks for the reminder. I looked up some on eBay for $10 shipped... totally forgot about thingiverse. Printing one right now!
I have a little orange plastic wire former that came free with a magazine from the 1970s, possibly Practical Wireless. I still use it 😁.
Or in german, a "Biegelehre" :D
The ones on thingyverse might not be layed out as exactly as you wish.. At least that one I picked from there had the pitches a little off, so components I bent with it did not fit in their dedicated place readily.
I ended up making this my first project using OpenScad and the result of this did much better than what I got from thingyverse ..
Biegelehre in German
This is the charger I’ve been looking for! Cool design with the trickle charger. This is what you want…a charger that you can pop the cells into and have them ready for the weekend, no worries.
Something for the weekend that runs on batterys 😊.
Have a great weekend. 🤣 👍👍
@@dcallan812 Sounds exciting and vibrant.
@@Frankhe78 Yes it really sound like that.
And/or *next* weekend 😏
@@brabhamfreaman166 Depend who is in 'charge'.
Like watching a soldering Bob Ross. The LEDs can be anything you like, it's your project. Was waiting for a line like "There are no mistakes just happy accidents." Another great project as always.
I remember learning how to solder decades ago. My dad taught me and he did the same thing of holding the board, part, and solder. "You got five fingers, might as well use em all"
With a little practice it really is second nature and you forget all about it while you just make it all work.
This really is some Bob Ross, ASMR, electronics action, heh.
Clive totally missed the Watt reading on the USB monitor and just had to bring out the pink calculator. At least the calculator agreed with the monitor 😁
It takes a real man to use the kink palculator after dismissing pink LEDs as being too camp.
ONLY the MIGHTY pink calculator is correct!
In fact, absolutely no need for a calculator for any of these simple maths!
@@etienneguyot9069 In fact, absolutely no need for brain math if you have a calculator doing it for you.
Did you not notice the pre-application of vocal lubricant alcohol which may affect the ability to perform mental arithmetic?
I've been watching your videos for years and the first time I watched you apply solder to a wire with one hand I immediately switched to that method and it's surprisingly easy to adopt! Been doing it ever since and the "helping hand" alligator clip octopus has collected dust since!
This seems like an ideal use case for the 6v solar panels I picked up on a whim a while ago, thanks for the design!
"Blue tack" (aka adhesive putty) works really well for holding components in place while soldering, and can be reused basically indefinitely.
Yep! I used it when I was hacking a manual trigger button into my airwick air fresheners to hold the button wire against the back of the battery terminal while I soldered it. Would've been an impossible job for two hands otherwise.
Blu Tack®
in cases like this I use a spare copy of the same PCB (or a coaster etc), place it on top then flip it over.
Blu tack is indispensable. Caution: overheating will cause it to turn goopy and sticky.
@@peterlarkin762 I've heard the fumes from overheating blu-tac are really bad, but it's just too good to drop - especially when winding tiny transformers...
Just built my first one of these. Still waiting for the micro-usb connectors to arrive - delay due to CNY I think so I've just used a standard USB plug wired to the jumper pads for now. Used your gerber files to order 5 boards from JLCPCB. Had a minor temporary issue with a solder bridge across the pads of one of the charging LED's due to being a bit out of practice with my soldering. I spotted and fixed the issue before completing the assembly. Now have it hooked up to a multi-port usb charging station and have 4 NiMH's on charge. Thank you Clive for sharing this project which has re-ignited my dormant inclination to try easy electronic projects. 👍👍👍 Graham.
I have had a go and the batteries charge successfully. The ampage increases as I add batteries, but none of my LEDs work. Could it be because my soldering is off- and joined between the two soldering points?
@@pstasiw I don't know I'm afraid but you query has landed as a reply to my comment rather than as a comment in the main thread. You might want to try reposting your query as a comment on the main thread so that more people (including Big Clive himself) see it. 🤓
Lovely PCB design, wonderful symmetry :)
It's so simple that I'd recommend it as one of the first self-assembly kits for those who want to get into electronics. Been there, done that a long ago.
I don't use insulating/sticky tape when soldering; I just bend the legs outward a bit so that the component sits pretty safely in place, and then solder one leg, correct if needed, solder the rest.
I'd also use some double-sided sticky tape or hot snot for attaching the battery compartments to the board.
This is just amazing. Reminds me of my 30x 18650 Lithium Ion charger that had a 12v PC connector and for each of the 30 charging controller, I paid 0.18$ since I bought it in bulk.
I used this charger to charge the cells from my DIY Lenovo T420 Battery, which I 3d printed and used 10 of the cells to power this laptop. The great about those modules is that I can power them via USB or the two pads on the corners. You can also change the resistor to charge the cells slower. I charged mine with 620mAh since the amperage of my 12V connector in my car could output 10a before tripping a fuse which could be reset with a button
Proper job Clive, any plans to offer this as a kit? I could see this being useful for people who want a backup power source just in case for cheap.
Yes, you are just like Bob Ross of electronics. Calming voice, it's a delight watching your videos hacking at itty bitty projects, taking apart cheap stuff.
I have an 18 volt Ryobi drill with a SBD-218B battery (1200 mA/hr, Nicad) which I have been trickle charging for 20=30 years at about 3 mA (dull glow in a red led of the age). I use the drill occasionally to drive the odd wood-screw(s) and to make small holes in my electronic project boards. Recently I drilled about 100 x 1 mm holes (for panel pins) in a woodwork project before the battery was discharged. It took about 3-weeks or so on trickle charge before it's normal grunt returned. It is always there for me.
Clive, thank you for all that you do, the most pleasant voice , reminds me of my favourite 1st grade teacher who was kind and made everyone feel comfortable and relaxed, which made learning most enjoyable, and we all love you, because we can 😊
Cool circuit design. Absolutely no frills and totaly functional. Nice one.
My accidentally discovered favorite tape for holding components to solder, is aluminum foil tape. (often used for HVAC stuff) It's very heat tolerant so it doesn't get gooey or anything, for this application it's very reusable, it can be easily shaped to conform to the components (it's al foil with adhesive, flexible but holds a shape) and it's no trouble to remove when you're done. Think I actually like it more than Blu tak/poster putty, it's definitely less messy.
Be careful with that stuff, as it's known for cutting up the hands of the careless.
Hi Clive. 16:20 When I solder those types of holder to a board, I put a dead/duff battery in first to soak-up the heat from the soldering iron. Zero squonky terminals.
Best video ever, so much fun building a charger with you. You had wine I had beer 🍺 most of the makers nowadays just promote products. But you actually make things. I always learn something about electronics from you. You make my hobbies and crafts more fun, thanks
trickle charge for NiCd is 1/10C and for NiMH its 1/20C to 1/40C iirc so you coud push it up a little to 40-50mA per battery and you'd still be ok
Also a good thing to note is that old, damaged NiMH batteries may still have the capasity but not the current capasity because NiMH and NiCd fail mostly of high ESR rather than capasity loss.
For example i have a few sony cycleenergy that a "smart" (not) charger screwed up and overcharged a lots of times before i learned that it getting hot wasnt it was charging but instead that it was over charging! so it ruined them a little each time and now they have like 1 or 2 ohms ESR which makes them useless for most things but i still charge them at 50mA with a IMax B6 for 105% capasity and they are still good for a wireless mouse or keyboard.
If only they would sell trickle chargers, a lot less batteries would end up in the trash. Also they never tell you nimh batteries should never get hot EVER for whatever reason.
HOT = FULLY CHARGED (and overcharging....)
I bought a charger recently for the sole purpose of charging 10Ah D cells. It can take four at a time but the charging current is fixed at 1 amp whatever the size of the cell. That's fine for my purposes but I wouldn't want to put low capacity AA or AAA cells in it.
@@johnm2012 1A into AA is too high??? My smart charger charges AA with 4A or even 7A (1-2 slots populated out of 4) and AAA with 3A. Proper Eneloop cells are barely warm after charging there.
@@volodumurkalunyak4651 I think 1A is too high for low capacity cells. I have some rated at only 300mAh. I have an original Sanyo Eneloop charger that charges AAs at 250mA and AAAs at 125mA. I prefer to treat my cells gently. If you're going to blast them with 4A you need to make sure the charger knows when to stop. Smart chargers have been known to crash.
How do you make imax b6 charge with less than 100mA?
@@johnm2012 I don't think overcharging is treating the cells gently. Avoiding overcharge at < 0.3C charging is really hard as -dV/dt criteria doesn't work anymore. At 1C - 3C charging -dV/dt works and charger knows exactly when to stop.
Track-width is really a strange thing. Sometimes i wonder if those boards are just designed by interns and the design-program starts by loading the thinnest available track and they just stick with that. When a track is carrying power just make it wide if you got the space. Just do not make it one enormous copper-plane right where you need to solder (specially with thick copper layers) as that will just make heating it up way harder than it needs to be.
Just recently i fixed an LED-lamp. 800mA, 10 strips in parallel with 4 LEDs each - 36V. They were nice aluminium-boards, but there was more free space on the boards than actual tracks. The tracks connecting the LEDs were like 0.5 mm. I replaced them with normal PCBs with 11 LEDs, but the track is now 4mm wide - cause why not (also helps with spreading the heat).
My philosophy too. Fat tracks and thermal isolation of pads.
I think this could be adapted to become an UPS for a Raspberry Pi or similar board. There are solutions that use a lithium battery but having them constantly connected is a bit iffy.
This seems perfect to be left alone and not worry about the cells being ruined or popping and a bank of 4 high capacity ones should keep the pi easily running long enough for a safe shutdown
Unfortunately, NiMH cells output 1.22v max, 4 of them output about 4.9v fully charged. May not be enough for a Raspberry Pi. I'd use 5 cells with a resistor.
On the subject of resistors and "it doesn't really matter" - thanks for putting all your resistors in "the correct way round" with the tolerance bands all nicely lined up at the bottom right. A lovely sight to behold.
best thing about rechargeables is that you only need to charge them about 3-5 times to make up the price from an alkaline
Agreed. I think I save myself $30-$40 a year using rechargeables for devices that see a lot of use. I can recharge four batteries for a fraction of a US cent.
Sticking to the best naming convention. I've always known these as flush cutters. Makes good distinction from regular side cutters which are more bulky and durable.
The simplest 'dumb' charger I have ever seen was to be found in a Sony-Tek portable oscilloscope in the 1970s. The cells were simply connected in series with a 12V 5W tungsten filament lamp. (I can't recall the supply voltage.) This gave a crudely regulated constant current.
Those side-cutters are often sold as cutters for 3D printer plastic.
By the way, your technique of holding everything in just one hand while soldering amazed me initially; but then I realized I was on my way there, I just could employ it more efficiently after watching your examples.
Thanks, and thanks a lot for explaining every topic you're dealing with - so thoroughly. It changes our lives. Thanks!
These side cutters are so cheap (usually Plato or a copy of Platos) that I buy them five at a time and if I break a pair, so what. My father has extremely thick big toenails and they work well to cut his toenails, too (they don't break cutting toenails unlike what they do occasionally when dealing with certain components). I keep a full size pair of side cutters around, too, but these little ones are easier to use for certain projects.
I like that. Maybe do a follow-up about how to directly power this from solar cells, what panel size is needed etc.?
100mA and upwards at 5 or 6V.
@@bigclivedotcom I think if someone wanted to have one of these that charged faster he could use lower value resistors (I didn't catch the value you used but an example not directly tied to this project would be 100 ohm for faster charging rather than 250 ohm), just be sure to monitor the batteries so they aren't overcharged. If someone did this I would suggest one watt resistors (assuming they will fit) rather than the quarter or half watt resistors that appear to be used in the video. They might be overkill but it isn't fun when a resistor burns out.
This is surreal. I'm sitting here building this exact board while watching you do it too. Always good.👍 👍 👍 👍
About the USB port: I've heard type-c ports, as well as the extra resistors and complications, the actual type-c ports cost quite a bit more. But you've also got the complication of whether it's 3.0 or 2.0 standard, that a lot of budget phones were using to save a few quid in the hope that budget phone buyers didn't want 3.0+ speeds.
It was a while ago I heard about the cost. Source: Gamers Nexus during a case review (highly recommended YTrs for anyone wanting to learn more about the nerdy bits of computer hardware, not Gaming as the name suggests)
You can use USB-C in default USB mode with max. 500mA. You just need two resistors.
everything about type-c connectors/cables cost more because its a 12/24 pin cable/connector, compared to any previous usb standard at 4 pins.
I hate all variations of USB connectors, they are all absolute rubbish. Give me a 5.5/2.1mm barrel connector any day 😀. Much more reliable and you can use your own cable that actually has a decent copper diameter/cross section, so lower losses due to a lower cable resistance.
@@PortersMob Type c cable i got in china store with 20w charging speed without problem for 1.5eur/pcs
I was making a variant of the supercomputer recently. It's really hard to get a USB C plug that a rookie would have a hope of soldering sadly. I would up with micro. Still surface mount though the are the odd through hole part listed, none are in stock. But I just extended the exposed parts of the pads so that the students learning to solder can just flow solder up the pads to make the connection.
The wikipedia article says that trickle charging current can be up to C/10. Current for leaving the batteries topped up is suggested with C/300. I think this is the superior charging technique, i dont stop the time until the cells are charged, and intelligent chargers often heat up the cells very much sometimes. Maybe a switch from C/40-50 to C/300 would be nicer for the cells if they have stay topped up. Selfdischarge is really a problem, topped up cells would be very nice.
Wow what a nice and easy circuit to build! Its handy that nihm batteries arent dangerous to charge like 18650's
Beginner here. You can't trickle charge 18650 with this setup?
Perhaps add a timer on it, so it only charges back the natural discharge (1% per day) to prevent overcharging?
Very cool. Definitely something that might play nicely with solar cells.
I always have a syringe of flux nearby, because I just don't have the dexterity to hold the board, component, and solder wire in one hand. I probably could've picked up the technique 20 years ago, but I started like 5 years ago. Flux the pad and pin, tin up the iron tip, hold board and component together with one hand, apply the iron.
I had a time trying to find the Micro USB connectors with pin leads. the magic words appear to be "2 pin DIP".
This is fantastic! Perfect for keeping a set of batteries full for use in an emergency radio or something similar. I'm definitely interested in building one. Several, actually -- keep two or three sets of batteries full.
Is this a kit we can purchase? If so where, please... TIA
Love how slow you talk and your humor. I dont loose interest or get confused by someone talking to much to fast. Thank you.😊👍
If you want a cheap alternative for the battery holders, paperclips are a good source of springy wire that solders well.
My OCD is grateful that you treated the resistors as polarised and installed them all the same way up.
That was partly my own OCD and also to avoid the barrage of OCD comments.
I like to alternate them
@@dlarge6502 you're the person everyone loves to hate 🤣🤣🤣
As someone who hoards PCBs from taken apart devices, this is the first device that I might actually have all of the parts for.
It also looks simple enough for me to skip the PCB and use point-to-point construction, at least for a single cell charger.
Also, this video came out at the perfect time, as I've been thinking about getting rechargeable batteries and I was worried about not having a simple enough charger to save the most discharged ones.
I have been through several so called smart chargers, all have failed. I now rely on a couple of 20-30 year old dumb chargers and they still work perfectly. The only smart charger I use now is an old heavy Duty PAG charger for TV camera batteries. It's a 4 Amp output so it's not really suitable for AA cells but for sub-C and D cell packs it works a treat.
Nice idea! I'm sure that the gerber file info for the USB mounting pads can always easily be changed to plated "Via" holes with pads on both sides before ordering, and JLC doesn't charge more for 2 sided boards like that. And, unless someone already has a stock of through hole items, those components could also be modified to SMD's to cut costs when ordering parts for a whole batch of 6 boards too.
My PCBs just showed up today. Cheers for the design and the wonderful explanatory video.
Going with the 1N418s for the bedazzled sparkly look
How's your board going, was it as easy to make as it seems? Beginner here...
@@rogierius Its very easy to assemble. I would say this is the perfect beginner PCB.
I have a generic charger that has spring loaded bays that adjust for aa, and aaa.. Would be neat to find those to go on the board... nice build.
To build on Clive's encouragement to learn electronics - You learn the most when something doesn't work. Don't be discouraged by it, be encouraged by it. This is why you're doing it.
Great video as usual Clive. I was also impressed with the lead forming tool and found one identical to yours. It's called a Kemo Turning Device Bending Gauge. Probably massed produced in China, where else? I ordered one today and cant wait to get my grubby little fingers on it.
You have a way of explaining things in a simple way that works for so many people. I think you would have made a brilliant teacher.
13:27 "Every LED can be a different color if you wish. It's your call..." reminded me of mellow painter Bob Ross. This made my day actually better. Thanks Clive! 😀
Clive, what about having the outer negative and positive pads right at the edge of the PCB so they only need a solder bridge to the next board? Maybe a board shape where they can slot into each side-by-side too?
Was thinking this too. Pads in the middle are a bit weird place to put them. Everyone can alter the design and make their own version, though.
Thanks for the schematic. I used it as a base and replicated it 8 times to have places for 4 AA and 4AAA to keep most of the spares around the house topped off full. Also made a personal record of starting with Eegle schematic and ending up with assembled PCB 3½ hours later lol.
nice! What parts did you use for the battery holders? I'm having a dickens of a time finding ones that fit (at least according to the datasheets).
@@BanjoFox I used loose holders meant for wires with solder tabs in the ends, just designed a hole few millimeters from the edge, hotglued them in place and just soldered a wire between the tab and the board.
I tried NiMH cells a few years back, and found that that the high capacity ones self discharged at an alarming rate, and if they did it was impossible to revive them, so the only way to prevent them dying in storage is to trickle charge them at a low current all the time. This board will provide that functionality - I designed a device that would charge at ~1/12C for 12 hours then drop down to a tiny fraction of that. I was able to keep the batteries ready for use for years before I moved to a different power option. NiCad batteries seem to be able to survive being left discharged for months if not years and still revived, which is why its a shame they are hard to get these days.
Modern NiMH cells have extremely low self discharge.
yep, i've had them deteriorate in storage, and no longer hold charge and develop high internal resistance, plus a bit of leakage, and they were supposedly good brands, i think ? powerex and energizer, the powerex 2700mah ones failed first!
I also experienced deteriorated NiMH cells. Low capacity, big leakage current. Leaving them for a long time in low SoC...no good. Modern ones do have really low self discharging. Trickling is a good idea. I would even set the current a bit lower. NiCds responded to trickling really well... NiCds were even able to tolerate slight overcharging.
@@bigclivedotcom Yes, battery tech has improved, I guess lithium has been stealing the spotlight in the news somewhat. I have only seen mention of "low discharge" NiMH batteries recently, although I don't have the use for rechargeables I used to when I was making robots so I may just have not noticed.
@@IanSlothieRolfe low self-discharge Ni-MH batteries have been around since the mid-2000s. They work very well in my experience
That component leg bending tool looks like a good 3D printing project
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Nice build Clive, any chance you could offer a kit of components to build it for sale ?
There is not much that beats sitting in my small lab having some beer and build or fix stuff. that is what I love to do on my free time and I don´t need to pay for expensive travels on my vacation. Just me listening to music having a good time in my lab when and if I want I want some relaxing time without any other demands, That is vacation for me. not that it might be necessarily cheap to have such a hobby but to have the concept to come and go whenever you like with your own pace and goals is what makes this magical because you don´t need to adjust your performance to fit other peoples demands. you work in a golden range when you make the rules. too sad vacation only last for a fraction of a year though...
4:30 The sugar/yeast rapid reaction wine is what Finns call "kilju" - unfortunately pronounced "kill you" ;-)
I built it! For the usb I stole a mini USB from some old SD card reader, coupled with a very old motorola charger (IIRC, it was from a Rokr E2). Very happy with it!!
Nice, how happy are you with this board? And what types of LEDs should I buy? Beginner here...
@@rogierius Very. I added a couple of AA holders to the existing AAA so I can charge both tipes (not at the same time. As for the LEDs, I used some old ones I had lying around, common 5mm opaque, a red for power and yellow for charge indicators. But, I found at a flea market one of these generic universal chargers (ua-cam.com/video/Lv23jMMPuiY/v-deo.html) and I'm planning to move the electronics there so it becomes truly universal.
Thanks, Clive. This is a really nice design and build for keeping an arsenal of batteries at top charge. The chaining option is exceptional.
Is your Gerber file updated to include the "AAA" cell as well as the "AA"?
Thanks again for another nice video!
It's not. I need to order an AAA holder.
I will hold off for revision 2 of the file. This thing is really cool.
Clive, the + positive and the - negative pads on the back could be offset a bit. < For ease of running buss bars in an enclosure, for multiple parallel boards. 6:50
V1.1 maybe ?
Might have to make a couple for my mother. She has a metric shite ton of batteries
I'm thinking to for mine as well. Radio batteries always flat when I visit her and the clunky charger we have always cuts the charge then they start discharging again so never quite at full capacity.
15:13 - I mean, that is kinda why you use thermal reliefs when using copper fills, it limits the thermal transfer between the pad and the fill, making it easy to solder to them.
Great video - and one that very well might get me into making a project like this for the first time. Useful, scalable (I'd love to make a 12-16 battery setup for myself), and seemingly affordable too.
A couple of questions:
- Do these batteries not degrade at all from sitting fully charged?
- Do you have any recommendations for stocking up on basic components for electronics beginners? It always seems like such a massive hassle (and _very_ environmentally unfriendly) to order a handful of resistors or diodes or whatever for a specific project, and then having to repeat this every time. Any tips for good variety packs or the like?
I haven't bought one in ages, but you can buy pretty big 'starter' sets that come in nice organized boxes on Amazon/Ebay/Alibaba or whatever. They'll have most of the more common components in them which is good for starting out.
@@DFX2KX Cool, thanks for the tip. I always start questioning these - whether the values of stuff included make sense at all, etc., as I literally have no frame of reference for most of it. Still, I guess I have to begin somewhere!
@@Kraaketaer They're not the CHEAPEST way to get those parts to be fair. You're mostly paying for the conveniance of having a curated assortment picked out for you. In that way, they're pretty handy.
If you really get into it, you'll end up with a sense of what you use the most and buy it in bulk. of course, that's not what most folks start off doing which is why starter kits still sell well.
Obligatory Monty Python quote: "Don't like her?! What's wrong with her? She's beautiful, she's rich, she's got *huge... tracts* of land."
Since the voltage is so low could you just use an LED as the anti-feedback diode?
Technically yes.
Yes, but you'd need to keep the current below 20mA even when the holder was shorted by a faulty or very flat cell.
@@bigclivedotcomOr the LED will shine very bright for a brief moment and after that it will never shine again.
I like using led as diode because visually, you can tell bright means charging. Dim means trickle. Off/really dim means charged.
I put a series resistor so even shorted, the led won't burn.
@@TheRainHarvester What current did you get on a fairly flat cell? What value resistor did you put in series with the LED?
You can probably also put spacers in between two boards and run these back to back with some cross-leads for the power distribution from the usb port leads.
That's actually quite a nice idea.
Finally got to try this. Long story short, when I was a kid I tried to open my dad's smart charger (Energizer ch15nm or something like that) and broke the one of the PCBs in the process. Now I had this nimh batteries lying around, plus some that I got from some rc toys. So what I did was replace everything inside with this circuit, using just the shell and the battery holders, and a little fan on the inside with it's own switch. I'm pretty impressed with the nimh batteries performance, the batteries that came with the charger are at least 15 y/o and they have been neglected for over 5 years (since I broke the charger lol) and only one has gone bad, its shorted. Even though I think they don't longer have the rated 2500mah they still hold quite a charge.
I've finally soldered a few of mine yesterday and got a bit of feedback:
* 120 ohm is not a part of E6 series, and many THT resistors kits are E6 - which means those kits' resistors can't be used and 120 ohm need to be purchased separately; a version with 100 ohm or 150 ohm would be easier to BOM-assemble for people with those kits
* an alternative design for AAA holders would be great, right now i'm running a wire and gluing AAA holders
* the pads for parallel connection of multiple boards (so that they can be powered with single USB cable) should be on the sides, both plus and minus close to each other
It's still an awesome design and I really like it. I'm going to design a 3d printed base or maybe even a full enclosure.
Big Clive. Your videos are my wine and vodka. Plz post daily videos with no breaks. I get to learn alot. Thanks
Thats how Ive always done hand assembly, by holding the part in with one hand, and using that hand to feed solder. If im soldering more than a couple joints, I wrap a bunch of it around my thumb and use my thumb to feed the solder. Im also a fluxer, I add flux to every joint, so one thing that I can do is leave the solder on the table, and use the iron to pick up a bit, and just glob a bit on one lead, which is only good enough to hold the part in place, but then I put the board down, and use the solder in one hand, and the iron in the other hand, and solder the other leads in, then flux the first leads and reflow them. If I really want everything to look nice, Ill reflow everything with 2 irons at the same time until it looks pretty enough
Love these kind of projects for the young beginners. Only problem is that those types probably don't have a 3D printer.
What a fantastic little project for beginners and a neat little thing to have around. Awesome project!
Having been sick and having not done a whole lot of anything the last few days, I suddenly have the urge to sit down and assemble a little electronic kit after watching this video. I miss Radio a Shack, for a whole load of reasons, but if not just for the fact they always had a handful of dumb little electronic soldering kits in stock that were fun just for something to assemble. I bought some “soldering practice” kits, some strobing heart-shaped board with through-hole components and some SMD programmable ATTiny18 (I think) flashing snowflakes, on Amazon a few years ago and now I want to assemble one. But, it requires me to get up and find them and that seems like a lot of work lol
I had one of those teal coloured Battery Manager things from Innovations that you mentioned. It did work, but a recharged alkaline didn't last as long as a fresh one.
Nowadays, more things are happy to run from rechargable and those 1900mAh Panasonic cells with low self discharge can be gotten for £3 from B&M.
I still Battery Manager...'s bicolour LEDs and slide switches in my parts. 🙃
I do believe that Ebay wine may have caused a time shift and I got the pleasure of listening to Chas Endell Esquire soldering on a Saturday afternoon, a "they are naked and they move" would have added to the perfe tion, cheers Clive.
I recently got a box of LEDs, 750 of them in 5 different colors, red, green, amber, blue and white. I like the amber colored LEDs the most, don't know why but I find it nice to look at that particular color.
I just used your design to solder my own charger. Mounted it in an old and broken RC car that used to be running on 4 AA batteries (stole it from my oldest child :) ). I mounted a USB port on the chassis, and is currently working very nicely as my NiMH battery charger. I had all the parts needed just lying around, so this was a very cheap charger too.
Keep up the good work m8!
"Color vision is not actually needed for electronics" - I like that! In 1995 when I applied for the technical school of electronics, they wanted a mediacal examination that I'm not color-blind 😀
I was taught how to solder electronics in the Navy under their 2M certification (2M: Miniature and Micro-miniature). The way they taught us was to insert the component, the bend the leads in the direction of the traces about 45°, then snip, then solder. I can't really remember the reason except I know the bending was to provide a better mechanical connection to the board, and maybe that the "shock" of snipping after soldering could damage the weld somehow. Anyway, I really like the one-handed method seen here, I can't seem to solder anything without like two helping hands and a mini-vise.
Interesting! This is something I'd like to build myself. Love the big pads and tracks :)
I do agree about the positive side print could be on the front.
I'll see if I can have it made when my budget allows it.
I am always very impressed with how you manage to hold the board and the solder in one hand. My motor skills are not good enough to do that, but a "helping hand" is usefull as well.
I do think you should have used pink LEDs since pink has pretty much become your signature, haha. I'm thinking of using blinking leds, maybe.
Oh, wouldn't it be cool if we could get a chinese manufacturer to make pink soldering irons and call them the "BigClive Signature Series"? Would be neat. One can dream.
See you saturday!
I 3D printed one of those component pin bending jigs, It has made life so much simpler when soldering components, I also printed another tool that straightens the pins on IC's, I did not design these tools but maybe I should R.E. them and start selling them on eBay if they are hard to get hold of!
Lovely circuit design, I'll add some to my next JLC order. Only issue with it being single sided is the cost of different coloured solder mask is exorbitant (like $15 or so) while for 2 layers its almost always free.
Speaking of chargers, it'd be cool to see you do a video on some of the newer GaN high power chargers to see if they're all they're cracked up to be and if the manufacturers are actually using GaN in place of Silicon
I found a company that makes eyeglasses that have filters that help restore color perception for R/G color blindness, EnChroma. Was going to get a pair for my father in law who is R/G color blind. Didn’t want em. He’d worked on the railroad for decades and was used to things as they were. I could understand!
A late friend applied to train as a telephone engineer (we are going back 50 years) but failed the Post Office's eye test due to being R/G colour blind. He then applied to a multinational telecoms company who didn't bother with an eye test and got a job, he worked for them as an engineer for 30 years with no problem.
@@richardturton6900 Years ago you couldn't be color blind and work for the Michigan State Police, either. Most county sheriff's departments didn't care if someone was color blind, however, and the police academies at the two universities in my home state that had one at the time didn't test for color blindness as a condition for admission.
Clive, I combined this video with your "shitty" battery charger video to make an AA/AAA NiCD/NiMH trickle charger. I purchased a cheap "shitty" charger from eBay and took it apart. I used EasyEDA and JLCPCB and made a new circuit board based on your trickle charger schematic. I drilled a 5th 3mm hole in the case for a power LED, de-soldered the springs, positive battery tabs, USB wires and red LEDs from the original board and attached them to my board along with a green 3mm LED for power and the corresponding resistor. I now have a nice trickle charger to keep my NiMH batteries topped up. If you are interested, I can send photos and the gerber files for the board.
That sounds quite a good project.
Thanks Clive - you just solved my recurring issues with “smart” chargers sometimes not charging my eneloops and one particular charger (ex Amazon) randomly not fully charging one of the cells in it. Which then means that when in use one for the 4 cells dies first and the 3 remaining ones in device shunt it to reverse polarity - hence charger not recognising.
Time to start a little electronics project and build a few of these…
Nice charger. Maybe you could use those small 7 segment voltage display meters instead of the leds to tell when there full.
Just built one on Vero board. Works nicely. Thanks for the idea!
Hi,Clive just finished rebuilding a dead Ni-mh charger to your design for trickle charging AA batteries it also been used in its former life to charge C size and D size rechargeable batteries. I would modify it to trickle charge those as well if I knew what rate they needed but that will require some research on what current rates that are required. All the best for 2023 from New Zealand.
Nice. This will be my first electronics project.
Thanks, Clive.
Brilliant thank you, the answer to an age old prayer, keeping batteries in one place, safely and ready for use. Just need to add capability for 9v batteries as well, 9v input instead of 5v, would resistor values need changing or would they be ok. (Sorry, probably a stupid question). I shall in time expand the board to increase capacity to suit the number of batteries I have rather than having several dotted about.
I actually have a trickle charger somewhere with a USB-A plug directly on it. It charges the cells with 100mA, though. But nothing that can't be hacked. Pretty sure this thing uses a very similar circuit, the LEDs are probably across some resistor divider to make them light while passing more current than the LED would.