Extremely simple Universal Ni-Cd Battery Charger teardown

Рет қаралды 10,290

3 жыл бұрын

Teardown of a very common Universal Ni-Cd Battery Charger. The circuit turns out to be remarkably simple, there is not even a full wave rectifier...
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Пікірлер: 70

@BeetleJuice1980 3 жыл бұрын

I still have that charger, 100% the same. bought at 1986 for my tayo rc buggy.

@rarbiart 3 жыл бұрын

7:17: what a coincidence: that type of lightbulb techmoan was looking for CorgiVision restauration yesterday... O.k, different voltage....

@JBuster941 3 жыл бұрын

We used to have the exact same charger. Eventually all the red leds were burned out. I guess that's due to the lack of proper current limiting...

@ColdSphinX 3 жыл бұрын

O h wow isn't that the light bulb Techmoan was looking for? 😁

@1975Loeven Ай бұрын

I have on of these too, but branded as a "Vanson". Good for backup and to bring back 0V batteries to life when more recent chargeras fail. These also takes C and D cells which can be useful, but it takes forever to charge like a 5000-ish mAh cell 😀.

@dykodesigns 3 жыл бұрын

My dad had similar charger in the late 80’s but it was slightly different design with a light grey base and a transparent cover. It was the first time I heard of rechargeable batteries, he used Panasonic ones with it, I remember he used them for a photo camera. I wouldn’t be surprised if got from Conrad.

@holleholl3057 3 жыл бұрын

This is a very old charger sold by Aldi times and again, way back from the 1980s onwards, along with their infamous "Topcraft" branded NiCD Accumulators which (especially the brown ones) hardly held any load charged into them ... Nowadays, their chargers are more sophisticated and - depending to the model - they can even charge Li-Ions...

@DrCassette 3 жыл бұрын

This charger was likely bought at Aldi some time in the 90s or even early 2000s, judging by the original box I forgot to show in the video.

@krisandersson7156 3 жыл бұрын

We had one of those about 20-30 years ago. Worked fine for many years.

@Noctew 3 жыл бұрын

I used to have the exact same in about 1990. I quicky replaced it with a *slightly* more advanced charger using a capacity switch, timer, and discharge function that did not fry your batteries as long as you selected the right capacity. 500, 600 or 700 mAh. And then one that actually detected when the battery was full and shut the charger off.

@safrad1 Жыл бұрын

It is my first charger form 1992 :-) It still works for totally discharged batteries where other "intelliget" chargers do not.

@CannondaleCAAD 3 жыл бұрын

Dr Cassette kinda swag

@schorse1000 3 жыл бұрын

That's not a charger, that's a grill...

@benbaselet2026 3 жыл бұрын

Hooking the mains directly to the battery contacts this would be much more useful for grilling small sausages :)

@keinpodcast4053 3 жыл бұрын

Die Teile hab ich in den 80ern in meiner Ausbildung verkauft, für 29,95 DM.

@martinweizenacker7129 2 жыл бұрын

I have the same exact charger, bought in a Lidl store in Germany in, I think, 1999. Still works fine, but charging a modern NiMH AA Cell with 2500 mAh takes about 31 hours at only 120 mA. At least this low current should be very gentle on the cells. Very interesting to see what's inside!

@ELECTROHAXZ 3 жыл бұрын

Certainly not great but it looks a lot worse than it really is, NiCd batteries will disappate any extra energy you put into them as heat when they're done charging and since they're batteries there's no need for full bridge rectification or smoothing capacitors. Definitely wouldn't want to try something like that on a lithium cell though since it would almost certainly explode. It isn't ideal that it won't turn itself off after a while but that's just how NiCd chargers are usually made.

@DrCassette 3 жыл бұрын

I just read some of the rechargeable battery articles on Wikipedia and you are indeed correct, for NiCd this charger apparently is not too bad. However, all the rechargeable AA and AAA batteries I have are NiMH, and those would be damaged by such a primitive charger.

@ELECTROHAXZ 3 жыл бұрын

@@DrCassette Right, the kind of circuit you have is really common in these style chargers at 0:35 in this video kzfaq.info/get/bejne/a8lyhJppm9LdgHU.html DiodeGoneWild also measures their waveforms and you can see they're not super clean constant DC like you'd expect from a lab power supply, batteries don't really care much as long as you stop charging when you're supposed to and don't charge them with too high of a voltage, other than that you can pretty much feed them any kind of unfiltered DC and they'll take it as they are basically very large capacitors. I'd also recommend checking out DiodeGoneWild In general as his content is really great :)

@moon1985bc 3 жыл бұрын

halfwave is good for transformer. it will be cooler than fullwave (increasing lifespan)

@eduardinification 2 жыл бұрын

this charger does not provide constant current at all.

@cekpi7 3 жыл бұрын

I have similar charger (also from Germany) that is almost identical to this one, i think it's from 90s or early 2000s. It still works fine (it's not like there's anything to go bad lol), we always used it with cheap timer socket. I remember that i disassembled it once, can't remember if it has full bridge rectifier. Interesting design for sure, i bought a cheap USB charger on ebay that worked on similar principle, i only bought it because i like those spring contacts and it was like 1$. I was thinking about adding microprocessor to it but later bought Litokala Lii500 which is amazing.

@DrCassette 3 жыл бұрын

Using the charger in combination with a timer is a great idea.

@gratefulamateur1393 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you. I enjoyed this. I do not see why resistors would produce a "constant current" however. Actually, it would be constantly changing.

@tellytrev 2 жыл бұрын

My grandparents had one of those in the early 1980's with Hitachi Ni-Cd batteries. That light bulb indicator was not a lot of use. If I remember correctly AA batteries took about 5 to 6 hours to charge but C batteries which they used for a radio took about 12 to 15 hours so had to be left on overnight.

@jendak7921 Жыл бұрын

I had same looking charger since 2002 to 2004 as kid. I love it because it was my first charger and I buy it for my money. I use it for charging 800mAh nicd AA batteries for my flashlight, radio or toys. I also collect old phone battery thrown away in front of phone bazaar shop in the box disassemble and use good cell from it.

@Thanson199415 3 жыл бұрын

How to blow up batteries

@hadibq Жыл бұрын

NiCd are not picky with waveform as long as the mean is positive... I lived with this for a long time + a kitchen timer 😜 Great video as always!

@DrCassette Жыл бұрын

Thank you :)

@1marcelfilms Ай бұрын

of course german engineer would hate it because its not overengineered

@realgroovy24 3 жыл бұрын

I had one exactly like this, worked well for being a cheap thing. I think I gave it away when my NiCad batteries were getting too old.

@Matt47247523457 3 жыл бұрын

Charging alkaline at 50% duty cycle is better - slightly less chance of leaking. I'm going to pretend that is a positive. Before someone mentions the charging current/voltage :)

@vegetablepolice1 12 күн бұрын

need a good fast manual charger

@aannttoniopereira 18 күн бұрын

Ni-cd needs pulsating charging. Full rectification will make them hot due to native low internal resistance. Bedini radiant charger is best.

@sioux22 2 жыл бұрын

I have a cordless black&decker dust buster Inside there are two nicad cells in series and a single diode. The plug is a 3v transformer Simple as

@dovpauzner5093 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you !

@alloy2754 3 жыл бұрын

Looks like bulb is a 222 style was ubiquitous used pre white LED's, surprised it's still being used. It's possibly used as load to test 1.2V NICADS.

@DrCassette 3 жыл бұрын

That's what I tried to explain in the video - the light was indeed used for testing the batteries...

@danieltaon7333 Жыл бұрын

@@DrCassette but only the first battery compartment from right side can be utilized as a test port

@mehmetdogru8092 Жыл бұрын

Merhaba açıklama bölümünü türkçe olarak çevirebilir misin rica etsem bende de aynı cihaz vardı tadilatını yaptım ama nasıl şarj yapıp yapmadığını tam olarak anlayamadım ilgilenir misiniz teşekkürler

@Ismail-ub9ww 19 күн бұрын

Bende alacağım bundan hangi pilleri şarj ediyor.

@vegetablepolice1 12 күн бұрын

nicd batterys

@LittleRichard1988 3 жыл бұрын

I still have one exactly the same as this, here in the UK. My parents were going to throw it out but I thought maybe it might come in useful. I prefer this type of charger because it has a flex and can be easily plugged into any outlet unlike the adapter type ones. I can't remember what make mine is though. It is actually rather old, I think they stopped making these quite some time ago.

@DrCassette 3 жыл бұрын

These chargers work okay with NiCd batteries, but those are not made anymore because of the toxicity of cadmium. The modern NiMH batteries are a lot more sensitive to overcharging, so you would not want to charge them in such a simple charger that can't detect when a battery is full.

@LittleRichard1988 3 жыл бұрын

I might one day decide to cut the flex off and put it with the next lot of stuff to take to the dump if I need that extra space. I didn't know this was Ni-Cd only and I was even more surprised the LED's do not indicate that the battery is full. We have used it to test alkaline batteries in the past.

@squeakonline 3 жыл бұрын

Wow me too! The same one with the dot matrix text... Crappy little bulb to test it haha. Dad bought it me for my remote control car.

@LittleRichard1988 3 жыл бұрын

Today I was about to cut the flex off mine and put it with all the other electrical waste to be taken down to the tip but my Dad decided to take it back and either give it to a clearance or charity shop. My Dad obviously doesn't know Ni-Cd batteries are no longer made. But it doesn't work with MiMh battereis, apparently there is a difference.

@slashtiger1 3 жыл бұрын

I've literally had about 8 of these...

@1marcelfilms 2 жыл бұрын

I found one today brand new in the box in a thrift store. I did some math and it only takes 10 to 20 recharges to earn back the cost of a rechargeable battery now so it isnt THAT bad if a battery dies soon

@DrCassette 2 жыл бұрын

It still is wasteful to kill a rechargeable battery with a bad charger...

@____________________________.x 3 жыл бұрын

I've got that exact model, lol

@nowaymangoshtomuchna 3 жыл бұрын

i am kissing my intelicharger from nicore right now lol

@rarbiart 3 жыл бұрын

this will be bad... (i had to use it somewhere often where it was not able to get it thrown and replaced... it was a battery killer)

@DrCassette 3 жыл бұрын

So I was right in assuming that the half wave rectification is a bad thing? Or was it a battery killer because the charge time is almost uncontrollable?

@rarbiart 3 жыл бұрын

@@DrCassette either overcharging (stayed warm while beeing in the charger, i assume that the overcharge was converted to heat) plus no mitigation of memory effect whatsoever.

@DrCassette 3 жыл бұрын

Ah yes, I always discharge batteries on my good charger before charging them...

@rarbiart 3 жыл бұрын

@@DrCassette hmm, that defeats the purpose of keeping a bad charger if you already have them in a good charger before.

@____________________________.x 3 жыл бұрын

I had mine running off a timer, they they are not sitting there for 24 hours getting cooked

@xdelph 3 жыл бұрын

that's, when price factor dominates during development, ehh

@rarbiart 3 жыл бұрын

when the customer has no choice because there is only one model on the shelf of the retailer and no bad amazon reviews due to the non-existance of amazon...

@DrCassette 3 жыл бұрын

@@rarbiart Or any other online reviews... Amazon is not the only option ;)

@rarbiart 3 жыл бұрын

@@DrCassette if you smell "fake amazon review": just skip that one. if you retailer person is telling you "best product, i am using at home with great success": difficult...