Biopowered - vegetable oil and biodiesel forum
General => Chatter => Topic started by: Vijay on April 02, 2021, 09:47:07 AM
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Hi guys,
Wonder if any of you knowledgeable people would know if I can safely charge an 18v Li-on battery, without the original charger? The battery is for a Titan leaf blower and is p/n TTI585BAT and is an 18v, 1500mAh, 27Wh. The charger p/n is TTB584CHR
I contacted Screwfix/Titan who said they can't help. I've kept an eye on Ebay but the only one that came up was stupidly priced and just not worth it for an old leaf blower....
Cheers
Vijay
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Don’t do what I do!
I use a normal 24v car charger on my older Lithium batteries that I have no charger for, also the 24v ones. I have had no problems but I do put the 18v in a plastic bag in case they explode, which has not happened. I also use 12/24v lead acid batteries with a lead no tools that the batteries have failed. Works fine, mainly chain saws.
I am sure someone will be able to point out the error of my ways!
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Been told to use a bench PSU as I can control the amps, gonna give that a go.
I've used a 12v battery with leads on old cordless stuff too, works great if you are in one place doing stuff :)
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It would be helpful to physically know the battery layout to be sure, but if your pack is 18V that's probably 5 cobolt cells of 3.6 to 3.7V each in series (18 to 18.5V). The maximum charge voltage a single cell should receive is 4.2V, which for your pack would be 4.2V * 5 = 21V. A google suggests that the TTB584CHR puts out a conservative 19.5V, presumably to caution against uneven cells in the pack.
Dickjotec obviously likes living dangerously by shoving 24V into his ones!
If you wanted to charge them properly without forking out *too* much you could do worse than a hobby LiPo charger like the iMax B6 (£16+) which will correctly charge just about anything you throw at it - though that comes with the caveat that the menu system is tricky to get your head around. It takes 12V in from a car battery or will take a standard 12V wall power supply (not supplied), if you have one to hand - which is how I use mine. I frequently have people bring stuff for charging like marine radios that have lost chargers.
Another handy tip is if you can find some slim neodymium magnets they are super handy to attach croc clips to and stick onto random metallic battery terminals for charging purposes.
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Hi Tony,
That sounds perfect mate, much better than getting the bench PSU out each time ;) Can the iMax B6 charge all types of batteries?
So 12v in and it steps up the voltage to a max of 20v?
How difficult are they to actually use as that menu system confused me when I Googled it lol What information do I actually need to know to charge a battery?
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Yes it does both buck and boost, so the output voltage can be higher than the input. It covers a variety of battery chemistries, I've also charged Lead Acids with them. And if you break old laptop batteries for the 18650 cells it has a discharge mode too, so once you've charged them you can discharge and measure the actual mAh rating of the cells.
I only mentioned the menu system because I recommended one to a friend who is not technical and he can't get his head around it for charging his marine radio.
The menus aren't too bad once you get your head around the settings. At the basic level you need to know the number of cells in series and battery chemistry - though it displays expected voltage IE "11.1V(3S)" for 3 cells in series. If you do something stupid it does check the cells being charged and will warn you if they're outside the expected voltage range when starting charging.
You can set limits, IE maximum charge time, or maximum capacity in mAh, so if a faulty battery never completes charging you don't just boil it dry/burst it. If you are using a lead acid as the power source, it also makes sure it doesn't drain it too far. It's a really smart bit of kit for the money.
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I had a look at these chargers and it looks like the ones for around £20 are the chineseium ones but the skyrc ones cost a bit more, is yours the skyrc one Tony or a chineseium one?
EDIT: I see you mention 12v supply and not mains also so I assume its a chinesium one?
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Yes I think mine is Chinesium. The problem with those was that a few years ago, *some* of them used resistors with wider tolerances, so the voltages could be slightly out. (Not all of them, some were OK). Mine is fine, I've checked the voltages with a multimeter and they're spot on.
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what can you do if you get a dodgy one?
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If you can prove it - money back I guess!
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found this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RPrhFP_phY
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After these posts I have got one! Not tried it yet but I see what you mean about the instructions not easy to get your head around!
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Very impressed does a first class very controlled job.
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how long did the instructions take to work out?? lol
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When I got them big enough to read it still took a few attempts to find that you have to hold the button for 3+ seconds to get it going. Why can’t they do a simple 1 2 3 to use it I don’t know. Labelling half the booklet pages “warning and safety” didn’t help either. Very good bit of kit tho. (A comment saying charged or similar when it finishes would also be nice)
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found this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RPrhFP_phY
Amazing. I had no idea you could calibrate them like that.
Did he use a calibrated multimeter though :)
Glad to hear you are getting on with yours Dick. They are clever bits of kit.
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Ordered one on the weekend :)
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Got mine but am I doing something wrong.............
I've entered the cell quantity and pressed the enter button for 3 seconds. It does the check and then I press enter again. It starts counting and gets to 20 secs, then goes back to the first screen. I'd imagine it should show the charging details?