Portable 18650 charging station.

Hi,

I needed extra charging capacity because all of a sudden 200 battery packs fell out of the sky.
This time I wanted something light, stealth, silent and portable.
The power supply is a 5V/40A one, it gets fairly hot, measured once 70C. When all slots are filled it drags +120watts from the grid.
Not visible on picture, but I have a large rocker switch to switch on/off the power supply.
Enjoy the pictures of my built.

The case




TP4056 & holder arrangement.








Portable @work & on the trainto work.






Ofcourse doing a great job at home too...









Frank

Sh*t.... I hate to say it, but you beat me on the line here. :dodgy:
I had the same idea and project is under construction....a new thread will be online in 2 or 3 weeks.

But congrats, it really looks nice and It seems really practical.

lol, was there no thread on 18650 addictions ? ... charging cells on the way to-and at work would be a serious case of it

Ohhhh, nowi see ... Belgium ... never mind

never charge batteries unattended . Thats very clever. And even in the train. Worldclass. :idea:

FrankyBeuselinck said:

Hi,

I needed extra charging capacity because all of a sudden 200 battery packs fell out of the sky.
This time I wanted something light, stealth, silent and portable.
The power supply is a 5V/40A one, it gets fairly hot, measured once 70C. When all slots are filled it drags +120watts from the grid.
Not visible on picture, but I have a large rocker switch to switch on/off the power supply.
Enjoy the pictures of my built.

The case




TP4056 & holder arrangement.








Portable @work & on the trainto work.






Ofcourse doing a great job at home too...









Frank

Click to expand...

Hi Frank, I'm new to 18650 DIY battery packs and am still in the collecting phase. My understanding of electronics is limited. I haven't started processing any cells yet but am learning all I can on this site for now. I like your charger and have two questions:

1) Since I read somewhere that TP4056 doesn't have reverse polarity protection and TP5100 has it, can I just replace the TP4056 with TP5100 in your build without any modifications? Or will I need additional modifications, in which case I would rather just stay with TP4056?

2) Can the charge current be selected? Say I want the cells to only be charged at 500 mA, is there a way of setting that on the TP4056 (or TP5100), or does it only chose its charge current automatically?

PS: I hope I'm not reviving an old thread here. trying to learn some practical knowledge