TC4056A charger board test

thunderheart

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Apr 4, 2018
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Hi guys. I bought these boards with built-in battery protection and separate output which is active during both charging and discharging and decided to check it's capabilities before using them in my projects.
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Each board has a Micro USB input and also + and - input terminals for DC 5V if you don't want to use Micro USB port. It has 2 LEDs - red one lights during charging and blue LED - when it's finished. In the middle there is the main chip - TC4056A (datasheet).
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Just below TC4056A there is a small resistor marked 122 (1.2kOhm) which limits charging current to 1A. You can increase the resistance to have lower charging current.

On the right side on the photo there is the DW01V Li-ion protection IC and a 8205A MOSFET.

B+ and B- are for connecting the battery and OUT+ and OUT- for attaching the load.

I used UNI-T UT61E multimeter in my tests which is very precise and it can be connected to a PC for logging. So i was able to build current and voltage graphs during charging.
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Peak current was 1.042A and it was in the beginning then it started to go down.Look at the curves. Theydon't look like a CC-CV voltage/curve pair because there is neither constant current part on the current curve, nor constant voltage part on the voltage curve. The peak voltage was 4.217V (!) and the charge cut-off current was exactly 0.100A. After completing charging it doesn't apply any low current or trickle charging which is very good for battery's health. Also i should tell that the module didn't heat-up much during charging at 1A - i was able to firmly hold it in my fingers as long as i'd like to. I think it's temperature was 40*C or below.

After having done with charging i decided to check the protection in case of overdischarge. First attempt was at 1A and i was going to discharge my cell down to 2.0V if the protection didn't mind)) But it stopped at 2.60V. At 0.5A discharge rate it stopped at 2.52V. So the protection works and works very well because in any case the battery doesn't go below 2.5V.

So,
Pros:
+ 4.217V peak voltage (won't overcharge the battery)
+ 100mA charge cut-off current
+ No trickle-charging or topping-up
+ Well-working protection with >2.5V discharge cut-off
+ Absence of overheating
+ Additional IN+ and IN- contacts

Cons:
- Not a CC-CV charger
- 1A current is only in the beginning, then it starts to decrease

P.S. bought on an ebay auction for USD1.04 (5 boards)
 
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