Just got a single cell lipo/limn 4.2v charger and giddily started charging konions and emoli. Just the dumb ass I am I wasn't paying attention and hooked up the charger to an emoli in reverse. There was a tiny spark and now, of course, the charger doesn't work. Is it just something inside the wall wart that could be re-soldered for example or am I out $15. Stupid is as stupid does. *sigh*
Charger hooked up backwards.. repairable?
- Thread starter pwbset
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Afraid I'm not skilled enough yet to see visible damage. Can anyone see anything out of the ordinary here? Hard for me to tell... nothing looks amiss to my untrained eye. If I hook the charger up to a batt with 4+v the led lights green even if it's not plugged into the wall. Below 4v and nothing lights up even if it's plugged in.
Thanks for the help. Man I feel stupid right now.
Thanks for the help. Man I feel stupid right now.
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Dee Jay
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nutsandvolts said:
I concur...
Smell it.
Then plug it and taste it... go on, taste it.
JK!
I blew a few caps on my CVCC power supply. The blown caps have the tops literally blown open. It worked ok after replacing them. Your's look Ok but I'd replace them anyway just of GP.
EDIT: They're only 15 bucks, be easier to buy another one.
J
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nutsandvolts said:
Raw lipo single cell charger. Unless emolis and konions have chips in them, which I haven't heard of. I tried multiple cells and none would charge or else the charger would just light up green LED. Thinking, like said, a cap blew. Now whether to order new caps or just order a new charger or three... not like they are that expensive.. just being impatient. :wink: Makes me wonder if there is some electrical device laying around my house that I could poach some caps from.
:lol: Ugh.. this forum is distracting.. haha.. going to sleep now! :lol:
julesa said:
I saw that too last night and it turned out to just be paper of some sort. I'm heading to Radio Shack now to see if they have replacement caps... though knowing Radio Shack I'll end up paying more for a cap than this thing is even worth. :wink:
TylerDurden
100 GW
Smegtrolyte.julesa said:
I plugged in the charger and tried to measure voltage across the leads as per nutsandvolts suggestion and there was 0v. Is that indicative of a blown cap? I didn't get a chance to make it to Radio Shack because I had to work late. Maybe tomorrow. My CBA II came in though.. pair 1 of 60 konion being tested now at 1C. Fun. 
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pwbset said:I plugged in the charger and tried to measure voltage across the leads as per nutsandvolts suggestion and there was 0v. Is that indicative of a blown cap? I didn't get a chance to make it to Radio Shack because I had to work late. Maybe tomorrow. My CBA II came in though.. pair 1 of 60 konion being tested now at 1C. Fun.
Cool.
I recently ordered an arduino board which comes with USB data-logging capabilities, and I think I'm going to program/build my own cell tester using that(My background is with programming, so I'm not exactly inept at working "these things"). It'll be fun! I could also possibly make it automatic in the sense of automatically doing cell-discharging, cell-charging, cell-discharging(etc.) but I need to be able to control a power supply. Hmmmm.... actually, that probably wouldn't be hard to implement using the power supplies I have around here. Oooooo... I can't wait until my electronics parts come in!
While I'm at it, I still need to(once I get the parts):
-construct a garage door status indicator(basically a magnet(One my neodymiums)+reaaaallly long wire+voltage source+spare metal)
-construct a "clickless" mouse.
-make robots and take over the world.
Took off all the caps and brought them to radio shack thinking I'd just replace them all if they were cheap, but of course radio shack didn't have a single one. I'm over it... I'm just going to order like 3 of these single cell chargers tomorrow and be done with it. At least I can salvage the aligator clips for my CBA. *sigh* Stupidity costs money so I'll have to pay the piper. I figure 3 of them aught to last a couple weeks even. 
The circuit is divided into two halves, there a "hot" side and the secondary side. It would be next to impossible to blow up anything on the hot side by attaching the batteries backwards.
You can use an ohmmeter to measure the capacitors. Measure with the leads in one polarity, then reverse the leads and watch the meter closely. When you first make contact, there should be a reading that rises rapidly and goes back to an 'open' reading. If you read steady resistance, that would be bad. If you don't see any breif readings upon switching polarity, that may or may not be bad. A small (less than 10uf) capacitor may be so fast your meter won't catch it. It depends on your meter too.
You can also measure across the legs on IC102 and the diode on the output side. Reverse the leads. Look for something that reads shorted in both directions.
If it blew the large chip on the bottom, you're probably toast.
You can use an ohmmeter to measure the capacitors. Measure with the leads in one polarity, then reverse the leads and watch the meter closely. When you first make contact, there should be a reading that rises rapidly and goes back to an 'open' reading. If you read steady resistance, that would be bad. If you don't see any breif readings upon switching polarity, that may or may not be bad. A small (less than 10uf) capacitor may be so fast your meter won't catch it. It depends on your meter too.
You can also measure across the legs on IC102 and the diode on the output side. Reverse the leads. Look for something that reads shorted in both directions.
If it blew the large chip on the bottom, you're probably toast.
Thanks for the tips fechter... I'll try those. Thinking of just getting a few of these anyway... apparently better than the batteryspace.com ones because they don't trickle and they do 2a instead of 1.5a (though others have said the batterspace.com ones are more like <1a). Anyway.. thanks again.
http://www.kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=2735
http://www.kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=2735
fechter said:
Three of the 4 caps rise rapidly and the 4th one rises just a tiny bit and slowly. It's one of the 1000/10v ones so I've got to assume it went bad even though there are no visual indications of such. Next (and hopefully last) question... where to get a 1000/10v capacitor. Thanks.
The voltage rating can be anything over 10v. The capacitance rating does not need to be exact either. Larger is OK. It just needs to fit in the spot. I usually tear apart old circuit boards...
You might find one at Radio Shack, but they have very limited choices. Otherwise you could order from Mouser or DigiKey.
You might find one at Radio Shack, but they have very limited choices. Otherwise you could order from Mouser or DigiKey.
methods
1 GW
Even after placing hundreds of orders on Digikey I still get overwhelmed at times. . .
fechter is right, the easiest way to source capacitors is to tear things apart.
Start a big box and dump everything broken in there. Ask your neighbors. Dumpster dive.
The cool thing is that you can do a visual comparison instead of sifting through 56,000 criteria on some website.
Yes, your TV box will have some caps in it.
Dont forget that you can run series/parallel combinations as well. Remember that capacitors work the opposite of resistors with series / parallel.
-methods
edit: I did not read the entire thread but pictured above are electrolytic capacitors. Similar electrolytic capacitors will look the same. Ceramic etc. look different.
fechter is right, the easiest way to source capacitors is to tear things apart.
Start a big box and dump everything broken in there. Ask your neighbors. Dumpster dive.
The cool thing is that you can do a visual comparison instead of sifting through 56,000 criteria on some website.
Yes, your TV box will have some caps in it.
Dont forget that you can run series/parallel combinations as well. Remember that capacitors work the opposite of resistors with series / parallel.
-methods
edit: I did not read the entire thread but pictured above are electrolytic capacitors. Similar electrolytic capacitors will look the same. Ceramic etc. look different.
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