Need A Remote Battery Charger

[Manoroth]

Folks, I am need of plans to build a remote charger that could use a regular battery to charge a lithium ion battery in the field. I seem to remember some chatter on that but I can not find it in the past files. Can anyone help?

Thanks

[+gpsjeep]

Is this what your looking for.

http://www.bixnet.com/usbbatterybox.html

 

-Jeff

[+CompuCash]

don't know what you mean by remote -

 

you mean you want to change the charge with a button box like you use for your TV?

 

OK - OK -

 

so just about every one of the battery chargers I have has a 12 plug for the car.

 

Well cc duh! read you post again - looked at the link a third time a finally got it.

 

you want to charge a LI battery from regular batteries. Like they do the little (nano?) RC cars from a battery pack in the xmitter. They make them for cell phones -

 

So you don't need much for plans - a connector or box for the LI and a box with matching connector with similar voltage NiH or alkalines - plug and charge. You would need larger capacity batteries in the charging unit. That is if you are charging a 1 amp (Amper Hour) LI battery, then you should have at least 2 Amp batteries for charging. That would theoretically get you two charges of the LI. You may need a limiting resistor to limit the current max for charging the LI. 5 Volt LI battery 6 volt charging system - max amps to LI .5 - 6/.5 = 12 ohms - 3 watts (.5x.5x12) w=I*IxR. You can do it all at Radio shack with D cells - battery holders some wire and connectors. You just need to know what you want to do.

 

the link is not what I think you want as it's output connector is a USB female as in plug your USB fan or LED light into it. If your LI is a USB device it may work, or if you can charge you LI device from a USB port on your computer

[+EScout]

I assume you are charging a Liion rechargable battery in a device in the field. The easiest way is to get one of the boxes that hold 4 AAs and have a USB port for plugging in your charging cable. The batteries in devices I have, PDA, cell phone and eXplorist all have 3.6V batteries and can be charged by the 5V from a USB port. Another option is to use one of the Belkin cig plugs with a USB port. They are made to be used in a car but I have tested them with 9V from 6 AAs and 12V from 8AAs. This works and the switching regulator inside puts out the 5V needed.

[Manoroth]

Thanks for the replies. I should have been more specific. I will need to charge a L-Ion battery(3.7 volts) for a digital camera, and also the L-ion battery for the explorist 600(that I do not have yet...not sure of the voltage). I will not have access to a computer, very limited access to electricity(every couple of weeks) and no car charging. I can carry a charging device, to be left in camp. I was thinking the car charger might be a good start and then rig a device to a portable battery pack from there. Sounds like the Belkin unit might be a good start. Where can I get one of those?

[+JeepCachr]

The explorist 600 will charge off USB so if your camera charges off USB then the battery box linked above is what you want.

[+EScout]

If you are using a base camp, I would get a 12V gell cell battery. These come in various sizes and are found in UPS units, and backups for alarms, etc. You can also buy one of those car starter boxes, which have a gell cell in them (and come with AC and DC chargers.) They are easy to recharge from AC using a wall wart, or in cars using a cig lighter plug. I have done this at Boy Scout Summer camp. I charge the 7 AH gell cell at the dining hall, and use it at campsite to power various things day and night. The Belkin USB cig plug adapter would work well with this (just hook up a cig lighter port to the battery.) I find these at the 99cents store usually packaged with a USB cable for a phone or PDA. IF you can't find one, let me know....