The Charger Tape - A Button Cell Charger Circuit

Thread Starter

j0j0

Joined Jun 10, 2018
16
Alright, let’s do something boring: Building a battery charger. So why would you do that? I don’t have any idea, just go buy one! ;-) But apparently I had a reason to build one myself.

Some time ago I built a couple of rechargeable button-cell-battery-packs which are featured in one of my blog post (see website url in my profile).
After trying to recharge one of them with an old NiCd fast-charger I learned the hard way how my batteries actually look from the inside:

ChrgTpExpl-01.jpg ChrgTpExpl-02.jpg
Don’t try this at home kids!

So far so good, I didn’t burn my flat yet, so I decided to either buy or build a charger that is designed to charge Nickel-Metal Hybride (NiMH) batteries with very little capacity.

What you always wanted to know about rechargeable batteries
First off, my tiny button cell accumulators have the following specs:
  • 1,2 V (exactely the same as normal AA, AAA, etc. rechargable batteries; this value is nominal, in reality most of them have a little more, something like 1,3 to 1,45 when fully charged)
  • 80 mAh (milliampere hours) capacity
In short: They are ordinary rechargeable batteries and it actually should be save to load them with an ordinary charger.

So why did my test-candidate explode then?

It was simply overcharged. NiMH cells are designed to be only fast-charged until they reach their full capacity. After that, keeping them connected to high current results in a lot of heat and…you saw the pics.

So either the charger has thermal sensors to shut off before overheating, or it just uses a low current the cell can withstand for a longer (infinite) time duration.

Sensoring seemed tedious so I decided to build a low current charger.

A safe current for NiMH cells is 1/10 of their capacity (1/10 C) or even less. In my batteries case this would be 1/10 * 80 = 8mA. There you have it: No affordable charger on the market seems to handle such a low current. Typically chargers go as low as 150 mA, which is fine for typical batteries which have a capacity of 1500 mAh to 2500 mAh (or even more), but not for my tiny 80 mAh cells.

Finding and customizing a circuit design
Some googling and studying charger designs brought up this forum thread. The schematic suggested by member SgtWookie seemed to be a perfect fit:


It features two regulator ICs (TLV1117C): One limiting the current (U1) and the other one the voltage (U2). The battery(pack) is represented by capacitor C2 (he uses the similar-to-battery-behaviour of the capacitor for the software simulation). I substituted the two regulators with the more common and easy to get LM317 type.
  • Charging voltage should be set slightly higher than the voltage of the fully charged battery pack. My two-cell packs have about 2 * 1,35 = 2,7 V so around 2,8-2,9 V should be fine.
    • Fortunately the design already handles charging voltage for two-cell packs. It can be fine tuned using the trim-pot R5.
    • measure between point A and ground
  • Charging current as discussed above, not more than 8 mA.
    • It is set by resistors R1,R2 (On first sight it is slightly confusing that he uses 2 identical resistors in parallel. I suppose he did this to split the current (and thus the power consumption) in half and spare the use of an R with higher power specs (more Watts - more expensive - not as common in ones components stash), I will use just one R as my current is very little compared to the 260 mA in the original design. Let’s just call my resistor R1 and forget about R2.).
    • open circuit between points A and B and connect multimeter in between for measuring
If you have a look on pages 12 and 13 in the LM317 datasheet you will find examples for current and voltage limiting circuits that look almost identical to SgtWookies design. His circuit is basically a combination of two examples. Well done!

This is my final customized version. The 120k resistor R1 configures LM317_1 to limit charging current to 6mA, being even more healthy for my batteries than the discussed 8mA:

ChrgTpSchem-02.png


Some theory for the geeks
Skip this if it’s boring ;-) I’ll try to explain why in my case R2 surely is not necessary.

R1 power consumption - Original design
Assuming R2 is missing:

The formula for calculating the power consumption of a device (eg. a resistor) is

P = V * I

The V on R1 is unknown so just calculate it using Ohm’s law:

V = R * I = 10 Ohm * 260 mA = 10 * 0,26 = 2,6 V

Now find out how much power R1 has to withstand:

P = V * I = 2,6 * 0,26 = 0,676 W (Watts)

The most common resistors support max power levels of 0,3 to 0,5 Watts. With splitting the current in half by using a second resistor R2 in parallel with R1, also the power consumption is halfed to 0,338 W for each R.

R1 power consumption - Customized design
V = R * I = 120 Ohm * 6 mA = 120 * 0,006 = 0,72 V

P = V * I = 0,72 * 0,006 = 0,00432 W = 4,3 mW

4,3 milliwatts is almost nothing and every resistor form factor I know of would withstand it. No need for splitting the current in half with a second R.

How long does it take to load then?
theoretically:

t = C / I = 80mAh / 6mA = 0,080 / 0,006 = 13,33 h

I -> current in A
C -> capacity in Ah
t -> time in h

typically a loss of 30-40% has to be counted in, lets calc with 40%:

C = 0,080 + 40% = 0,080 * 1,4 = 0,112 t = C / A = 0,112 / 0,006 = 18,66 h

So let’s say a night and something. It should be safe to leave the charger connected for a couple of days.


Giving it a home
…and why it’s got its name.

ChrgTpCase-05.jpg That's the idea: A piece of perfboard inside a tape box, connectors for supply and battery-pack
ChrgTpCase-21.jpg Fun fact: An almost perfectly fitting battery-pack-holder comes for free!
ChrgTpCase-23.jpg An old 12V wall wart power supply should drive the thing.
ChrgTpCase-33.jpg Adjusting charging voltage to 2.9 Volts with the trim-pot. Notice the little jumper which is closed at the moment and will be used in the next pic.
ChrgTpCase-34.jpg Jumper is opened, which breaks the circuit and an amperemeter can be put into the circuit to measure the charging current
ChrgTpCase-35.jpg I used 2 IC sockets so resistor R1 can be easily exchanged to adjust charging current - A 120 Ohms R adjusts the regulator to roughly 6 mA
ChrgTpCase-36.jpg Another neat feature: 2 IC sockets to easily plug in stuff that doesn't have the special 4-pin-connector. Certainly regular AA batteries could be charged as well. For this use-case charging current could be increased by exchanging R1 with a lower value.

Materials
LM317 regulator

Those are for building power and battery connector plugs:
10 pin strip (for 4-pin battery connector and 5-pin power supply connector

Unfortunately musikding.de doesn’t have the female ones in stock.

Take these 20 pin inline sockets for the resistor connector and the additional regular-battery-holder connector. They are also called transistor-sockets. Keep in mind that they have small holes. Above pin strips won’t fit together with them!

On Amazon you can find combination packs with headers and sockets that fit together, eg:
30 Pcs 40 Pin 2.54mm Male and Female Pin Headers

For resistors buy anything, anywhere. I like Metal Film types, they are quite cheap but can stand about 0,6 Watts, which is a little more than the most common ones with 0,25 Watts (I think they are called carbon-layer). You won’t need higher power resistors for this project but it’s good to have some in the stash.

The power supply can be almost anything you have lying around. It should deliver a minimum of 6V, I think the LM317 needs this, maybe it works with a 5V one. The absolute maximum input voltage for this IC is up to 30V, so you have a wide range of choices between these values.

If you interested in music-related electronics and coding head over to my blog website and find more interesting stuff. Link is in my AAC profile.
 
Last edited:

Audioguru

Joined Dec 20, 2007
11,248
Why don't you use a charger IC made to charge Ni-MH cells? It detects the voltage peak then drop that occurs at full charge then it properly shuts off. Here is what Energizer shows in their Ni-MH battery manual:
 

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Thread Starter

j0j0

Joined Jun 10, 2018
16
Hi @Audioguru yes could have done that but decided to use the components I had already lying around. But anyway I would be interested in what IC you would suggest and what it costs. Thanks
 

Audioguru

Joined Dec 20, 2007
11,248
Most semiconductor companies make battery charger ICs. I never made one, I bought and found some Ni-MH chargers:
1) A Rayovac one overcharges continuously.
2) A cheap Energizer one has a simple timer that undercharges new high capacity cells and overcharges old low capacity cells.
3) A Duracell one that quickly charges correctly then shuts off.

Your simple charger circuit charges slowly, does not detect a full charge (your guess of its charged voltage is too high for some cells and is too low for other cells) then overcharges continuously. Energizer's Ni-MH manual says that a "trickle charge" like you have should be at 1/40th the rated mAh current.
 

Thread Starter

j0j0

Joined Jun 10, 2018
16
Certainly my first attempt on charging those tiny button cells was to buy a charger. I couldn't find one that would handle a low capacity like 80mAh. They all used something like 150 to 500mA, which is way to much. Also if they would do some kind of shut off magic, the regular charging current is still to much. At least that's what my research brought up (lower than 1/10C = good). What's the lowest charging current of the 3 mentioned chargers?

So you don't agree that the circuit suggested in this forum thread is sufficient for my needs? (I load the packs overnight and usually switch it off in the morning). I just realized that you commented the Energizer manual in this old thread already back then ;-)

This comment also sounded promising:
"...If you use the circuit I posted and set the output voltage properly, you won't have to worry about overcharging; as once the voltage limit is reached the current is drastically reduced...

I use this charger for regular AA and AAA cells and suppose it does a good job for that: https://www.elv.de/ladegeraet-bc-700.html
It has Delta-V and temperature shut-off. Sorry not sure if the website is available in english as well. At least the manual is available in english: https://files.elv.com/service/manuals_hw/69075_BC700_UM_Englisch.pdf
Do you think it's suitable for 80mAh too?
 

Audioguru

Joined Dec 20, 2007
11,248
You did not post the datasheet for the 80mAh battery you want to charge. I look at battery datasheets from Energizer and Duracell. The latest Ni-MH batteries sold for a few years use the Sanyo/Panasonic Eneloop chemistry that come pre-charged and a charge lasts for one year. Energizer has an old Ni-MH manual and a new one. They say a trickle charge should not be needed but if you want one its current should be 1/40th the mAh rating . 80mAh/40= 2mA.

Did you search for modern battery charger ICs?
 

Thread Starter

j0j0

Joined Jun 10, 2018
16
Hi, well there is no datasheet I guess. It's those ones: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/HOT...556.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.6c574c4d1hCT5i
And I have a feeling they are not as modern/high end as Eneloop hahaha ;-)

Anyway I am interested: Why don't you post a direct link to the datasheets and manufacturer charging manuals you are looking at. Thanks! The question that I am asking myself right now is: Could I fast charge the 80mAH accus with my bought-charger at, let's say 200mA. Due to it's Delta-V and temperature sensing features it will shut off when they are full. Do you think this is more healthy than trickle charging them with the 6mA charger I built?

The thing is: I am pretty sure I won't buy a battery charger IC and build a new charger from it. I think I am fine with my solution. It's not a perfect one but a "good enough" one. The research we do here is probably worth it anyway for other people on the web that are interested in buillding chargers and rech. batteries in general. And thanks for the 1/40C trickle hint, probably a fast and healthy solution would be to just exchange R1 and let it charge at only 2mA. I knew it will come in handy once that I built the thing so R1 is quickly exchangeable :)

Back when I started my research and was planning to build my own charger I was looking at this IC: https://cdn-reichelt.de/documents/datenblatt/A200/MAX712_MAX713#MAX.pdf
It's only about 6€/$ and has plenty of "health" features, Trickle charge is 1/16C though which would be too high if we assume my cells want 1/40C
There are two versions of it, this is the shop links:
https://www.reichelt.at/battery-man...dil-16-max-712-cpe-p11258.html?&trstct=pos_10
https://www.reichelt.at/battery-man...dil-16-max-713-cpe-p11259.html?&trstct=pos_12
 
Last edited:

Audioguru

Joined Dec 20, 2007
11,248
1) Go to www.energizer.com
2) Click on Technical Info at the bottom of the first page.
3) Select the size of a battery (AA) and its Chemistry (Ni-MH).
4) Select the datasheet or the Ni-MH Applications Manual.
Duracell.com also has datasheets for their batteries.
Batteryuniversity.com has articles about batteries.

I have a few of those same useless little 80mAh Ni-MH cells. A little solar garden light used one but it lighted for only a couple of hours after charging all day in sunlight. I put two cells in parallel but the light did not increase its duration much.

Most of my cheap Chinese solar garden lights came with a AAA Ni-MH cell marked 300mAh or 600mAh but they measured only about 100mAh. So I replaced them with Energizer AAA 800mAh cells and they work better.
 
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