anyone who owns a nano 10440 single bay charger

[CeilingDweller]

Mine didn't come with instructions. How long does it take to charge a 10440 cell in this charger? After mine reached a voltage of about 2.7 I put it in the nano and left it for about 9 hours when I checked on it the led was still red! I checked the voltage one the cell it it was 4.2v. What gives?

If I want to top off a cell when it has reached say 3.6v can just drop it in the charger before bed and forget about it with out damaging the cell?

I read some where that the nano won't over charge a cell 4.1v limit. Mine had over 4.2v on it this morning.

any input would be appreciated thanks in advance!

mike

 

[Streamer]

There was no instructions with my charger either from AW, and I haven't had to recharge yet so I can't really help out here.. I do know that 4.2 is the MAX for the 10440. I wouldn't charge any more on that charger til someone more knowledgable chimes in. May be that your charger is defective. Also, I've read where others reccomended to charge only when you are awake and at home for safetys sake.

 

[Lite_me]

I have limited experience with the Nano charger. I ordered one for a friend along with some other stuff I ordered for myself. I played with it for a few days before he picked it up. Charging a 10440 with a 3.0v reading at rest, it took around 3hrs to charge. The light started on Red... somewhere near the 3hr mark the light began to turn Amber for around 10 min maybe ...and then turned Green. Right off the charger at that point the battery read 4.18v I thought it performed pretty well. I don't know if it trickles after turning Green or not. It's gone now.

 

[CeilingDweller]

Thanks for the input guys. I think I will baby sit it until I get further information on this charger. Yeah I read last night that you should only charge while you can monitor it. I'm glad nothing happened whe nI let it charge all night, and seeing as how it didn't go green for me...odd. I'll play with it some more tonite and post an update.

 

[matrixshaman]

That does seem like a long time for a nano charger and a 10440. My nano charges C123's or CR2's in probably a couple hours. Look at the output current on the charger. If it's anything over 150ma then I'd say something is wrong with the battery or charger but battery is most likely suspect. Unless your charger is only putting out 30-50ma then I could see it taking that long - battery experts here will be able to tell you better.
BTW I never charge anything like these (Li-Ion's ) over night as there's always that chance they could vent and flame while you are asleep - not a good scenario unless you charge them in a fireproof ventilated box.

 

[CeilingDweller]

That does seem like a long time for a nano charger and a 10440. My nano charges C123's or CR2's in probably a couple hours. Look at the output current on the charger. If it's anything over 150ma then I'd say something is wrong with the battery or charger but battery is most likely suspect. Unless your charger is only putting out 30-50ma then I could see it taking that long - battery experts here will be able to tell you better.
BTW I never charge anything like these (Li-Ion's ) over night as there's always that chance they could vent and flame while you are asleep - not a good scenario unless you charge them in a fireproof ventilated box.

Thanks M. Shaman. I have one on charge now...it's been about 35 mins so far. Voltage was 3.679 and recovering before I put it on the charger. I figured I wouldn't have to wait long with it hardly even discharged. If the led isn't green in a few hours I'll have to conclude there's a problem with this charger. This is a different cell from the last one. The only meter I have is a clamp type amp meter on my craftsman multimeter. So I'm not sure what it's putting out. And thanks for the advise...since I don't have a fire proof charging box and my house is only a little more than a year old...I'll be keeping my eye on this thing when I use it. Man what a challenge these rechargeable lithium cells can be. I love it!

Now I'm constantly in fear of ruining my cells by overdischarging them. After this cell charges I'll have to keep playing with my lod-ce until I see what the visual lumen output is at around 3.0v, so I know when to call it quits. I'm scared to let anyone play with it for too long in fear of killing my battery. Maybe I should just buy about 15 10440s so I don't have to worry about it so much! lol I only have 2.

If anyone has more experience with this single bay 10440 nano charger please let me know. And if you have an LOD-CE when is it time to change the cell? I know 2.7v is as low as you want to go, but how obvious is that in the visual lux output?

 

[matrixshaman]

Well as someone else mentioned here recently if you can get the 10440's from dealextreme they are hardly any more in cost than a regular Lithium AAA so if you even get a few cycles out of them you are ahead of the game. But maybe just carrying a half dozen or so and a shirt pocket multimeter (many cheap ones available) would be a way to go until you get a feel for how far discharged they are. I've got that LOD-CE on my want list as it seems to have a lot of happy users and 2 - 10440's waiting for it.

 

[Streamer]

Ceiling Dweller, I recharged a battery on my nano. Put it on at 3.01v and it came up to 4v in less than two hours. I could feel the warmth of the battery as it charged, felt like it may have been @99 degrees F and then it cooled down as it neared 4v. and the charging seemed to be reaching an end, but green light never came on as it did not reach 4.2v. Best I could get was 4.16 after FIVE hours. The charging is all right, it's the limiting circuitry I guess that is not 100%. It will not allow the battery to reach 4.2v so the green light can come on..Charging is sufficient to get 4.0 in couple hours so I can live with it. The light only turns green when I remove the cell for a voltage check. Guess that's the standby mode. Maybe if I left it on there 24 hours or more it would get to 4.2, but I aint gonna worry about it as 4v is plenty for the LOD CE. In your case, I'd watch it because you said you had already exceeded 4.2v. I think you said you got your charger and batts from AW, so did I..hmmm wonder..I also ran across this post below referring to the very same issue. Seems the consensus was the little nano reaches 95% full charge in just under two hours..any more desired and you will have to sit and wait for it (?? X hours) Here's a copy of that post.
[url="http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/image.php?u=5840&dateline=2005"]http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/image.php?u=5840&dateline=2005[/url]modamag

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Re: === Draco Reservation/Payment === (PART 2)
Everything ordered as of today is shipped! Wished I could have shipped earlier but I had 41 pages of tax to take care of.

slampost: Nano charger cutoff voltage and trickle V varies from units to units. I found that pretty much all these charger will charge to 95% within 2 hr. However for the last couple % some may take minutes while others have been up to 24 hrs.

I didn't bug AW too much about this issue because I deem it tolerable.

 

[CeilingDweller]

Streamer

Well thanks for the input. What you write makes sense to me. Mine finally turned green between 5 or 6 hours. It was so late and I was so tired didn't even think to check the voltage on the cell. It's nice to know that the cell will be sufficently charged in a couple of hours.

I bought mine from lighthound the 10440's are ultrafire. I want to give aw's a try though.

 

[Streamer]

Let me add that you will know when it's time to recharge. The beam will lose it's "bling" and you'll easily notice it isn't as BRIGHT as it was before. When I noticed it, I read the voltage at 2.6v. Let it sit for few minutes and it recovered to 3.01, then threw it in charger. @ two hours to 4v.

I'm home today, so I put my 4.16v battery back in the charger to see if it will reach peak and turn that green light on. If it doesn't, doesn't really matter coz it's charged sufficiently already and there has been no indication of any potential overcharging.

UPDATE: The battery that went into the nano charger at 4.16v reached a peak voltage of only 4.17v after three more hours of charging and the indicator finally turning green. BTW the indicator led goes from red to amber and then to GREEN.. Let me say the volt meter alternated between 4.16v and 4.17v as I read it right after removing the batt from charger. All this after an additional three hours of charging for a gain of .01v. LOL. But at least I got the charger to cycle to GREEN! Overall though, all is fine with the charger and its ability to bring these batts up to 4 volts in two hours or less.

 

[crewcabrob]

Hi all,

Just real quick, I have a nano and two cells for the Draco that I purchased as a package from Modamag. My charger and cells have worked flawless since day one.

I plan on getting more cells from AW and maybe one more charger just incase I have a failure with this one.

If I wanted to carry at least two extra cells with me, or maybe even 4 extra cells for camping trips, what would you recomend I carry them in? I saw some neat little aluminum tubes on an EDC site, but wasn't sure how many cells it would hold.

Thanks,

Rob

 

[KevlarSix]

My newly bought Nano charger just went kaput. I was charging my 10440 battery for about an hour and I heard something loud in my bedroom. The charger burnt out. The battery seem fine. Would it still be safe to use the battery? I'm puzzled as to what happened to the charger.