It was bound to happen eventually - I connected 12 volts to my Technoline BL700 battery charger and blew it up. The components inside appear to have been damaged only in the channels which had a cell inserted when I connected the 12v supply. However, it looks like the main microcontroller chip has also been destroyed.
By Julian
Youtuber, shed dweller, solar charge controller aficionado
Ever fixed it, Julian? I had the same accident.
Yeahp, that's the 1st 3V charger of that type that I've seen….and it's proven really annoying…!!!
Mine's still in regular use after 8 and a half years, I paid $28 for it. I've never had any trouble reading the display myself but the buttons do require a firm press. Having this plugged in on the bench saves me mucking around with multimeter probes to check the voltage of alkaline cells too (just insert for a second or so to read voltage). Yes on occasion have found that a cell charged a bit too long on the 200mAh setting so if I'm not going to be around to keep an eye on it near the end then I'll just use the 500mAh setting. It's not perfect but for the price at the time it's been a fantastic investment and it hasn't killed the Eneloops that I bought at the same time either – also still in regular use. I'd like a fancy new one but it's not really justified yet…
Ah yes, the old 12 volt in the wrong socket deal! I recently learned that this can happen to computers as well. I was trying to change an old Toughbook over to Linux the other day, the unit came without a CD/DVD drive, so I wanted to use an USB external DVD drive that I have for just such purposes. IT was not being seen by the toughbook, so I thought, I will simply plug it into my new Dell Laptop (well a year old) so I plugged her in, again the led on the DVD drive did light but no recognition. So I looked at the drive, and saw a point where you could plug in a 5 volt power supply, with that in mind, I grabbed a wire with a plug on the end, and shoved her in, while still plugged into my DELL. There was a slight wiff of smoke from my DELL, and the screen went dead, the fan stopped and she died. I quickly unplugged the USB drive, and pressed the power button, I was happy to see the circle containing the DELL logo on the screen as my machine returned to life. It appears all that was damaged was the data pins on that USB circuit. The laptop still has the USB 3 port that works fine, and I can power stuff from the other 2 ports but they are no longer available to transfer data. Guess I can live with that, I am going to get a bottle of red testers pla paint and color all my 12 volt plugs red to keep me aware of this danger
You can set the charge current of the larger charger. I have the same one.
just done this with my BC 1000 with 4 cells in grrr proper pissed off but there is a BL700N out now
Hi all,well I must add that you should allways use the correct power supply that came with it.You can't really put the charger down as its user error,it says 3v on it,I don't understand all the fuss,The designer didn't design it for use with other voltages,and modification's, power supply's etc,I do think they should add over current/voltage protection but like I said they come with a power supply that's correct. Ime not having a go,I just think posts like these can put people off buying a very good product.😉
aha heres an idea for a project/video! If most of us looked in our junk boxes we'd find an old charger case of some type or other. These things are sort of generic and there are lots of cheap "building blocks" on ebay, maybe a little recycling too . . What do you reckon Julian, Clive ?? could be fun, maybe some sparkes too ! ! !
On your earlier video showing this charger, I thought "why not put a cheap 12v->3v switcher inside and wire it in so it's powered off your 12v supply like everything else?" I'm viewing these a year and more after you made them but it might be something to consider in the future.
Those chargers have absolutely no regulation on the pcb. They are so critical to the power supply voltage, that putting 12v in there will dump way more than the displyed current into the cells, so much it way overheats the switching mosfets. Your Powerex has a regulator near the power jack. It's wastefull, but just keep the input volt as low as the charger will operate when you're on battery/solar power. Ie. if it runs at 9v, as most of those regulators will, then thst's less energy wasted wa
"totally my fault i put 12 volts into it…." now i have a new favourite charger ? WTF … if you put gasoline in your "favourite diesel car" would you suddenly decide on a new favourite car after it breaks??? LOL just seems odd to me but who cares, it is not important….. by the way, i think i know why the resistors are missing [ i could make up some sarcastic comment right now but i won't LOL] i think it has to do with socket 1and4 being able to be programed differently on the bc-1000
I've been using the BL700 for a couple of years and find it very reliable. It does fail to charge cells with a low voltage so I start them off in another charger when necessary. I also found the 500mA charge rate better than 200mA for detecting the cell full status.
The refresh mode is excellent.
I have been very happy with my 8 cell Powerex charger. I had to repair it after first use due to one of my cells spewing up all over it, but it's been fine since. Certainly my favourite charger.