With the move to Li-Ion batteries there seems to be no standalone chargers to go with these.
Any suggestions?
You will have to be more specific than that if you want answers.
Meanwell make all sorts of chargers.
Let’s say I have a 12V 100Ah LFP battery powering my DC appliances…
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You get Lead Acid chargers that has a lot of logic to nicely charge lead acid batteries.
With Lithium the logic is in the BMS build into the battery. So you just need to get a charger that can supply the required charge voltage and the BMS will take care of the rest.
The Vicron smart chargers can be programmed and are very nice as mentioned.
Meanwell also have power supplies that you can set the voltage with (just need a multimeter to measure the output while you set it up) which also work very well.
This is not strictly true. You need a constant voltage/constant current power supply in most cases.
Somewhat related, my brother’s laptop’s internal charging circuitry got damaged. He can still run the laptop by removing the battery and running directly off the power brick. (Naturally in that state it isn’t useful during loadshedding)
Is it easy to externally charge a laptop battery? I’d assume that supplying the required voltage would be fine (with some type of smart charger).
If the battery is removable it is possible but will be a mission! (current laptop batteries don’t have removable batteries since they have improved so much providing hours of backup)
A better bet is to add DC to the power supply: Break open the PSU and find the DC output rail and connect your external battery voltage there…
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I presume this includes short circuit protection. Does this mean that you also don’t need fuses?
You will have to check the specs for the BMS. Most have short circuit protection, but some of the cheap 7/8Ah LA replacement lithium batteries does not have the protection. Better to make sure.
You should always use fuses. They potect the wire from other issues as just a short. Many of the BMS will be able to give you a current boost for a short while which could be too much for your wiring. Your fuse that is rated for your wire will keep that safe.
I guess the thing is here, we did explore the option of a one of those portable power stations to plug the laptop in. However, it is quite expensive, almost might as well buy a new laptop (if that is the only reason for him to get it). Given that he has a perfectly fine battery already, and it is removable, I was wondering if it could be charged…
Recently I suggested to a young couple who wants to keep their laptop going, the batt clips in/out, that the cheapest solution for them was to get a 2nd laptop battery.
Once the batt is used, switch it off, and swap the battery.
Recharging, one at a time, by swapping the batt again.
The clipping in/out of the battery, the key.
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The problem is how to charge it. My brother’s laptop internal charger circuits are faulty… i.e. the laptop can’t charge it. Charging would need to be done externally in some way.
You do get aftermarket chargers. The real issue is to be able to easily connect to the laptop battery port. Each laptop has their own design and I have yet to see similar sockets that you can buy. The battery does have a small BMS built into it. You should see 2 larger pins that is the charge + - for the charge/discharge and some smaller pins that would be for comms with the notebook.
If you can connect a charger to the 2 charge pins and supply it with the correct voltage and current it will charge. But it will be a hastle.
Much better to look for someone that can fix the charging circuit for you. If you were in the George area I know of someone that could do that.
Thanks! He took it to a laptop repair center that said it cannot be repaired, has to be a replacement motherboard… I’m sure it can actually be repaired, but yeah, the necessary skills would be required.