On 4/14/2018 7:18 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Sat, 14 Apr 2018 13:42:27 -0700 (PDT), John-Del
wrote:

I have this device which uses 14 AA rechageable batteries.

There's quite a bit on charging Eneloop cells he
https://eneloop101.com
https://eneloop101.com/charge/
Plenty of warnings to NOT use really fast chargers and really dumb
(trickle) chargers.

Can I suggest yet another alternative? 14 NiCd cells, at 1.35v each =
18.9V total. If you replace the AA cells with five 14500 LiIon cells,
which are the same physical size, that would be:
5 * 3.6 = 18.0v
There are plenty of smart chargers available for the RC market that
can deal with a 5s battery pack. I have one of these:
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/imax-b6-50w-5a-charger-discharger-1-6-cells-genuine.html
Checking the specs, it charge 1 to 6 cells so it should work.
If you need AC power, LiFePO4 charging, PC connectivity, upgradeable
firmware, and terminal voltage adjust, the V2 version is what you
want:
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/imax-b6ac-v2-professional-balance-charger-discharger.html

I use nothing by the cheapest cells, which sucks because they usually
only have about half the capacity and lifetime of a decent cell.
However, they're cheap, and my use in mostly flashlight is not
critical.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/Rechargeable-Batteries/48619/i.html?_nkw=14500+li-ion+battery
I haven't tried this brand, but at $1/ea, it's worth trying.

Thanks, but the link takes me to page after page of cells.
Can you disclose exactly which link is the one you've verified as
reasonable cells?
Better the devil you know than to take a random shot.

I've had horrible luck with any 18650's with "ultra" or "fire" in the
name. I'd like not to repeat that with 14500's.


One potential problem with LiIon is if your unspecified device runs on
+10 and -10 volts. 5 cells won't work but 6 cells might. It all
depends on the operating voltage range of your unspecified device and
on how it's wired/designed/configured.