The 5C discharge rate with very little loss in capacity and life doesn't
hurt either.


On Mon, Jul 14, 2014 at 11:18 AM, <[email protected]> wrote:

> This quality issue comes from the poor quality batteries that have flooded
> the market. There is a reason why Tesla uses the Panasonic NCR18650
> batteries because they seem to have the best manufacturing reliability.
> I've seen USB batteries from China that have no markings and covered with
> masking tape. That's why I use the same batteries Tesla uses. Using any
> other brand seems to have very little documentation, false claims, or just
> bad quality. I've been using the NCR18650A and B batteries for years and
> they have not died or caught fire despite camping and biking with them
> exposed to heat, rain, vibration, and even undercharged.
>
> If the wrong charge controller is matched with a battery that claims to be
> high performance and isn't, then a fire will occur.
>
> Isaac
>
>  -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: [dorkbotpdx-blabber] Lithium-Ion USB Charger Workshop Idea
> From: Doug Ausmus <[email protected]>
> Date: Mon, July 14, 2014 11:09 am
> To: "A discussion list for dorkbot-pdx (portland, or)"
> <[email protected]>
>
> Just a note to add a bit of quite recent detail to Lithium charging..
>
> A symposium for reliability engineers and product safety engineers earlier
> this year discussed some recent findings that trickle-charging lithium
> chemistries can cause cobalt (and other things depending on exact design)
> to migrate and form nodules on the surface and and then potentially
> mechanically puncturing their dielectric and after which some nice
> exothermic reactions can/may/might/will occur.
>
> This failure mode has been found (and others), but they are still trying
> to figure out why some will exhibit this behavior easily and some (from the
> same batch) may do not do so as readily. Many other charge/discharge things
> which make fire were discussed for which there are (AFAIK) no "controller
> solutions" for... yet. Lots of variables in manufacturing, materials,
> designs and chemistry and a number of metallurgical variations.
>
> This symposium was attended by one of my engineers (who also presented),
> and he came back with lots of interesting and depressing issues WRT Lithium
> batteries... depressing since we are in the middle of a project involving
> this stuff and have had to tell the principles the bad news about the
> direction safety certifications are going with Lithiums. We are still
> trying to work out a safe path for getting our project done and out the
> door (Certified packs and chargers? Deep due diligence in design,? Buy more
> insurance?). Not quite sure what the legal ramifications are since we are
> now aware of these issues, but the issues have no engineering direction for
> solution yet, and  meanwhile Lithium continues to march along without
> slowdown nor action...
>
> Just thought I would pass-on this very recent development, especially
> since hobby electronics design issues have been mentioned by several
> engineers in this arena as being an additional safety concern... not sure
> what direction this will eventually go.
>
> FWIW,
> Doug
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 14, 2014 at 10:10 AM, <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Yeah, I use a MAX8903G myself. It has all those features and also has
>> "smart selector technology", which gives the charger intellegence on when
>> to store and release energy. I would like to cover that in the workshop too.
>>
>> Isaac
>>
>>  -------- Original Message --------
>> Subject: Re: [dorkbotpdx-blabber] Lithium-Ion USB Charger Workshop Idea
>> From: [email protected]
>> Date: Mon, July 14, 2014 9:34 am
>> To: [email protected]
>>
>> I would strongly recommend you make sure you understand the relationship
>> between voltage-mode and constant current mode when working with Li+
>> chargers.  A common booboo happens when the current flow into a Li+ cell
>> decreases as the charging cycle is nearing completion, and is not detected
>> within some reasonable amount of time, which causes over-charging.  That
>> would be an (ahem) exothermic reaction phase.  Think of the news stories
>> about early Apple lapbooks catching fire, which was largely caused by a
>> slow current sense switch in the charger.  When you feel you switch has
>> reached the inflection point of current load vs cell potential, then a
>> current limiter needs to be switched-in to keep the cell in low-current
>> trickle charge.  If you want to roll your own controller for that would be
>> fine, but it is important to realize that the charging curve would have to
>> be recharacterized each time you change from one Li+ cell manufacturer to
>> another.  Or try to have some kind of self-servoing current sense amplifier
>> somewhere on the load.  Another thing that is fun to do (I mean that) is
>> figuring out how to switch MOSFET's so that a load can remain connected to
>> the cell even when the charging source (USB) is disconnected (or
>> reconnected to charge up the cell).  Make sure, in that case, that you have
>> an output L-C filter on the load-side to squelch the switching transients
>> from the charger.  I had to design in all these things in my Blivit charger
>> system, but did not have the real-estate to do it all in discrete
>> elements.  I opted for the simple way to do it with a Maxim part as the
>> control element for the charger (MAX1874).
>>
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