Why you should avoid using charger modules!

Four refutations: 1. Mass production allows manufacturers to sell fully built modules far cheaper than we can even buy the parts, let alone produce a PCB. I can get a TP4056 module for 40p. 2. A module on a PCB looks far better than the rat's nest of wires on a typical diy project built on perfboard. You can't compare a 40p module with a £1,000 iPhone. 3. It takes me about 1 minute to change the resistor on a TP4056 module that sets the current, which allows full compatibility with any Li-ion battery. 4. The TP4056 follows exactly the recommended charge phases for a single Li-ion. Nobody needs any other capabilities for 99% of applications.

HEALTH beep harmful to those using earphones!! (lower the sound on that beep)

These charger modules enable us to create a USB input jack into our one-cell projects. Also, to fit litihum cells into a space once occupied by three AA batteries. I have about a dozen different project boxes I have created, and I don't worry as much how they look on the inside as they do on the outside. This allows me to have a flush mount USB jack and I can use the on-board LED indicator by way of a light pipe or opaque insert. When I have a higher voltage project, I use a BMS plus CC-CV DC converter module set to the required parameters.

You can change the charging current on those charger pcb boards by changing their resistor values. Look at what your battery requires on its data sheet and adjust the resistance on the board for your particular application.

The TP4056 should really be combined with the DW01 and a dual NMOS like the FS8205A, so that it has over current and under voltage protection. There are good guides online for hobbyists on how to implement the circuit.

Good/useful note about temp sensing; I’ve used a fair number of batteries and charger modules, and wasn’t even aware there were batteries with thermistors built into them. Most small electronic projects don’t stress the batteries to the extent that we have to worry about temperature rise, but it’s good to know about the batteries with thermistors in them if we need to make something with high power drain and/or using very fast charging. Thanks!

The part about setting maximum charge voltage to 1.13 x nominal voltage is just absolutely crazy. Nowhere in the technical literature have I EVER seen that! Yes, it kind of works, for 3.7V nominal lithium ion, or 3.2V nominal LiFePO4, but you should not be telling people to do that calculation. The datasheet will show the maximum charging voltage - just use that. Also, I totally agree with other commenters that using these modules is fine for most projects - you order the correct one for the battery you’re using, and set the charging current according to capacity (usually C/2 or C/3 - again, use the datasheet!). Using the bare chip is only useful if you’re designing your own single-PCB solution - modules are always cheaper and easier for every other case.

There is no such thing as a "nominal current" of a rechargeable battery. What you read on the battery at 3:55 was the battery's rated capacity of 2000mAh. That's a charge in milliamp-hours, not a current in milliamps. The capacity is an indication of the product of current and time before your battery runs out of usable charge, for example 200mA for 10 hours, or 1000mA for 2hours, etc. Your advice to charge at the three-hour rate (sometimes called "C/3") is a reasonable compromise, but won't suit every rechargeable battery available.

With these teaching skills and winning accent, sky's the limit. Good stuff.

This is not a channel for hobbyist. This is more so for professionals who are familiar with electrical engineering already and wants to build a custom everything and stay away from open source/ widely used components. Now I actually agree with many of the suggestions he provides when doing electrical engineering in a professional setting. But I think most people watching these videos are young engineers and hobbyist looking to make cool things with the least amount of work. Now I'm sure it is crucial to select a proper charging IC when building products in industry but most hobbyists would ideally not like to design their own PCB for their first attempt at a project. the TP4056 is a perfectly fine board and it accomplishes what most hobbyists needs. I really enjoyed some of the other videos he does particularly the one with the POV display. But some of these videos that discourage against breakout boards and Arduino products is doing a disservice to new hobbyists and young engineers. I believe the suggestions you provide are helpful but the practicality that someone will opt to design their own charging circuit and source the appropriate IC, instead of using a breakout boards is very unlikely, the potential benefits of doing so does not out weight the time it will take to sources parts designs a PCB and assemble the PCB, and I don't think you can do all these steps cheaper than the TP4056 manufacturers.

I learn every time I’m in your channel. For a while I’ve always wondered how to configure my power supply for its constant current or voltage procedures. Super thanks!

I would be interested in a video from you where IP2312 is compared to TP4056. I know the TP4056 reduces the charge voltage by "throwing away" heat, sort of like a programmable resistor in series with the charge circuit. This means they are best used when installed against a heat sink (attached to the bottom of the module, not the top). One clarification to what you said, charging current of these modules is definitely under your control by varying the current setting resistor to the desired current, either by changing it or extending it to a potentiometer or multipole switch in combination with resistors.

Not always is the yellow wire for thermal monitoring. In my LIPO packs for my RC equipment, the additional wire(s) in the battery connector are for voltage measurement of the individual cells when charging/discharging. 1 wire for each cell. So if I have a 2S, there is 3 wires in the connector total, 3S- 4 wires, 4S-5wires, etc. And yes, there still can be a thermistor imbedded in the pack as well, resulting in one more wire to the total. You can very easily tell if the battery pack has thermal sensing or not, but at least on the RC LIPO packs I'm familiar with, the additional wire(s) are for voltage sense of the individual cells.

As an electronic engineering student, your videos are very detailed sir! I literally learned a lot from you sir, Thank you for sharing your insights. God bless!!

Hi , great content. I'd like to see a project and description of multi cell lipo charging. There must be a way of doing this safely with fairly simple circuitry. Cheers

I've been waiting for this video for years. All previous videos and sources contracticted between themselves. Thank you very much!!

I know everything but love to hear you speak and teach. Clear and constructive. My neutrons are now conducting again. Thanks you.😊

at first it was difficult to listen, because I do have deficits in managing your accent. Regarding the charge of batteries you answered nearly all questions I asked myself for a long time - great! Good explained thank you

I think internal resistance of the accumulator is the major part limiting the current during charging, aside from the power source amperage of course. If leads resistance is the limiting factor, I reckon it's time to change the leads 😉😁

Great video! If the input voltage to the charging IC is 5V, what is the output voltage from this IC? From the video as well, I learnt that the charging IC can make our work original. This is awesome! Please, can you also make a video on how we can use switch-mode-transformers to build our own power source from a scratch. Thanks.