Charge Li-ion batteries with regular Charge controller made for Lead Acid batteries 

I use a 10000 mah RC 3s lipo with this controller to operate 2 night lights---Charges with a 30 watt solar panel to 12.7 drains down to 10.9 and the cell stay balanced with no bms. Thanks for this video.3 months and no balance issues.

Upon watching this I purchased one of these to charge a bank of 30, reclaimed 18450 batteries, 3 in series 9.3v Min and 12.6V Max with a Renogy 50W solar panel. One thing I added was a battery management circuit/cell balancer and a fuse block with 20amp fuse. I’ve been using this setup and it works like a charm. I don’t believe the battery management circuit is absolutely necessary but highly recommended. I’ve charged this for dozens of cycles with absolutely no problems. I heard these charge controllers are pulse width modulation chargers meant for lead acid but this does not seem to cause any problems for lithium ion.

Hello friend! The parameter you are changing is not the charging voltage. It's the "float charge" voltage and that means the controller will just trickle charge small amounts of current at 12.7 volts, AFTER the bulk and absorption phase. After the battery reaches finish the absorption phase at 14.6 volts or whatever voltage depending on the battery type, (B1, B2, B3 in the manual its the menu number 6) it enters the float voltage charge which actually is for maintaining the battery at full charge without the battery being burned!

Very nice video on this controller and also your other video on the controllers with lead-acid batteries. I think it would be advisable to use a 3S BMS for 18650's as you have done here in the 12.6V case. Boards with balance capability are available from sites like Banggood for around $5 and they appear to work well. They have over and under protection and over current as well as balance and they are made to be used with generic power input so they should work just fine with this charge controller. Apparently this controller does not fully cut the charge when current falls below a predefined level. I plan to program an arduino nano to do that using a 5V relay and power it through one of the usb ports on the controller. Thanks again for your videos!

Thanks , ur technique helped me make a few holes on my batteries. Found out the hard way .ever want to charge a li ion get a balance charger bms

Brilliant video congratulations !

Without balance, you could over charge a single cell as they won't have the same voltage. You can put a diode on and get a 0.7 volt drop. But you can add volts from the minimum to make up the difference. Or you could get rid of the charge controller and use a buck converter. It would be less and you can control the current and voltage.

This is great info i wasn't even aware of that overcharging could be a problem, but you showed that it is so minor that it's not a issue.. thanks (y)

most lead acid chargers may say 12 volts but they will actually bring the voltage up to around 14v. Sometimes even higher. Have you put a volt meter on the battery as its charging? just to see if is staying at the voltage you set it at.

Love the videos! awesome go kart I made a little fishing boat in the same way. Solar panel charges my 25p 4s li ion pack works like a charm! Trolling motors destroy regular batteries Li ion is the way to go the can take the abuse!

Thanks so much for everything you shared with us, we appreciate you so much...

my foxnovo 4s charges my 18650 to 4.22, when I test cells with voltmeter they read 4.25. I havent notice any damage. But those who might have any problems with the slight overcharge can just attach a bms circuit to the battery pack as a safety feature.

Cool....i have the same controller...what battery setting do you use for charging the 18650's... b1 , b2, b3, b4 ?....i use b1 for lead acid, ...but not sure on the 18650's...chhers. love the go cart..brilliant

The one thing that isn’t covered is the rate of charge. Most 18650 will only take 1.25 amps of charge. Anything more will damage the cells. The only way to get around this is to parallel the cells so they can accept/handle more shared amperage.

hmmm 🤔 i wish everything would be that simple 😳

Don't you need to balance the cells though with some kind of lipo balancer?

Thanks for the video. Did you test if the charger can charge the battery and output to a load at the same time?

Hello sir, suppose i use 3s bms to charge 3 cell battery pack, while charging the battery pack, at the same time can i run 12v device from output of controller? How many months or years your lithium battery survived

Wen i remove the panel the battery fall down to 11.3 is it okay to see that

Amazing videos Vuaeco… Look I am design a solar panel/battery system… I thought that getting 18V solar cells to charge a 12v SLA battery would be smart… Ive also purchased a CMTD 20A solar controller. I am still waiting for the arrival and I have one doubt… If the solar panels provide more than 14,7 V as recommended charging Voltage in to the batteries, What will the solar controller do? Totally cut the inbound power from the panel as it will be higher that the max Voltage permitted or reduce to the Max of 14.7? Many Thanks

Hello.... and thankyou kindly for your video because i have just purchased one the same exspecting it to charge lipo cells.... your spot on with your maths and i was always tought that you take it to the lowest or highest values in resistors when messuring the capacitence etc.. just gota figure out wich setting to put it on now b1 b2 or b3 hahahaha decitions dicitions... stay kool bro. out. Payyyyyce.

Good morning Sir. Thank you for sharing this. I do not have any technical knowledge but would like to get a small solar system set up for my driveway lighting. Your video helps a lot as I have been thinking about the storage. I'll likelybuse my old laptop batteries to just get started and have a feel for the system. May I ask: 1. I saw some videos saying that it is advisable that the controller have a temperature sensor to protect the battery, but in their video they had a lead acid battery set up. Would this be a concern for the set up you did? I will likely not check it often, so I would like to just make sure it won't be a problem later. 2. I am planning to plug in the load to the controller load connection. Would this be a sound set up or is it better to have an inverter? 3. If I use an inverter, can a 24v battery setup handle it and what inverter wattage is advisable given I plan to run a 24v 40w swing gate opener and 3 6w led bulbs? Sorry for the many queries. Any help would be appreciated.

hello, i bought one of these 30A labeled MOHOO. In the manual in technical parameters indicate 30A charge discharge current but after advices "when the controller is connected to the 12V battery, the output of the maximum load is less than 120W and 240W when connected to 24V battery". Can anyone tell me how much load can i use, because less than 120W y less than 10A and is rated current 30A.

How about the load terminal?..it give output voltage to load terminal?

Where did you purchase the white ampmeter you have for your electric bike on the video for only $1-$2? Can that one measure 100amp?

Do you know if the Harbor Freight controller works the same way??? If so, can I make a 3S10P LiOn batt and use this controller to charge it???

Did the charge controller turn on as soon as you plugged the battery into it? I just bought one and it doesn't turn on after i plug in the +/- battery ports. Wondering if its broke or im doing something wrong

You need a bms for 18650 lithium battery

i think your idea has one big flaw, just ignore the small ones. on those chargers you can only set the float charge but how do you avoid the equalisation charge? if you just want to charge liion cells use a small bike battery as buffer and use some 12v charger or one than works on usb. you probally could use an li pack with an bms but that would need further testing. some big capacitor could work too maybe.

I have that charger and the 24v 2ah Kobalt tool battery. On 6-12-2019 at 0725 hrs I programmed the charger to 25.3v and am starting out with 21.4v on the battery. Look for smoke on the horizon?

hello, in this controller it is possible to regulate the voltage for the batteries in the 4 load levels: Equalization, Float Charge, Stop Download, Reconnection Download? Can I regulate the maximum load voltage to 16.8v, floating load to 14.8v, discharge discharge to 12.0v and discharge reconnection to 13.8v?

Do I have to set the charge controller for an AGM or does it automatically

Hi do you have wiring instruction..

Charging voltage is not the only parameter. Lithium cells also have a maximum current for charging. Typically this is "1C" (for cheap Chinese LiIon), that means one times the capacity in amp-hours giving a figure in amps. So those 18650 are, say, 1500mAh capacity -> meaning your charger needs to be configured to output a maximum of 1.5A. These cheap lead acid chargers don't have a current limit setting, only voltage. Too much charge current, at best, will reduce the life of your batteries. At worst it's downright dangerous (overheating, fire, etc).

Can check to see if it will charge 7 cells at 29.4v? Reconnect at 24.4v under voltage protection at 21v? If you could check to see if that charge controller could accept those numbers I would really appreciate it. Thank you

Hi my friend I tried this, and charging a 3S until 12,7V, the PWM controller went on flutuation voltagem, but still puts A on the Battery and some cells went to 4,5V.

Is this work on laptop charger instead of solar panel?

My same one i got lowest is 13v.....

what about balancing them

Purchase on EBay? What term can I used to search that particular item?

i just want somone to make a completely illogical 220v battery setup...........55 li ion cells in series lmaooooooooooooooooo

dose it charge lippo battery

Hello agen my freand really love youre videos i have a quick question or idea i have made a 74v34 ah battery for my e bike and was thinking if the e cobolt positive and negative end would charge the battery wich the cobolt charger like if you use 24v or 48 v paralel or 72 v if it would it would save allot of pepol waching you alot of money insted of geting a cicle statyator charger thats 350eu. Ty agen for the video and keep up the good wark ill send a pict of my e bike 1ns finished.

Will it accept 6 ga wire? I will be running 35 feet from controller to battery and the chart says to use 6 ga stranded wire for 3% loss.

cool thanks

HI VUAECO.HOPE U AND FAMILY ALL WELL.IM THINKING ABOUT USING MY RENOGY ROVER MPPT I HAVE IN BACK OF MY CAMPERVAN TO CHARGE MY EBIKE BATTERY IM NOT UISNG MUCH.ITS 52VOLT 14S5P.CAN I SPLIT INTO 2 AND CHARGE AS 24V TO 26V FROM MPPT.I HAVE 30WATT X 3 PANELS ON ROOF.OR LIKE YOUR VIDEO MAYBE JUST USE A 6S5P BATTERY AND ALTERNATE 2 OF THEM CHARGING .MY WAECO COMPRESSOR 12/24V FRIDGE RUNS AT FRONT OF CAMPERVAN AT MOMENT OFF A 100WATT PANEL AND A DC TO DC CHARGER.SO PERHAPS CAN RUN FRIDGE AT BACK OF 18650S

Is there a different between AC amp meter and DC amp meter?

Been trying to find one that looks exactly like this one on ebay without success so far. Can you help

This video shows you what can be done I wouldn't say it should be done though. If you're going to use Lithium-ion batteries with this particular charge controller there's only one way to do it in my personal opinion. It would be with a 7s configuration. Putting the battery within the parameters of the charge controller without overcharging the battery. Not only do you not want to charge a lithium battery beyond 100%. In a solar setup you really should only be pushing them to 80 to 90% capacity. So even though lithium iron phosphate is a much better chemistry for solar setups I think it's just fine to use lithium-ion cells. Use them if you got em. But use them the right way. And for God's sake if you're going to use the cheapest possible charge controller put a BMS on your battery! I do like your videos but some of them such as this one are a little bit reckless.

Lead acid charge controller can never be used to charge Li-ion batteries, It is not just about voltage limit, It is about charging curve, It may work but it will stress the batteries, I wouldn't advice charging Li-ion batteries with it: batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries

hello, can I use this controller to charge a 4 cell battery?

very good videos..thanks

I thought he was telling the same thing again and again?

Lithium Iron Phosphate Ko Kisi Karta hai......

can i charge 2liion cells in parallel with the usb output without any bms? thankyou

I thought its 3.7v

Go to battery university and have a read if its OK to overcharge your batteries and you will see that its not a good idea to do that its better to undercharge your batteries and they will last longer also

another way to limit the voltage been send to the bateries would be inserting a simple blocking diode between the charger and bateries, since these have a forward voltage drop of about 1 volt the nominal 12.7 coming from the charger wil at the battery been reduced to....12.6 volt! problem solved it seems

Its a very good controller until you tried a MPPT charger, then you will change your mind.....

your thinking too much - you can easy lose 0.03 volts per cell by using longer wires

Unwise.

What about the trickle charge... lead acid has a high discharge rate and if that charge controller is designed for lead acid... then the math shown is incimplete... either he doesnt know difference between lithium ion and lead acid or doesnt care if the lifespan of batteries gets shorter... maybe he is just promoting the product...