I just got this assembled last weekend.
printables, complete with F3D file.
This is a battery adapter that will allow you to insert D cell batteries into a LiitoKala Engineer Lii-500. I included the Fusion 360 file, so you can customize it to fit other applications, but odds are it will fit most 4+ 18650 based chargers that are also compatible with Ni-MH.
It prints in two halves that I simply hot glued together around their perimeter. It’s not like this part is going to see very high loads… The parts are designed to print without supports. My copies are 20% infill (you could easily go with less) and 3 walls for an overall wall thickness of 1.16. Wall thickness is something I wouldn’t change, at least for the battery side so the battery terminals don’t eventual fail. The batteries are a very slight interference fit to ensure a robust electrical connection.
For terminals, I used 8mm wide nickle strip. I’m sure you could use something else, but I had some on hand and it seemed like an obvious application. Connections between the two halves were made via wires and solder.
There’s supposed to be a heat sensor on the positive contact that you are rendering useless. That said, given the lack of longevity of every nickel battery I’ve tried on the past couple of decades, I don’t think the charger manufacturers take this guideline seriously.
This is true, but at the default 500 mAh charge rate it seems unlikely that much heat will be generated? Worst case of 100% of input voltage getting converted to heat would be 700mW or so of energy needing to get dissipated per cell.
Yeah, the big cells can handle that just fine. The charger would overheat first unless a cell is shorted, which only possible with NiMH/NiCd if the charger malfunctions or the battery is physically damaged.
The charger circuitry should be designed to avoid that issue entirely.
It’s not dangerous. It just degrades the batteries.
If “10,000 mAh” (if they’re half that I’ll be happy) batteries are heating while charging at 500mA odds are they’re not in great shape to begin with.
Early Ni-CADs and NIMHs I agree with that assessment. However for low duty cycle applications the 3rd and 4th gen Eneloop type technology NIMHs perform very well for me. I’ve got about 20 operational cells I purchased in 2011 from an original batch of 30.
This isn’t my data, but my anecdotal experience matches this:
If you have issues with longevity you should focus on getting a new charger. Many chargeres over charge the batteries and completely ruins them. Do it once and they are ruined forever and they wont hold charge anymore. Take a look at lygte-info.dk (don’t worry the site is in English) where he reviews chargers. I can recommend many of the xtar chargeres.
Direct link for comparison of chargeres. https://lygte-info.dk/info/roundCellChargerIndex UK.html