Laptop Power Supplies for Bulk Charging?

markz

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I have been literally searching all day for decently priced psu's for bulk charging my 4S hardcases.
I found a place that sells psu's of all makes and models with varying voltages, amperages and prices.
So I figure buy a power supply unit that is close to 16.6V as possible, and at 3,4 or 5A and bulk charge them, or, 33V and 7,8,9,10A.

I found some 16V 4.5A adapter power supplies. They look like ones you'd find for a laptop. These are "el-cheapo-mundo"!!!
Was thinking about snatching up a handful. I believe the output is non polarized so can I cut it solder on some hxt connectors.
I was thinking each one would BULK charge up my 4S 5Ah to 4V/cell in an hour.
Connect the hxt straight to adapter to connect straight to the battery.
 
Just so you know the possible pitfalls, have you looked at the other threads on this topic?
a few can be found with variations on your title
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/search.php?keywords=Laptop+Power+Charg*&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=titleonly&sk=t&sd=d&sr=topics&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search
and there are more.
 
Yeah I've tried and tried, I am retarded at using the search function here.

Thanks for the link!

edit:
I guess I need a real power supply unit and hook these puppies up.
 
i think that is what my tenant did with his laptop when he caught my house on fire. i think he had spliced in another laptop adapter but it was a higher voltage than the original AC adapter. this was one of those sony laptop fires so i suspect they had susceptibility to failure of the HVC and charge monitoring so i think the overcharging of his laptop cells by the higher voltage AC adapter was what started the fire by overcharging the battery.
 
That is cool, I understand that. I think I am leaning towards that. Your 20-60V adjustment is very wide for the PSU.

You got any clue if that 20-60V PSU is CC or CV or both?

What Amperage ratings were your Laptop Power Supplies, you keep them low ~1A, or are they like 5A's? Keep the laptops PSU's all the same,V, A, model?

Does it really matter what the amperage ratings are on the Laptop PSU's, or is it just the voltage you care about? You put them first or last in the series with 60V PSU?


I was looking at the MeanWell SP-320-36, with PFC (For efficiency) 0 to 8.8A and 32.4V to 39.6V, its 2.4lbs, is double the width of a LED PSU, approx same weight.
There is also a non-PFC which is likely what I will get MW SE-350-36, much cheaper because it dont have the PFC (European mandate/law - less loss), same ranges, but 9.7A.

So for me to reach 4.15V/cell I need two 16V laptop supplies, brings me to 32V and 34.4V on the MW.
 
The MeanWell psu's do not regulate current properly and will burn up if you run them past or right up to their rating , has been my experience...

The laptop power supplies however, do !

So the laptop PS's i used are 4.5 amp Max and run at their peak power levels, with fixed voltages... You need a MW rated higher than 4.5 amps so that it is not running at it's max levels ( the laptop PS take care of this during the CC phase ) ..

At one point i had multiple laptop PS's in parallel to run at 9 amps with a MW in series, it was too much for my neighbor's crappy garage wiring lol
 
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