Integrating a battery charger [New Question]

Kyosho · Post by **Kyosho** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 12:38 am

Scroll down to view my newest post on this subject.

Okay, I'm completely new to this. I'm planning to build a PSOne portable, and I'm curious about whether or not I could integrate a battery charger like this one into the back of the case (not that one in particular, just, you know, any like it). I'd like it to be able to power the unit, while it's on, and charge the battery at the same time. And just power the unit if there's no battery. And charge the battery when the unit is off. It would be possible, wouldn't it? I like the idea of integrating a charger like this, franken-mod style, into the case, because it supports different sizes and styles of batteries. Of course I'd only be buying batteries within the voltage range of the PSOne and LCD (7.2 to...9? I forget).

Wakefire · Post by **Wakefire** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 1:21 am

You could probably integrate it into your case if you're looking to add some bulk. Or if you're an electronics wiz, you could strip down the charger and add some wires to make it so not only does it charge the batteries, but it uses the batteries to power the unit as well. Unfortunately, I don't know how to do this at the time. But if you're willing to wait some more, I'm sure that someone else can add to this.

Post by **Skyone** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 1:59 am

http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000383070996/

If you make one of those, it's really small and easy to use.

Wakefire · Post by **Wakefire** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 2:05 am

See, I told you someone would have a bit more insight than me. As for the link I bookmarked it as well. But if you're working on a more power consuming project, you might need more than one of those. They are very small though, so I wouldn't hesitate to use more than one anyway.

Kyosho · Post by **Kyosho** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 1:34 pm

Whoa, okay that is awesome. A few of those in parallel would be great. But I can't build it. I mean, just doing the LED mod on the PSOne screen and the rest of the portable is going to be a lot for me. I'm new to this sort of electronics stuff.

By the way, maybe I didn't read enough, but how exactly do you charge it?

Edit: Is there anyone here capable of building a couple that I could buy?

Wakefire · Post by **Wakefire** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 2:18 am

I'm pretty sure that you might be able to use a reg 9v charger(i didn't read that far either.

I'm sure I could make a few for you. Tell me how many you want and I'll determine the cost.

A.J. Franzman · Post by **A.J. Franzman** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 3:23 am

This is a great idea. I thought of doing the same thing a while ago but I don't know if I can put one into my portable. I want it to run on 6 x AA NiMH cells, and not require mains power directly into the unit. I found a nice small switchmode adapter thats rated for 12 volts and 4.1 amps. There are "smart" NiMH chargers available that will automatically charge a range of pack voltages, but I haven't seen any yet that run from 12V. The ones that run from the mains are rather bulky.

If I wanted to use NiCd, I could make an overnight charge circuit from just a resistor, but for NiMH, from what I've read that's not safe - they really need smart charging, ideally including temperature monitoring.

Wakefire · Post by **Wakefire** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 3:44 am

About the Ni-mh AA's. I was going to use those in one portable and the homebrew 9v in another. You can also find some nimh AA's that charge in 15 minutes at radio-shack.

Edit: here's the link:http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... age=search

Edit 2: didn't feel like actually making a link so copy and paste

A.J. Franzman · Post by **A.J. Franzman** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 4:14 am

I don't care about fast charge time; I want long run time, small size and light weight. Ability to play from a wall outlet while charging the battery at the same time would just be a nice bonus. If I can find or build a circuit to let me do that in a couple of cubic inches of space from low voltage and without being a huge heat source, that would be great.

Also, those cells are only 2000mAh; other AA NiMH cells are available now with 2600 and higher mAh capacities - I expect 3000s will be available soon if they are not already.

Kurt_ · Post by **Kurt_** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 3:15 pm

You guys nglected to read the part about the discharge curve.

This battery would not put out 9V until it died, it would slowly drop as you used it. A supercap is not the same as a battery. But I suppose if the DC/DC convertor you used had a very low input minimum, it would work rather well.

Website · Post by **Life of Brian** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 3:15 pm

Hmmm... I suppose it's possible. After all, I plug my laptop in and it charges while I use it. So there's got to be a way, right? It would be cool if we could design something that wasn't outrageously expensive to throw together. I wanna learn about chargers now...

Kyosho · Post by **Kyosho** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 6:46 pm

Before I get into this, just know I'm building a PSOneP.

Okay, so I bought a battery that's almost exactly the same as the one Ben used in his PS2 Portable. In fact I think it is the exact one, just with a different label. I've got a question though. When the battery is hooked up to the system/screen, it won't turn on while it's charging. This means if I ever want to play off AC power and not waste my battery, I'd have to have to keep the normal PSOne port as well. One for charging, one for power. That seems like a waste.

Now, I've torn the battery casing off, of course (Ben was right, it was hard indeed). If I were to directly connect the system to the batteries, and then plug in the charger, it would work, in theory, right? But then again, it might fry the screen/system as well. I don't know how battery chargers work.

I should just email Ben and ask how he did his, but he seems to be extremely busy lately. Can anyone here help me out?

Kurt_ · Post by **Kurt_** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 3:11 pm

Try hooking up your system and battery in parallel, and then adding the power jack in parallel as well.