Building own charger?

[Mistermiller]

Hello,

First of all I would like to thank you for this fantastic charger and project!
I have read quite a lot about your charger during the last days and I'm really interested in one of those.

Unfortunately it seems that this charger is currently not available or only with long lead times, right?

My idea was to build the charger by myself with the open source files provided and do a donaiting for this wonderful project!
This would "reduce" the lead time from my side and with my donation I would like to support this project!

Would this be an option that would be realistic for you, Mark and Paul?

If yes, would it be possible to get some sort of support for the parts that do not have any values in your current Eagle schematics (e.g. D2, D2, inductor type, etc.).
I could provide a list of parts where I would need some help using the private message function.

Otherwise this would be a real cool project during autumn for me

All the best,
Stefan

[Mark]

I don't see any problems with that myself.

Hopefully Paul can chime in and answer your questions about component values, etc. Hopefully he can also provide an update on how things are progressing with respect to working through the backlog of Kickstarter backers.

[Mistermiller]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your quick reply!

// Stefan

[Paul.Allen]

Sure, if you feel up to it. The very latest files haven't been posted yet, I need to get on that. If you do decided to donate, send the money to Mark, I am in endless debt to him for all his help.

If you decide building isn't going to be as straightforward as you had thought, I do have some with varying levels of problems, from a broken switch to who knows what. If it is just a bad switch I will often fix it but in the case of say an over etched trace, I have to patch it with a wire and then it doesn't look pretty. Occasionally the problem isn't very obvious and could take me longer to fix than making a new one and so those build up in boxes. Over all I definitely don't have as many bad chargers as I used to thanks to design refinements and the fact that I have gotten a lot better at making them.

[Mistermiller]

Hi Paul,

Thanks a lot for your detailed reply.
Unfortunately it is not possible to use the private message function so that I cannot contact you.
Perhaps you can send me a PN with your mail address to that we can get in contact?

// Stefan

[Mistermiller]

Hi Paul

It's a long time ago but I did not have had time for that project, even tough I have the PCBs at home.

For all descriptions I'm referring to the files posted on the website (Paul Allen NiMh Charger FTDI Rev1_Done.brd /.sch).
Could you help me with the following parts and e.g. Digikey or Mouser part numbers or something like that as you have only used generic names in your Eagle files.

- USC_D2_TVS1 / USC_D3_TVS2
- D2 / D3
- MODE (Switch-SP3T)
- USC_100UH_L1 (Inductor)
- U$11 / U$13 (CREE LED)
- U$3 (Crystal)

Perhaps you even have a full part list for Digikey / Mouser / any other distributor, that you can send me by mail / PN?

It would be really fantastic to get some help!
Thanks a lot in advance

// Stefan