My house electricity fried all my Lithium batteries , needs help really bad.

[Kaaud]

So 3 years ago I bought an expensive Sony Digital Camera ,made in Japan. The lithium battery lasted 3-4 months and then when I charge it for hours , it lasts only 4-5 minutes. Same happened to an Asus laptop and new HP Probook Laptop batteries. Both batteries can't work without the charger.

What really pissed me off , and made me sure that there is something wrong in my house electricity. I bought and electronic cigarettes with two Li-on batteries. Both fried in first day. I even returned them to supplier , who was astonished that 2 batteries are dead , he told me its a rare coincidence. And he was right. He gave me 2 new batteries , one of them got fried too in first day. I charge it for an hour and it lasts few minutes.

I ordered new E-Cigarette from USA , both batteries fried too , first day. They are around 140 mah , 3.7 volts.

The supplier told me , it is impossible to send 2 bad batteries , it must be the charger. And he was right that it can't be the batteries.

I ordered new batteries and battery chargers from US. But i afraid to damage them too. (I really want to quit smoking haha)

I don't get it , my house is 50 Hz 220 VAC. Chargers work on 50/60 Hz and 110/240 AC. So what is happening? Can't be all a coincidence. Can't it be the frequency ? I doubt it since the output of charger is DC.

Please , what kind of stabilizers/UPS units to buy ?? Should I buy an Online UPS unit ?? Its expensive though ?

 

[charlie b]

I have only one suggestion to offer:

I don't get it , my house is 50 Hz 220 VAC. Chargers work on 50/60 Hz and 110/240 AC. So what is happening?

The chargers may "work" at more than one frequency or voltage. But is there a switch or other method built into the charger to select which frequency or voltage you are applying? If the charger is expecting a 120V source, and you connect it to a 220V source, then that could cause the charger to fry the battery.

 

[Kaaud]

I have only one suggestion to offer: The chargers may "work" at more than one frequency or voltage. But is there a switch or other method built into the charger to select which frequency or voltage you are applying? If the charger is expecting a 120V source, and you connect it to a 220V source, then that could cause the charger to fry the battery.

There is no switch. Aren't these chargers universal ?? We have Many devices at my work that work on 110/240 AC/DC without any switches. (Earth leakage relays as an example).

Just a side note. My Iphone battery works very good. Why it is different ?

 

[Kaaud]

I read the Iphone charger , also works on 100/240 V . Lots of people have Iphone here ,right. There is no switch.

 

[Kaaud]

Also what type of tests should I perform. Only measure V and F ?? Can harmonics damage batteries??

 

[Jraef]

There is no switch. Aren't these chargers universal ?? We have Many devices at my work that work on 110/240 AC/DC without any switches. (Earth leakage relays as an example).

Protection devices are not consuming or transforming or converting power. All those specs mean is that the voltage or frequency going THROUGH the device is not going to affect how it functions.

Just a side note. My Iphone battery works very good. Why it is different ?

Ever price out an iPhone charger compared to a similar wall-wart style charger? You are paying for that convenience. See more below.

I read the Iphone charger , also works on 100/240 V . Lots of people have Iphone here ,right. There is no switch.

See above.

Also what type of tests should I perform. Only measure V and F ?? Can harmonics damage batteries??

A power supply, such as for a charger, uses a transformer to change the AC voltage, then a rectifier to convert it to DC at a voltage that is 1.41X the incoming AC voltage level. So for a 230V supply, the DC voltage becomes 324VDC or for 115V it is 162VDC. Then they use a system of high speed DC transistor switches called a "Switch Mode Power Supply" to chop it down into tiny little pulses that are filtered to become a lower voltage of DC, i.e. 5VDC, that trickles into the batteries. In something like the iPhone charger, they have eliminated the transformer section and added additional circuitry that automatically adjusts the SMPS pulse width modulation depending on the incoming rectified line voltage level. So in effect, it takes in a wide range of voltages and regulates the output regardless of these levels. On a cheap charger they will have a manual switch, as mentioned by charlie b, to change the taps of the transformer on the AC side ahead of the rectifier to that the voltage getting to the SMPS portion is at a consistent level and they can use cheaper components. Or if there is no manual switch then maybe they have a simple automatic switch on the transformer input that changes from 1x to 2x depending on what the resulting DC voltage level is ahead of the SMPS, and therefore the SMPS can be simpler and cheaper because it expects that it is always going to see the same input voltage to it. Either way, it is far far cheaper than anything Apple is going to sell you, and therefore more prone to failure. If that automatic switch or the detection circuit for it fails, it doesn't change the voltage to the SMPS, which fires based on a LOWER voltage input and thereby puts too high of a voltage to the batteries, killing them.

So what can you test? Do you have a simple VOM? If so, look at the charger nameplate and see what the output DC voltage is supposed to be, then set your meter to read DC volts, stick your probes into the output end of the charger and see what you are getting. If it is higher than the spec says it should be, you have a defective auto-changeover circuit or you have a manual version and never noticed the switch before.

And can harmonics cause you troubles? Absolutely, because if the auto-changeover detection circuit is fooled by the harmonic content of the incoming line, then it thinks the voltage is someothing other than what it is. But the incoming harmonics would have to be fairly severe. It could also be repeated voltage spikes on the incoming line and on the simpler cheaper chargers, their regulation is too slow to see them and/or react to them, so they get through as spikes on the DC side too. Not too much of an issue if they are only occasional, but if you have some very noisy (electrically) equipment on the line, that might be giving you the problems you are seeing. You won't be able to see those with simple meters though.

 

[Kaaud]

Protection devices are not consuming or transforming or converting power. All those specs mean is that the voltage or frequency going THROUGH the device is not going to affect how it functions.


.

I was talking about power supply of the relay , not its rated voltage. Do u recommend me to buy a 230AC -->110 AC converter.

something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Simran-SMF-20...DJ1Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322549016&sr=8-1

thx for ur help.

 

[petersonra]

It seems unlikely that both chargers failed in a way that damaged two different sets of Li batteries.

 

[sameguy]

Jraef, has the right idea. Lets see what the out put is first. What makes you think you have harmonics?
Are you in a "man camp" on- site?

 

[tortuga]

You probably need a TVSS.
You could test your chargers output voltages and voltage drop under load with dummy loads.

When my cell phone charger started acting like that I cut the cord and hacked a old 250W desktop computer powersupply that was laying around here to supply my 5V and 3.7 V DC needs.
The old computer power supplies are better built.
Makes a nice test bench too.

 

[Strife]

Anyone's considering this guy/girl's fishing for a lawsuit?
It sure smell like one to me.
Never heard what the OP's posting, nor it makes any sense, but it seems he/she's hellbent on the power quality.

 

[cowboyjwc]

When I worked for a printer manufacture we had 50 and 60 cycle power and 110 and 220 volt supply everything got tested both ways, but there was a switch to change from 50 to 60 cycle and one for 110 to 220 and depending on where it was getting shipped to is how it was set up.

I'm pretty sure that an american made 120v 60cyl charger is not going to work overseas. I'm not even sure how he's plugging it in, from what I know our stuff won't plug into most euorpean outlets.

 

[topgone]

SMPS - switch mode power supply

That's the common charger that are being used nowadays. A simple block diagram looks like this:


If your charger fries batteries, it's time to buy a new one.