instructables

DIY 18650 Lithium Ion Cells Charging Grid

by DIY KING 00

I have been working on motorising my bicycle using a potential.

geared DC motor and now I need a battery pack for
that. So to make a battery pack I have decided to go
with the popular 18650 lithium ion cells from two old
hoverboard batteries.
Since the cells are from used batteries so I need to
balance charge all the cells before making the battery
pack. Everytime I use these 18650 cells I need to go
through this stage when I need to balance charge all
the cells individually to get them at the same
Now to get through efficiently I decided to built a
dedicated charger for 18650 cells. Moreover, I have
decided to make it a modular charger so that I can
add up modules to form a larger grid that enables me
to charge as many cells as I want simultaneously.
Don't forget to vote us in the PCB Design Contest.

https://youtu.be/6KiRqC8Y6g8

DIY 18650 Lithium Ion Cells Charging Grid: Page 1

Step 1: Design

Since we need the charger to be modular, easy to modules.

built and low cost so I came across these TP-4056
lithium cells charging boards. These boards are For the main input of the board I have used an XT-60
specifically made to charge lithium ion cells with a connector but we have the option for charging two or
micro USB input, over charging protection and above three cells only using a cell phone charger as well.
all they are dirt cheap.
Now to keep things simple and neat I decided to
For each module I decided to go with two cell holders, design the printed circuit boards.
each one of which can hold up to four cells. So for
each module we are going to need eight TP-4056

DIY 18650 Lithium Ion Cells Charging Grid: Page 2

Step 2: Ordering the PCBs

To save time I decided to order the PCBs. So I visited
PCBWAY and after going through a couple of options
I ordered 10 boards. These boards will be enough to
built a charging grid thats capable of charging upto 80
cells simultaneously.
The link to the PCBs and the Gerber files for the
circuit boards is:
https://www.pcbway.com/project/shareproject/18650_
Cells_Charger_PCB.html

Once I uploaded the Gerber files I waited for the For discounted coupons for PCBs have a look at the
designs to get verified to make sure there is nothing link:
wrong with the boards. Well thats one of their many
useful services and this project is made possible by https://www.pcbway.com/activity/christmascoupons.a
them so make sure to have a look at their website for spx
great quality PCBs at an outstanding price.

Download
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/F4H/E06A/JPQU29R3/F4HE06AJPQU29R3.zip
…

DIY 18650 Lithium Ion Cells Charging Grid: Page 3

Step 3: Components and Tools

Within just a week the PCBs were on my workbench and the quality pretty much talks on its own so guy have a
look at their website as they made this project possible by sponsoring it. I gathered all the components. The
BOM(Bill Of Material) file is attached in this step.

For the tools we are going to need the basic soldering stuff.

Soldering Iron
Soldering wire
Pliers

TP-4056 modules:

https://www.banggood.com/custlink/GKGDDk05kP

Download
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/F2Y/YAY9/JPQTDXE9/F2YYAY9JPQTDXE9.csv
…

DIY 18650 Lithium Ion Cells Charging Grid: Page 4

Step 4: Assembling the PCBs

To assemble the PCB all we need to do is to drop all
the components as mentioned on the board. I have
started by soldering the charging boards and then
moved towards the bigger components.
Once I finished soldering all the small components I
then soldered the cell holders. Make sure to match
the polarity on cell holders to that mentioned on the
PCBs.
With all the components around it took me hardly 10
minutes to complete one module. Now before I make
more modules,I tested this one.

DIY 18650 Lithium Ion Cells Charging Grid: Page 5

Step 5: Testing the Modules

Now to test the module I plugged my cell phone
charger to one to the TP-4056 board using a micro
USB cable. This allows me to charge up-to three
cells.
For charging eight cells I have used a PC power
supply with the 5v input using an XT-60 connector.
The module flawlessly charges each cell. As the cell
is completely charged the light over that particular
charging board turns blue from red and we can turn of
the switch for that particular cell to save power.

DIY 18650 Lithium Ion Cells Charging Grid: Page 6

Step 6: Making the Charging Grid

Now to form the whole charging grid I have made
some more modules as I have to charge a lot of cells.
After making a couple of modules I then assembled
the modules using some nut and bolts as I don't have
the required standoffs. now to power the whole grid I
have used the same power supply as in the previous
step. As each module is connected in parallel across
the standoffs so providing the input through any of the
modules will provide the power across the whole grid.

DIY 18650 Lithium Ion Cells Charging Grid: Page 7

Step 7: End Results

The whole project turned out to be a really useful one For more fun projects stay tuned and subscribe to my
as now I have a customised charger that can charge youtube channel.
as many cells that I want. The whole charging grid
costs me a fraction of the price of a professional https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC4584D31N9R
chargers available in the market and they don't have uQ-aEUxP86g
the capacity to charge as may of them.
Regards.
The PCBs Made everything neat and the pre Made
charging boards saved a lot of hassle and I am really DIY King
happy with the end results.

Thanks for sharing this design. I've never seen the TP4065 module idea before. I wound up
purchasing a small range of the multi cell higher current fault protected charge controllers to test
out. This is inspiring to consider even using those range of modules. Thanks again!
Ya, its great na.... when I got through how useful and cheap these modules are I just realized that I
must consider making something useful with them.
it is not overkill. what u are suggesting costs about $8 whereas these small modules cost less than
$0.25 each. he would have to build the rest of the contraption anyway.
These modules cost $0.70 (not $0.25) each, and you need one for each battery. And add the PCB
(which is big and therefore expensive, $6.20 each) and the other components to that and you have
$20 per board (see ebaugh's question above for a rough calculation). Total $40 for 16 cells, plus

DIY 18650 Lithium Ion Cells Charging Grid: Page 8

 the added inconvenience of moving the cells back and forth (time is also money, you know).
Whereas the BMS would be just $2-$10 for the entire pack.
Bloody genius :)

Thanks for a punch of inspiration bro.

Sigh am I wrong? I started reading this and my head started swimming, but I've built my own
refrigerator using a window unit on a van roof (38F)therm, compressor bypass, variable volt
capacitor charger, repaired propane heater solenoid etc. Is this that much different? I feel like I
should just buy the finished version.
Yes You should. But why haven't you thought the same while building the whole lot of thing that
you have mentioned.
I mean which part on earth you won't find a pre built refrigerator but a custom built lithium ion cell
charger.
:P
I am looking to use a similar setup to charge 6x 18650 batteries by solar. What would I need to
modify to do that?
If your solar panel is rated for 5v output which is possible if you use a buck converter. Then yes
this design can work for you but other than that you need to redesign everything.
Wow! That is impressive! I didn't know about the little charger boards. Those are so cool AND
inexpensive too. I did want to make one comment about your schematic. It shows a momentary
contact switch at the input to each of the charger boards. I think those switches must not be
momentary or you'd have hold every one of them on while the battery charges. But that's a minor
thing because we know what you meant.
You are totally right, while designing the schematic I mistakenly used this package which is usually
available for momentary switches.
But later, somehow I managed to find the required switches. So these are not momentary switches

This is a great little design and well done to you, this has got me thinking about my old ideas. You
have given me insipration to start designing with some of my ideas. Brilliant.
Yes the project turned out to be perfect for what I wanted. Thanks for the kind words.

Yes that guy did the right calculations.

Fabulous... well done .. I loved your integration of the standard (smart) components with
conventional thinking.
Yes Indeed. The design turned out to be great.

Hey !
awesome Project dude
i have one question why did you add push buttons under the batteries ?
These button are added to turn off the charger for individual cell by cutting of the supply to that
particular tp-4056 module.
Note:
These are not momentary switches

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