If you need assistance, please send an email to forum at 4hv dot org. To ensure your email is not marked as spam, please include the phrase "4hv help" in the subject line. You can also find assistance via IRC, at irc.shadowworld.net, room #hvcomm.
Support 4hv.org!
Donate:
4hv.org is hosted on a dedicated server. Unfortunately, this server costs and we rely on the help of site members to keep 4hv.org running. Please consider donating. We will place your name on the thanks list and you'll be helping to keep 4hv.org alive and free for everyone. Members whose names appear in red bold have donated recently. Green bold denotes those who have recently donated to keep the server carbon neutral.
Special Thanks To:
Aaron Holmes
Aaron Wheeler
Adam Horden
Alan Scrimgeour
Andre
Andrew Haynes
Anonymous000
asabase
Austin Weil
barney
Barry
Bert Hickman
Bill Kukowski
Blitzorn
Brandon Paradelas
Bruce Bowling
BubeeMike
Byong Park
Cesiumsponge
Chris F.
Chris Hooper
Corey Worthington
Derek Woodroffe
Dalus
Dan Strother
Daniel Davis
Daniel Uhrenholt
datasheetarchive
Dave Billington
Dave Marshall
David F.
Dennis Rogers
drelectrix
Dr. John Gudenas
Dr. Spark
E.TexasTesla
eastvoltresearch
Eirik Taylor
Erik Dyakov
Erlend^SE
Finn Hammer
Firebug24k
GalliumMan
Gary Peterson
George Slade
GhostNull
Gordon Mcknight
Graham Armitage
Grant
GreySoul
Henry H
IamSmooth
In memory of Leo Powning
Jacob Cash
James Howells
James Pawson
Jeff Greenfield
Jeff Thomas
Jesse Frost
Jim Mitchell
jlr134
Joe Mastroianni
John Forcina
John Oberg
John Willcutt
Jon Newcomb
klugesmith
Leslie Wright
Lutz Hoffman
Mads Barnkob
Martin King
Mats Karlsson
Matt Gibson
Matthew Guidry
mbd
Michael D'Angelo
Mikkel
mileswaldron
mister_rf
Neil Foster
Nick de Smith
Nick Soroka
nicklenorp
Nik
Norman Stanley
Patrick Coleman
Paul Brodie
Paul Jordan
Paul Montgomery
Ped
Peter Krogen
Peter Terren
PhilGood
Richard Feldman
Robert Bush
Royce Bailey
Scott Fusare
Scott Newman
smiffy
Stella
Steven Busic
Steve Conner
Steve Jones
Steve Ward
Sulaiman
Thomas Coyle
Thomas A. Wallace
Thomas W
Timo
Torch
Ulf Jonsson
vasil
Vaxian
vladi mazzilli
wastehl
Weston
William Kim
William N.
William Stehl
Wesley Venis
The aforementioned have contributed financially to the continuing triumph of 4hv.org. They are deserving of my most heartfelt thanks.
Registered Member #3414
Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245
Basically, does anyone know for definite whether the current regulator for the DSi is in the charger or in the DSi itself, or how can I establish this for myself?
These differ from most DS's in that they are 4.6V, not 6V.
If the regulation is done in the DS itself, building an 'in car' charger presumably just consists of using an LM317T voltage regulator to regulate the voltage to 4.6V, but if the regulation is done in the charger a more complicated circuit is presumably required.
(This is for a young friend of mine who would love to be able to re-charge his DSi 'on the move'.)
Registered Member #509
Joined: Sat Feb 10 2007, 07:02AM
Location:
Posts: 329
If its indeed 4.6V, either there is internal regulation for charging, as 4.6V applied to a li-ion battery would not be so nice. Or its 4.2V for the cell and .4V for a series diode to keep the charge connector from always being live.
Given that from an internal regulator aspect, there isnt much difference from 4.6V to 5.0v, I suspect its the latter.
I've taken a DSi charger and used it for the normal DS. It worked fine. I assume that it should be in the charger brick itself, as the DSi had a higher current rating than the DS. (I accidentally, however, connected it to 220V and it worked funkily from then on... hehe...)
IDK if this defines the current limiting capabilities of it or not, but you can most certainly use other chargers (it also differed from 4.6V to 5V) for it. I'm sure that if you figure out the configuration of one, you can build one of your own. Then again, it wouldn't really be effective to charge it from a battery, as you'd only get one full charge from each battery, and are better off buying another Li-ion battery pack for it, and swapping between them between charges.
Registered Member #3414
Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245
HighVoltageChick wrote ...
I've taken a DSi charger and used it for the normal DS. It worked fine. I assume that it should be in the charger brick itself, as the DSi had a higher current rating than the DS. (I accidentally, however, connected it to 220V and it worked funkily from then on... hehe...)
IDK if this defines the current limiting capabilities of it or not, but you can most certainly use other chargers (it also differed from 4.6V to 5V) for it. I'm sure that if you figure out the configuration of one, you can build one of your own. Then again, it wouldn't really be effective to charge it from a battery, as you'd only get one full charge from each battery, and are better off buying another Li-ion battery pack for it, and swapping between them between charges.
The 'normal' DS has a 6V charger and, I suspect, has the regulator in the DS itself, rather than in the charger, so what you did won't cause it to burst into flames. Charging a DSi using a 'normal' DS charger will probably result in disaster, assuming EVR and Conkbot are correct, as I strongly suspect they are.
I'm planning to charge it from the cigar lighter socket, not another battery. I'll get another DSi battery for £2.99 next time I'm in Maplins but you need to use a screwdriver to change them over.
Registered Member #509
Joined: Sat Feb 10 2007, 07:02AM
Location:
Posts: 329
Various 3V CR123 rechargeable Li-Ion cells use a 4.2v cell with 2 diodes in anti-parallel to drop the battery voltage during discharge(to make it compatible with devices that cant handle the extra 1.2V per cell) , and still let current in during charging. But they have to be charged to a higher voltage. I'd think that these are an example of that, as if it were a 3.3v LiFePO4 cell, it would have been mentioned.
Can you monitor the voltage output by the charger while its charging? If you see it vary from~3V to 4.6V as the charge progresses, if you can measure a lower voltage on the battery pins on the DSi, which drops a lot if you load it with a pulldown resistor (I.e. youre seeing diode leakage) It would most likely be a diode isolated battery, in which case a dual linear regulator CC/CV circuit would take care of business for you.
The first regulator limits your current, a 317 might not be so appropriate for this as the 1.25Vref is a tad high (you'll have to have 1.25V over your current sense resistor). The second would regulate your voltage, giving you a proper CC/CV charge. It wont terminate properly once the current drops (op-amp/comparitor/reference in a single package to latch off the current when it drops low enough perhaps, and start button to start the charging sequence could fix this) And it wont refuse to not charge an overdischarged battery, but the DSi shouldnt overdischarge the cell as long as youre not running it dead, then letting it sit for a while.
Proper lithium ion charging is a lot easier than proper nickel based battery charging, or even proper lead acid charging, but the consequences of abuse (overcharging, overdischarging and then recharging) are more severe.
Registered Member #2431
Joined: Tue Oct 13 2009, 09:47PM
Location: Chico, CA. USA
Posts: 5639
Ash Small wrote ...
ConKbot of Doom wrote ...
in which case a dual linear regulator CC/CV circuit would take care of business for you.
If I then put a 4.6V zener in parallel with the load (the DSi), voltage is limited to 4.6V, yes? I know it won't be efficient, and I'll need a pretty big zener, but it will limit the current to 1A and the voltage to 4.2V, won't it?
(Maybe an LM317 in place of the zener would be better?)
Or have I missed something?
the zener regulator an sLM317 both have the voltage excess being droped and multipied by pass through current. so i think your inthe same boat as before 1 amp at 14-5= 9v x 1A means a lot of heat.
This site is powered by e107, which is released under the GNU GPL License. All work on this site, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License. By submitting any information to this site, you agree that anything submitted will be so licensed. Please read our Disclaimer and Policies page for information on your rights and responsibilities regarding this site.
Nintendo DSi charger question
