For a really good battery charger you’d probably pay c.£50. There’s a lot of chargers available on ebay and it might be tempting to risk buying one, but what would you be getting? I bought a 42v charger off of ebay for £6.99 to see what was “in the box” (photos attached).
What I got is a switched-mode supply based around high voltage rectification and a 4N65F mosfet inverter stage. It does give 42.3v at the output and it claims to control the charge-rate conducive for a lipo battery but I don’t think I willing to trust it in order to find out! My thought is that switched-mode is ok when it’s working, but can get well out of hand if something goes wrong - which they often do.
I feel at lot more comfortable with linear power supplies, and using this would be a risk too far. In the bin it goes!
What I got is a switched-mode supply based around high voltage rectification and a 4N65F mosfet inverter stage. It does give 42.3v at the output and it claims to control the charge-rate conducive for a lipo battery but I don’t think I willing to trust it in order to find out! My thought is that switched-mode is ok when it’s working, but can get well out of hand if something goes wrong - which they often do.
I feel at lot more comfortable with linear power supplies, and using this would be a risk too far. In the bin it goes!
