Building a 4 x AA Battery Pack Charger for Nickel-Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) Cells

RE: Building a 4 x AA Battery Pack Charger for Nickel-Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) Cells

shabaz — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 18:20:31 GMT

I got the PCB today, it fits the enclosure nicely:

The aperture on the end panel for the DC socket needs shifting by a millimeter, and the 'tongue' on the little PCB benefits from extending by a millimeter too, so I'll make the changes to the Gerber files, but the current boards are usable (will just need a bit of epoxy glue to hold the DC socket in the right position).

I'm really happy it fits, it will allow me to use this for charging 4xAA (or 4xAAA) for all sorts of projects.

RE: Building a 4 x AA Battery Pack Charger for Nickel-Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) Cells

DAB — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 19:34:19 GMT

Good post.

RE: Building a 4 x AA Battery Pack Charger for Nickel-Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) Cells

genebren — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 15:04:48 GMT

Great project! I have a couple of Ni-MH chargers that I used for all of my AA and AAA batteries. I have thought about building a charger into a few of my projects (like a hacked Furby) and I might need to try this design out. Thanks for sharing!

RE: Building a 4 x AA Battery Pack Charger for Nickel-Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) Cells

shabaz — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 03:01:03 GMT

Decided to slightly update it (the files are in the GitHub repo). Now it should be easier to assemble (no holes need to be drilled in the enclosure any more), The case is searchable on the AliExpress site with the dimensions 90x70x28 mm. It appears to pass the PCB manufacturer design checks, so I'm hoping it's fine. Ideally it should be a 1.2 mm thick PCB, not 1.6 mm, in order for the end panels to fit well. Otherwise, a tiny bit of filing or sanding will be needed to wedge the end panels in. The J-L-C PCB manufacturer does not charge extra when specifying 1.2 mm. Cost is $7.30 for five boards, or $10.50 for ten.