Solo charging using 19v laptop charger

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Hi. I'm new to the solo. Bought a used one at a great price recently and love it. My issue is that I have 3 batteries and sometimes need to charge it in remote locations where there is no AC outlet. I have a battery pack with 19v output for laptop charging. M10 - Portable Power Station|Power Banks|Chargers|Cables

Has anyone tried using a 19v laptop charger to charge the battery? I understand that the battery pack itself contains the bms and that the charger brick is used as a power source only. Do you know if the bms circuit has power regulation to allow for the use of 19 v input? I assume that it does since most lipo balance chargers allow for various input voltages???

My other option is to use a step down regulator to convert 19v to 16.8 using this [US$7.99 26% OFF] Geekcreit® 8A DC5-30V to DC1.25-30V 150KHz Automatic Step Up Step Down Adjustable Power Module Voltage Regulation With Short Circuit / Overtemperature Protection Module Board from Electronics on banggood.com

But I want to keep things as simple as possible so if 19v works, it would be ideal.

I also have a portable AC power pack
Amazon.com : NEXPOW Portable Power Station, 178Wh Solar Generator Lithium Polymer Battery Emergency Backup Portable Power Source with 110V/120W(Peak 150W) AC Inverter Outlet, USB-C PD 3.0, for Outdoors Camping : Garden & Outdoor
which I can use with the stock AC adapter
but the capacity is somewhat limited at only 178Wh.

Any ideas?
 
The answer to all three is absolutely no. You can't just slam whatever voltage in. You need a charger, not power supply.
 
The answer to all three is absolutely no. You can't just slam whatever voltage in. You need a charger, not power supply.
Thanks for the feedback. I'm not sure if you carefully read my post. #2 is using the same voltage and current as the stock power supply. #3 uses the factory power supply. Why would either one of these not work? The solo factory power supply is just a power supply. It does not function as a charge controller.
 
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To be more specific. I need to lighten the load. The stock brick is way too heavy and bulky. I guess I can just buy 12 batteries to last the trip but that would also be rather bulky. Since I will have my 19v battery pack and a 80w solar panel anyways, I figured I can just charge the solo batteries from the 19v pack and leave the brick at home.

I would try it out to see if it works but would rather not risk destroying the battery so wanted to see if someone already tried it. Thanks.
 
Read and understood. It's not just a matter of slamming 16.8 volts into the battery. The stock brick is NOT a 16.8v power supply. It is a 16.8 volt CC/CV charger. Voltage is regulated up and down to provide a constant current (CC) of 3.3 amps until it reaches 16.8 volts. Then a constant voltage (CV) of 16.8 volts is held until the current fades off to 0 when fully charged. If you just try to slam 19 or 16.8 volts from a power supply into the battery, it's built in overcharging protection will cut it off immediately and accomplish nothing.

Using an insufficient supply for the stock brick will also not work. The stock brick doesn't know you are using a power pack that is too small. It will still try to draw 216 watts from your 178 watt inverter, overload it, and trip it off.
 
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Can I ask where you got the figure 216W from? The 178 value is Wh not W. The brick draws only 56W (16.8v *3.34a). Since this is a class 2 power supply, even after assuming 70% efficiency, the total draw should be under 70W. The battery power supply is rated for 120W continuous with 150W peak. Also I measured the output from the brick. It does not regulate up or down. I measure 16.7V @ no load to 16.5V during charge (due to load). Based on my research on this forum, the charge control appears to be built in to the battery pack. I already tried charging from the battery pack using the stock brick. It seems to work fine but the Wh capacity is limited so I cannot charge all 3 batteries and all the other stuff I need to charge. Plus I would rather not carry the bulky brick with me.
 
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216W is based only on the sticker on the outside of the brick, which for input says 1.8 amps max at 120v. The input side is what matters for your power pack. But I just metered the input side and it is indeed only about 57 watts. So you could probably actually run two chargers off of that thing if it doesn't overheat.

The charge control is not built into the pack. There is only protection for over current and over voltage, in which case it just cuts off. The stock charger is a CC/CV charger. And you need to use a CC/CV charger to charge the battery. Simply ramming 16.anything into the battery will trip off on over current protection. I don't know what you're metering, but it is not the right place at the right time. An empty pack charging at 5 amps will require voltage as low as 15.4 volts. Here's a picture of one of my Solo batteries on a conventional LiPo charger showing the voltage and current. Current increases as you increase voltage. Slamming 16.8 volts in at this stage would last about 2 seconds before it shut off because the current would be way too high.

charger.jpg
 
My charge voltage readings are from the brick output during charge for load measurements and disconnected for no load measurements. Looks like 16.7 V at no load and 16.5V with load.
 
A fully discharged battery does not and cannot accept 16.5 volts. This is just not how battery charging works, and that is not what that charger does. You're doing something incorrectly, or the battery is not fully discharged to begin with.

It's a CC/CV charger. You need to use a CC/CV charger. A simple power supply will not work. That is fact, that is how it's designed. Take it or leave it.
 
Thanks for the feedback.

It looks like option 2 will work. I should have searched more thoroughly in the forums. This guy is doing almost exactly what I am planning.
 
Thanks for the feedback.

It looks like option 2 will work. I should have searched more thoroughly in the forums. This guy is doing almost exactly what I am planning.

Not it won't, and no he's not. That device with the heat sinks on it is a DC input CC/CV charger, not a simple power supply. I have one sitting around the house somewhere that I made back then using the same hardware. This was a popular DIY project back in the early days of the solo to charge the batteries faster than the stock brick, which is limited to 3.3 amps. These search results will show you I am not simply making this up. I'm sorry, but you are mistaken about how to charge your batteries.
 
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Hi,
I think @chukim can do with a stepdown to 18.6V but the laptop charger must supply at least 4A at 16.8 V (67.2 W + lost from stepper conversion).
The BMS parameters for charging are : ChargingVoltage=16800 mV and ChargingCurrent=4000mA. That's all the BMS needs, the BMS manages the rest of the job.

I 'll give a try and let you know


Sorry, it was a wrong idea from me, @Pedals2Paddles knows what he says and the laptop charger is not a CC/CV for charging Solo battery even you stepdown to 16.8 V and 4A since there is nothing to regulate the current.
 
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I'm sorry but that is wrong. As has been demonstrated by a multitude of people on this forum and on the Facebook groups... And as supported by the BMS manufacturer (Texas Instruments) in their documentation... And as per the electrical engineer that designed the damn battery in the first place, NO. If you connect a 16.8 volt power supply to a discharged solo battery, it will immediately shoot up to about 10 amps and then trip off with overcurrent protection. The BMS is not a charge controller. The BMS is a protection device and manager.

You need to use a CC/CV charger to charge the battery. Anyone here or elsewhere that has told you otherwise is wrong.

And just to make sure that I'm not totally remembering something wrong, I am sitting here with a power supply set for 16.8 volts in front of me, connected to the battery. And as demonstrated years ago, it does exactly as described above.

Please for the love of god stop posting this false information and confusing people.
 
I'm sorry but that is wrong. As has been demonstrated by a multitude of people on this forum and on the Facebook groups... And as supported by the BMS manufacturer (Texas Instruments) in their documentation... And as per the electrical engineer that designed the damn battery in the first place, NO. If you connect a 16.8 volt power supply to a discharged solo battery, it will immediately shoot up to about 10 amps and then trip off with overcurrent protection. The BMS is not a charge controller. The BMS is a protection device and manager.

You need to use a CC/CV charger to charge the battery. Anyone here or elsewhere that has told you otherwise is wrong.

And just to make sure that I'm not totally remembering something wrong, I am sitting here with a power supply set for 16.8 volts in front of me, connected to the battery. And as demonstrated years ago, it does exactly as described above.

Please for the love of god stop posting this false information and confusing people.

As you strongly affirm this information and I'm confidence in your experience so I apologize for my previous post.

I was based in my reverse experience of charging my laptop with 4s LiPo and stepup and stepdown converters so why I though badly that the Solo battery just requires a power supply.

Again sorry and please disregard my previous post.
 
As you strongly affirm this information and I'm confidence in your experience so I apologize for my previous post.

I was based in my reverse experience of charging my laptop with 4s LiPo and stepup and stepdown converters so why I though badly that the Solo battery just requires a power supply.

Again sorry and please disregard my previous post.
It would be better if you added an edit to the top of your previous post noting that it is bad information and is in error.......
 

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