Charger Golisi Needle 1





This is one of Golisis simple chargers, it can only charger LiIon batteries and it can basically handle any size, this also means it is on the slow side for large batteries.



I got it in a cardboard box with specifications on the outside.



It contained the charger, a usb cable and the instruction sheet.



The charger is usb powered and fairly low power.



There is not much user interface, behind the bar is a singled red and green led, it is red while charging and green at other times.



The specifications are on the back of the charger and easy readable.



The charger can handle both button top and flat top batteries.
The slider moves smoothly and can hand cells from 34mm to 71.4mm long.







The charger can handle 71 mm long batteries, including flat top cells.
The 0.5A charge current is a bit high for a normal 10440 cell, but fine if it is a high current cell.



Measurements charger

• Power consumption when idle without a battery is 4mA from usb
• From 0V to 2.8V the charger will charge with 60mA
• Above 2.8V it will use regular charge current (0.5A).
• When charge is finished the charger will discharge with less than 0.1mA.
• Charger will restart if voltage drops to 4 volt.
• Charge will restart charging after power loss, but not battery insertion when battery is above 4V.
• When not connected to power it will drain less than 0.1mA from a battery.

This is a nice CC/CV charge curve with a fairly low termination current of 65mA






With this low current and termination there is no problem with any of the cell, both old cells and high current cells are charged fine, but it requires some patience.



This very old and worn down cell is also charged nicely.



A 14500 is best with low termination current (Less voltage drop at the end).



Adding a 0.5ohm resistor to simulate a weak usb charger or long cable do not affect the charging much.



M1: 33.8°C, HS1: 45.6°C



HS1: 42.9°C



The charger is a simple charger and starts very fast.



The charger discharges a battery with a very low current when not powered.



The charge profile is simple and works fine.



This charger handles unstable voltage supply nicely.




Conclusion

There is not much to say about this charger, it is simple and works nicely for most LiIon batteries, for larger batteries some patience is required.

It is a good charger.



Notes

The charger was supplied by Golisi for a review.

Here is an explanation on how I did the above charge curves: How do I test a charger