Author Topic: EEVblog #397 - Turnigy Accucel 6 Charger Teardown  (Read 74797 times)

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Offline Things

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Re: EEVblog #397 - Turnigy Accucel 6 Charger Teardown
« Reply #75 on: January 05, 2013, 04:19:52 pm »
Interested to see how you go with the UART. I was tempted to try this with my ECO6-10 too, but don't have any USB-TTL adapters on hand. I believe I read somewhere that the parts needed in the charger for it are unpopulated? Not sure how true that is ...
 

Offline ryansoh3

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Re: EEVblog #397 - Turnigy Accucel 6 Charger Teardown
« Reply #76 on: January 05, 2013, 04:26:26 pm »
Some earlier versions of the Accucel-6 were missing a connection from the board to the Temp sensor/USB out and had to be manually connected via a wire. However, the newer versions already seem to have UART output when the output mode is selected to USB, not the temp. probe.

Check if your charger has a menu that allows you to change between the two outputs, and then we should take it from there. :D

Cheers!
 

Offline Things

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Re: EEVblog #397 - Turnigy Accucel 6 Charger Teardown
« Reply #77 on: January 05, 2013, 04:34:23 pm »
Mine actually has a physical mini B USB port on it, even with USB written above it, but I believe I read in the manual somewhere that it's actually a RS232 output. Kind of odd using a USB connector in such a case.
 

Offline ryansoh3

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Re: EEVblog #397 - Turnigy Accucel 6 Charger Teardown
« Reply #78 on: January 05, 2013, 04:38:13 pm »
Ah, I see, I just looked at some reviews of that charger and it stated that the USB output doesn't work....    :-\

Perhaps you can probe it to see if it's outputing anything at all?
 

Online PA0PBZ

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Re: EEVblog #397 - Turnigy Accucel 6 Charger Teardown
« Reply #79 on: January 05, 2013, 04:38:20 pm »
That was going to be my next question, if you in fact set the thing to USB. But since you show a scope picture of the output at least something comes out of the charger, so I guess the setting is ok and you have no missing parts... Oh man, I'm a bit out of options now, everything looks ok, it just doesn't work.  :-\ You did set the baudrate at 9600 I guess? and no parity, 8 bits and one stop bit?
Could you post the output of the charger on the scope again, but then a bit more stretched out? I want to decode it by hand and see what it sends...
Keyboard error: Press F1 to continue.
 

Online PA0PBZ

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Re: EEVblog #397 - Turnigy Accucel 6 Charger Teardown
« Reply #80 on: January 05, 2013, 04:39:59 pm »
Mine actually has a physical mini B USB port on it, even with USB written above it, but I believe I read in the manual somewhere that it's actually a RS232 output. Kind of odd using a USB connector in such a case.
I read somewhere that there are in fact chargers with a built-in RS232-USB converter.
Hook it up if you dare!  ::)
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Offline ryansoh3

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Re: EEVblog #397 - Turnigy Accucel 6 Charger Teardown
« Reply #81 on: January 05, 2013, 04:40:36 pm »
Yup, everything "should" be working...

I'll take some shots right away. Thanks for your offer! :D
 

Offline Things

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Re: EEVblog #397 - Turnigy Accucel 6 Charger Teardown
« Reply #82 on: January 05, 2013, 04:50:14 pm »
I read somewhere that there are in fact chargers with a built-in RS232-USB converter.
Hook it up if you dare!  ::)

Have tried plugging it in, but no response from the PC :(
 

Offline ryansoh3

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Re: EEVblog #397 - Turnigy Accucel 6 Charger Teardown
« Reply #83 on: January 05, 2013, 04:55:28 pm »
Here are some screenshots of the output from the charger:



Zoomed in:



Cheers!
 

Online PA0PBZ

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Re: EEVblog #397 - Turnigy Accucel 6 Charger Teardown
« Reply #84 on: January 05, 2013, 07:26:47 pm »
The resolution is not good enough to really decode what is being sent, and after a bit of googling I think that it is not human readable anyway.
Did you ever try logview? http://www.logview.info/vBulletin/
For the rest I'm out of ideas, I'd love to get it on my bench and find the obvious thing that we are overlooking, but for now...  :-//
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Offline ryansoh3

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Re: EEVblog #397 - Turnigy Accucel 6 Charger Teardown
« Reply #85 on: January 06, 2013, 04:40:42 am »
Gotcha, thanks for your time.

I'm going to order another USB to UART/RS232 adapter that has a different chip and lets see how that goes...
 

Offline Mad Professor

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Re: EEVblog #397 - Turnigy Accucel 6 Charger Teardown
« Reply #86 on: March 11, 2013, 11:07:51 am »
I got my self a Turnigy Accucel 6 charger just over a month ago.
 
Over the weekend I was looking at seeing if I could connect it upto my computer so I could plot some battery cell discharge curves.
 
But I can not find anywhere in the settings to change from temp probe to usb interface.

I have seen posts else where saying that the usb interface is no longer selectable, and that some versions of the board already have data to usb ic on the back of the board, but it not populated.
 
I have taken my Turnigy Accucel 6 charger apart and the pcb seems to be yet again another version.





I am not sure what is going on with the 6pin header at the bottom of the board, but it's tied in with the push buttons.

TP1,2 & 3, Looks interesting, this might be the RX, TX, GND for the microcontroller, I will have to get my PicoScope out and have a look when I have some free time.

Best Regards.
« Last Edit: March 12, 2013, 10:36:05 am by Mad Professor »
 

Offline AmmoJammo

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Re: EEVblog #397 - Turnigy Accucel 6 Charger Teardown
« Reply #87 on: October 27, 2013, 02:40:26 am »
Same same, but different?

This is a PoliMax branded charger, its similar, but different... Very similar to the one Dave took apart though ;)
The two holes next to the DC jack are for hard wired charge cables with alligator clips ;)



 

Offline RossK

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Re: EEVblog #397 - Turnigy Accucel 6 Charger Teardown
« Reply #88 on: September 27, 2015, 07:02:45 pm »
I've started the process of designing my own S2 balancing LiPo charger (yes for "fun" ... that and the cheap one that came with my hex copter is trying to murder batteries) so I've been going through the schematic with a fine toothed comb and have some additional insights to share. I'll start with the most obvious bits worthy of additional mention and go into the less than obvious bits.



Circuits like this one abound in this design. They serve 2 obvious purposes.
1) Allow the MC to force the system 'off' / give the MC the ability to act as a safety officer - however, this role (of safety) is best handled in analog when dealing with so much energy
2) Ensure the circuit is in a known, and safe, sate on power up, before the MC code has a chance to take control of its ports.



It took me a couple of minutes to understand this one - I've never built an RC filter so integrated with op amps - but that's what this is. It uses the time constants of the many distributed caps and resistors to create an RC filter system which converts the PWM signal into a, mostly, analog current target.

In simulation I observed some significant overshoot - in actual application I would ramp the PWM up to avoid damaging overshoots. Overshoot can also be reduced by increasing R24.

In the simulation the observed current drops to 0 with every cycle but this may or may not be something which happens in the real world. This can be reduced to oscillation by increasing PWM frequency (I used a 10kHz signal).

Frankly I wouldn't use this circuit - I'd use a much more strait forward PWM into a 2 stage RC filter which sets the target current (target sense resistor voltage drop).



This circuit has only one job and it's not at all obvious at first - Dave even missed it in the video. This circuit is here to protect against reverse battery hookup - nothing else. As far as I can tell it has no part in the constant current or constant voltage processes. It doesn't even cut the circuit if the battery leads were to be shorted to each other - there must be a negative potential for it to turn the FET off. How negative depends on the potential of the buck/boost cap - the more voltage in that cap the more negative this needs to be ... e.g. about -5v when the buck boost cap is at 15v. This isn't as un-safe as it may sound because once the cap is discharged enough the FET will be turned off (assuming that the buck boost isn't running).

Another point Dave missed on this one in the video is the feedback loop. It doesn't take the long way around - it's just being used as a compariator. There is no valid way for this circuit to ever get 14% of BAT- to be equal to 19% BAT+ (and we really don't want that anyway!).


I hope others find this helpful - if I have any other revelations I'll share them as well, and if I actually build a charger I'll share it in its own thread ;)
 

Offline sk2593

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Re: EEVblog #397 - Turnigy Accucel 6 Charger Teardown
« Reply #89 on: January 22, 2016, 03:20:00 am »
Good Job RossK.

Has anybody else noticed this? I am looking at the circuit design and none of the chips/ICs are specific for Lithium Ion or NiMH or any other battery chemistry. They seem to be general purpose OpAmps, and DC to DC convertor circuits.  It looks like the MCU is the primary driver of the charging algorithm.
Would it be in theory possible to design a battery charger that can work with any chemistry(essentially future proof) The software in the MCU can be reflashed/upgraded via a smart phone app or something. In theory is it possible?
I know there are some out there who have hacked the  Micro Processor and upgraded firmware.
See the link below:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/cheali-charger/WkkV64jA56Q
 

Offline Monkeh

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Re: EEVblog #397 - Turnigy Accucel 6 Charger Teardown
« Reply #90 on: January 22, 2016, 04:13:54 am »
Good Job RossK.

Has anybody else noticed this? I am looking at the circuit design and none of the chips/ICs are specific for Lithium Ion or NiMH or any other battery chemistry. They seem to be general purpose OpAmps, and DC to DC convertor circuits.  It looks like the MCU is the primary driver of the charging algorithm.
Would it be in theory possible to design a battery charger that can work with any chemistry(essentially future proof) The software in the MCU can be reflashed/upgraded via a smart phone app or something. In theory is it possible?
I know there are some out there who have hacked the  Micro Processor and upgraded firmware.
See the link below:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/cheali-charger/WkkV64jA56Q

Not cool.
 

Offline sk2593

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Re: EEVblog #397 - Turnigy Accucel 6 Charger Teardown
« Reply #91 on: January 22, 2016, 04:53:15 pm »

Not following?
 

Offline Monkeh

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Re: EEVblog #397 - Turnigy Accucel 6 Charger Teardown
« Reply #92 on: January 22, 2016, 05:46:49 pm »
 

Offline sk2593

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Re: EEVblog #397 - Turnigy Accucel 6 Charger Teardown
« Reply #93 on: January 22, 2016, 06:32:29 pm »
Can you please explain on the merits of the question? I am not an expert and I don't claim to be. Like everyone else I am trying to learn here. My first account had personal info hence the new account.
 

Offline samsmock

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Re: EEVblog #397 - Turnigy Accucel 6 Charger Teardown
« Reply #94 on: January 26, 2016, 06:46:53 pm »
Sorry to up a semi dead thread.

Not sure why, but my stinking charger smoked.

I attached a pic of it and the part that apparently went.  I've looked at the schematics, but I can't seem to find the part that matches.  It appears to be one of the mosfets that's placed everywhere on the board.

Can anyone help me figure out what part it is?  Or if the other parts that are listed elsewhere are compatible?

The Markings are:

DT4110
DD52M





 

Online mikerj

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Re: EEVblog #397 - Turnigy Accucel 6 Charger Teardown
« Reply #95 on: January 29, 2016, 10:50:24 am »
It will either be VT13 or VT15 from the original schematic, the switching MOSFETs that form the buck/boost converter.  It's not easy to see which one it is from the pic, but should be easy for you to work out.  If one side of the MOSFET is connected to ground it's VT15, an N channel device and equivalent to an IRF7413.  If one side of the MOFSET connects to the 12v power input, it's a P channel device, and equivalent to IRF7424.
 

Offline AndreyS

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Re: EEVblog #397 - Turnigy Accucel 6 Charger Teardown
« Reply #96 on: June 25, 2017, 08:29:30 pm »
How about showings guts of Turnigy Accucel-6 80W?
They released new version with usb port. I assume MCU is not atmega, hence it should be similar to imax b6 v2. Or it isn't?
Can anybody show its guts?
« Last Edit: June 25, 2017, 08:40:48 pm by AndreyS »
 

Offline AndreyS

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Re: EEVblog #397 - Turnigy Accucel 6 Charger Teardown
« Reply #97 on: June 25, 2017, 08:37:17 pm »
I searched a lot for differences. Thats what I found:
imax b6 mini. All photos are here in comment section:

imax b6ac. Some photos are here in comment section and some are here
But all what I could find about Accucel 6 80W is this:
 


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