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Inside the ALDI/Ferrex 20/40V battery charger (Patreon)

Published:
2022-12-29 05:21:29
Imported:
2023-02

Content

Most of the work in this charger is done by a dedicated chip that may be a standard microcontroller with custom numbering.

There are some possible identification clues.  Pins 1 and 3 are 0V and pin 2 is 5V.  The first ten pins of the 20 pin chip may be largely comparator pins, since that side seems to deal with current and voltage monitoring and control, with the power supply's opto feedback possibly coming directly from a comparator.

This was super-frustrating to reverse engineer due to the thick and hard layer of conformal coating on the surface mount components.  Very intermittent connections, even with very sharp probes.  Extra exciting when probing for voltages with the board live.  The lack of data on the chip deterred me from trying to draw a schematic, as it would involve lots of vague resistor and capacitor networks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I86r0APvuxc

Files

maxresdefault.jpg

An internal exploration of the charger used for the dual voltage Activ Energy 20/40V power tool batteries. The circuitry breaks down into two distinct sections. A fairly conventional power supply and a charge control system. The main oddity about the power supply section is that it has extra voltage regulation for its controller due to the variable output voltage range that is adjusted to maintain a constant charge current. The low voltage control circuitry is based on a chip marked Lideal 1508 B9417001V89. It has the facility for bidirectional communication with the battery pack, which has two sections with a common master control chip. It can also monitor the pack temperature during charging. When the pack is charging the controller can adjust the power supply voltage to maintain a constant current via a sense resistor. Each section of the battery has its own MOSFET so it can be charged independently if needed, especially for basic balancing, although the batteries themselves don't seem to have individual cell balancing. The tools that use the dual voltage batteries simply connect the two battery modules in series or parallel as needed. They are enabled by the detection of the battery thermistors, which are also used by the battery itself to signal that charge is low and stop the tool operating. Mid-play video-adverts are annoying in technical videos, so I don't enable them. If you appreciate that and enjoy my content then you can help support the channel with a contribution of a dollar or two a month on Patreon. That also lets you critique the (advert free) videos before they are released, gives a more direct means of communication with me and also gives access to the regular relaxed Patreon live streams. https://www.patreon.com/bigclive #ElectronicsCreators

Comments

Mike Hughes

Quite complex, and given the possible failure points, it's reassuring that Aldi gives a Three year warranty on it's electrical items.

Dave Frederick

I actually watched the schematic version first by accident. Wow. I'd say would say great job here. That infernal "chip" without it's data sheet leaves a lot of questions I suppose but I thought this was a great dive into the complexity of this thing. Still way over my head but I learn little bits here and there with every video you produce (very well done I might add) Thanks Big Clive.