Sure. I think it speaks to how disorganized these forums are for people to have to sift through. I’ve definitely uploaded a photo of my chargers in other threads, possibly multiple times, because I boast about this way of handling it frequently, because it works well for me.
But the truth is that I started with 3 chargers and two broke, so I was using my old L5 (from before I bought the 4GB ram version) as a charger, and one of the original chargers that I started with. Because these chargers are literally $9 cheap junk from Amazon. And so they work really well until pieces break off or they quit working. I actually recently ordered some more of them to get an order on Amazon to give me free shipping.
So, if we care about planet earth and about data privacy, Amazon is probably not good… and cheap junk chargers that break after 6 months of uses are probably also not good. Thus I am unsure if I’m qualified to suggest to you what I was using, because I did not do a lot of investigation to determine that it is the best option, and instead operated off of the recommendation of a smart and cool friend.
But last time I wanted to find them on Amazon I literally just typed in “Kastar Universal Charger” to find them. Maybe you can find a better and more robust version of the same thing.
Just keep in mind that 2 terminal chargers for lithium batteries are dangerous and should never be left unattended when charging.
It would be a service to the L5 community for someone with these chargers to verify whether these chargers completely stop charging when the charger “determines” that the battery is “fully charged” and/or measures the battery voltage when charging is complete with a meter and/or a Librem 5.
I have been extremely careless about this and left them unattended without really internalizing that this was an issue. Someone might have told me in the past, but I forgot.
Knock on wood, I didn’t cause any apparent visual hazards yet. But I guess that doesn’t mean it wasn’t possible.
Edit: Actually, for what it’s worth, I use an extremely-water-absorbent “Nylon 11” 3D-printed version of the Librem 5 back plate. And the plate has “water” marks on it surrounding where the batteries go. Are those related and are those a concern?
I’ve yet to encounter a leaking lithium battery , so I am not familiar with its effects. Carbon-zinc, alkaline, NiCad, and NiMH cells leak a powdery ooze which is corrosive, but I haven’t heard of them causing fires. Overcharged lithium cells can cause large, posibly explosive, fires which spread to adjacent cells.
There is no magic 100% charge level for lithium cells. Each manufacturer makes some kind of capacity/safety compromise/tradeoff when specifying maximum cell voltage for “100%” charge. In any case, maximum charge level is extremely sensitive to temperature, so chargers need to monitor cell temperature, possibly with the sensor in the battery. It is so difficult to properly charge lithium batteries that the batteries have internal ICs that, among other things, sum up complete and partial charge/discharge cycles and block charging once the count reaches some maximum. Using a charger which bypasses or ignores safeguards risks a large fire.
Maybe this one is better (has an AC plug) and looks more reliable than the Kastar: Amazon.com
and Onite/Amazon delivers to France with less fees (10$) than Kastar (33$). I also could not find Kastar to buy on Amazon for France at least. I wonder if they are not emptying their stock (There are also “special prices” on mykastar.com…)
I have ordered 4 of them and let you know how it works., maybe for the wiki…
Thanks. Before you made this post about a potentially better one, I ordered a few more that I thought were the Kastar link on Amazon. What they sent me is offbrand compared to Kastar which was already cheap, so maybe a knockoff of the cheapest of the cheap. And the Kastar ones worked a while then broke, but these cheapest of the cheap ones say IC smart on them instead of Kastar, and they charge even slower than Kastar from what I can tell (still in the first days using them). Kind of regret getting a few when they’re like that. I’ll probably order from your link too and see if it’s just better.
Edit:
My purchase history suggests Amazon somehow jumped me away from Kastar to whatever else, so it looks like the fault is mine. I probably typed Kastar in a search and bought the first thing that came up. I don’t spend very much time on Amazon.
