G6 and Triton USB Chargers

[doctordun]

Does anyone know the actual difference between the chargers?
USB is 5 volts and from what I understand, the batteries in questions both charge to the same voltage.
The only things I can think of would be limited current draw on one or the other or perhaps contact placement/alignment.
Just curious.

 

[DaveOno]

The AC/USB adapters that plug into the wall are the same. In fact most any USB port can be used. USB ports deliver 5V DC, and the Halo one is good at 500mA.

BUT the actual charger that you screw onto the top of the battery are different. They are absolutely NOT interchangeable.

The one with the G6 is just for G6, and the Triton just says "Halo".

I don't have a G6 charger, but the micro printing on the back of my Triton charger says...

USB Input: 5V DC.500mA
Output: 4.2V DC .420mA

(I don't know why the Halo site doesn't title these devices properly or consistantly. In the grid they are wrong. In the detail they are right.. The piece that plugs into the wall is an adapter. The part that goes from USB to the battery is the charger.)

 

[doctordun]

My G6 printing says:
USB Input: 5V DC.500mA
Output: 5V DC 150mA

I'm not an electronics wiz. Maybe someone can explain why these differences matter.
I don't think it's amperage, since a charging battery will draw what it needs, so I think the voltage may be the culprit?

 

[wheezal]

the amperage is the power, if that's wrong, bad things happen. the G6 adapter is designed to output a max of 150mA, whereas the Triton adapter will output almost 3 times more power.

a lithium battery is based on chemistry. it has fixed rates of input, output, and capacity. and using chargers that aren't rated for the type of battery used can at best result in insufficient charging, and at worst catastrophic thermal runaway. it's not just E-cig batteries, but laptops and cell phones have been known to explode or cause fires when used with the wrong types of chargers.

 

[absoluttalent]

My G6 printing says:
USB Input: 5V DC.500mA
Output: 5V DC 150mA

I'm not an electronics wiz. Maybe someone can explain why these differences matter.
I don't think it's amperage, since a charging battery will draw what it needs, so I think the voltage may be the culprit?

The outlets in your house (if in US) are usually 110v AC (alternating current) with a 15 or 20 amp (15,000 or 20,000 mA) limit by the circuit breaker. The Charger plug changes it to a usable 5v DC (direct current) with a 500mA output. The USB hookup then takes that 5v DC 500mA output from the plug, and steps it down to 5v 150mA that the G6 can handle for charging.
a battery is not that smart. It cant choose to draw its charge, only accept what is given to it. So if you are supplying more power than its rated for, you are "overfilling" too much and too fast, and that is never a good thing. Most of the charging switches that tell the battery to stop charging, are based on the charge level itself. Just because you are giving it more juice doesnt equate to faster charging.

Think of the battery as a passageway. You overstuff the passageway and bad things happen.

Compare your G6 battery to a single lane, one way street. One pathway.
Your G6 charger supplies one car of energy at a time. Each energy car passes through at the same speed, one after another. Everyone keeps on moving and there are no issues
Now you use a Triton charger, which would supply 3 energy cars at a time. All 3 cannot go down that single road at the same time. One might make it through, but the other 2 get stuck, huge pile ups happen, people driving on sidewalks, little Timmy's dog gets run over, no where for everyone to go. Huge problem.

Thats sort of the same issue here. Sending through more than something is rated for.

Or if the car analogy is too gruesome.
Think of the Battery as a water pipe rated for 10 gallons per hour
Your G6 charger is a pump rated at 150 GPH. it supplies the right amount of water to flow at a constant rate. No stress is added to the pipes
The Triton charger is a 420 GPH pump, trying to pump more water than the pipe is rated for. The pipes are stressed, a huge water bubble somehow forms on the side of the copper pipe, a stress fracture forms. The pipe explodes sending metal shrapnel all over the place, a large metal shard completely goes through Timmy's dog like one of those subsonic guns from the movie Eraser. Huge problem


forgot what other point I was trying to make....... but screw Timmy's dog, shouldnt have been playing around cars and pipes.
Dont use more power than a battery is rated for.

 

[doctordun]

So wouldn't the G6 charger act like a trickle charger for a Triton battery, since the amperage is lower?

 

[wheezal]

So wouldn't the G6 charger act like a trickle charger for a Triton battery, since the amperage is lower?

that's not necessarily a good thing tho. depending on the battery composition (it may be Lithium polymer, Lithium Di-manganese, etc), a trickle charge could slow the rate of galvanization to the point that the process actually comes to a stop and affects future recharging. it's unlikely, but possible.

most likely, the warning from Halo is against the G6 on a Triton charger as it's a risk of overcharge. but better to be cover ones bases and just say that neither charger works with the other than risk it.

 

[DaveOno]

Also these "batteries" are much more than the lithium ion (or whatever) cell. They contain a circuit board that controls the battery, senses shorts and powers down the battery when it needs recharging at something called "Low Voltage Cutoff." This happens before the voltage can go down to a level that damages the battery. It also has some charging chores, like turning the light on (or off) when the battery has fully charged. (The Triton VarVolt is on while charging and off when it's done, the regular 650mAh bats turn on when completed.)

The charger and battery circuit board adjust the current during charging. Typically, lowering the current as the battery approaches full charge. The charger and battery are engineered to work together. Li-Ion is quite different in charging than acid car type batteries or NiCads or Nickle Metal Hydrides. There is no trickle or float charge in the Lithium.

Most of the accidents I've read about lithium rechargables (in the vaping world) have come from people charging them incorrectly or with the wrong charger. The other incidents involve cells without circuitry or circuit protection or fuses, as used in mechanical mods.

There are posts in this Halo section of people who have ruined G6 and Triton batteries by using the wrong charger.

And there is a wealth of information at this site. Lithium-based Batteries Information