Introduction: Hobby Zone DC Quick Charger 1S LiPo Micro USB TP4056 Mod

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About: I like electronics and building crap, yeah.

Hello everybody, its been a while since I made an Instructable though I think this will be the perfect project for me to get back into it. This is simply a revamp of the internals of a DC 1S Quick Charger by any brand that looks the same as the Hobby Zone one I am using e.g., Eflite, ParkZone, whatever. Its utilizes a simple TP4056 module, a USB breakout, a few LED's, a JST Plug and whatever else you want for yours. A lot of the things in this are optional and you can change them out or remove whatever you want to make the charger your own and suit your needs.

Step 1: Remove Internals and Get New Components

Components You Will Need:

TP4056 Module (Found everywhere like eBay, Amazon, etc)

Micro USB Breakout Board

Small Buck Converter for exterior input 5-23V to 5V (eBay)

LED's, either a common anode RGB LED or one red and one blue LED

One 0603 or 0803 SMD Resistor, Value Depends on the chart in Step 2

First step is to pretty much strip the interior of the charger. First remove the adhesive feet on the bottom and remove the 4 screws underneath them. Once you have the charger apart remove the corresponding parts, DC Port and PCB its connected to, red indicator LED (You can actually keep this if you want if you dont have an Common Anode RGB LED) and main charging board with the cap and pot.

Step 2: Install New Components and Mod TP4056

Hot glue the TP4056 module down to the standoffs the original charging board was sitting on. Then connect the VCC and Gnd pins from the Micro USB breakout to the IN+ and IN- pins on the TP4056. Next glue the Micro USB breakout into place where the DC jack use to be, you may need to cut some plastic around there to get it to fit.

Once you have done that we need to replace the current setting resistor(Rprog) on the TP module to limit the current to about 300mA or whatever the correct charging current for your battery is. For me im using 220mAh LiPos and I wanted to charge them in just under an hour so I decided to see my charging current to just above 250mA so I swapped the 1.2K resistors for a 4.7K resistor to get around 280mA. Take a look at the chart to figure out what current you should use for your battery, I dont recommend charging at over 1.5C so keep that in mind. The C rating is just your battery capacity in Amps kinda, so for example 1C charging or discharge for my battery would be 220mA or 2C would be 440mA.

Step 3: Drill LED Holes and Wire LED's to TP4056

The next step is to either enlarge the existing LED hole to make room for a Common Anode RGB LED, or drill another hole for a blue LED so that you know when the battery is done charging. Either way you need to remove the existing tiny SMD LED's and solder thin wires onto the pads to connect to the LEDs. Once you have done that just glue the LEDs into there holes and this step is finished.

Step 4: Add Buck Converter and Re-Assemble!

The final step is to add the buck converter and connect the inputs to the JST Plug and the outputs to the TP4056. Make sure that BEFORE you connect the output of the buck converter to the TP module that you power the converter and make sure the potentiometer is set to 5V. Once it is set to 5V put a little drop of hot glue on it to make sure it doesnt move. To make the JST come out of the back I cut a little notch with some wire cutters in the back of my unit so the wires can comfortably fit. When that is done try powering it with a micro USB cable as well as through the JST to make sure everything works. If it all does, you can re-assemble the entire unit and your done! You have successfully re-vamped your charger!

Thanks for giving my Instrucatble a read, if you likes it please give it a Favorite and if you made one let me know and upload some pics!