Are There Smart USB Chargers?

We used to use a smart charger when we had a boat. The smart part of it supposedly kept the battery charged without messing up the condition of the battery.

Are there similar devices for keeping something like a digital audio player on charge for an extended period of time without affecting the life or charge holding abilities of the battery?

 

Battery condition is much less of an issue with Li Ion Batteries. You really needed smart chargers for Nickel Metal Hydrite Batteries. That being said you don't want to keep trickling to maintain 100% or lower the charge to almost nothing with Li Ion batteries. Smart chargers would deplete a NiMH battery to almost complete discharge then charge to full and trickle to keep it fully charged. This was a memory issue. NiMH tends to remember the range of charge levels. This doens't happen with Li Ion batteries. But there is a risk of fire, if you trickle charge because of the heat build up.

 

With all my current devices that have Li On batteries I keep them at 100% of charge as possible. I have a mobile phone with a high capacity battery of 6300 mAh, at the end of the day it uses to end wit its battery at around 75/70% of charge and despite having more than enough charge for the following day, I charge it anyway.
I've had a FiiO X-3 Mk II for over 4 years and everytime I use it when I go for a walk despite using it for 2 hours only, I charge it anyway, it has its battery as new. The same with my smartwatch.

 

This is more of an issue for nickel cadmium batteries but hydride types do have the memory issue as well.

You can also damaged them by continuing to discharge them after they have been depleted.

Lithium ion batteries must be protected from overcharge by protection circuitry which is part of the battery pack or device being charged. Most brand name products have multiple overcharged protection for lithium batteries so overcharge is not an issue.

Actually you can do more damage by fully charging lithium batteries and not using them for long periods of time. This will decrease capacity.

Can your laptop battery be overcharged?




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