Hi,
Please don't take this as patronizing, it's meant for your
safety!
Li-ion cells are
EXTREMELY dangerous. I.m not being over-cautious - you could lose your life from a fire or bits of you (like fingers or eyes) from an explosion.
I have seen examples of them blowing apart a heavily-built aluminium flashlight and burning the insides of the cupboard it was in, just because it was accidentally left on with unmatched cells in it.
Note the *Lithium* - it is a highly reactive, low melting-point metal (I am also a chemist). I have jars of the stuff, stored under oil. You don't want to mess with it. In a cell it is placed in close proximity to something it really wants to react with. If this reaction goes out of control, a *lot* of energy is released very quickly.
Li-ion cells are the easiest of all cells to charge, but you must get it right.
You must make sure that the cells have not been over-discharged, otherwise they can burst and ignite. This is called "venting with flame".
The cells nearly always have a built-in protection circuit, that protects them from over charge, over discharge, overheating etc. But some battery packs may have the protection circuit in the *pack*, so the individual cells are *not* protected. You can also buy bare, unprotected cells from some sources (like surplus!), although they are not usually made available easily due to the danger.
I have given you links to some protection circuits at the end of this post, but before that I
strongly advise you to read the comments about them on the CandlePower forums in this link:
http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=106242
These people like to use the highest energy-density cells they can get to run their eyeball-seering lights (me too!) and they have a lot of experienced people there. You will find a lot of info about Li-ions, safety and charging them if you search there.
Also, you must watch this video, and maybe the second one as well. It's fun 8O
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Here's a document about safety, then the protection links I promised:
http://proceedings.ndia.org/5670/Lithium_Battery-Winchester.pdf
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Best of luck with your charger, and don't burn yourself.
FoxyRick.