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I have a 3.7v 500mah li-ion battery with a lead attached which has been supplied with a usb connection for a child’s toy. The instructions don’t mention if I can attach the usb to the likes of a Mac plug point charger, they only mention using a laptop/computer connection to charge. Can I use a Mac wall charger to charge it or does it have to be through a laptop? I don’t want to shaft the battery
It’s like this Click here
If you have a battery that's designed to be charged by plugging it into a USB socket, any USB socket will do. The only limitation is that if the socket can only supply, say, 0.5A, that's all it will get, if if it could charge at a higher rate - but all that means it will take longer.
But (I'm not 100% clear from your post) if the battery has a USB lead that's intended to supply power to something else, do not try to charge it that way.
Edit - just seen the picture. That's not a USB connector. That battery is designed to be connected inside a device and charged via the device. There's no charge monitoring circuit or anything. You can't charge it alone.
Aye the battery connects inside a toy and was supplied with a usb lead with a connection to the battery to charge it. It isn’t designed to charge the battery through the device.
Usually it'll be fine to charge with a USB charger. The only thing is, they're generally less trustworthy than a hobby grade lipo charger (which are expensive, but have much more charging protection etc to reduce the risks of fires from overcharging). So it's possible that doing it with a weak power supply might give a little more protection.
Personally I'd happily do it either way but it's important to charge lipos safely. Not around flammable objects, ideally contained. Charging pouches are good, or knocking together a charging enclosure like a biscuit tin or something. Some people do it in the oven which is possibly very clever.
Or, put it another way, lipo charging is always a bit sketchy except with top quality chargers and batteries. These chargers are way further on the sketchy end so, don't be afraid of it but do crank up the safety to balance it out.
Thanks for the help!
Not quite clear on the situation: Has the toy been supplied with a “charging” lead that has a connector to suit the battery on one end and USB on the other? If so, it’s very likely that the lead includes the charging circuit in it somewhere.
(I don’t know how you’re going to connect it to USB otherwise ???)
Note that it’s a lithium ion battery, not a LiPo that Northwind refers to. Li ion are slightly less conflagration prone, but you still need to take care.