Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Steven, for sharing this very affordable battery charger for the Tecsun PL-880 batteries. Steven writes:
“I never purchased a stand-alone 18650 battery charger for my Tecsun PL880 radio because I felt the in-radio on wasn’t good enough. With several batteries it became a bit more of a problem keeping track and setting time aside to use the radio as a charger. Anyway, I came across amazing deal from Amazon that I just purchased.
For $9.68 out of pocket including slow shipping you get a super bright flashlight claimed to be 1000 lumens, which is probably a bit overrated. It also includes a double cell 18650 charger and one 3000ma 18650 battery – probably overrated too but all for under $10. I couldn’t pass it up.”
I will pick up one of these chargers, too. Like you, I find that sometimes I would like to be listening to the radio instead of using it as a charger. I especially love the size of this charger–might just fit in my radio go bag.
Thanks again, Steven!
I recently purchased a Tecsun PL-880 and love it. I bought the complete case which includes the Tecsun 3.4A adapter which plugs in to a wall socket. The adapter has 2 connections, they are 5V/1000mA and 5V/2400mA. I live in the United States and want to know which connection I should use.
Thank you.
I just got a new Tescun PL-880. I am under the impression that the charger is built into the radio and all I needed was a 110 AC to USB adaptor. I Have been charging from my computer and also use the adaptor from my Nikon camera. Am I on the right track or not. Thanks..Arnie
How about haveing a spare set of rechargeable batteries to put into the PL660 etc,and chargeing the others in an outside charger.I have a Dick Smith charger that takes four AA or AAA batteries and it charges them up good in 30 mins.It sits on my table wired to the power supply that just fits into the AC wall socket.Here in down under good old NewZealand we are on 230 volts AC.I have lots of uses for rechargeable batteries eg scanners,cameras etc and I find the stand alone charger is the way to go,saves the load on the charger inside a radio.So have a collection of good rechargeables so as to always have them on hand.Another tip is to have an outside Battery power source.I use four size D batteries to give six volts,that sit in a plastic craddle (bought from Jaycar) with wire lead and plug that fits into the external power socket of eg Sony SW 55 etc,If wireing this type of power to your radio,be sure that the positve terminal from the battery craddle matches the positive inner pin of the male plug that goes into the female socket of the radio.Do not cross the polarity.Hope this helps if you are having power probs with your portable receivers.The size D batteries seem to last forever.
Quite possibly everything you’ve (n)ever wanted to know about 18650 batteries.
Remember: there’s a huge amount of energy stored in an 18650, and using the wrong one (for example, the cheapies from Amazon or Deal Extreme) can end very badly.
I don’t have any radios that use 18650s, but I do have several flashlights that take them. After trying to get decent performance out of several sets of cheapies I gave in and bought a good set of Panasonics and a good charger. I haven’t had any problems since then.
I got a similar looking cheap charger with a green laser pointer. It makes so much RFI on MW that I can’t listen to any of the radios in my house without excessive noise. Apparently it feeds RFI into the AC line, which causes it to propagate throughout the house (and probably the local neighborhood). For this reason I’ve stopped using it and have ordered a Nitecore i4 charger. I’ve heard they are more electrically quiet.
I now have owned this charger for a few weeks and I have come to the same conclusion. While the flashlight and battery are alone worth the purchase price, the battery charger is so noisy that there is no way to use a radio anywhere in the house. There is no way this thing could be FCC approved. So now I’m going to buy a Nitecore.
Can you explain? The builtin charger is not good enough but a charger worth less than $10 is? Is there really anything wrong with the one in the 880?
I don’t have a PL880 but I do have a PL660 and its charger works fine and I find the builtin recharging great. I just plug it in to recharge instead of messing around with batteries and rechargers. The only thing I can think to criticize at all is that when you have it plugged in the wall wart gets warm.
I also have a Jensen universal AC adapter that works with the PL660 but just to run it – not for recharging. Jensen’s instructions say not to use it for in-radio recharging. Although I mostly use the PL660 as a portable if you just want to run the radio off AC then the Jensen adapter does have the advantage that it does not get warm.
That should have read “the built-in PL880 charger is /was good enough”. The built-in charger works so well that I never bothered to purchase a stand-alone charger. Now with several 18650 batteries to keep track of and side-tracking the radio when it is charging, I think an inexpensive charger is the way to go. Some believe that an inexpensive charger is not a wise investment. I’ll soon find out. I’ve been using 18650 batteries that I rescued from a place I used to work over 10 years ago. They are made by Sanyo and work as good as the one supplied by Tecsun.