Hey All; Well I am here to share another Mod I came up with after I got tired of having to carry my Radio and Charger everywhere I go. So I decided to see if I could make my radio into my battery charger as well. So I gutted the Losi Micro-T charger and added the circuit board to my Radio and made it an all in one unit. I had velcroed my charger unit to the bottom of the radio's battery cover access door. But with 16 batteries it was a bit heavy and akward. I also decided to add an On/Off switch left over from an old Nitro project I had in the drawer. So here we go I will walk you through my proccess 1 step at a time.So sit back and enjoy the ride.Thanks for looking and hope this helps someone out a bit. Enjoy.l8r,w.
Here is my Losi Micro-Dt charger and radio all ready to be modified.I was lugging these around with me everwhere I took my Micro-DT and it got old fast. So I have decided to combine the two into one unit.
And here is just the charger ready to be disected by me.
First thing to do is remover the batteries and find the circuit board and unsolder all the conections so I can find a spot to install it into the radio and share the battery duties.
You will find a few screws that hold the charger together and remove them to gain access to the battery tray so it can be unsoldered and removed.
Underneath the battery tray is what I am looking for ,the mother board for the charger operations. I am going to remove it and discard the case as well as the battery tray.
Next it is time to unsolder the positive and negetive wire leads and all we need is the circuit board which we will addd the inside of the radio.
Now we just need to get it free and clear from the items we no longer need anymore.
Now it comes time to disassemble the radio to prep it for the transplant and to see if and where I can fit the circuit board. Start by removing the crystal and the antenna.
Next remove tha batteries and the battery tray if need be to open up some room to work.Be sure to mark all the item with a + and a - to confirm polarity of the circuits so you don't fry anything. That would suck to do all this work and watch it go up in puff of smoke due to 2 lousy crossed wires.
Now start to remove all the screws that hold the radio case together and seperate the 2 halves of the radio.
Now you have everthing seperated take a long look at where everything is placed and make a mental note and or write it down if need be.
Next was to find a place to mount the curcuit board and in this case I mounted it in the radios handle area. I had to grind off 1 of the radio screw mounts but with all the other ones you will not miss it. I also had to open up a hole so the red power light would have a place to show itself as well.
Also I had to enlarge one of the holes on the circuit board so I could mount it inside the radio's case. I just used a body reemer to do that. No Biggy.
Next I used a small plastic spacer to keep the light from poking throught the radio case and hitting the palm of my hand and bothering me.This way when you grip the radio in your hand it is not bothering you.
Then I just mounted the circuit board to the mount post and screwed it down snug and added a dab of silicone to prevent anything from backing out.And the light will sit flush and will be easy to see when it is charging things up.
Next I used the little trap door on the radio to mount my charger plug to plug into the battery and glued it into place so it will not fall into the radio or get in the way of normal radio functions.I decided to add micro Deans connectors to everything and get rid of the Losi Micro-Dt plugs. They suck.
And this is what it looked like hanging out the back of the radio. I have since used the new plugs with 1 male prong and one female prong so you can't cross polarity by accident.Hence the + and - sighns I added with my Sharpie.
I also opted to open a hole on the front of the radio grip area to add an On/Off switch so I can't try and charge a battery and use the radio at the same time.Now I just flip the switch to on and charge the battery and when I want to use the radio just flip it to off.Just did that cause I had the switch laying in my electronics drawer and figured why not use it too.
I glued the switch down inside the case so it would not move around on me. I use a gel type CA glue to secure the switch.super glue
Next I went and soldered all the wire connections to the battery tray and put everthing back where I found it all.
You should now have 2 Possitive wires at the battery tray and 2 negetive wires at the battery tray. They will go to the on/off switch and from there the wires will go to the circuit board for the charger operations.After that about the only thing left is to check all you work and make sure nothing will fry and or short out.
And this is what it all should look like when you are about done and the radio should look like you were never there except for the red light just poking it's head out on the grip area of the handle.
And here is the light all mounted and ready to charge them batteries up.
And here is the back of the radio where the battery will plug into the radio to get itself all juiced up.
And here is the On/Off swich on the front of the radio way down in the front lower area of the grip .
And now it is all finished and ready to go on the road with you to do double duty and now all I have to carry with me is my Micro-DT and the radio. Only draw back is this will not charge a lipo battery but hey I did all this work before I could afford a few Lipo's. But here is the finished product all in working order.
Well that about does it for me for now. Hope this Helps. Thanks for looking. l8r,w.
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