NOCO’s Genius 1: A trickle charger that tries harder

Diminutive? Definitely. Flexible? Indubitably. Safety-cognizant? Thankfully…unless you activate “FORCE” mode, that is (hopefully intentionally).

A bit more than a year ago, within a blog post that talked about (potentially) resurrecting dead lead-acid batteries, I noted that I’d recently added additional members to my battery-charger stable. Historically, I’d relied on a legacy-design DieHard model, one of the two which, loudly humming and dubiously still working, I subsequently turned into a teardown target:

The others were all newer designs, solid-state (vs transformer-based) and both more flexible in their supported battery voltages and technologies and more feature-rich. Specifically, today I’ll be focusing on the NOCO Genius 1, a 1A trickle charge two examples of which I’d acquired on promo discount from Amazon’s Warehouse-now-Resale) site intending to tear one of ‘em down:

Walking while chewing gum

I’d teased the feature set a year-plus back, then focusing (given the overall writeup topic slant) on its battery-rejuvenating chops. Here’s the fuller feature-set list, requoted from the Amazon product page (from which, by the way, I’d acquired today’s dissection victim for only $20.12, ~1/3 off the current brand-new $29.95 price tag, which in and of itself also isn’t bad, or if you prefer, half off the $39.95 MSRP):

MEET THE GENIUS 1 — Similar to our G750, just better. It’s 35% smaller and delivers over 35% more power. It’s the all-in-one charging solution – battery charger, battery maintainer, trickle charger, plus desulfator.
DO MORE WITH GENIUS — Designed for 6-volt and 12-volt lead-acid (AGM, Gel, SLA, VRLA) and lithium-ion (LiFePO4) batteries, including flooded, maintenance-free, deep-cycle, marine and powersport batteries.
ENJOY PRECISION CHARGING — An integrated thermal sensor dynamically adjusts the charge based on ambient temperature, preventing overcharging in hot weather and undercharging in cold, ensuring optimal battery performance.
CHARGE DEAD BATTERIES — Charge batteries from as low as 1 volt, or use Force Mode to manually charge completely dead batteries down to zero volts. Perfect for recovering deeply discharged or neglected batteries.
BEYOND MAINTENANCE — Keep your battery fully charged without worrying about overcharging. Our smart charger constantly monitors the battery, allowing you to leave it connected safely – indefinitely – for worry-free maintenance.
RESTORE YOUR BATTERY — Precision pulse charging automatically detects and reverses battery sulfation and acid stratification, restoring your battery’s health for improved performance and extended lifespan.
COMPATIBLE — Charges and maintains all types of vehicles, including cars, automobiles, motorcycles, mopeds, lawn mowers, ATVs, UTVs, tractors, trucks, SUVs, RVs, campers, trailers, boats, PWCs, jet skis, classic cars, and more.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX — Includes a 1A charger, a direct wall plug-in, 110-inch DC cable with battery clamps, and integrated eyelet terminals, and 3-year warranty. Proudly designed in the USA.

It’s pretty tiny (that’s the aforementioned G750 behind it in the following photo, by the way); 3.62in (92mm) high, 2.32in (59mm) wide and 1.26in (32mm) deep, and weighing only 0.77lb (0.35kg):

And the manufacturer was even thoughtful enough to include a preparatory teardown diagram on the website product page:

(Simple) assembly required

Let’s see how close reality comes to matching that conceptual image, shall we? This charger arrived absent its packaging, so what you’ll see first (as usual accompanied by a 0.75″/19.1 mm diameter U.S. penny for size comparison purposes) is the other, ~$3 more, charger’s box:

Wonder what happened to the original “tab” for retail-display hanging purposes?

Opening up the box…

you’ll find user guide (also accessible here as a multi-language PDF, plus the product spec sheet) and promo literature, plus, in this particular case, the aforementioned formerly-MIA tab:

along with, of course, today’s two-part patient:

the base unit:

and the remainder of the cabling, including the battery terminal clamps:

Here’s the male-and-female connector pair that mates ‘em:

And what’s that lump partway down the “remainder of the cabling” span?

It’s a (user-replaceable, which is nice) fuse, as at least some of you may have already guessed. 2A is, IMHO at least, a reasonable choice considering the device’s 1A-max output specs:

Before putting the “remainder of the cabling” to the side, here’s a closeup of those “integrated eyelets” mentioned earlier in the bulletized feature list:

And this stock shot shows how to make ‘em usable:

A high degree of integration

Now for the base unit. Before diving inside, here are some real-life overview shots to augment the earlier stock ones:

You’ve probably already noticed the ultrasonic welds around the outside, holding the halves together. Regular readers may already recall that they’re a longstanding bane of mine. This time, since it was convenient to do so and I was under no delusions that the charger would be salvageable/reusable post-teardown anyway, I took a hacksaw to ‘em in conjunction with a vise:

Here’s what the inside of the back half looks like, revealing AC prong connections to the PCB:

And speaking of which, here’s our first look at the PCB itself, specifically the backside:

Nothing here is particularly surprising, nor is the broader fact that DC conversion circuitry dominates the landscape, given the physical proximity to the AC source. Most notable, probably, is the diminutive size of the two transformers, explained in part (but only in part) by this particular unit’s trickle-current characteristics. For the rest of the (hint: solid-state) story, we’ll need to see the other side of the PCB. No better time than the present:

Taking (which?) temperature

With the normally-restraining screws now removed:

and in the process of lifting the PCB out of the remaining chassis half:

I happened to notice, down by the DC cable exit point, two more wires alongside a NTC1 notation on the PCB:

I’m (fairly confidently) assuming that they reference a negative temperature coefficient (NTC) thermistor. My initial reaction, and one that in retrospect I admittedly clung to far too long, was that it somehow was used to ascertain if the battery itself was overheating, a situation which would compel the charger to “cut the juice”. Problem being, though, that there are only two wires (DC positive and negative) in the cable running from the main unit to the battery, so the thermistor would end up being nowhere near the battery itself (PDF).

In grasping at straws, I surmised that perhaps the battery temperature was being indirectly determined by the transferred temperature of the connected cabling, which admittedly seemed increasingly silly the more I thought about it. But then I re-read the device specs prior to sitting down to write and realized that what the thermistor was actually measuring was (probably) just the ambient environmental temperature. “An integrated thermal sensor dynamically adjusts the charge based on ambient temperature, preventing overcharging in hot weather and undercharging in cold, ensuring optimal battery performance.” Yeah, that’s it. Ahem.

Onward. Interesting PCB topside two-level sandwich, eh?

And speaking of which:

here’s the inside of the front half of the chassis:

And the PCB topside itself:

The largest IC, the one with the white dot on it and located at lower right on the top (of the two-PCB sandwich) mini-PCB, is the “brains” of the operation, an ABOV Semiconductor A96G148GR 8-bit 8051-class microcontroller with integrated flash memory. On the other (top) end, toward the center, is the multi-function toggle switch, which puts the charger in various operating modes, surrounded by a ring of LEDs, including two more toward the bottom. And to its far left is the multi-pin connector that mates the mini-PCB with its larger sibling below it.

I almost stopped at this point, clinging to the delusion that maybe I’d glue everything back together again in fully-functional form. But curiosity-while-writing eventually got the better of me (and anyway, that was a silly idea), so I rotated the assembly by 90° so the PCB markings could be read right-side-up and let ‘er rip:

Ok, now I’m done!

A (potentially fatal?) forcing function

In closing, let’s revisit that just-referenced multi-function toggle switch, specifically in the context of the “unless you activate “FORCE” mode (hopefully intentionally), that is” comment in this article’s subtitle. Quoting from the user guide:

*Mode*	*Explanation*
Force Mode Press & Hold (5 Seconds)	For charging batteries with a voltage lower than 1V. Press and Hold for five (5) seconds to enter Force Mode. The selected charge mode will then operate under Force Mode for five (5) minutes before returning to standard charging in the selected mode.

Here’s the ominous bit:

Force Mode. [Press & Hold for 5 seconds]
Force mode allow the charger to manually begin charging when the connected battery’s voltage is too low to be detected. If battery voltage is too low for the charger to detect, press and hold the mode button for 5 seconds to activate Force Mode, then select the appropriate mode. All available modes will flash. Once a charge mode is selected, the Charge Mode LED and Charge LED will alternate between each other, indicating Force Mode is active. After five (5) minutes the charger will return to the normal charge operation and low voltage detection will be reactivated.

CAUTION. USE THIS MODE WITH EXTREME CARE. FORCE MODE DISABLES SAFETY FEATURES AND LIVE POWER IS PRESENT AT THE CONNECTORS. ENSURE ALL CONNECTIONS ARE MADE PRIOR TO ENTERING FORCE MODE, AND DO NOT TOUCH CONNECTIONS TOGETHER. RISK OF SPARKS, FIRE, EXPLOSION, PROPERTY DAMAGE, INJURY, AND DEATH.

The entire quote, notably the all-caps portion, was 100% original, by the way, not “enhanced” in any way by editing from yours truly (explaining, among other things, the “creative” grammar in spots). Reminds you of Jason Hemphill’s “hack” that I highlighted back in mid-March, doesn’t it?

Death. I’ll just leave that for you to ponder as you wish. Memento Mori, my friends. And with that pleasant thought , I’ll wrap up for today and turn it over to you for your thoughts (feel free to skip posting the morbid ones, please) in the comments!

—Brian Dipert is the associate editor, as well as a contributing editor, at EDN.

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