Does someone know which of these chargers is better for charging 1s 18650 lithium?
Should I choose a certain one if it's used to charge a battery from a solar panel? (input and output at the same time) and another if the project does not need charging and discharging at the same time?
What is the difference between them?
The board on the left does not have a protection circuit to prevent over-discharging the battery. If your 18650 batteries have built-in protection, that's not a problem, but most don't.
Either board can be used for solar charging, as far as I know. I've certainly used the right hand board for this. The left hand board has the same chip, so should also work.
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Thank you Paul!
You can buy chargers specifically designed to use solar cells to charge (a single) 18650 batteries.
Here's one from AliExpress https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32906729497.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.0.0.856618025HZWfo - you don't need the connectors - there are pin pads.
If you plan to attach the load continuously, take care that the load is very small - I believe these chargers use the current (load + battery charge) to determine fully charged. If you're load is too high, the charger does not stop charging - having over charge protection on your 18650 battery will help.
There is a flexible pcb over/ under charge circuit that some 18650 vendors attach to battery and then wrap the battery in its cosmetic plastic cover - sometimes you can see a slight bulge down the length of the battery - this is this protective pcb.
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