A LiFePO4 battery emulator circuit to allow a multi-cell charger to do 1 cell?

[e100]

Suppose you have a charger that is designed for charging 4 cells in series, but you only have one cell that needs charging.
Is there a gadget that can be placed in the vacant positions to make the charger think there are actually 4 cells present?

(I realize the dummy cells will be dissipating a fair amount of power)

[Vovk_Z]

There possibly can be such a device (I haven't heard about it). But it seem to me it is much simpler and cheaper to find a charger which can charge 1 cell.

[BeBuLamar]

I think it would be easier just to build a 1 cell charger or you can simply charge 4 cells and use the cells one at a time.

[gf]

Charging indiviual LiFePo4 cells with potentially arbitrary SOC in series is not a good idea. If you try to get the cell with the lowest SOC full, you overcharge the others.

OTOH, the cells of a series pack are charged and discharged together to keep SOC imbalance small, and the pack is usually also equipped with a BMS to re-balance these small differences.

[MrAl]

Suppose you have a charger that is designed for charging 4 cells in series, but you only have one cell that needs charging.
Is there a gadget that can be placed in the vacant positions to make the charger think there are actually 4 cells present?

(I realize the dummy cells will be dissipating a fair amount of power)

I would think this is possible but if you have to do this often it will waste a lot of energy.  It would take almost four times as much energy to charge just one cell than if you had a 1 cell charger do it.
In this day and age we try to save energy not waste it.

The dummy cells would have to be like diodes in series but the voltage would have to be more constant, and depending on the method used by the charger it may or may not be able to determine the end of charge termination condition.  In other words, you'd have to be very careful or some bad things could happen.