LMAO! How many people does it take to screw in a lightbulb, or in this
case to charge a battery?


Sylvan Butler d wrote in message boi.hpZ.com.invalid...
On Thu, 6 Nov 2003 18:37:30 -0500, Bob Lewis (AA4PB) wrote:
According to the manual the Harbor Freight charger is 15.5V. That

I think that's the wallwart, not the voltage applied to the batt.

seems a little high for a float charge to me. 12-volt LA batteries are
generally float charged at 13.8V. Did you guys measure the voltage
with it connected to the battery or under "no load"?

Either way measures the same. The little box is a basic voltage
regulator circuit.

sdb

"Bruce W...1" wrote in message
...
Alright, so I built a voltage regulator with parts that I have around,
an LM7812 with a few diodes connected to a 500 mA 12VDC wall wart. I
hope you guys are happy now.

However I still maintain that a properly sized wall wart could do the
job with no voltage regulation.

Hey, you came to the group asking for help. It has been dispensed by
several responders who, by all indications, know and understand the
technology of batteries and charging much better than you. I've said to
several others like you, and I'll extend the advice to you as well... "If
you can't live with the answer, don't ask the question".
The responses to your question have been pretty much "spot on" correct. If
you don't want to take the advice of those who offered you help, then please
leave and revel in your own obstinance.
If you had taken the time to use the web and done a bit of research into
batteries and proper charging techniques, you would have saved several
helpful people a bit of wasted effort on your behalf.
Cheers....
--
Tweetldee
Tweetldee at att dot net (Just subsitute the appropriate characters in the
address)

Never take a laxative and a sleeping pill at the same time!!

"Bruce W...1" wrote in message
...
Alright, so I built a voltage regulator with parts that I have around,
an LM7812 with a few diodes connected to a 500 mA 12VDC wall wart. I
hope you guys are happy now.

However I still maintain that a properly sized wall wart could do the
job with no voltage regulation.

Hey, you came to the group asking for help. It has been dispensed by
several responders who, by all indications, know and understand the
technology of batteries and charging much better than you. I've said to
several others like you, and I'll extend the advice to you as well... "If
you can't live with the answer, don't ask the question".
The responses to your question have been pretty much "spot on" correct. If
you don't want to take the advice of those who offered you help, then please
leave and revel in your own obstinance.
If you had taken the time to use the web and done a bit of research into
batteries and proper charging techniques, you would have saved several
helpful people a bit of wasted effort on your behalf.
Cheers....
--
Tweetldee
Tweetldee at att dot net (Just subsitute the appropriate characters in the
address)

Never take a laxative and a sleeping pill at the same time!!

"Bruce W...1" wrote in message ...
Andrew VK3BFA wrote:

Hi Bruce,
you have been given heaps of technical suggestions, heres mine.

1.Pull the battery out of the vehicle and take it back to your place.
2.Every week or so, check specific gravity with a hyrometer (sp) and
if it needs charging, do so.

This solves the problem of someone stealing the car unless they are
really keen, is simple, easy, and lo tech.

73 de VK3BFA Andrew
================================================== ====

Screw that. This is a charity case to begin with. There's no way on
God's green earth that I'd haul the battery back to my place.

Well screw you too, Bruce. It was a reasonable suggestion, how much
longer do you want to **** around looking for a "no effort, no brains
required" solution, or do you want someone to come around and do it
for you.

Glad I am not asking you to look after my dog for a few weeks, it
would die of starvation while you stuffed around looking for an
automatic feeder to save you from getting up off your arse and
actually putting in some of your own effort.

de VK3BFA

"Bruce W...1" wrote in message ...
Andrew VK3BFA wrote:

Hi Bruce,
you have been given heaps of technical suggestions, heres mine.

1.Pull the battery out of the vehicle and take it back to your place.
2.Every week or so, check specific gravity with a hyrometer (sp) and
if it needs charging, do so.

This solves the problem of someone stealing the car unless they are
really keen, is simple, easy, and lo tech.

73 de VK3BFA Andrew
================================================== ====

Screw that. This is a charity case to begin with. There's no way on
God's green earth that I'd haul the battery back to my place.

Well screw you too, Bruce. It was a reasonable suggestion, how much
longer do you want to **** around looking for a "no effort, no brains
required" solution, or do you want someone to come around and do it
for you.

Glad I am not asking you to look after my dog for a few weeks, it
would die of starvation while you stuffed around looking for an
automatic feeder to save you from getting up off your arse and
actually putting in some of your own effort.

de VK3BFA

On Thu, 6 Nov 2003 14:15:17 -0700, Sylvan Butler
d wrote:

On Wed, 05 Nov 2003 18:09:46 -0500, Bruce W...1 wrote:
mcalhoun wrote:
Although their normal price is about $15, float battery chargers (wall
wart, coiled cord, little black box with LED, two cords with large
alligator clips on the ends) are often advertised in Harbor Freight
catalogs for $7.99. I must have half a dozen of them now, keeping
batteries here and there up to snuff. I've never measured them, but
they seem to do a real good job, and they're hard to beat at that price!

I have no connection to Harbor Freight except as a satisfied customer,

Ditto to all of the above.

You don't say! Have you ever measured their voltage? Or is it written
on the case?

Mine vary between 13.5v to 13.6v. If you open the little plastic
box between the transformer and the battery terminals you will find
a little adjustment that will let you tweak the voltage.

I have two different styles, one with curly coiled leads and one
with straight leads. I think the straight lead is older and has
been obsoleted. Too bad, because they made a nice low-current
adjustable power supply. The curly lead ones don't. But they
both seem to do a fine job of keeping lead acid batts up to snuff.

I have a couple on my bench. One set to 13.6v and one to 14.1v. I
put a gel cell on the 14.1v to charge after use, then on to the
13.6v to maintain ready for next time.

I have one in the barn. I cut off the clamps and put on a pair of
anderson powerpole connectors. A matching connector on my lawn
tractor allows me to easily attach with no concern for polarity
mismatch whether it is me or anyone else. I got 5 seasons from the
last battery, which is pretty good for a lawn tractor that sits
pretty much unused october thru april.

sdb

I just picked up a couple of the float chargers from Harbor Freight.
They measure 13.55 no load. 13.55 at 130 ma, 13.4 at 175 ma, 12.9 at
230 ma, 12.8 at 250 ma.

Looks like they will only supply about 175 ma max and still be above
13.4 volts. At over 500 ma they will shut down and won't restart until
the load is removed completely.

One problem I see with them is that they draw 36 ma from the battery
if they are hooked up to the battery (at 12.9 battery volts) but not
plugged into the wall. If you loose AC power that will quickly kill
the battery!

They measure 3.6k both ways when you check the resistance but when
hooked to the battery they cause much more draw than 3.6 ma.

These are the ones with the curly cords. Are these internally
adjustable ?

I wonder if there is enough range to add a series diode?

Thanks
Gary K4FMX

On Thu, 6 Nov 2003 14:15:17 -0700, Sylvan Butler
d wrote:

On Wed, 05 Nov 2003 18:09:46 -0500, Bruce W...1 wrote:
mcalhoun wrote:
Although their normal price is about $15, float battery chargers (wall
wart, coiled cord, little black box with LED, two cords with large
alligator clips on the ends) are often advertised in Harbor Freight
catalogs for $7.99. I must have half a dozen of them now, keeping
batteries here and there up to snuff. I've never measured them, but
they seem to do a real good job, and they're hard to beat at that price!

I have no connection to Harbor Freight except as a satisfied customer,

Ditto to all of the above.

You don't say! Have you ever measured their voltage? Or is it written
on the case?

Mine vary between 13.5v to 13.6v. If you open the little plastic
box between the transformer and the battery terminals you will find
a little adjustment that will let you tweak the voltage.

I have two different styles, one with curly coiled leads and one
with straight leads. I think the straight lead is older and has
been obsoleted. Too bad, because they made a nice low-current
adjustable power supply. The curly lead ones don't. But they
both seem to do a fine job of keeping lead acid batts up to snuff.

I have a couple on my bench. One set to 13.6v and one to 14.1v. I
put a gel cell on the 14.1v to charge after use, then on to the
13.6v to maintain ready for next time.

I have one in the barn. I cut off the clamps and put on a pair of
anderson powerpole connectors. A matching connector on my lawn
tractor allows me to easily attach with no concern for polarity
mismatch whether it is me or anyone else. I got 5 seasons from the
last battery, which is pretty good for a lawn tractor that sits
pretty much unused october thru april.

sdb

I just picked up a couple of the float chargers from Harbor Freight.
They measure 13.55 no load. 13.55 at 130 ma, 13.4 at 175 ma, 12.9 at
230 ma, 12.8 at 250 ma.

Looks like they will only supply about 175 ma max and still be above
13.4 volts. At over 500 ma they will shut down and won't restart until
the load is removed completely.

One problem I see with them is that they draw 36 ma from the battery
if they are hooked up to the battery (at 12.9 battery volts) but not
plugged into the wall. If you loose AC power that will quickly kill
the battery!

They measure 3.6k both ways when you check the resistance but when
hooked to the battery they cause much more draw than 3.6 ma.

These are the ones with the curly cords. Are these internally
adjustable ?

I wonder if there is enough range to add a series diode?

Thanks
Gary K4FMX