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.

What sort of open-circuit voltage are you getting out of it?

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

Hey, it's your battery (or your neighbor's) - if you want to
experiement and see if you can figure out whether that sort of
charging regime will appreciably shorten the life of the battery, go
for it!

I just figure that doing the job right isn't really very much harder
than doing it "maybe right, or maybe we shorten the battery's life by
a year?".

[and I really do like the idea of those Harbor Freight float chargers...
$7.95 for a tweakable-voltage half-amp charger is so low I don't
see much sense in homebrewing my own any more! I'll have to pick up
a couple.]

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
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