Charge gel cell with car charger?
"John Fields" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 25 Feb 2013 22:36:52 -0000, "Ian Field"
wrote:
"Jan Panteltje" wrote in message
...
On a sunny day (Sun, 24 Feb 2013 00:06:18 -0800) it happened Mike Cook
wrote in
:
A friend has a battery powered Ryobi lawn trimmer ("weed whacker") which
doesn't work. The 12vdc wall wart puts out only ~ 12.4v.
I charged the lead-acid gel cell using a car charger. The charge rate
(selectable) was 0.5A. Afterward the trimmer seemed to work as new.
Can the car charger be used to charge this battery? He can install a
timer
to
limit charge time if that's something required.
Thanks.
Old trick was to put a car headlight or some other low voltage bulb
(break
light)
in series as current limiter.
Maybe modern car has only LEDs, dunno, :-)
Its a trick I often use if I have to, but increasingly I turn to the more
modern electronic/microcontroller type chargers that automatically switch
to
trickle charge.
---
That's a good thing, since it puts you squarely into the rank of a
"consumer", where you clearly belong, instead of into the ranks of
designers, where you've clearly demonstrated you don't belong.
I could be wrong of course,
Indeed.
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