Is it a 2 wire or a 3(+) wire connection?

AIUI most laptop brick power supplies are fixed output and 2 wire
(whilst professional cordless tool chargers are multi-contact and
intelligent - but with those you take the battery out and stick it in
the charger).

From a laptop manufacturers view, it's probably easier to include the
intelligence in the laptop and then keep all the different country
localisations of power adapters as simple as possible

Found a 12v battery charger ( laptop PSU style ) while I was having a
rummage t'other day, just a generic Chinese jobby - but I can't seem
to find any specific info as to whether it's a plain 'always full on'
job or whether it has provision to roll back to a trickle.

It has some sensing built it - an led that switches colour from red to
green when the battery is charged, which suggests to me that might
knock its output down. I managed to find a spec sheet for it and
wondered if anyone here would be able to enlighten me...

Item Specification
Model HP1202A ( 12V - 3.5A )
Output current DC 3.5A?5%
No load Max Output Voltage DC 13.7V?1%
Trickle Current DC 0.1A?5%
Input Voltage AC 85 - 264V
Efficiency AC-DC MIN 85%
Performance Switching Mode
Charging Method Fixed Voltage, fixed Current
Output Detection 1.Short Circuit Detection
2.Output Voltage/Current Limit
3.Reverse Power Protected

The charging method specs suggest it's always 'full on'...but the
trickle current hints that it might roll itself back....comments?

Regards,



--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
www.shwoodwind.co.uk
Emails to: showard{whoisat}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk

In article ,
Stephen Howard writes:

Found a 12v battery charger ( laptop PSU style ) while I was having a
rummage t'other day, just a generic Chinese jobby - but I can't seem
to find any specific info as to whether it's a plain 'always full on'
job or whether it has provision to roll back to a trickle.

It has some sensing built it - an led that switches colour from red to
green when the battery is charged, which suggests to me that might
knock its output down. I managed to find a spec sheet for it and
wondered if anyone here would be able to enlighten me...

Item Specification
Model HP1202A ( 12V - 3.5A )
Output current DC 3.5A?5%
No load Max Output Voltage DC 13.7V?1%
Trickle Current DC 0.1A?5%
Input Voltage AC 85 - 264V
Efficiency AC-DC MIN 85%
Performance Switching Mode
Charging Method Fixed Voltage, fixed Current
Output Detection 1.Short Circuit Detection
2.Output Voltage/Current Limit
3.Reverse Power Protected

The charging method specs suggest it's always 'full on'...but the
trickle current hints that it might roll itself back....comments?

Sounds like it's for lead acid batteries. In the case of SLA batteries,
they should be at least 25 AHr capacity (7 times charging current).

Drop back to trickle charging will be based on battery voltage hitting
the target fully charged level.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On Thu, 3 Apr 2008 23:58:30 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

Is it a 2 wire or a 3(+) wire connection?

AIUI most laptop brick power supplies are fixed output and 2 wire
(whilst professional cordless tool chargers are multi-contact and
intelligent - but with those you take the battery out and stick it in
the charger).

From a laptop manufacturers view, it's probably easier to include the
intelligence in the laptop and then keep all the different country
localisations of power adapters as simple as possible


It's 2 wire, though curiously enough there's a pinout diagram on the
unit that shows a 3 pin XLR type plug.

Regards,



--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
www.shwoodwind.co.uk
Emails to: showard{whoisat}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk

On 04 Apr 2008 08:07:13 GMT, (Andrew
Gabriel) wrote:

In article ,
Stephen Howard writes:
snip

The charging method specs suggest it's always 'full on'...but the
trickle current hints that it might roll itself back....comments?

Sounds like it's for lead acid batteries. In the case of SLA batteries,
they should be at least 25 AHr capacity (7 times charging current).

Drop back to trickle charging will be based on battery voltage hitting
the target fully charged level.

Yep, it states it's a lead acid battery charger. The comments about
the AHr rating are useful...it's way too over-specced for what I'd
intended to use it for.

Regards,



--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
www.shwoodwind.co.uk
Emails to: showard{whoisat}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk

On Apr 4, 10:43*am, Stephen Howard wrote:
On 04 Apr 2008 08:07:13 GMT, (Andrew



Gabriel) wrote:
In article ,
* *Stephen Howard writes:
snip

The charging method specs suggest it's always 'full on'...but the
trickle current hints that it might roll itself back....comments?

Sounds like it's for lead acid batteries. In the case of SLA batteries,
they should be at least 25 AHr capacity (7 times charging current).

Drop back to trickle charging will be based on battery voltage hitting
the target fully charged level.

Yep, it states it's a lead acid battery charger.

So why the feck did you tell us all it was a LAPTOP style PSU?

Nothing like giving us all the facts, eh?

Jeez.

On Fri, 04 Apr 2008 04:20:20 -0700, Man at B&Q wrote:

So why the feck did you tell us all it was a LAPTOP style PSU?

I read it as laptop STYLE i.e. similar looking to a laptop PSU. OP was
slightly ambiguous but he did say "charger" in the subject and body of the
post.

--
John Stumbles

A: Because it messes up the order in which people read text.
Q: Why is top-posting a bad thing?

On Fri, 4 Apr 2008 04:20:20 -0700 (PDT), "Man at B&Q"
wrote:

On Apr 4, 10:43*am, Stephen Howard wrote:
On 04 Apr 2008 08:07:13 GMT, (Andrew



Gabriel) wrote:
In article ,
* *Stephen Howard writes:
snip

The charging method specs suggest it's always 'full on'...but the
trickle current hints that it might roll itself back....comments?

Sounds like it's for lead acid batteries. In the case of SLA batteries,
they should be at least 25 AHr capacity (7 times charging current).

Drop back to trickle charging will be based on battery voltage hitting
the target fully charged level.

Yep, it states it's a lead acid battery charger.

So why the feck did you tell us all it was a LAPTOP style PSU?

Nothing like giving us all the facts, eh?

Yeah, you know....about 4 inches by 2 by 1....as opposed to a wall
wart or a bog-standard Halfords affair.
I would have though that the phrase "Found a 12v battery charger (
laptop PSU style )", the comments about the LED and the specs I found
that related to the item ( containing the words "Charging Method" )
pretty much gave the game away that it was, in fact, a battery
charger.



--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
www.shwoodwind.co.uk
Emails to: showard{whoisat}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk

Stephen Howard wrote:

Yeah, you know....about 4 inches by 2 by 1....as opposed to a wall
wart or a bog-standard Halfords affair.

Rather like this, in fact:
http://www.diytrade.com/china/4/prod..._12V_3_5A.html

(Google's first hit for "HP1202A").

--
Andy

On Sat, 05 Apr 2008 00:44:27 +0100, Andy Wade
wrote:

Stephen Howard wrote:

Yeah, you know....about 4 inches by 2 by 1....as opposed to a wall
wart or a bog-standard Halfords affair.

Rather like this, in fact:
http://www.diytrade.com/china/4/prod..._12V_3_5A.html

(Google's first hit for "HP1202A").

Exactly like that one, in fact - which is where I got the specs from.
Well almost - mine doesn't have the 3 pin XLR connector at the end,
rather it has a rectangular connecting block with a pair of offset
spades. I've seen such connectors used for kid's battery trikes/cars
etc.

Regards,



--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
http://www.shwoodwind.co.uk
Emails to: showard{who is at}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk