Re: Help with Triton charger

| I have a 12v 6 amp gellcell and a 500ma charger. | When the triton is connected to the battery alone its fine 12.32v, when | I connect the 500ma gell charger to the battery the votage goes up | 16.12v, connecting the triton get a triton voltage error. | | Am I missing somthing

Let me see if I understand you ...

You are powering the Triton with a 12v gel cell battery. The Triton is reporting an input voltage of 12.3 volts (which tells us that the battery is about 30% charged -- not good, but irrelevant to this discussion.)

You then connect the 500 mA charger (so that the gel cell, 500 mA charger and Triton are all connected at once), and the Triton input voltage goes up to 16.12 volts and it starts complaining about `Input Voltage' ?

If so, you need to stop using that 500 mA charger. Assuming that the Triton is accurate (and it probably is), 16.12 volts is WAY too high to be charging a 12v gel cell battery with, and will cook rapidly.

Assuming that all three are hooked up at once, if the Triton reports

16 volts, then either the 500 mA charger is putting a lot more than 500 mA into the gel cell battery, or the internal resistance of the gel cell battery is really high -- like over an ohm.

If the gell cell resistance really is that high, then it's not going to let you draw any signifigant amount of current from it and it's probably destined for the battery recycling bin. It may have been ruined by the wal-wart 500 mA charger already, or by leaving it discharged for a long period of time.

If you're just plugging the 500 mA charger into the Triton without the gel cell, stop that. It may damage the Triton, and the 500 mA charger can't provide enough power anyways.

The Triton can charge these gel cell batteries, and probably does a better job than the wall-wart you're using. Power it off of your car battery, or get a PC power supply and modify it to power your Triton.

I'm not saying that any of Doug's advice is wrong. But without going into such detail, I'll tell you my way.

First of all, I use a cheap car battery charger to charge up my 12 V

10A gell cell battery. The charger has an ammeter, so I can tell what's being put into the battery in amps - never mind the voltage. When the amps drop off substantially, OR the battery begins to feel warm to the touch, I disconnect them.

Then I take that fully charged 12V 10A gell cell and use it to power the Triton. Works for me, everytime.

My biggest problem is not using the Triton often enough to remember all its tricks, and their User's manual is almost USELESS, but they seem disinterested in rewriting it for those who didn't already understand its usage, from before starting with it. It reminds me of some manuals for devices made in Japan, written by Japanese, translated to English by who knows? But that was many years ago, thankfully.

Olin McDaniel

Thanks

I ended up putting the gell cell on the list of misses along with th non working PC ps. Ran out to RS and pickup a 13.8v 15a supply. Been cyling ever since.

Yea the gell cell is weak. It runs the helis flight box fine for what need, Ill give it a few rounds with the triton. Also saw a post o reconditioning real old gell cells.

Thanks for the help all! SS almost ready to maiden. To cold tomorrow N

-- everma

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