Just was given a fairly new portable booster pack. You know, one of those things with a little battery and a couple jumper cables. Anyone know what kind of current I should charge it with? Didn't get a charger with it. Seems to use an external AC power brick and a built-in digital circuit for a few LEDs.
I'll also have to open this thing up and look at the battery, since the "12v" output is over 20...
GTO(John)
Open the pack to see if it has a charging circuit inside, if it does you probably feed it raw power and let the charge circuit do the rest
- look near the jack, they usually put a cute little sticker there by the charging jack telling you what flavor of volts to feed it.
If it has no charge circuits, you can buy "wall wart" transformers with the 12V Gel Cell "float charger" circuit built in. Haunt the usual places like All Electronics & American Science.
You can also get open-circuit-board float chargers meant for burglar alarm systems in those kinds of places, just feed it 16VAC 40VA and it'll happily charge a gel cell.
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|| If it has no charge circuits, you can buy "wall wart" transformers ||with the 12V Gel Cell "float charger" circuit built in. Haunt the ||usual places like All Electronics & American Science.
-HF has a 1-amp float charger for $10 that I've used on a variety of small 12V batteries for long periods. Texas Parts Guy
GTO69RA4 wrote in article ...
...which is why many knowledgeable shops refuse to have one of these in their service truck.
When fully charged, some of these "packs" have a 30+ volt output.....
.....just imagine what that can do to some of today's fragile electronic components....
I used to sell these when I managed a NAPA store - always to the "retail" customer, but never to the professional. Go figure!
Maybe that's why that little thing would spin over my diesel tractor so well!
RJ
Open circuit might be over 20, loaded down it would drop. One would want higher than 12V so current would flow. Martin
The unit has an output resistance high enough that when plugged in, it drops. One wouldn't want a high current one - might come apart in the sitting compartment. If one needed the booster, the drain would be strong.
If one was using one for a portable 12 volt supply, then that might be a real issue.
Martin
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