Best buy for battery charger?

Anymore I use NiMH AA-cells in all of my bots. They come at 2500 mA-hr now. I get the batteries at Target for about $2.50/ea, and bought the Energizer 15-minute charger there too. This is for charging up to 4/ea cells individually, not wired in series.

: Dennis Clark wrote: : > My ancient and reliable Tekin BC112 finally gave up the ghost and now my : > robots have no way to be recharged. I need another charger in the $100 : > range that will charge from 1 to 8 (at least) NiCd/NiMh cells from 100mah : > to 4000mah with a peak charge detection. I already have a decent LiPo : > unit so it need not do that and I don't care about discharging. : >

: > Does anyone have any personal experience with any good charger that will : > fit the bill for the robot mad scientist's lab? :)

: Anymore I use NiMH AA-cells in all of my bots. They come at 2500 mA-hr : now. I get the batteries at Target for about $2.50/ea, and bought the : Energizer 15-minute charger there too. This is for charging up to 4/ea : cells individually, not wired in series.

I tend to agree, but I have a variety of cells for specific applications that run from very small to quite large. I trust "big box" store generic chargers about as much as I could eat one. Call me predudiced, but I feel more comfortable with a higher tech unit...

DLC

Dennis,

I've been using a Great Planes Triton charger for a couple of years now and am very pleased:

You'll need to add a 13.8 volt (or whatever) power supply.

dpa

Dennis Clark wrote

I'm trusting the fact it says "Energizer", rather than Target and "made in china". The batteries, I notice, are made in Japan. I use the same batteries on my hexapod to drive 12 leg servos, probably 3-4 Amp peak currents, and they last quite a while.

BTW, this charger will NOT charge my older lower capacity NiMH cells, for whatever reason. I have a coupe of overnite slow chargers for that.

dpa wrote: : Dennis,

: I've been using a Great Planes Triton charger for a couple of years now : and : am very pleased:

:

: You'll need to add a 13.8 volt (or whatever) power supply.

: dpa

I looked at that one. It seems good, 1-24 cells and even lead-acid. I have the 10Amp supply from my old Tekin BC112 for power :) It does more than I need, but I'm beginning to think there is a bit of a breakover point between "not enough" and "too much".

thanks, DLC

: Dennis Clark wrote : > My ancient and reliable Tekin BC112 finally gave up the ghost and now my : > robots have no way to be recharged. I need another charger in the $100 : > range that will charge from 1 to 8 (at least) NiCd/NiMh cells from 100mah : > to 4000mah with a peak charge detection. I already have a decent LiPo : > unit so it need not do that and I don't care about discharging. : >

: > Does anyone have any personal experience with any good charger that will : > fit the bill for the robot mad scientist's lab? :) : >

: > thanks, : > DLC : >

: > -- : > ============================================================================ : > * Dennis Clark snipped-for-privacy@frii.com

* : > * I haven't written a book in two years and I'm feeling "itchy"... * : > ============================================================================

Try Robot Market Place

they have all sorts of charges ranging in price from US$47 to US$147, they also have the Triton charger for $100 although it is backordered atm. I know people who use the Triton and they reckon it is a great charger. I'm in Australia and have bought stuff from them before and they were pretty quick.

HTH

Andrew W

Andrew Wagstaff wrote: : Try Robot Market Place :

they have all : sorts of charges ranging in price from US$47 to US$147, they also have the : Triton charger for $100 although it is backordered atm. I know people who : use the Triton and they reckon it is a great charger. : I'm in Australia and have bought stuff from them before and they were pretty : quick.

Well, I decided upon the Duratrax Intellipeak ICE. It had all that I wanted, at a reasonable price and had lots of really good reviews.

thanks all, DLC

: HTH

: Andrew W

: > : I've been using a Great Planes Triton charger for a couple of years now : > : and : > : am very pleased: : >

: > : : >

: > : You'll need to add a 13.8 volt (or whatever) power supply. : >

: > : dpa : >

: > I looked at that one. It seems good, 1-24 cells and even lead-acid. I : > have the 10Amp supply from my old Tekin BC112 for power :) It does more : > than I need, but I'm beginning to think there is a bit of a breakover : > point between "not enough" and "too much". : >

: > thanks, : > DLC : >

: > : Dennis Clark wrote : > : > My ancient and reliable Tekin BC112 finally gave up the ghost and now : > my : > : > robots have no way to be recharged. I need another charger in the : > $100 : > : > range that will charge from 1 to 8 (at least) NiCd/NiMh cells from : > 100mah : > : > to 4000mah with a peak charge detection. I already have a decent LiPo : > : > unit so it need not do that and I don't care about discharging. : > : >

: > : > Does anyone have any personal experience with any good charger that : > will : > : > fit the bill for the robot mad scientist's lab? :) : > : >

: > : > thanks, : > : > DLC : > : >

: > : > -- : > : > : > ============================================================================ : > : > * Dennis Clark snipped-for-privacy@frii.com : >

* : > : > * I haven't written a book in two years and I'm feeling "itchy"... : > * : > : > : > ============================================================================ : >

: >

: > -- : > ============================================================================ : > * Dennis Clark snipped-for-privacy@frii.com

: > * : > * I haven't written a book in two years and I'm feeling "itchy"... : > * : > ============================================================================

Do you know whether such chargers are smart enough to determine whether one of the cells wired in the series chain is charging poorly? It happens that such cells will be overpowered by the others in normal operation and can actually reverse its voltage.

: >

: > Well, I decided upon the Duratrax Intellipeak ICE. It had all that I : > wanted, at a reasonable price and had lots of really good reviews. : >

: > thanks all, : > DLC : Do you know whether such chargers are smart enough to determine whether : one of the cells wired in the series chain is charging poorly? It : happens that such cells will be overpowered by the others in normal : operation and can actually reverse its voltage.

It depends upon how it is acting. You can set a max capacity that will stop the charger if a cell is just venting and the pack never peaks, looking at the charge data will tell you that a cell is bad. It also has a temp. prove that you can use - a bad cell usually overheats during charging. My first use of it aborted the charge when it became clear that one of the cells in the pack was shorted, so the pack never reached a realistic voltage.

DLC

This is what I was wondering about. If you have 12 cells wired in series, the charger cannot tell what is going on in each cell "individually", so it has to somehow deduct that one [or more] of the cells isn't charging properly. It cannot do this by temperature, unless you have a thermistor/etc on each and every cell, which is I assume it doesn't use.

Therefore it can only use total voltage across the pack and current through the series chain to tell what is going on. I guess it has standard charging curves for packs of good cells, and if the measured data deveates from the std by too much, it infers 1 or more cells is bad.