My 12v 7.2ah battery.....

....is a good little power unit for my Mini-ITX, and my phidgets! Hurruh!
Question.
Can I leave the boards connected to the battery while I charge the battery? Any thoughts?

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As long as your Battery charging voltage does not exceed the rated voltage of the ITX or the Phidgets then , you should have no worries.
I would recommend you find out the max voltages of your peripherals first. Then use a regulated power supply of 13.8Vdc or less
rw wrote:
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steve vorres wrote:
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Personally, I'd recommend plonking the money down on a good battery charger -- the OP will find his batteries last a whole lot longer. I use the Battery Tender Plus for my 7.2AH and under 12 volt batts.
SLAs aren't as sensitive to poor charging regimes as are NiCads, but they're still surprisngly sensitive.

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Thanks for everyones replies
I'm using a Sunpower 1.5a Three stage SLA battery charger http://www.sunpower-uk.com/retail/product/954
Would you class this as a 'good charger' ?

rw wrote:
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It's hard to tell without access to the docs (I'd have to register), but it's likely much better than a simple 13.8v constant current power supply, which is often used to charge SLAs.
Cheers -- m

Sorry, I guess I misread this the first time, thinking you were talking about Nicad/NIMH batteries.
SLA or Gel and a float charger works fine for this sort of service, as long as the battery is rated for deep cycle service, and the charger is adjusted properly. I run my ham radio gear this way, loads of 200-400W with a 25AH battery and a simple "one-stage" float charger.

Ok thanks for the advice all, happy roboting. :-)
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Very bad idea. Variations in the current draw will cause the charger to terminate charge early, or too late and damage the battery.
Two batteries. Charge one, run the other.

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Unless accounted for. Laptops can do that so it is possible. Needs special attention and probably propriatery charger though.
Regards, Andras Tantos

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They do this by NOT powering the system from the battery when the battery is under charge. The system is powered from the external source.

rw wrote:
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I use a 12V power supply to both charge the battery and I also use it when I want to run the electronics for a longer time.
My power supply is a PW-70 or a PW-120. -- D. Jay Newman