My 12v 7.2ah battery.....

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:

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.

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.

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

Regards, Andras Tantos

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.

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

Thanks for everyones replies

I'm using a Sunpower 1.5a Three stage SLA battery charger

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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. :-)