M
Mitch
Guest
Ok, this is my first post in this group, and I've done some searching,
but I'll still continue to do so.
I just bought a replacement charger for my battery powered drill and
saw combo. The previous charger crapped out, so I opened it up to see
what it was... All it is, is 4 diodes to rectify the AC, 2 resistors,
and an LED. The resistors only seem to run the led. So the thing is
pretty simple.
When I bought the new charger, I was talking to the guy in the store
and he said that these chargers tend to "burn" up if you put the
batteries on to charge but don't take it off in 3 hours. Not to
mention that it isn't good on the batteries. And since it's an odd
voltage, the batteries are 2x as expensive as common voltage batteries
(Wish I'd known that when I bought it!) So what I would like to do is
design some kind of timing circuit that could turn off the charger
after 3 hours.
I know that the battery I'm charging is 15.6V but I don't know what
the transformer steps the AC down to. (The transformer is where my old
one went bad, and I haven't opened up the new one) So I figured that
if I could rig up something that plugged into the house power outlet,
and then plug the charger into it. The timer would kill the power to
the charger after 3 hours. I don't even need anything automatic
really... I have no problem putting something like a momentary button
to use for a starter switch.
I'm handy with a soldering iron, and I collect pinball machines, so
I'm pretty good with a schematic, and I have kind of a general idea
what a lot of components do, but I'm no where near skilled enough to
try and put something like this together on my own.
If anyone has any thoughts, I'd love to hear them.
Thanks
MitchelWB
but I'll still continue to do so.
I just bought a replacement charger for my battery powered drill and
saw combo. The previous charger crapped out, so I opened it up to see
what it was... All it is, is 4 diodes to rectify the AC, 2 resistors,
and an LED. The resistors only seem to run the led. So the thing is
pretty simple.
When I bought the new charger, I was talking to the guy in the store
and he said that these chargers tend to "burn" up if you put the
batteries on to charge but don't take it off in 3 hours. Not to
mention that it isn't good on the batteries. And since it's an odd
voltage, the batteries are 2x as expensive as common voltage batteries
(Wish I'd known that when I bought it!) So what I would like to do is
design some kind of timing circuit that could turn off the charger
after 3 hours.
I know that the battery I'm charging is 15.6V but I don't know what
the transformer steps the AC down to. (The transformer is where my old
one went bad, and I haven't opened up the new one) So I figured that
if I could rig up something that plugged into the house power outlet,
and then plug the charger into it. The timer would kill the power to
the charger after 3 hours. I don't even need anything automatic
really... I have no problem putting something like a momentary button
to use for a starter switch.
I'm handy with a soldering iron, and I collect pinball machines, so
I'm pretty good with a schematic, and I have kind of a general idea
what a lot of components do, but I'm no where near skilled enough to
try and put something like this together on my own.
If anyone has any thoughts, I'd love to hear them.
Thanks
MitchelWB