Help required with RC battery charging

[scratch]

Hi there,

I have a nitro RC buggy which I recently dug out of the garage and the batteries need charging before I use it. I have a mains charger for the transmitter, but the charger for the buggy's battery pack is a 12 volt jobby.

When I lived at my parents house (in a very quiet cul-de-sac) I would clamp the buggys charger to my car's battery and leave it on charge out on the driveway. I now live in a city centre and leaving the buggy on charge under the car bonnet is no longer an option. I'd like to continue using the existing 12v charger so am considering using a PC power supply to provide the required voltage as I have one going spare.

Will this work? I take it I'd need to hook up the +12v and -12v wires from the PSU to the chargers input lines? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Andy

 

[squiffy]

afaik no as the outputs from a PSU isn't regulated. What battery type is it and capacity?

Bit unusual it's 12v, is this for radio and servos? (those are usuall 4.8v or 6v) and for electric motor other voltages I think 7.6 or 9.6v.

I would just buy a good delta peak charger (for NIMH/NICD) and a trickle charger with charge detection (if it's lead acid/gel)

Check Als Hobbies.

 

[scratch]

Ok maybe I didn't explain my setup clearly enough.

The battery pack is a flat 5 cell 6v 600mAh for the RX/servos. The setup when I used the car battery for charging would have been:

Car Battery > 12v Ripmax Pro Peak Xing charger > battery pack

I want to use a PC PSU instead of the car battery.

Andy

 

[squiffy]

ah right, in that case I think you can do it. There's some info on RC Universe forum about it.

Still a Ripmax 12v PSU is £30, and it has banana sockets ready for the charger. If you don't have spare PC PSU, probably easier just to buy a dedicated Ripmax PSU. I use one of these..

 

[Adam_151]

+12v and -12v would give you a potential of 24v at very little current, for 12v you want +12v and ground

 

[scratch]

+12v and -12v would give you a potential of 24v at very little current, for 12v you want +12v and ground

That's a very good point! Note to self..don't play with electrics when tired

Squiffy: That Ripmax PSU looks good but £30 is far too much money when I can use the PC PSU.

Thanks guys,

Andy

 

[Berger]

To use a pc power supply you need to place it under load IIRC before you can use it as a conventional power supply.

Try this but im not being held responsible if you electrocute yourself so be CAREFUL!

 

[kaiowas]

Try this but im not being held responsible if you electrocute yourself so be CAREFUL!

I made a simpler version of that years ago to provide a 12v supply for my R/C charger, worked a treat.

 

[scratch]

Thanks everyone.

I gave up on the PSU idea in the end..far too much hassle! I found a spare 12v transformer lying around in the spare room, chopped the end off and now have a fully charged set of batteries. Time for some bashing down the park now

Andy