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Step 6Hacking the Charger.
Any charger will do, mine just happens to be an automatic model from CellStar made for the Japanese domestic market. If you decide to keep your desulfator separate from your charger you can skip the Hacking the Charger step, but you'll need to attach clips and output leads to your circuit so you can attach it to your battery.
You'll need to drill six holes, one 5/16" diam for the leads to enter the charger, one 1/2 " diam for the switch (if you use the same style toggle switch that I used), and four 1/8" diam holes for the pop-rivets. Drill one pop-rivet hole, put in a pop-rivet and mount the box to the charger, then drill and pop-rivet the three remaining holes in succession. Be careful with the metal shards and thoroughly blow out your charger with compressed air after you're done drilling and shaping the holes. Also watch out that the drill bits don't accidentally damage anything inside. One wire got caught in a bit when I did this and had to be repaired later.
Mount your switch and put a 1/4" rubber grommet in the lead hole.
Wire up the switch per the schematic using both sets of contacts in parallel if you use a DPST or DPDT type, and keep the leads as short as possible. This switch also becomes a good place to hang a multimeter for checking the current drain later on.
The final wiring step is to solder the leads to your charger's output wires. I prefer splicing into the wires themselves rather than tacking on the circuit board or internal components to avoid damage to those components. The output leads should be quite thick so care must be taken when splicing into them. Partial dissassembly of the charger may be required as well. Be thorough with the solder but don't overheat the insulation. Cover the splices with 1/2" diam heat-shrink tubing and shrink them down with a heat gun.
FYI: Sometimes a hair blower will suffice for a heat gun if you use or make a nozzle with a 1/2" x 2" slit opening. The over-temp sensor that all hair blowers have may shut down the blower after a few minutes but you don't need to keep it on very long. Use the blower's high heat and low fan settings if you can. Failing that, I often use a monokote heat gun normally used for building model airplanes as it's cheap ($20), reliable, and comes with the right sized nozzle. You can buy them online or at any hobby store.
You'll need to drill six holes, one 5/16" diam for the leads to enter the charger, one 1/2 " diam for the switch (if you use the same style toggle switch that I used), and four 1/8" diam holes for the pop-rivets. Drill one pop-rivet hole, put in a pop-rivet and mount the box to the charger, then drill and pop-rivet the three remaining holes in succession. Be careful with the metal shards and thoroughly blow out your charger with compressed air after you're done drilling and shaping the holes. Also watch out that the drill bits don't accidentally damage anything inside. One wire got caught in a bit when I did this and had to be repaired later.
Mount your switch and put a 1/4" rubber grommet in the lead hole.
Wire up the switch per the schematic using both sets of contacts in parallel if you use a DPST or DPDT type, and keep the leads as short as possible. This switch also becomes a good place to hang a multimeter for checking the current drain later on.
The final wiring step is to solder the leads to your charger's output wires. I prefer splicing into the wires themselves rather than tacking on the circuit board or internal components to avoid damage to those components. The output leads should be quite thick so care must be taken when splicing into them. Partial dissassembly of the charger may be required as well. Be thorough with the solder but don't overheat the insulation. Cover the splices with 1/2" diam heat-shrink tubing and shrink them down with a heat gun.
FYI: Sometimes a hair blower will suffice for a heat gun if you use or make a nozzle with a 1/2" x 2" slit opening. The over-temp sensor that all hair blowers have may shut down the blower after a few minutes but you don't need to keep it on very long. Use the blower's high heat and low fan settings if you can. Failing that, I often use a monokote heat gun normally used for building model airplanes as it's cheap ($20), reliable, and comes with the right sized nozzle. You can buy them online or at any hobby store.
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