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Step 4Current and Voltage from a Bench Supply
This step uses a bench power supply to charge a battery. A lot of us have those sitting around even if we can't find our cell charger. Or we know where to find an electronics guy who has one. Now what?
Want to be totally mystified? Look up "lithium battery charge control".
All that stuff is important if you want to fully charge your battery, make it survive many charge cycles, or avoid lawsuits.
But we just want to take pictures or talk on the phone. So here's what we do:
Turn the current and voltage knobs all the way to the left. Turn on the powersupply and
hook it up to your battery, bearing in mind that red and black wires can possibly be plugged into the wrong sockets. Read the labels and unplug it if it seems to be arcwelding on your battery.
Turn up the voltage and current limit knobs until 500 milliamps (0.5 amps) is flowing into your battery. If you feel like being careful look up how much current the experts use.
But half an amp for a few minutes won't damage any battery that's big enough for a modern camera or phone.
My electronics guy told me to set my voltage limit to 8 volts for my 7.2v li-ion battery. Usually facts like that are luxuries. The point of this method is to trickle charge anything without being able to know much about the properties of the battery.
Want to be totally mystified? Look up "lithium battery charge control".
All that stuff is important if you want to fully charge your battery, make it survive many charge cycles, or avoid lawsuits.
But we just want to take pictures or talk on the phone. So here's what we do:
Turn the current and voltage knobs all the way to the left. Turn on the powersupply and
hook it up to your battery, bearing in mind that red and black wires can possibly be plugged into the wrong sockets. Read the labels and unplug it if it seems to be arcwelding on your battery.
Turn up the voltage and current limit knobs until 500 milliamps (0.5 amps) is flowing into your battery. If you feel like being careful look up how much current the experts use.
But half an amp for a few minutes won't damage any battery that's big enough for a modern camera or phone.
My electronics guy told me to set my voltage limit to 8 volts for my 7.2v li-ion battery. Usually facts like that are luxuries. The point of this method is to trickle charge anything without being able to know much about the properties of the battery.
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Jun 3, 2010. 4:25 AMgregario
says:
Don't listen to them! I left my charger at home and there's a lab power supply that we use as a door stop, problem solved!
Reply
6
Oct 19, 2007. 6:12 PMinvisiblelight386
says:
if i dont have a charger y would i have a DC powersupliy
Reply
Oct 22, 2007. 7:02 PMwierd idiot
says:
Well you have a dc power supply for running ya projecs.
Reply
4
Oct 18, 2007. 8:05 PM
xenobiologista
says:
xenobiologista
says:
An electronics lab power supply isn't exactly "survival" is it? *runs away*
Reply
223
Oct 19, 2007. 9:24 AMTimAnderson (author)
says:
Look at step 4. Use any dc source and a tiny christmas lightbulb as a current regulator.
Reply
Oct 18, 2007. 6:58 AMYogen
says:
it works with a car battery? and on a GBA SP?
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