Is it a 2 wire or a 3(+) wire connection?
AIUI most laptop brick power supplies are fixed output and 2 wire (whilst professional cordless tool chargers are multi-contact and intelligent - but with those you take the battery out and stick it in the charger).
From a laptop manufacturers view, it's probably easier to include the intelligence in the laptop and then keep all the different country localisations of power adapters as simple as possible
Found a 12v battery charger ( laptop PSU style ) while I was having a rummage t'other day, just a generic Chinese jobby - but I can't seem to find any specific info as to whether it's a plain 'always full on' job or whether it has provision to roll back to a trickle.
It has some sensing built it - an led that switches colour from red to green when the battery is charged, which suggests to me that might knock its output down. I managed to find a spec sheet for it and wondered if anyone here would be able to enlighten me...
Item Specification Model HP1202A ( 12V - 3.5A ) Output current DC 3.5A?5% No load Max Output Voltage DC 13.7V?1% Trickle Current DC 0.1A?5% Input Voltage AC 85 - 264V Efficiency AC-DC MIN 85% Performance Switching Mode Charging Method Fixed Voltage, fixed Current Output Detection 1.Short Circuit Detection
The charging method specs suggest it's always 'full on'...but the trickle current hints that it might roll itself back....comments?
Regards,
Sounds like it's for lead acid batteries. In the case of SLA batteries, they should be at least 25 AHr capacity (7 times charging current).
Drop back to trickle charging will be based on battery voltage hitting the target fully charged level.
It's 2 wire, though curiously enough there's a pinout diagram on the unit that shows a 3 pin XLR type plug.
Regards,
Yep, it states it's a lead acid battery charger. The comments about the AHr rating are useful...it's way too over-specced for what I'd intended to use it for.
Regards,
So why the f*ck did you tell us all it was a LAPTOP style PSU?
Nothing like giving us all the facts, eh?
Jeez.
I read it as laptop STYLE i.e. similar looking to a laptop PSU. OP was slightly ambiguous but he did say "charger" in the subject and body of the post.
Yeah, you know....about 4 inches by 2 by 1....as opposed to a wall wart or a bog-standard Halfords affair. I would have though that the phrase "Found a 12v battery charger ( laptop PSU style )", the comments about the LED and the specs I found that related to the item ( containing the words "Charging Method" ) pretty much gave the game away that it was, in fact, a battery charger.
Rather like this, in fact:
Exactly like that one, in fact - which is where I got the specs from. Well almost - mine doesn't have the 3 pin XLR connector at the end, rather it has a rectangular connecting block with a pair of offset spades. I've seen such connectors used for kid's battery trikes/cars etc.
Regards,
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