Battery power supply for gc

[dreaded 42]

Hello, i have in my possesion 4 12v 5.5 A/H ni-cad batteries would these be sufficient for a gc power supply, I notice 5.5 ah is some what lower than what others are using. As I have these and can get 4 more if needed , would I be wasting my time being that others are using SLA's. Also got an idea for a cheap and easy charging circuit. Will wire 2 in series for each side as suggested giving 24v for each rail.

Thanks , Malcolm

[PRR]

> 4 12v 5.5 A/H ni-cad batteries would these be sufficient for a gc power supply

You'll get about 15 watts in 8Ω, with several hours run-time.

> an idea for a cheap and easy charging circuit.

Hell, wire a rectifier, a 60watt 120V lamp, and the 48V battery stack all across a 120V wall-outlet. When the stack voltage reaches 50V, or the cells start heating and exploding , it is done.

SAFE battery charging is not cheap or simple. Get a standard car/motorcycle trickle charger. Since these are not lead-acid cells, don't try to force more than about 1A into them (0.5A is a better plan) and do not leave them on charge more than 5 or 10 hours. STOP if they feel warm. NiCads should really be charged with a for-the-purpose NiCad charger.

[Morse]

Hi Guys;

Sorry to butt in here, but here are a couple of ideas.

1. You might try a couple of deep draw lead acid jobs or rechargeable Gel Cells (I'm not sure if you recharge Gel Cells using the same charge rate as you do regular lead/acid motorcycle batteries though). Velleman does make a battery charger kit for lead/acid batteries. Check over at partsexpress.com for details under part# 320-130. Darned if I know if it's what you're looking for, but the catalogue says that it can be set for either a 1A or 300mA charge rate.

2. If you're stuck on using NiCads, why not buy a cheap charging unit and reverse engineer it? You could even strip the guts out and modify for integral use with your system.

Just ideas. What do the more experienced here (with battery power and recharging) think? Good/bad/ or indifferent ideas?

Good luck on all your projects and all the best!

Happy Holidays to one and to all!
Morse

[ronc]

I think we have another thread going on this but here goes.
Want to see why i perfer battery P/S, then go plug a scope into a wall oulet and watch the sine wave do the funky monkey.All the bad elements of a transfo P/S are related to the stability of the AC source.
I have just for the amp and pre 5-12V 7.2 amp/hr batteries (1 for the pre) with 5-1.5 amp trickle chargers.There is an AC powered timer which closes a 25 amp NO relay and provides power to the chargers, at the same time the relay closes 5 NO relays which provides current from the chargers to the pos pole of the batteries.The amp is on 24/7 and the timer charges from 2 AM to 5 AM every night.Its a plug in and forget system.
ron

[dreaded 42]

Ron, Your system of charging is basically what I'm looking for , it's just that I have Ni cad's. I have a 24 volt power supply that puts out 1.2 amps going to try and get another and use two , one for each side to charge batteries. Thanks for your replies guys.

Malcolm