[Elecraft] K-1 Internal Battery Charging

[Wayne Burdick]

Brian,

We left room in the top cover (on its rear panel) for a possible future
internal charge adapter. I don't think you can do it without adding any
holes, though. You'll need at minimum a couple of mounting holes for a
PC board, and I'd suggest a separate DC input jack for the charger.

Be careful how you charge the batteries. Trickle charging isn't a good
idea with NiMH in particular. I'd suggest starting with a NiMH
fast-charge circuit based on one of the Maxim controller ICs, then
change the design parameters to drop from ~1 amp to more like 200-300
mA. Each IC has a certain permissible range of currents it can handle.

All the warnings in the manual still apply--

73,
Wayne
N6KR


Brian Kassel wrote:
> 
> Gangue:
> 
>    Has anyone out there successfully come up with a mod that will allow
> the internal batteries in the K-1 to be charged while remaining
> internal?  I tried a mod that was published on this list on March 18
> 2002 by "Alta", but after finding several obvious errors, I still can't
> see how it can possibly work as published.
> 
>    I realize that internal charging of the K-1 internal battery is *NOT*
> recommended by Elecraft, but I still would like to try it.  I believe
> that if a small charging current is limited to 30=50 ma or so, any
> danger will be minimized.
> 
>    I'm looking for a no holes type mod, that can be changed back to the
> original configuration if possible.