[Elecraft] charger recommendation for k2 internal battery

[Steve.Lawrence@ITWFEG.COM]

Dear Gary,
The PowerSonic PSC-12500-A is a simple but well designed 2 stage automatic 
charger built by a big SLA battery manufacturer.  This is an automatic 
charger giving a rapid charge followed by a float charge once a full 
charge is sensed, and is suitable for 12vdc SLA type batteries in the 2 - 
10aH range.  Have a look at:
        http://www.power-sonic.com/slacharge.html
for details.  I believe I purchased my at through Mouser (www.mouser.com). 
 I believe these were given as an example of a suitable charger by 
Elecraft at one time. 

However, I must add that I charge my K2 battery outside of my K2.  In 
fact, I operate with it outside the K2 as well.  Perhaps I'm paranoid of 
all that acid in an SLA type battery (hopefully) well contained mounted 
above the circuit board I so lovingly assembled.  An external battery 
gives me the flexibility to experiment too!  I've seen comments here on 
the list concerning the polarity protection diode and the need to 
compensate for it's presence and voltage drop of about 0.5vdc.  I'm not 
sure how this would affect the use of an automatic charger like the 
aforementioned PowerSonic unit.

Steve
aa8af





Gary Lee <kb9zuv@arrl.net>
Sent by: elecraft-admin@mailman.qth.net
04/28/2003 10:35 PM
 
        To:     elecraft@mailman.qth.net
        cc: 
        Subject:        [Elecraft] charger recommmendation for k2 internal 
battery


Have a k2 with kbt2 installed.  Have a rs 3.5 amp power supply, but only 
puts out 13.6v according to my rs volt meter.

Would like something to fully charge my battery, and according to list 
wisdom, I need around 14.2v out of the supply.

Any recommendations for a charger?

Point of background, preferrably something I don't need to adjust.  Am 
totally blind, and hate to have to rely on the volt meter all the time.

Wouldn't have to run the whole k2, just keep it charged.

Thanks for any help.