Battery Charger

[wingit312]

How does it work? I am try to figure it out with no result.

[cehs]

A battery charger is simply a power source with a voltage more than the desired end voltage and then limits the total voltage and amperage so as NOT to overcharge or overheat the battery being charged.

[ct2]

A battery charger is simply a power source with a voltage more than the desired end voltage and then limits the total voltage and amperage so as NOT to overcharge or overheat the battery being charged.

I would describe it this way to you
An AC Transformer that is wound (lets say) to be 110 volts on the primary side and 13.8 volts on the secondarys

THIS IS STILL AC POWER and it will be untill a rectifier
(weatstone Bridge) or some other form of rectifier diode is placed in the secondary line

It is there that the ac power is rectified and becomes Direct Power

[cehs]

Originally posted by ct2
A battery charger is simply a power source with a voltage more than the desired end voltage and then limits the total voltage and amperage so as NOT to overcharge or overheat the battery being charged.

I would describe it this way to you
An AC Transformer that is wound (lets say) to be 110 volts on the primary side and 13.8 volts on the secondarys

THIS IS STILL AC POWER and it will be untill a rectifier
(weatstone Bridge) or some other form of rectifier diode is placed in the secondary line

It is there that the ac power is rectified and becomes Direct Power

I stand corrected.

A battery charger is simply a DC power source with a voltage more than the desired end voltage and then limits the total voltage and amperage so as NOT to overcharge or overheat the battery being charged.

[wingit312]

Thank You!

[ct2]

A battery charger is simply a DC power source with a voltage more than the desired end voltage and then limits the total voltage and amperage so as NOT to overcharge or overheat

I stand corrected . It was my understanding that a transformer be it a power source for an appliance -or a battery gharger/car starter(like my 225 amp)
Is fed ac power and since a transformer only changes the voltage/current the ac power would still be present at the secondary terminals

and at that point the ac power is rectified by a diode or combonation (Weatstone bridge) and DC power is the result
(like my sears 225 amp battery charger/car starter)

My battery charger recently stopped charging batterys and started releasing smoke. I took it apart and noticed that one of those things that only allow power to travel in one direction, had taken up smoking and since there were 8 of them I replaced them with state of the art silicone rectifiers(space age stuff) (very high tech)

at first I thought they were extra parts myself, but after building two bridges, I had DC power again -clean- with no smoke

[mattm]

I always thought it was magic.

[R12rules]

Actually, you lose so much voltage drop across the circuit you really should be starting out with a much higher output voltage, Alternating Current, than just 13.8.
That is, if you ever expect to see fourteen or fifteen volts Direct Current for your final output.
And this voltage will drop once you are connected to your load source, the batter being charged.

The plates inside the battery begin to resonate or, "rattle", due to dirty Direct Current voltage. To clean up that power source, you can add capacitors to filter the resonance which comes thru your silicone rectifier from the alternating current.

DC is flat current, no wavering or resonating sine wave. While AC is just the opposite. It is spiking and such the whole time.
Some battery charges simply chop off half the sine wave of the AC power and drop the voltage down to useable levels.
This dirty DC power shortens the life of all batteries!

Visit nuts and volts dot com to find yourself a simple schematic for your charger. It'll be fun and you will learn something too. Plus you will have the best charger this side of NASA or MIT!