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FINALLY, a Gel Cell charger

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Robert McGwier

FINALLY, a Gel Cell charger

I recently purchased the 1000 MA Gel Cell charger from
Ham Source for $18.95. This is the very first charger
I have tried that actually works on my gel cells and for
topping off my larger gel batteries. The very first one. It is
nicely package and has very nice terminals for attaching
cables and they supply two very useful ones with the
package.

Bob
N4HY

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Tom Hammond-3

Re: FINALLY, a Gel Cell charger

Hi Bob:

Thanks for the glowing report... care to share an Internet link to this
vendor? If available?

73,

Tom N0SS

At 09:51 AM 5/1/05, Robert McGwier wrote:

>I recently purchased the 1000 MA Gel Cell charger from
>Ham Source for $18.95. This is the very first charger
>I have tried that actually works on my gel cells and for
>topping off my larger gel batteries. The very first one. It is
>nicely package and has very nice terminals for attaching
>cables and they supply two very useful ones with the
>package.
>
>Bob
>N4HY
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Elecraft mailing list
>Post to: [hidden email]
>You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
>Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
>http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>
>Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
>Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com

Robert McGwier

Re: FINALLY, a Gel Cell charger

Ooops. I meant to

http://www.hamsource.com/

Bob
N4HY

Tom Hammond wrote:

> Hi Bob:
>
> Thanks for the glowing report... care to share an Internet link to
> this vendor? If available?
>
> 73,
>
> Tom N0SS
>
> At 09:51 AM 5/1/05, Robert McGwier wrote:
>
>> I recently purchased the 1000 MA Gel Cell charger from
>> Ham Source for $18.95. This is the very first charger
>> I have tried that actually works on my gel cells and for
>> topping off my larger gel batteries. The very first one. It is
>> nicely package and has very nice terminals for attaching
>> cables and they supply two very useful ones with the
>> package.
>>
>> Bob
>> N4HY
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Elecraft mailing list
>> Post to: [hidden email]
>> You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
>> Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
>> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>>
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
>> Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
>
>
>
>

Steven Pituch

RE:FINALLY, a Gel Cell charger

Hi all,
I would be suspicious of a charger like this. I do not see how the charger
would know what the AH rating is of the battery. If the charge rate was not
adjustable then you will be overcharging any battery under 10 AH in size.

The proper way to charge a battery is to give it a slow charge of no larger
than c/10. For a 7 AH battery that’s 700 ma. (I believe) the way the
uc2906/uc3906 charger chips work is they go into a taper charge at 13.8
Volts and then stop charging at about 14.4 Volts at about a c/100 or 70 ma
current. At that point the battery is assumed to be 100% charged. Then it
will switch to float charge and maintain the voltage at 13.8 volts. This
agrees with the Powersonic recommendations.

A regular 13.8 volt float charger will never properly charge a battery. It
will only maintain the charge after the above regimen is followed. This 1000
ma charger from Ham Source says it is a 14.0 volt charger. In that case the
battery will not fully charge, resulting in an immediate permanent loss of
capacity, and death to the battery in 1 or 2 years. The UC 2906/3906 chip
is a good way to properly charge a battery but you must set it up manually
for the correct AH of that battery. Done properly the gel cell could easily
last 10 years.

I wrote an article on a gel cell charger for QRPARCI magazine many years
ago, that I have used for many years and the gel cells are 10 ears old. I
have a copy at:
http://users.ev1.net/~spituch/Steve's%20Page/Radio/Charger/charger.htm

It basically follows the recommended charging regimen specified in the
Powersonic literature. But the UC2906/UC3906 does it so much better, that I
am going to build a separate charger for each of my critical (ARES)
batteries.

The UC2906 literature is in a PDF at:
http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/uc2906.html#features

There has been a very good discussion of this topic (right now) on the
Flying Pigs List. I know, its quite an impressive discussion considering
that List. ;>)

Actually a 3906 based charger customizable by the builder would make an
excellent mini-kit for Elecraft to feature.

Regards,
Steve, W2MY/5
http://users.ev1.net/~spituch/, Corpus Christi, TX, ELl7
QRP/ARCI 8351, FPQRP 1025, NJQRP 25, QRP-L 269, FISTS 3150, ARS 142, NEQRP
281, NWQRP ??, 10-10 61720, NORCAL 691, K2 #402

-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces+spituch=[hidden email]
[mailto:elecraft-bounces+spituch=[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
Robert McGwier
Sent: Sunday, May 01, 2005 3:28 PM
To: [hidden email]
Cc: Elecraft Mail
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] FINALLY, a Gel Cell charger

Ooops. I meant to

http://www.hamsource.com/

Bob
N4HY

Tom Hammond wrote:

> Hi Bob:
>
> Thanks for the glowing report... care to share an Internet link to
> this vendor? If available?
>
> 73,
>
> Tom N0SS
>
> At 09:51 AM 5/1/05, Robert McGwier wrote:
>
>> I recently purchased the 1000 MA Gel Cell charger from Ham Source for
>> $18.95. This is the very first charger I have tried that actually
>> works on my gel cells and for topping off my larger gel batteries.
>> The very first one. It is nicely package and has very nice terminals
>> for attaching cables and they supply two very useful ones with the
>> package.
>>
>> Bob
>> N4HY
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Elecraft mailing list
>> Post to: [hidden email]
>> You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
>> Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
>> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>>
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
>> Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
>
>
>
>

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