---------------------------------------------------------- AeroElectric-List Digest Archive --- Total Messages Posted Sat 11/03/12: 2 ---------------------------------------------------------- Today's Message Index: ---------------------- 0. 10:28 AM - Please Make A Contribution To Support Your Lists (Matt Dralle) 1. 10:26 AM - Re: Re: Walmart battery charger. (Jeff Page) ________________________________ Message 0 _____________________________________ Time: 10:28:54 AM PST US From: Matt Dralle Subject: AeroElectric-List: Please Make A Contribution To Support Your Lists Dear Listers, There is no advertising income to support the Matronics Email Lists and Forums. The operation is supported 100% by your personal Contributions during the November Fund Raiser. Please make your Contribution today to support the continued operation and upgrade of these services. You can pick up a really nice gift for making your Contribution too! You may use a Credit Card or Paypal at the Matronics Contribution Site here: http://www.matronics.com/contribution or, you can send a personal check to the following address: Matronics / Matt Dralle 581 Jeannie Way Livermore, CA 94550 Thank you in advance for your generous support! Matt Dralle Matronics Email List and Forum Administrator ________________________________ Message 1 _____________________________________ Time: 10:26:07 AM PST US From: Jeff Page Subject: AeroElectric-List: Re: Re: Walmart battery charger. I bought the Schumacher SEM-1562A while at AirVenture this year. It was all that was available when I needed to recharge a battery I brought along from a UPS that I was using to recharge my iPad. Although the battery had previous abuse prior to AirVenture, I did expect it to perform adequately. I recharged it five or six times at AirVenture and each time, it seemed like it was not fully charged. When I got home, I determined that the battery was no longer able to hold a charge. Now that fall is here, I have some car-size batteries out of a couple of boats in my basement. They had already been fully charged and were on another maintainer, so are in good shape. Just for fun, I put the Schumacher on one of the batteries, expecting it to go to maintenance mode almost immediately. Instead, it began trying to recharge the battery, with 14.7 volts. It briefly went as high as 15.2 ! There was not a lot of current (maybe 150mA if I remember), since the battery was already charged. I expected that current to drop off and then voltage to drop to a maintenance level. I stood and watched for 20 minutes. I gave up waiting after the current dropped to one-third of the original value, with the Schumacher still putting out 14.7 volts and then disconnected it. The manual states that the maximum charging voltage is 14.8 volts, which seems very high to me, but probably would not harm a car battery. A smaller battery might overheat ? The manual states that this device is for charging and maintaining small batteries (eg. motorcycle), but that while it is suitable for maintaining large batteries, such as car and marine deep cycle batteries, it's charge current is too low to charge those. Unless I understand incorrectly, 14.8 seems to high to charge a small aircraft battery, although perhaps the voltage is unimportant if the current is limited. I did pull it apart to look. Lots of high precision resistors, but no potentiometers to adjust. Until I learn more, I will not be using this Schumacher on any batteries I do not want ruined. Jeff Page Dream Aircraft Tundra #10 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other Matronics Email List Services ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post A New Message aeroelectric-list@matronics.com UN/SUBSCRIBE http://www.matronics.com/subscription List FAQ http://www.matronics.com/FAQ/AeroElectric-List.htm Web Forum Interface To Lists http://forums.matronics.com Matronics List Wiki http://wiki.matronics.com Full Archive Search Engine http://www.matronics.com/search 7-Day List Browse http://www.matronics.com/browse/aeroelectric-list Browse Digests http://www.matronics.com/digest/aeroelectric-list Browse Other Lists http://www.matronics.com/browse Live Online Chat! http://www.matronics.com/chat Archive Downloading http://www.matronics.com/archives Photo Share http://www.matronics.com/photoshare Other Email Lists http://www.matronics.com/emaillists Contributions http://www.matronics.com/contribution ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- These Email List Services are sponsored solely by Matronics and through the generous Contributions of its members.