Hello all,
I have come across a electric scooter, not the four wheeled carts but a two wheeled stand up type electric scooter. It doesn't have a battery charger for me to recharge the batteries with! It has two small 12 volt batteries wired together to give this little scooter 24 volts. The company produces a 1.0 amp charger, but I am wondering if I hook up my regular 12 volt vehicle battery charger and let it run for a while should that not give it somthing? Other than cutting the wires and charging the batts. individually or purchasing a charger from the company is there anyway to successfully charge 24 volts @ 1.0(or greater for more punch) amps??
Any and all help would be great,
Thanx
RYY
You can't connect a 12 volt battery charger to a 24 volt battery and expect to charge the 24 volt battery at all.
However, you can connect your 12 volt battery charger to each 12 volt battery in turn, and charge them one at a time. If you do this, it would be best (for your batteries) to charge each of them completely.
Also, if you have an isolated power supply, you can connect two 12 volt battery chargers to the two batteries at the same time so you can charge them both in the same time it would take to charge just one. This would involve connecting the + from one charger to the - of the other -- something that may seem scary at first, but is perfectly fine if there is a transformer in your charger.
You should also be careful about what types of batteries you are using. Automotive battery chargers are designed to charge Lead-Acid batteries, and the charge characteristics of this battery chemistry is somewhat different than that of NiCad and Nickel - Metal - Hydride (NiMH) batteries, and are not interchangeable.
Like I said, there is no need to cut the wire connecting the batteries.
Also, charging at a higher current will likely not result in a significant change in performance if the battery is allowed to cool off after it has been charged. I doubt this would be very useful, however, quicker recharge times can be beneficial for other reasons.
Even if you have two chargers and they both have transformers in them I wouldn't hook two batteries wired together (in series). Often times the case is earth GND and negative meaning there is no isolation between the two chargers. You could potentially be hooking the positive and negative together. Regardless I doubt you have two chargers so its likely a mute point. If you have a single charger just charge one at a time (of course observing the polarity of the battery you are charging).
Charging lead acid batteries at a higher rate doesn't give them more "punch" that I am aware of. They are unlike NiCd and NiMH chemistry. There are two different types of lead acid - your typical car battery and a gel cell. The charging characteristics are slightly different. Your best bet is to check the manufactures web page and see what they recomend for charge rates. I suspect your car charger will be too strong for it.
What are the mAh or Ah ratings on the cells? Its likely they are gel cells as well. I think our Triton chargers will test them as well for mAh rating as well as charging (it will charge 24V cells or 2 12V cells in series as well)
ARGH! It's MOOT point, not MUTE point! Mute is the button on your TV remote to shut the darned thing up!
I have a co-worker who always says mute point when he means moot point, and it drives me nuts!
That's a good point about the common grounds; it all depends on the charger, since lots of the ones I have seen aren't that way, so I didn't consider that point.
...And all charging lead acid does at high rates, with either liquid or gelled electrolyte, is promote the formation of hydrogen gas. One good thing about that is it's an easy way to make water, but the bad thing is that's how the Hindenburg zepplin made a bunch of water.
Haha! You already exposed your "moot" weakness in a previous rant! I've been secretly waiting for an inane opportunity to use it - I was gonna wait until Christmas. Consider it an early Christmas gift ;P