Tell me more ×
Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for electronics and electrical engineering professionals, students, and enthusiasts. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 2 down vote favorite

I just got my brand new LiPO battery charger. It is require 12 volt pover supply. I saw people are using car battery, pc power supply to this charger 12 V. but i'm not sure about current it is require.

$ 4 button LiPO battery charger / balancer

Here is spec:

Operating voltage range: 10.0~18.0Volt
Circuit power: max.50W for charging, max.5W for discharging
Charge current range: 0.1~5.0A
Discharge current range: 0.1~1.0A
Current drain for balancing Li-po: 300mAh/cell
NiCd/ NiMH battery cell count: 1~15cells
Lithium battery cell count: 1~6Series
Pb battery voltage: 2 to 20V
Dimension: 135×100×40mm

Will it be ok if i use for power supply plug in transformer which outputs 12 VDC, 800mA?

enter image description here enter image description here

Dont wanna damage any of them.

share|improve this question
To get close to the performance of the charger, you'll need a 5 A power supply. The calculation is simple P=V*I. Here P=50 W and I've used V=12 V and added a bit of safety margin. – AndrejaKo Jun 18 '12 at 15:03
Consumer electronics support is off topic. I realize you are working hard to find a power supply for your unit you purchased but there is no design here. The focus of this is picking a cheap power supply. – Kortuk♦ Jun 21 '12 at 22:48

closed as off topic by Kortuk♦ Jun 21 '12 at 22:47

Questions on Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange are expected to relate to electronics design within the scope defined in the FAQ. Consider editing the question or leaving comments for improvement if you believe the question can be reworded to fit within the scope. Read more about closed questions here.

2 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

Your plugin transformer outputs 800mA, your charger has 50W output max at 12V.

50W / 12V = 4.17A

Transformer you have is too weak for this. PC PSUs have output somewhere in range of 10A on 12V rail, that's why they can be used.

share|improve this answer
Will power supply (Transformer) burn if i use them together? – Pol Jun 18 '12 at 15:19
1  
it could burn, it all depends on a design of charger. – miceuz Jun 18 '12 at 15:25
@Pol: take no chances and look for a PC PSU. Virtually any PSU will do the job, so you will be able to get one for free if you look in the right places. There are also a lot of tutorials on the web how to run a PSU without a mainboard attached. – 0x6d64 Jun 18 '12 at 15:32
What about notebook power supply? Is it to powerful for this charger? It shows 10.0~18.0Volt operating voltage range. I thing notebook charger would do the job. How go think? – Pol Jun 18 '12 at 15:56
1  
it depends on the charger, if it traks available power source, it might work with less performance, otherwise, it will melt your power supply. – miceuz Jun 18 '12 at 16:11
show 2 more comments
up vote 0 down vote

So, I tested yesterday. I't is working perfectly with 12 VDC, 0.8 A power supply. Actually i have 2 more one is 12 VDC, 2 A and another one is 12 VDC, 1.5 A. But they have different input plug. So i could not test them.

share|improve this answer
1  
No, it's not working perfectly. Sooner or later you are going to damage something or start a fire. If you're extremely lucky, you're just limited to about 10 watts of power for charging instead of the 50 watts the charger can output. This is VERY DANGEROUS. – insta Jun 19 '12 at 18:47
Id does not even heat the power supply. – Pol Jun 19 '12 at 19:31
1  
You're still playing with fire. You said specifically "dont want to damage any of them", several people have said you must have a larger supply and given you reasons, you ignored it and did it anyway, and are on borrowed time for one of these devices. – insta Jun 19 '12 at 19:44
I'm steel looking for something more appropriate. – Pol Jun 20 '12 at 5:08
1  
Spend literally a dollar more and find one that's a minimum of 5A. 10A would be safest. – insta Jun 20 '12 at 5:36
show 4 more comments

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.