Home made battery trickle charger

I was a bit bored today, so I made a trickle charger for the bike. Not sure what the power unit came off but a lot of stuff is charged by the unit I have used. I had a look around and I have numerous of these in my workshop, for various items. So you may have one hanging around your not using if you fancied a cheap alternative to the standard type bought. I'm not saying you should use it instead of a conventional charger, it's just another option should you ever get stuck for a charger or need an additional one.

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For this project I have used a power supply with an output of 12volts DC at 500Ma (DC = Direct Current) (mA = milliamps)
The 500ma is safe to use as a trickle charger as that is a very low output.


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This is the power unit before I cut the end off.



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With this unit there are two wires black & black/white. It is usually black for earth and black/white for power/live. I have double checked this by plugging the unit in and connecting a volt meter the the two ends. As you can see the volt meter is showing -12.37 instead of 12.37 this is because I have the red & black volt meter connections the wrong way around. If I had them the other way around (the correct way) there would not of been a - before the reading.  So that reading is firstly showing me that it actually is a 12v charger. Secondly it is showing me the correct way for the battery connecting O rings or alligators clips as I have used to be the other way around.

PS, please don't do as I have done and hold the live wires, it isn't safe.



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Here we have the 12v / 500mA charger shown to be working, with a small volt reader and desulfator connected as well.


Oh dear aren't I naughty, I have taken the top off the battery that says 'DO NOT OPEN' I suppose that would be correct if you did as the manufactures wants and never topped it up, meaning your battery would die quicker and you would buy another one from them.

(I am not an electrician, so follow these instructions at your own risk)

Good write up Dave, goes to show what can be done with a little thought by those with the nohow  

You are very clever Sir.

Crash wrote:

Good write up Dave, goes to show what can be done with a little thought by those with the nohow  

Ken wrote:

You are very clever Sir.

Thanks for the Compliments guys but I have to be honest, just had a route around & found the bits needed to do what Doc had a while back said could be done. Seems to be working well so far, love a freebee & saving cash for other bits.

Interesting stuff, It's surprising what uses you can find from things we'd normally throw away