Charger Question

Pie · Post by **Pie** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 8:16 pm

im gettin pretty damn tired of clicking my bit on and off a normal charger, but i dont have the skills to make one of those variable box thingies, and i dont have an AC adapter at the right voltage... so i was wondering:

if i just wire an AA battery up to a charger, is it going to have the power to charge the 1.2v bit battery? orrr, would 2 work better..? im kinda leery of using two, because 3V charging seems a little overkill.

maybe one of those C 1.5V batteries..?

any help anyone? thanks!

(charging a single cell, 150 mAH)

kwikbb · Post by **kwikbb** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 8:45 pm

hey pie, yeah the single AA isn't gonna cut it... you definetly need the juice of of 2 AA batts.
i don't know if you feel comfortable soldering but ph2t did a small tut. on swapping out the 45 sec. capacitor for a 90 sec. capacitor.

here's the link;
http://bitpimps.lixlink.com/pages/phpFo ... +capacitor

you sportin' a tomy or a clone? i'm not sure if it makes a difference, but i'm sure that ph2t can clarify it.

Pie · Post by **Pie** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 9:00 pm

koo koo.. 2 AA's.. heh, 40 for 10 bucks canadian, i can spare a couple..

im kinda gettin the hang of soldering... but the thing is, i dont knwo where to find that little.. timer thingy. or... whatever, the black... thing. yeah.
i've been charging off a clone controller, but i think ima chop one of my tomy chargers for this.

i only have Bits ... no ms, no zz, no clones..

i kinda want a zz tho.. just to see. ohhh, and there's one little issue.. i found that charging with higher voltage charges faster, (makes the battery hot faster), but seems to have a shorter runtime. is this actually true? thanks kwibb

*whoops, just one more question.. is soldering batteries safe? like those AA batteries.. i kinda wanna solder them, cuz taping wires sux. are they gonna blow up...?

kwikbb · Post by **kwikbb** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 9:19 pm

No problem, glad i could help! ^_^

well i never attempted to solder alkaline cells before, just nimh's for dual cell mods... don't know if there's a difference bettween them and nicad or nimh.

as far as soldering goes, well with the nimh and nicads you need to be kwik with the iron... too much heat'll fry'em. i'd look into the whole alkaline thing first though, don't know if i'm being over cautious... but like i said it's not something that i had considered before.

edit: oops almost forgot... re: shorter runtime-
i gave my single cell 160mah bit a 45 sec. charge on my 4AA charger and got a 5 min runtime, so to answer your question i've never run into that problem before.

Havok · Post by **Havok** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 9:33 pm

Another suggestion would be to melt the solder on the wire first....to make a little tab on the end of the wire...then melt it to the battery....the heat won't be on the battery as long, might be a little safer.....

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 11:34 pm

For chargers I use Cannonball chargers, They come with 3 AAAs, but I rip out the timer, and wire one with 2 batteries for single cell cars, and 3 batteries for dual cell cars. Been working out great, except peak chargeing dual 150mah cells basically kills the AAAs the first time, and I can squeeze one more good charge out of them, but it's hard to get a peak. Fine for me because I have a cigar box full of AAAs, but it could get expensive for someone else, and I' quickly running out of batteries, my cigar that I keep bring up isn't full anymore. It's almost empty.

I'm going to have to wire some wall wart type thing real soon.

As far as soldering alkalines, I've done that, and I've soldered on little mercury, and lithium batteries too. With any battery, heat is the enemy, you want to get in and out quick. It's reccomended you use at least 60-watts to solder batteries, but I get away with 40 because I'm

. I always pre-tin the battery, and the wire, and blow on everything after I solder it, and sand the battery surface before I solder anything, to help the solder stick. If it doesn't stick the first time I set it aside, and let it cool. the key is not how hot you get it, but letting heat spread.

Pie · Post by **Pie** » Sun Jun 22, 2003 1:14 am

ahh.. i tried soldering batteries, but it didnt quite work out so well for me. i was freaked out like hell to heat it up, even with only 30W, cuz i heard button cells Do explode.. so i was kinda touching the battery with solder then pulling away, so that didnt do much for me. maybe sanding, like crazydave did, would help... next time

thanks for all the advice ... it's great to actually have some people help out when there's a problem ^__^

so anyway... i slapped together a quick stand-alone with tape and wire, and ended up with 2 batteries with a charger sittin on top. it's a little bit smaller than my bit

. the really good news is, this thing tears ass when it comes to charging. i gotta kinda hold the wires down when charging, but a 1 minute charge runs this thing about 13 minutes. And it's the fastest i've ever seen my bit actually run. usin a 6 tooth and a 3.2 actually ran waayy faster than my old 3.5+7tooth. Pie-->:-D

One little question (again).. if i wire in a LED in series, will it draw significant current/voltage? maybe it should be wired parallel eh?

heh, i went kinda nuts 2nite.. soldered on a new antenna, and rewireded my controller. The antenna doesnt do anything, but looks good... but rewiring the antenna with solid copper wire really, REALLY helps. i saw a good increase in range, and pretty much the only thing left to do is remove the crip cap..

Thanks again dudes.. sorry 'bout the longass post

Post by **CaboWabo** » Sun Jun 22, 2003 11:36 am

LEDs in a series will give you one LED slightly brighter than the other LED. (the LED first in line from the power source will get most of the power, then push the rest that it's not using on to the other LED)

LEDs in parallel will give you same brightness on each LED, but it'd be more of a bugger to try and put in a micro switch to turn them on or off.