Car Battery Charger?

Taiwanese tell me you can’t buy them here. This can’t be true, though I’ll believe they are a trade, rather than a DIY/consumer commodity, and so maybe relatively expensive.

Anyone know where to get one?

Nonsense. Of course you can buy battery chargers here and they are dirt cheap. Any motorcycle parts shop will have one for a few hundred NT$.
If you can’t find a motorcycle parts shop just go to your local electronics store and pick up a regulated power supply that can be set in the 13~15v range. For a really cheap solution you use any old power brick as long as the output is in that range, splice some crocodile clips on the leads and be sure you have the polarity right. It will take a bit longer as the current capacity is low, but it will do the job.

[quote=“redwagon”]Nonsense. Of course you can buy battery chargers here and they are dirt cheap. Any motorcycle parts shop will have one for a few hundred NT$.
If you can’t find a motorcycle parts shop just go to your local electronics store and pick up a regulated power supply that can be set in the 13~15v range. For a really cheap solution you use any old power brick as long as the output is in that range, splice some crocodile clips on the leads and be sure you have the polarity right. It will take a bit longer as the current capacity is low, but it will do the job.[/quote]

Erm… aren’t car batteries 12v, but motorbikes are 6v?

And have you tried that power brick solution, redwagon? Are you sure it is safe?

[quote=“irishstu”]
Erm… aren’t car batteries 12v, but motorbikes are 6v?
[/quote]OP has a Zing. 12v battery. It’s only crusty old Yehlangs, DTs and the like that have 6v lighting.

[quote]
And have you tried that power brick solution, redwagon? Are you sure it is safe?[/quote]Yup, works a treat. It’s just slow… maybe 12~24 hours for a bike battery and a few days for a car battery. The nice thing about a real battery charger is that it has enough capacity to fast charge a big battery and it has an ammeter so you can see when the current drops to the final trickle charge rate. The extra smoothing capacitors are nice also. A power brick probably has no caps in it, but with the typical 500mA capacity a little voltage ripple isn’t going to hurt much. Just be sure you get the polarity right and you’re good to go. You could always solder a fuse holder in line and put a 0.5A to 1A fuse in it, just to be on the safe side. Of course you have to use the trial and error method to figure out when your battery has enough charge in it, unless you have a DMM hanging around.

I bought my battery charger at the DIY hardware store kitty-corner from the Liuchangli MRT Station. I can set the voltage at either 6V or 12V, and the current can be set to 1A, 2A, 3A, or 4A. Usually I charge my motorcycle battery on 2A and it takes only a couple of hours to charge. There is an ammeter that shows the current, a red light that shows it’s working, a “reset” switch, and it will stop automatically when the battery won’t charge no more.

Thanks all. I figured you must be able to get them, but Taiwanese of my acquaintance don’t seem to be into DIY and have a rather restricted view of what’s possible.

I’ll buy a purpose made one when I can find one.

Right now, only power brick I have immediate access to is 18V/2.23A, which exceeds Redwagon’s 13-15V range. I have a few Nokia mobile chargers, (product of loose-buy-find cycles) which say they do 200(max 700)mA. I wonder if they’d upset each other if you hooked them up in parallel to get more current, but its a moot point since they only have 12.5V written on them, below the recommended range.

There are a few wee PC Uninterruptible Power Supplies lying around here (university) which must have a battery inside and the means of charging it. When no one’s looking I’ll open one up and see if there are any informative labels.

go to any hardware store… a few hundred bucks will net you a very adjustable, multi use, purpose built charger… for some reason known only unto Matzu they are always blue… but baby blue, so as not to clash with the trucks… :idunno: