Motoring Discussion > Voltage sensing battery charger Miscellaneous
Thread Author: smokie Replies: 18
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New Mon 3 Aug 20 18:09 
 Voltage sensing battery charger - smokie
I have one of the above from Lidl. I've not used it a lot.

I also have a couple of 12v car batteries, one of which wasn't knackered when I took it out of the car and has been sat there ever since.

Following SWMBOs reported sighting of a fox, I thought I'd set up a temporary wildlife camera in the garden using a WiFi camera I had handy so I sorted it out with a box for a bit of protection and it's been running overnight for quite a few nights (not actually touching anything of much interest - except one night it got the space shuttle!)

Today I thought I'd charge the battery for the 2nd time since it's been out there.. The charger has no meter or gauge so I've no idea what status the charging is at (though it has been used in anger in the past) - it just has an on/off light and a voltage indicator, and others which come on when it's full or trickle charging. There is a button but it isn't designed to allow you to change the voltage.

On plugging it in today it is showing it as a 6V battery and I can't get to any other options (which I think is probably right).

So does the charger work out the battery voltage from the remaining charge, and I've let it run too low? If so should I just let it carry on at 6V until it shows full then reconnecting will set it off on 12V? Or have I killed the battery? Or need I borrow another charger to do it?

(I tried the charger on the other battery and 12v lit up straight away)
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New Mon 3 Aug 20 19:19 
 Voltage sensing battery charger - Manatee
I'd see if the leaving it on and possibly restarting it works first. If it doesn't then you might need to start it off with a non-automatic 12V charger.
Last edited by: Manatee on Mon 3 Aug 20 at 19:19
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New Mon 3 Aug 20 19:22 
 Voltage sensing battery charger - Shiny
Try charging to full as 6V first. Then switch to 12v.
If no joy, you have to jump it to a 12v battery, connect the charger and start charging then disconnect the jumped battery. Any pair of wires with the ends held or twisted on will do for this if you don't have jump leads.
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New Mon 3 Aug 20 21:47 
 Voltage sensing battery charger - Zero
wire the two up in parallel and charge them both.
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New Tue 4 Aug 20 00:02 
 Voltage sensing battery charger - smokie
Thanks, will attack this tomorrow most likely. I threw away a decent but shabby 12v charger when I got the new one.
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New Tue 4 Aug 20 04:28 
 Voltage sensing battery charger - No FM2R
>>I threw away a decent but shabby 12v charger

Well that was silly. What possessed you? I hope your wife doesn't look at husbands that way.

My battery charger is very shabby. It's an old one in a metal case, rather than plastic, so no doubt it'll go some years yet.

Surely battery chargers are something you replace when thhy break, not when they're merely shabby?
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New Tue 4 Aug 20 09:02 
 Voltage sensing battery charger - smokie
True, but it had been dropped and the plastic case was half missing and taped over. For the amount it ever got used, that really wouldn't have mattered.

But how many men can say they've never been tempted by a "Middle of Lidl" impulse buy :-)
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New Tue 4 Aug 20 11:23 
 Voltage sensing battery charger - CGNorwich

>> But how many men can say they've never been tempted by a "Middle of Lidl"
>> impulse buy :-)
>>

I am that man. The reason I never go in Aldi or Lidl is that pile of substandard tat being picked over by the sort of people who attend car boot sales.
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New Tue 4 Aug 20 11:28 
 Voltage sensing battery charger - sooty123
SQ
>> I am that man. The reason I never go in Aldi or Lidl is that
>> pile of substandard tat being picked over by the sort of people who attend car
>> boot sales.

You can go but not buy any of the odd ball stuff in the middle.
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 4 Aug 20 at 11:30
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New Tue 4 Aug 20 11:33 
 Voltage sensing battery charger - VxFan
substandard tat?

I think 99% of stuff I've bought from the Middle of Lidl still works fine.

They couldn't afford to give the products a 3 yr guarantee if it was substandard. Mind you, the thermal printed receipt generally fades out within a year, so I photocopy it ;)

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New Tue 4 Aug 20 12:10 
 Voltage sensing battery charger - smokie
Maybe you have a bit of a point CGN, I've only ever been to two car boot sales in my life. One as a buyer then I tried selling and came across members of the general public who put me off ever going again!!! Mind you that hasn't stopped me doing middle at Lidl :-)
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New Tue 4 Aug 20 12:26 
 Voltage sensing battery charger - Zero

>> I am that man. The reason I never go in Aldi or Lidl is that
>> pile of substandard tat being picked over by the sort of people who attend car
>> boot sales.

Just bough a box with a selection of jubilee clips from the MoL. 26 ranging in size from 7 to 44mm. Very useful selection and far cheaper than anywhere else.

Its actually something I knew I needed, rather that something I didn't know I wanted.
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New Tue 4 Aug 20 16:19 
 Voltage sensing battery charger - Lygonos
Was rummaging around coxmotorparts.com where I get Honda ATF for the FRV and other odds-and-sods, and noticed this:

www.coxmotorparts.co.uk/honda-shop/genuine-honda-optimate-3-battery-optimiser-charger/

No doubt similar can be found for under 60 notes but it piqued my interest.

Not sure it works on 400V 45kWh battery packs like on the MG though.
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New Tue 4 Aug 20 17:06 
 Voltage sensing battery charger - smokie
A bloke I know says desulphation prolongs his battery life enormously, and I think he said he can revive old batteries too.

An update to my problem - I left the charger on the battery all day yesterday and today and a while back it is showing Full, but still won't change to 12v. GOing to see if I can borrow a 12v charger tomorrow.
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New Tue 4 Aug 20 17:11 
 Voltage sensing battery charger - Zero
wire the two up in parallel and charge them both.
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New Tue 4 Aug 20 18:06 
 Voltage sensing battery charger - smokie
Yep that's my plan for tomorrow.
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New Wed 5 Aug 20 08:20 
 Voltage sensing battery charger - smokie
Connected in parallel and charging. The charger threw an error when it was the last thing connected but it was OK if I connected it then added the other battery.

I'm just going to give it an hour in the first place to see if that fixes it.

Last edited by: smokie on Wed 5 Aug 20 at 09:14
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New Wed 5 Aug 20 09:15 
 Voltage sensing battery charger - smokie
After an hour it is now going into Pulse charging mode when connected only to the offending battery. This is hopeful as the manual says:

"The mode is suitable for the charging/regeneration of empty, used and overcharged 12 V lead-acid batteries.
When the charger is connected to a battery and the charging process starts it automatically recognises the battery voltage. It will switch to pulse charging mode if the voltage is in the range of 7.5 V ± 0.5 V to 10.5 V ± 0.5 V.
This pulse charging process is continued until the battery voltage has increased to 10.5 V ± 0.5 V."

The multimeter is saying 8.61v so that's about right
Last edited by: smokie on Wed 5 Aug 20 at 09:21
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New Thu 6 Aug 20 08:18 
 Voltage sensing battery charger - smokie
It pulse charged for much of yesterday but was charging normally when I went to bed. It's now on 11.8v so it's getting there, but it seems awful slow!! Still, I'm in no rush...

Thanks for the tips!
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