Firstly may I say that I am a "Newbie" to this Forum and if I get something wrong I apologise in advance...
I think this is the correct forum for queries... If not would the "Moderator" kindly move it to the correct one?!
I have a controller for the autopilot on my old sail boat, it is powered by a pair of 1600mAh "AA" Ni-Mh cells in series.
These are recharged through a standard motor vehicle cigar lighter socket (12 V).
The instruction book reckons that the controller should run for 5 hours before needing recharging, and can be left on charge indefinately without damage.
I found that it needed recharging more frequently.
I managed to disassemble the thing and bought a pair of 2300mAh cells pre connected in series by the supplier.
But the controller still seems to lose charge fairly quickly.. although it does work.
There are three wires to the cells, one positive and two negative.
One of the negative wires seems to have what looks like a resistor in line. but it doesnt seem to have the usual code bands on
it.
So two queries if one was charging from a cigar socket potentially having an output of around 14.5 to even 15 V what resistor would one fit in line to protect the cells...
A) if they were 1600mAH
and
B) if they were 2300 mAh
There are three terminals at the power input side of the thing but I only get a voltage reading on the pos and neg
terminals. And of course the cigar lighter plug only has pos and neg from it
I'm not sure if the remaining teminal is even connected to one of the three battery wires....
I'm going to try to post some thumbnail photos of the thing so you can see what I'm on about...
All and any help comments etc. welcomed. Cheers Bob E ( Blast doesnt look as though I can paste my Thumbnails to the forum... Sorry)
I think this is the correct forum for queries... If not would the "Moderator" kindly move it to the correct one?!
I have a controller for the autopilot on my old sail boat, it is powered by a pair of 1600mAh "AA" Ni-Mh cells in series.
These are recharged through a standard motor vehicle cigar lighter socket (12 V).
The instruction book reckons that the controller should run for 5 hours before needing recharging, and can be left on charge indefinately without damage.
I found that it needed recharging more frequently.
I managed to disassemble the thing and bought a pair of 2300mAh cells pre connected in series by the supplier.
But the controller still seems to lose charge fairly quickly.. although it does work.
There are three wires to the cells, one positive and two negative.
One of the negative wires seems to have what looks like a resistor in line. but it doesnt seem to have the usual code bands on
it.
So two queries if one was charging from a cigar socket potentially having an output of around 14.5 to even 15 V what resistor would one fit in line to protect the cells...
A) if they were 1600mAH
and
B) if they were 2300 mAh
There are three terminals at the power input side of the thing but I only get a voltage reading on the pos and neg
terminals. And of course the cigar lighter plug only has pos and neg from it
I'm not sure if the remaining teminal is even connected to one of the three battery wires....
I'm going to try to post some thumbnail photos of the thing so you can see what I'm on about...
All and any help comments etc. welcomed. Cheers Bob E ( Blast doesnt look as though I can paste my Thumbnails to the forum... Sorry)
