Power Problem

[Tumbledown]

Hi everyone,

Recently got into the hobby and i'm enjoying it. I have purchased a second hand Cellpro 4s Gold charger, currently awaiting delivery, to help me eek out the best in my batteries.

The problem is how do I power it? I'm obviously trying to get the best price as money is going into spares at the moment! I've searched the house and I have a 12v 5amp power pack but how do I get ot to fit? What size are the banana plugs?

A lot of questions I know but I don't intend charging from my car or lugging a big battery around, and there is very little info out there.

P.S I do have an old computer 350w PSU but which wires do what? And would it be safe? I have a 5yr old who is very inquisitive!

Thanks in advance

[Vikki]

I can't really help you here but I just wanted to say that I've seen quite a few posts of late where beginners have bought chargers that require an external power supply. I only have a few batteries and I got a B6AC charger that had an 80W power supply built in. It's more than enough for me at this current time and I got it new for around £45.

Just a heads-up to others really who are contemplating a charger.

Best regards.

Vikki.

[psychosaffa]

hey mate, heliguy do a plug in supply for about £14 +pp. but there is someone here that makes power supplies for the same kinda money, and his will serve you much, much longer than the one from heliguy. id try and get hold of him as he may be able to make a plug in one for you.

[cjcj1949]

Banana plugs are 4mm. You can get them from Maplins. You can also stick the wires into the 4mm sockets and secure with matchsticks. (Recomended by man at Apex models). Make sure the wires don't touch. The 12V power pack may be ok if its for a laptop. It needs to be a solid 12V and not an unsmoothed 12V. If it's for a laptop it will be ok. You can use a computer power supply as well, but it may need a dummy load to get it going. Mine doesn't but others have said theirs does. Again it's safe so long as little fingers can't touch anything live. The 12V is the yellow wire on a disk connector. Computer supplies are a bit optimistic on current, but 5 to 10 amps is no problem. Once they are strong enough to pull plugs out they can seriously hurt themselves with old style 13 amp plugs that are all metal pins. The newer ones are shrouded for a short distance from the plug. I told my kids that if they touched electrical things it could kill them, as it can. Once they can use a screwdriver you have to rely on them. Hopefully you have rcbs on your 13 amp ring main and this will trip if they make a connection from live to earth, but not live to neutral.

If you want more detailed info just ask and post pictures. A cheap meter is a good thing to buy.

[Tumbledown]

Hi and thanks for the replies.

I've decided to go down the converting a PSU route, as suggested there was plenty of info out there. So off to Maplin tomorrow to get the 4mm Banana sockets. If I can't get it to work then I will look at other options.

Although a beginner I selected the Cell Pro because of it's features and reviews after scanning the net for different chargers. I can't see why manufacturers don't include a power source they would sell more I'm sure.

[cjcj1949]

If you are not sure that post details of what you have and what you have done. You will get sensible advice on this forum.

[psychosaffa]

good shout on converting your own power supply, will be well worth it in the long run!! these chargers are a bit more advanced, and therefor the companies leave the option of power supply up to you, so you can choose your own or make your own. i have built a 24v 1400w power supply for under £50. its not as pretty as others on the forum but it serves a purpose.

[Tumbledown]

IMAG0299.jpg

Not going to plan. No power at terminals, when I touch the main heart sinks with testers the main house fuse trips.

Any ideas?

[cjcj1949]

I expect that's heatsink. Not sure what you mean by testers. You've disconnected a lot of wires. Not sure why. You only needed to disconnect the disk drives and then connect to 12V and 0V which should be yellow and black. You haven't connected neutral and earth have you? You do need a meter though. You'll probably have to start from scratch again. Why is there a green and a black wire connected (soldered)?

The usual thing is not to go into the power supply at all. You just use the external connectors. You probably do have a short from neutral to earth. You need to check that you have more than 1Meg resitance between earth and neutral. There is a very bad chance that the psu is damaged and dangerous.

[Tumbledown]

Hi
I have a volt meter (tester), I joined the green and black as multiple web sites say this is a way to trick the psu into thinking it's been switched on.

On further research my psu may need a resistance on the 5v. My friends got a spare old psu so I may try that.

[cjcj1949]

There is a lot of rubbish on the internet. I'm a graduate electronic engineer and it amazes me the advice that is given. It may be ok to short green to 0 volts on some power supplies, but it won't be in the specifiaction that they will work like that. The green line will be in current limit and that may or may not switch off the other lines. Can you go back to scratch and see if the power supply works as originally connected? I have a computer psu that doesn't need a load on the 5V line to start it. It may well be faulty though.

If you were maesuring volts with your tester you wouldn't have blown/tripped a fuse. Voltmeters take next to no current.

[Tumbledown]

I'm going to use a different PSU now as i don't trust the last one, (I must confess it was difficult drilling the case and the vibration may have shifted something). Is there a guide for an easy way to convert, as I said there's a lot on the net.


Update

Tried different, old type PSU and it works perfectly. Just going to tidy it up now.

[cjcj1949]

Good. If you drill holes be careful with the swarf. Make sure you don't get any where they can cause a short. Did you need to connect green and black to make it work?

[Tumbledown]

Luckily I don't think i'll need to drill, although if i do i'll make sure to drill the cover separately. I did have to connect the green and a black, i'll solder and then shrink wrap it.

I'll post a picture of the finished product working soon!

[cjcj1949]

That wire is not a power supply but a logic signal, if it comes from the 20 pin ATX connector. It's PWR_On hopefully with a bar over it, meaning it is active low or needs to be connected to 0V or black to turn on the power supply. So the information you got was correct.