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Charger for DiNotte Pro Series Battery Packs (Or any battery pack that uses 4 AA NiMH or NiCd cells)
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1. The battery pack.
This is what we're trying to charge: a battery pack with 4 AA NiMH cells. This battery pack is for a DiNotte bicycle light, but any battery pack like this can be charged, so long as you put rechargeable batteries in it. (If you try to recharge non-rechargeable batteries, you probably get a small, hot fire.)Also, it's bad to mix and match brands of batteries with the same capacity or batteries with different capacities. You want all of the batteries in your battery pack to be as identical as possible.
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2. The charger.
This is a CH-UN-0409A-RC charger from batteryspace.com. As of mid-2009, it cost $26.95. The voltage range is 4.8V to 10.8V. If you are charging NiMH battery packs with four cells in them, then you need a charger that will work at 4.8V. The charger has a female Tamiya connector on it, a common connector for RC (Radio Control) model chargers.NiCd batteries operate at a slightly higher voltage, so this charger works fine for them. But NiCd batteries may not work for devices that are intended for NiMH batteries and vice versa.This particular charger can charge larger battery packs too, up to 8 NiCd or NiMH cells. However, a battery pack is only as strong as its weakest battery, so if you are going to use battery packs with many cells, you need to pay very careful attention to battery quality. With only four cells, this does not seem to be a big problem.
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3. The Tamiya pigtail.
This is a male Tamiya connector with "pigtail" leads. This also came from batteryspace.com. Strictly speaking, you don't need this: you can just cut up one of the cables that come with the charger. But it's only $1.50, and the result is marginally nicer if you get one of these. Plus, you can still use the charger to charge up toy helicopters if you don't chop up the cable that comes with the charger.
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4. The "9V" battery pigtail.
The battery packs use the same connectors as 9V batteries. Even though these connectors have many uses, they are commonly called "9V" connectors. There are some very durable "9V" connectors out there, but most of them are quite flimsy. The flimsy ones are OK, but get a couple in case you wear one out. Or, buy a sturdy one if you can find it.
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5. Solder the two pigtails together.
Solder the red leads of each pigtail together, and the same with the black leads. If you have a VOM or a continuity tester, you can check that the pin of the square socket of the Tamiya connector goes to the larger, hexagonal terminal of the 9V connector.Notice that I twist the leads together before I solder them. If you don't own a soldering iron, you can get this to work with wire nuts or crimp connectors, although the result will probably be less reliable than with soldering.Also note that I cut the red and black leads on each pigtail to different lengths, so the solder joints don't touch. This way, I don't need to insulate the solder joints from each other so I can use a single layer of electrical tape and get a neater result. After I cut the leads, I strip off about a centimeter of insulation, then twist then solder.
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6. Wrap the soldered leads with electrical tape.
Wrap the result with electrical tape to prevent shorts and relieve mechanical strain. Shrink-wrap tubing would work at least as well as electrical tape.
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7. Charge!
If your charger has more than one power setting, choose the lowest one. It's probably fast enough, and the batteries will stay cooler as you charge them, which is safer. (It's also better for the batteries.) This particular charger has two power settings: 1A and 2A, so we choose 1A. Plug the pigtail assembly into the charger. Plug a battery pack into the pigtail assembly. Plug the charger into the wall. With this charger, you get a blinking light then steady red if it finds a battery it can charge, then a green light when the battery is charged. At least the first time, it's a good idea to supervise the whole charging process, to make sure the battery pack doesn't get dangerously hot or explode or anything like that.If you exclusively charge your battery packs with a charger like this, you can tape the batteries into the pack. This keeps them from bouncing loose on the road. (Or, more likely, off-road.) Consequently, that makes the whole setup more reliable, which is what we want out of a bike light. I tape near the top and bottom, and leave the middle open. The batteries need to give off heat during both charging and use, so I don't want to cocoon them in tape.
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