Saturday, September 4, 2010

Acquired some batteries

We found 2 UB1280(datasheet) batteries laying around in the machine shop. Daryl gave us permission to take them for the semester. They are only 8Ah but they should be perfect. A measurement with a volt meter shows that they are holding a charge at about 12.41 V which indicates that they should be relatively healthy.

We still need a way to charge these batteries. I was looking at building this battery charger. At first, it seems completely ridiculous, but after doing a bit of research, I think it may work. The advantage it the cost is low (the article says $3, I think it will be closer to $10) but there is no overcharge protection so we will either have to incorporate a timer, an Arduino controlled auto-shutoff, or take constant measurements during charging.

While these batteries are not ideal (very heavy, smaller capacity than desired), they were free, and they work so this is a good find!

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