Hey,
I just bought an older 350W scooter to get to and from work with and need to charge the battery while at work, but there isn't an outlet outside that I can use... and it's the same situation at home (we have a parking spot, but have to bring the scooter inside at night to charge it -- I live on the 12th floor of an apartment building and this is a bit of a pain and would like to bring just the battery inside to charge.
I've looked at the setup and verified continuity from the battery to the female plug which leads me to believe that I can simply rig up the battery to the AC adapter and all should be well.
Eg: [OUTLET] ---> [36V 1.8A AC adapter] ---> [3-prong female to 3 pin battery connector] ---> [battery]
I just want to verify that this charge method won't result in damaged batteries (or worse) before I ask my boss to plug this in under his desk while I work.
Cheers.
That's not a proper charger. A proper charger knows when to stop charging, and it does so by sampling the voltage of the battery it's charging. An overcharged battery can be 'cooked' and loose the electrolyte and otherwise become useless.
Your general idea is good - that you can remove the batteries and directly connect them to something to cause the batteries to charge. However that something had better be a charger, not just an AC adapter. In fact you should be able to hack up something such that matches the connector your existing charger uses to connect to your scooter.
- David Herron, The Long Tail Pipe, davidherron.com, 7gen.com, What is Reiki
Sorry, I am in fact referring to the charger that came w/ the bike as the AC. The circuit inside the charger brick contains more than just a transformer -- IC's, diodes, etc... I'll see if I can get it on paper sometime soon.
Since the continuity tests show the +/- to be directly connected to the battery through the female charge plug on the bike, and not through the controller, I will assume this to be a safe alternative for apartment dwellers like myself and proceed w/ the soldering of my converter board.
I plan on using PC molex connectors to mod the battery and charger leads.... the pins have far more surface area than the ones in use now.
I'll post pics as soon as I can.
Travis