I have built my own bike using a scooter rear wheel on top of the rear wheel of my bike. It pulls a trailer fill of sla batteries and does okay but now I am building a nimh battery pack. My question is this... how the heck can i charge the batteries using a sla float charger. I know it is a stupid thing to do but I still want to do it.
How can I calculate how much current to put into the battery. I get the 1.5 rule, but how do I know how much has been drained from the battery. Suppose I ride an 12ah hour battery thirty minutes how can I tell how much current has been used. Can I read the voltage and figure an approximate amps used.
Im pretty dumb here so keep it simple please.
hi Deacon,
unless you can get hold of large format Ni-mh for *really* cheap,
avoid nimh like the plague.
ni-mh cells can't be parralelled due to the voltage drop at full charge (if you do you get a sizeable fire)
to effectively charge a nimh pack, you need an Ah counter.
to ineffectively charge a nimh pack, charge at 0.3C for 5 hours.
i highly recommend going lithium instead (both cheaper upfront and more reliable)
Matt
Daily Ride:
2007 Vectrix, modified with 42 x Thundersky 60Ah in July 2010. Done 194'000km