My Circuit

There is a wide variety of NiCd (nickel-cadmium) battery chargers on the market, but there are not many that can work from an in car 12 V cigar lighter. Such a charger would, for instance, be of interest to campers and caravanners who do not have a 230 V a.c. mains supply available. To satisfy the needs of these users, a charger could be designed for operation from the cigar lighter, but it is, of course, of far greater interest if it could also work from the domestic mains supply. Furthermore, it would also be very useful if a number of cells, say, 1 to 4, of different format could be charged simultaneously. Lastly, another benefit would be if the charger would automatically switch off once the battery or cells have been charged fully. The charger described in this article does all that: it accommodates batteries or cells Type R6 and R14. Switching off after a period of 2 h 30 m, 5 h, or 10 h is arranged by 3-way switch S1. The 2 h 30 m period is for charging Type R6 batteries (1/2 ch...

This circuit is for a temperature controlled constant current battery charger. It works with NICD, NIMH, and other rechargeable cells. The circuit works on the principle that most rechargeable batteries show an increase in temperature when the cells becomes fully charged. Overcharging is one of the main causes of short cell life, hot cells pop their internal seals and vent out electrolyte. As cells dry out, they lose capacity. Theory The transformer, bridge rectifier, and 1000uF capacitor provide around 22 Volts of DC power to run the rest of the circuit. The 7812 regulator drops this to 12V to run the 311 comparator and 4011 nand gates. The start switch is pressed to start the charging cycle. This causes the two 4011 nand gates, which are wired as an r-s flip-flop, to go into the charging mode. The Red LED is lit, and the VMOS FET current switch is turned on. Charging current runs though the battery pack. If the battery starts out warmer than the reference temperature, the circuit wil...