Video light charger advice

[greenpants]

I have a Birchley Products 50w video light for my video housing that I got off fleabay. Unfortunatley it didn't come with a charger.

I got one of these from RS which managed to charge the battery pack once before dying. I'm not sure if it was because the unit was faulty or I overloaded it!! I can't take it back because I had to modify it due to the funny connector on the battery pack.

The battery pack is 12v, has 10 ni-cad sub-c cells at 1800mAh each.

The charger I got should be able to go upto 6.6Ah which should charge a 1800mAh pack....shouldn't it....or do you have to add all the 1800mAh's up

I don't know...I'm lost

Is there anyone who understands these things. Did I get the correct charger and it was faulty or did I get the wrong charger and blow it up?

I could get a direct replacment from Birchley but it means sending off a cheque...blah blah.. and I'm far too lazy to do that. I'd rather just order something from RS.

thanks
Dan

[sas steve]

Originally Posted by greenpants

I have a Birchley Products 50w video light for my video housing that I got off fleabay. Unfortunatley it didn't come with a charger.

I got one of these from RS which managed to charge the battery pack once before dying. I'm not sure if it was because the unit was faulty or I overloaded it!! I can't take it back because I had to modify it due to the funny connector on the battery pack.

The battery pack is 12v, has 10 ni-cad sub-c cells at 1800mAh each.

The charger I got should be able to go upto 6.6Ah which should charge a 1800mAh pack....shouldn't it....or do you have to add all the 1800mAh's up

I don't know...I'm lost

Is there anyone who understands these things. Did I get the correct charger and it was faulty or did I get the wrong charger and blow it up?

I could get a direct replacment from Birchley but it means sending off a cheque...blah blah.. and I'm far too lazy to do that. I'd rather just order something from RS.

thanks
Dan

Contact Birchley products mate, he's like the mad professor from back to the future.At least you'll get the right charger once he's invented it specifically for your lamp, alternatively pop into your nearest Maplins,there's usually a mad professor type guy there that will sort you out for £4.99 Steve

[desertrat]

Have a look at this site, it explains quite well what happens to the current and voltage of a string of batteries depending on how they are wired.

Serial and parallel battery configurations

What charger you need depends on how the batteries are wired. If the batteries are 1.2v 1800mAH (1.8a) each, and there all wired in series then the pack would be 12v 1800mAH (1.8amps). If the same batteries are wired in parallel then the pack would be 1.2v 18000mAH (18amps)!


HTH

[simonsticky]

Try here Ansmann ACS 410T Battery Pack Charger

I use 2 RC car battery packs in a dive torch and charge with these.
"Smart" chargers


s

Originally Posted by greenpants

I have a Birchley Products 50w video light for my video housing that I got off fleabay. Unfortunatley it didn't come with a charger.

I got one of these from RS which managed to charge the battery pack once before dying. I'm not sure if it was because the unit was faulty or I overloaded it!! I can't take it back because I had to modify it due to the funny connector on the battery pack.

The battery pack is 12v, has 10 ni-cad sub-c cells at 1800mAh each.

The charger I got should be able to go upto 6.6Ah which should charge a 1800mAh pack....shouldn't it....or do you have to add all the 1800mAh's up

I don't know...I'm lost

Is there anyone who understands these things. Did I get the correct charger and it was faulty or did I get the wrong charger and blow it up?

I could get a direct replacment from Birchley but it means sending off a cheque...blah blah.. and I'm far too lazy to do that. I'd rather just order something from RS.

thanks
Dan

[KevinJ]

Originally Posted by greenpants

I have a Birchley Products 50w video light for my video housing that I got off fleabay. Unfortunatley it didn't come with a charger.

I got one of these from RS which managed to charge the battery pack once before dying. I'm not sure if it was because the unit was faulty or I overloaded it!! I can't take it back because I had to modify it due to the funny connector on the battery pack.

The battery pack is 12v, has 10 ni-cad sub-c cells at 1800mAh each.

The charger I got should be able to go upto 6.6Ah which should charge a 1800mAh pack....shouldn't it....or do you have to add all the 1800mAh's up

Dan

Hi Dan,

If the pack is a nominal 12 Volts then the cells are in series and it's pretty easy. Just 12 V at 1800 mAh.

I can't follow the link to the RS part you ordered as it's timed out, but the Mascot charger they do (type 2215) is one of the best chargers out there for a 10 cell NiCd pack of this capacity. Has reverse voltage protection in case you FCUK it up as well as accepting any input voltage US/UK etc
For a 12 V 1800mAh pack this one (RS 494-2071) will work.

Was it one of these you ordered ?

KevJ