Craig said on Wed, 21 October 2009 07:09: > Most of the devices that you can buy to charge a device or battery that needs > less than 12vdc from a car (12vdc) are also pretty inefficient; Mostly, I use what the manufacturer of the device gave me for using in a car - that way I know it's well-matched. I bought one dedicated 'smart-charger' for NiMH AA & AAA cells. It works _only_ from a 'car' socket (it's not an afterthought capability tacked onto a 110/240 device). As to how efficient the 'from 12v' circuits are, I haven't done any tests other than the old "Is it real hot ?" hand test and they all run so cool as to be undetectable. Some of the cables may be 'smart' and some of the devices themselves may have 'smart' charging circuits - today that doesn't cost a lot. After all, in a car cigarette-lighter environment, a device's power-supply should be capable of surviving quite a wide range of voltage - much wider than my gel-cell puts out. If you make a device that is destined to run from a car socket (most cellphones, GPS, VHFs, etc) they will "see" from about 7 volts (when the engine is being cranked) to 15+ (when charging the 'house' battery at max) - plus some wicked spikes. I believe that many modern devices deal with that range more 'smartly' than by just using a resistor. I realise that we are talking about mA here - so it may be moot. I agree that in a camper or on a yacht or launch it makes complete sense to have a meaty inverter; but on a kayak I don't see the advantage of carrying the inverter's bulk & weight, unless there's something I just can't get to run directly from 12v. Best Regards Paul Hayward, Auckland, New Zealand *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Oct 20 2009 - 18:49:07 PDT
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