Yes there are specialized chargers for small lead acid batteries. I bought a Lead-Acid gel-cell for powering a Sirius charger to field charging Nicads. It worked 'fantastically', at least until I got a clue. Anyway, when I got lead acid battery, I bought a special charger, explicitly for small lead acid batteries. They take a long time to juice up, and you have to keep them charged. They die quick if you let them discharge without load over the course of a year, or don't maintain them properly. If you want a successful experience with the gel cell, you may want to read up on the characteristics of lead acid batteries, they have their drawbacks. The Lead Acid charger I got I think was $20. It is just a large transformer with two LEDs, and some nominal black-box circuitry (I guess), all about a 3"x3"x2.5" case which plugged directly into the wall. Its an over-night charge. After field charging for a few months, I grew weary of it. I found a way that easier and probably more effective... I just carry a few extra fully-charged nicads for the radio and receivers. I charge and top them off with the Sirius charger in the car on the way to the field (using the lighter jack). Usually after flying the receiver and xmitter batteries aren't near fully drained. Since you haven't fully discharged the batteries, it doesn't take long to recharge them with the Sirius charger. If I have a lot of drained batteries to charge, I take em' down to the car 30-60 minutes or so before leaving. By the time I'm there I can have three or four packs fully charged for both the xmitter and receiver. To keep a jump on the recycling, I just leave an xmitter battery and receiver battery plugged into the Sirius charger in the car all the time during the flying season, and sometimes rotate them when going to the store, or mailing a letter, etc... (then capping them off before flying only takes a few minutes per battery). The Sirius goes into very (very) low drain 'conditioning mode' and the LED's flash green when the (NiCad) is topped off. Never seen the Sirius have any impact whatsoever on the car battery even when I left it plugged in and didn't drive at all for days at a time. So if you drive almost every day, no problem. Carrying a gel-cell of decent capacity and a charger to the field along with all the other gear is a hassle, because a decent capacity lead acid cell is heavy, and then breaking it out and actually using it was more trouble than its worth, especially since you can't really 'quick' charge the lead acid batteries in the way you can with NiCads, and since you have to be religious about properly maintaining a lead acid cell. Managing a single large lead acid gell-cell at home is more trouble than quick-charging a few NiCads in advance in the car, I've found. Initially you think you've got the hot setup, able to fly all day, charge in the field, but you eventually realize you're just trading off baby sitting NiCads for baby sitting your gel cell, and its not any more convenient at all. Less so, in fact. -Paul Garry Whitfield wrote: > > I use a 17ah sealed lead acid battery for fast charging on-field. > How do I re-charge properly. Is there a battery charger for this type of > battery? At this stage I charge off an ordinary overnight car charger on > a low setting. Is there an peak detect system for this type of battery? > Help appreciated. > GARRY > > RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and >"unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
