Current Limiter for 12v battery charger

[steptoe]

Hi,

I have a 12v car battery charger, that I want to try and adapt to use as a motorcycle battery charger, yes it can be used as it stands, but motorcycle batteries don't need 4-6 amps ramming into them, it will do the job, but I've been told they could boil the battery

My idea is to reduce the current to say 1amp maximu, using a current limiter ......

Is this possible, or is it not going to be worth the effort, just to see if it can be done.

I am aware that it would have to have dropping 4amp to 1 amp, so somehow has to get rid of 3 amps worth of heat, quite a lot !

Thanks

 

[flatulent]

battery treatment

Batteries always last longer when they are stressed less, both in charge and discharge. You are well advised to limit the current on charge. The best bet is to limit the current enough that it takes the time available to fully charge the battery. I would suggest a limit of 1/10 or 1/20 of the amp-hour capacity of the battery.

You may want to use some other power source, such as a bench top power supply with current limiting, for the charging if you do not need to do the charging very frequently. This is what I use for gelcells.