Angel Uk Mains Charger Adapter

[Sk8PadTrev]

Does anyone know the voltage and ampage needed for the angel car charger?

I am making a mains/car socket charger to connect my WDP angel car charger into and so need to know what the output of a car socket is.

Has anyone made one of these in the past and know the specs?

Cheers,
Trev

 

[Beaker]

You can get mains to car adapters at RS (or Maplin I think) for like £15 each.

 

[Mark]

Already gone down this route (several calls to WDP, thanks Frasier) a mains only charger needs to be a regulated version but 6v and 1 amp minimum output with the centre pin being positive switch a regulated power supply to 12v YOU WILL FRY the board!! alternatively use the regulated power supply at 12v and replace the connector with a car power socket and then just plug your Angel charger in the socket...this is the safest way.
The output of a so called 12v car socket (in a car) is actually 13.8v.
The power supplys with the balls to push the power required are not £15 from Maplins or RS. RS are expensive full stop (even if you have an account with them...I do) the Maplins power supply that will do it all without soldering a car socket on is part number RP07H £24.99 (car socket built in) there is a more expensive one, a normal power supply is part number VN10L £14.99 this is a variable power output unit so with some connectors you could use it for other things, you could buy a fixed voltage unit but then it will only be of use for the one job, the car socket is part number FE42V £0.99 both of the power supplys will need to have the outputs measured using a multi meter cos they sometime are a little off from the stated voltages. Another and expensive way to do it is to buy one of those rechargeable battery packs for starting your car in an emergency (they come with a car socket) and jump leads and a light etc but that is the real expensive way to go. Sorry if I seemed to have gone on and on but it is a little strange that WDP don't do a mains charger cos they would sell loads...I mean who would want to leave their Angel in the car for 4 hours to get a full charge...I know we have to but not a great thing to do.

 

[Sk8PadTrev]

Cheers

Cheers Mark,

Thanks for that Mark

Could you just clarify a few things fo me?

You say that a 12v output supply would fry my angel, and that a 6v, 1amp output transformer with a female fag lighter socket is what I need.

I have visited Maplin but they are of the opinion that they dont have anything 'as standard'... please advise further but thanks again and I shall chase them up with those part numbers and see if they are able to help...

Cheers
Skate Pad Trev

 

[speedfreak]

hello - you must have a regulated power supply,you can get two types from maplin (like rs but cheaper ),both cost approx £10 to £15 this i know as i have used these for my team mates for their angles,or the last one i got was from wilkings high street store,it is a uniross model uni 505r,it has various output voltages.you would need to set it to 12 volt negative earth & cutt off the end lead & solder a adapter to the end ( center pin = positive,outside case = negative.).this can be had from halfords approx £2.as long as the output of the regulated supply is approx 300 to 500 ma.also rekkabarrels.com sells european wall chargers for the angel at £21.If you need any more help then e-mail me and i will see what i can do for you.

 

[Mark]

I meant by using 12v would fry the board cos a variable regulated power supply will have 12v as an option if you didn't think and chose the 12v option thing "oh its just like a car lead" you would blow it up. Thats why I rang WDP to get the correct input voltages, the Angel charger you get with it steps the power down from 13.8v to an output of 6v,

The £15 power packs don't have the balls (milliamps) to keep the charge constant enough (makes for a longer charging cycle) (ever tried to charge your mobile phone in the states?...takes a lot longer cos of the lower power output from the wall socket)
Another thing to keep things stable though not a requirement is to use the power pack of whatever type you get plugged into a surge protector (all computer users should already have one of these anyhow) This is the reason given by WDP and Warped Sportz (yes I rang them too, and they sell them as well) as to why mains adapters are not a good idea cos a battery charge is constant (well will decrease under discharge of the stored power) with no voltage spikes
Maplin are in the main just kids who know how to solder wire, the least amount of information you give them the better the part numbers I gave you are the bits you will need so go back in and look at the items whose part numbers I gave you. If you buy the all in one power pack no soldering the other way involves soldering.

The £24.99 power pack "looks" like a CB power pack but has a decent size torroidal transformer, fuse and a metal case plus a built car socket.

Save money if you want by buying the lower milliamp unit but you sacrifice speed and stabilty for cost

 

[speedfreak]

mark - WHO said that fast charging was the order of the day ?,you seem not to aware that trickle charging a battery is in fact better long term for a battery & when charging a angel.no user ever discharges the battery so as not to retain a memory in said battery.the new style batteries in the lcd have no such memory problem & will still trickle charge the battery after full charge has ceased,The 12 volt regulated supply from the power packs connected to the angel charger is as good source of power as connecting to the car power supply.the power supplies that we use as a team are of the above spec & have been in use for years now with no problem at all.Maplin are just suppliers to the public,where as rs are mainley suppliers to the trade.The car voltage of 13.8 volt is approx,as each battery has six cells each having 2.2 volt per cell = 13.2 volt approx,which would decrease & amps increase as the battery gets discharged.

 

[Mark]

I never said FAST charge, I was talking about what it says in the manual about the length of time to get a full charge being 4 hours, with a lesser charging unit it will take in excess of 4 hours to complete the charging cycle the electronics on the Angel will negate the need for further charge when left on for over the required time for the charge to take place. A Fast (word taken from the Angel manual !) charge of one hour wil give you......

I know RS is trade only how do you think I have an account? (I did put that in my first post) Also I didn't say the charger you use is no good ..just slow

The battery Pack in the current Angel is a nickel metal hydride (Nmh) the old battery packs were Nickel Cadmium (Ni-Cad) and yes the old ones did have the problem of memory retention regarding the amount and frequency of the charging regime, so the new battery pack is an improvement over the old version, However the new battery pack can still though not to the same extent suffer from memory charging so until they put Lithium Ion (Li-On) battery packs in Angels you should still discharge the whole unit every so often (not that I even mentioned that before)

I did say that the battery power reserve would decrease and you are using the example of a standard battery in a vehicle at rest, when running the increase of voltage is and can be in excess of 13.8v

BTW the uniross unit trades at £3-5 plus vat

 

[speedfreak]

The best way to help condition & extend the life of the angel battery is to run the hopper off the intellifeed of the gun to allow the battery to at least discharge to some degree & allow the charger to vary the amounts of charge each time the battery is charged.The only problem is that when the hopper is run this way the feed rate is not as fast as useing on board batteries.The average user on a tourney day may shoot 2000 to 3000 shots,hardley any useage from the fully charged angel battery unless used with intellifeed.My angel charger switches from bulk charge to trickle charge after only 15 minutes,rather quick for a SLOW power supply dont you think ????.