adapt a 3 amp battery charger?

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I have a cheap battery charger that I have had for a long time. It's
rated at 3 amp/12 VDC. I've used it over the years to keep a variety
of lead acid car batteries charged during periods of battery
inactivity. It's worked fine for that, as far as I can tell.

The markings on the charger are:

input 60 cycle .6 amp 117 VAC
output 12 VDC 3 amp Full wave rectifier

If I put a digital voltmeter on the charger leads, when the leads are
NOT connected to anything, I show a reading of 13.56 VDC

I have a real small "nominal" 12 volt lead acid motorcycle battery,
rated at 10 amp/hour.......that I want to charge. I'm told I should
use a maximum of 1 amp current to charge this little battery.

Is there a quick and dirty way to adapt my 3 amp charger so that it's
limited to 1 amp for this cycle battery? Keep in mind that the charger
is a cheap one, and almost for sure not sophisticated in any manner.

Thank you...... Lee Carkenord

 

[John Fields]

I have a cheap battery charger that I have had for a long time. It's
rated at 3 amp/12 VDC. I've used it over the years to keep a variety
of lead acid car batteries charged during periods of battery
inactivity. It's worked fine for that, as far as I can tell.

The markings on the charger are:

input 60 cycle .6 amp 117 VAC
output 12 VDC 3 amp Full wave rectifier

If I put a digital voltmeter on the charger leads, when the leads are
NOT connected to anything, I show a reading of 13.56 VDC

I have a real small "nominal" 12 volt lead acid motorcycle battery,
rated at 10 amp/hour.......that I want to charge. I'm told I should
use a maximum of 1 amp current to charge this little battery.

Is there a quick and dirty way to adapt my 3 amp charger so that it's
limited to 1 amp for this cycle battery? Keep in mind that the charger
is a cheap one, and almost for sure not sophisticated in any manner.

 

[mike]

Light bulb works too. Tail light with both filaments in parallel.
mike

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[Ross Herbert]

I have a cheap battery charger that I have had for a long time. It's
rated at 3 amp/12 VDC. I've used it over the years to keep a variety
of lead acid car batteries charged during periods of battery
inactivity. It's worked fine for that, as far as I can tell.

The markings on the charger are:

input 60 cycle .6 amp 117 VAC
output 12 VDC 3 amp Full wave rectifier

If I put a digital voltmeter on the charger leads, when the leads are
NOT connected to anything, I show a reading of 13.56 VDC

I have a real small "nominal" 12 volt lead acid motorcycle battery,
rated at 10 amp/hour.......that I want to charge. I'm told I should
use a maximum of 1 amp current to charge this little battery.

Is there a quick and dirty way to adapt my 3 amp charger so that it's
limited to 1 amp for this cycle battery? Keep in mind that the charger
is a cheap one, and almost for sure not sophisticated in any manner.

Thank you...... Lee Carkenord

What you need is an add-on charge controller for your cheap battery
charger. A kit is available from Jaycar in Australia for just such a
device. (watch out for line wrapping)
http://www1.jaycar.com.au/productVi...2=K&pageNumber=&priceMin=&priceMax=&SUBCATID=