Using a 12 V battery charger as a power supply

Morgan3820

Morgan3820

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Using a 12 V battery charger as a power supply
I need to download the logs of my Avidyne IFD 440. Tech service says it’ll take 40 minutes to do that I really don’t wanna run my battery that long. can I use a 12 V battery charger as my power supply instead of the starting battery.
 
I would not do it directly. My guess is that ordinary battery chargers do not have good filtering on their outputs and rapid voltage variations can damage your avionics. (They are not power supplies). But, a good battery can act as an adequate filter for the charger. So, if you hook up your battery charger (set it to low) to your installed battery in the plane and your Avidyne is installed, you can power up your avionics and the charger will keep your battery charged. If this is what you have in mind, you should be OK.
 
I have no idea what the power requirements are for that piece of equipment or the voltage of your plane.

For my experimental I connected my 12V 30A ham radio power supply while doing testing and set up of my avionics.

There are very inexpensive power supplies available that will cover what is needed over the 40 minute period.

Using a battery charger could be problematic as noahfong noted above.

YMMV ... as I'm speaking from the world of experimental aircraft.
 
Morgan3820 said:
Using a 12 V battery charger as a power supply
I need to download the logs of my Avidyne IFD 440. Tech service says it’ll take 40 minutes to do that I really don’t wanna run my battery that long. can I use a 12 V battery charger as my power supply instead of the starting battery.
Click to expand...

No! Not directly.

As noted above need a battery as the power source and hope the charger is regulated properly.

If this is going to be a regular occurrence?, time to think about a ground power source if that is possible with your plane?
 
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Most car battery chargers are not regulated that well. But using one on a good battery will be regulated just fine. Some may or may not have poor filtering and that may be a concern depending on the charger.
 
I have used a 12 volt automotive charger with a battery many times to power radios. Never a problem. Radios also have internal voltage regulation. I do feel sorry for owners stuck with those ridiculous 24 volt systems.
 
Leave the battery in the circuit and attach the battery charger to it. As has already been mentioned, most battery chargers are not suitable to be used as a power source for one of a few reasons.
 
As mentioned above, batt charger on the battery.

To be safer, I used my old battery, hooked that up to ship batt (same polarity to same polarity, I.e., parallel), then hooked a charger to the old battery. 2a setting.
 
I connect a battery charger the the airplane's battery and load my Garmin stuff all the time. Simple. Never any hint of a problem. Same with the Cessna for things like programming digital fuel instruments, etc. Easy peasy.
 
I picked up one of the Jackery solar generator boxes at Harbor Freight and really love it. It offers USB, 12v, and AC power output and can be charged with a 12v power supply, solar panels, or 12v car output. That should fit the bill and will be quite useful for camping trips and such.
 
A power supply is vastly different than a charger.

the battery will help.

a real power supply is optimal.

40-minutes and you’re worried? You need a better battery
 
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