Dirt Cheap DIY Battery Charger

A very simple design you can build yourself from

salvaged parts
by Julian Edgar
Click on pics to view larger images
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This article was first published in 2008.
Back in Zero Cost Trickle Charger we discussed how you could assemble a trickle charger from a discarded
plug-pack (wall wart in the US) and a single resistor. That design could charge at about half an amp perfect for
keeping a car battery topped-up. Now its time for its big brother it will charge at up to 3 amps. Or, with bigger
components, up to 12 amps.
And again this is a charger you can make for nearly nothing.
Huh? Why Bother?
If you look at the amp ratings of chargers available in shops, youll see plenty of cheap car battery chargers. So
why would you bother building the DIY design shown here?
There are two answers.
First, unless the commercial charger is large, heavy and expensive, it will be struggling to charge at even
one-quarter of its advertised rating. The widespread use of an RMS rating (rather than average) is great for
getting a big number, but not so good for charging the battery...
Second, even a cheap charger will cost a lot more than the one described in this story.
Starting Points
All battery chargers need a way of dropping the voltage from the house supply voltage of 240V (or whatever your
countrys supply is) to a voltage suitable for feeding into a battery. In addition, the AC supply needs to be turned into
DC.
Transformer
Transformers are passive devices that can alter AC voltages. So connect the high voltage side of a mains-rated
transformer to household power and, depending on the design of the transformer, out the other side will come 7, 9, 12
or 15 V whatever the transformer is designed for.
In fact, even thats not quite the case a transformer with a secondary rated at (say) 12V AC will have a higher
voltage output unless it is loaded to its full current capacity. The greater the difference that occurs between the loaded
and unloaded outputs, the worse is what is called the transformers regulation. In most applications, a transformer
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with poor regulation is inferior, but in a very simple battery charger, a transformer with poor regulation actually works
rather well. More on this in a moment.
OK, so you need a transformer its the heart of the charger. But new transformers capable of more than an amp or
so are always expensive. Always. So how can we build a battery charger at near zero cost? Theres a short and
simple answer - the availability of discarded transformers. Specifically, those transformers designed to power 12V
halogen MR16 bulbs often used in household and commercial lighting.
These transformers can now be picked up at garage sales, the tip, through eBay and the like for near zero cost. Like,
literally a few dollars each.
Important note: the transformers I am referring to typically look like the one pictured here. They are usually rated at 50
watts.
Fully electronic designs are much smaller they look like this. They are unsuitable for this battery charger. They
normally have electronic marked on them.
So the first step is to salvage at least one ex-halogen light transformer. If you keep your eyes open and like visiting
junk places, this is surprisingly easy.
Rectifier
The transformer produces low voltage Alternating Current (AC); now how do we turn that into Direct Current (DC)?
The answer is again easy. All you need is what is called a bridge rectifier.
These are available very cheaply new (eg Jaycar Electronics ZR-1324 at $5), or can be salvaged out of lots of
electrical goods. Theyre easy to spot theyre one of the few 4-legged devices that youll find in the power supply
section of a piece of equipment. The bigger they are, the better. That applies even more so if theyve obviously been
designed to bolt to a heatsink.
Fuse
As a safety measure, youll also need a fuse. A car fuse and holder are fine, but literally any fuse holder that will hold
a 4 or 5 amp fuse can be used. Heres the sort of fuse holder that youll find in many discarded consumer items.
Parts
So to summarise, youll need:
A 12V ex-halogen light transformer
New or salvaged high current bridge rectifier
Fuse and fuse holder
Plus a few other salvaged bits and pieces like cable and maybe a wooden base plate on which to mount the parts. I
picked up this wooden plate from the shop at the local tip for $1. Turned upside-down, it made a perfect mounting
base.
Building It
The circuit diagram for the battery charger looks like this.
Mains power gets connected to the transformers primary windings. Any 3-pin mains power cord cut from a discarded
consumer item can be used. The earth lead should be connected to the transformers metal frame (a screw is
provided) and the neutral and active leads connected to the primary of the transformer. Normally, this is clearly
marked. If it isnt, or youre at all unsure of what youre doing, seek help from an electrician or electronics
technician. Wed suggest avoiding putting any switch in this supply simplest is just to plug it into a power point and
switch on at the power point.
When the cover is closed, the mains connections should be completely isolated from unwary hands. If a proper cover
does not exist, the transformer must be placed in an insulated box. Always disconnect the cord from mains
power when doing any work at all on the charger.
Following the transformer is the bridge rectifier. Theres no need to be worried the connections are easy. Look at the
terminals of this device. Almost always, youll find them marked as:
~, ~, +, -
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The two ~ connect either way around to the transformers secondary (ie low voltage) side, the + is the positive
power output and the - the negative power output. At this current, no heatsink will be needed on most large bridge
rectifiers but after charging for a while, you may want to check its not getting too hot to comfortably hold. If it is, add
a heatsink. I used a smaller bridge rectifier and so installed a heatsink when the system was first built. Heatsinks are
salvageable from nearly any electronic product that is thrown away.
Check the transformers output rating and size the fuse accordingly. Most halogen light transformers are marked at 4
amps, so put a 4 amp fuse in the output. I didnt have a 4 amp fuse so used a 5 amp fuse. It still blew quite quickly
when the output leads were connected together. (The transformer I used had a marked short circuit output of 23 amps
so a 5 amp fuse will certainly blow if a short circuit occurs!)
These transformers also have an internal over-temp cut-out that switches off the transformer at around 45 degrees C.
Youll need some clips to connect the charger to the battery. I happened to have some brand newies around, but if you
dont, they can be salvaged from an old broken battery charger or bought new. The red clip connects to the positive
wire coming from the fuse, and the black clip connects to the negative terminal from the bridge rectifier.
Thats it - then away you go...
Clamps
Because a battery charger is likely to be moved around a lot, clamp both the output and mains power cables.
Here the mains power cable clamp can be seen note that the cable has been increased in diameter to match
the available clamp by wrapping the cable in tape.
Heres the battery charger output. A cable tie has been used to prevent the cable from slipping through the
clamp.
Using It
If you connect the charger to an absolutely dead flat battery, its possible the fuse may blow this charger isnt
suitable for that application. Thats because too much current will attempt to flow and the fuse will chop that short. As
indicated above, if you connect the output leads together, the fuse will definitely blow.
So this is a basic charger the current limiting is only by the fuse, and theres no timer or any way of assessing when
the battery is fully charged you simply disconnect it after an appropriate time.
However, the situation is actually better than it first appears. As indicated earlier, these transformers tend to have poor
regulation so drop in output voltage when the load is high. This means the charging current on a dead flat battery
(eg 10V) is actually much lower than will occur when the charger is connected to a slightly flat battery with a voltage of
(say) 11.8V. So in a sense, the charger protects itself. (But dont rely on this and leave out the fuse!)
On test, this charger outputted a no-load 17V DC and flowed about 3 amps when connected to a battery with a flat
voltage of 11.6V. Here it is charging an SLA (sealed lead-acid) battery at 2.4 amps continuous. That makes it ideal for
overnight charging of car batteries that are down a bit, or even charging smaller SLA batteries of the sort used in
electric bikes and the like.
Remember, dont leave the charger connected permanently just leave it connected long enough to bring up the
battery voltage to a charging 14.4 or so volts.
The pictured charger cost me about $5 to make.
Conclusion
Keep your eyes open and accumulate literally less than a handful of bits and its possible to make this effective
battery charger for nearly nothing!
A Better Design?
We also considered lots more sophisticated designs using auto switch-off, series resistors, and multiple
transformers.
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For example, you can use the eLabtronics Voltage Switch to disconnect the charge when the battery voltage
rises sufficiently. You can also use a series resistor to limit current, as we did in Zero Cost Trickle Charger.
However, each time we increased the complexity, the cost and difficulty of construction also went up.
So in the end we kept coming back to the simple design presented above. It works, in its most basic form takes
only minutes to make, and can cost nearly nothing.
Its pretty hard to beat that list of attributes...
However, if you can find a more powerful transformer, there is one upgrade you can make that necessitates only
one more component.
Halogen light transformers are also available in greater than 50W configurations the one shown here is 200
watts! Team it with a heavy duty bridge rectifier (definitely mounted on a heatsink thats the new requirement -
although it doesnt have to be as huge as this one) and the maximum charging current will rise a long way.
However, because the nominal voltage output of the transformer is the same, higher charge current will occur
only when the battery is flatter to start with (ie the voltage sag wont be as great so more current will flow), or you
charge multiple 12V lead acid batteries in parallel. Rate the fuse to suit the new charging current maximum eg
15 amps.
Note: these higher power transformers are far harder to find, especially as discards.
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