E-Flite Pinnacle +

[wjcjr]

As you may know or will know now I am primarily new to electric RC, definitely flight.
On this charger;
www.e-fliterc.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=EFLC2020
The connectors provided for DC connection are gator clips. Manual states charger must be hooked to a considerable 12V DC powersource. Does this statement mean I can not fashion/purchase a 12 volt outlet adapter and must connect unrestricted to my source, i.e battery? I checked E-flite's website and a 12V outlet adapter was not offered.
Hope this question is not too.....naive?

Wayne

[SCC]

This is what i use when using my Shulze charger at home.

www.rctoys.com/rc-toys-and-parts/RM-PPEAK/RC-PARTS-THUNDER-POWER-PRO-LITE-LI-POLY-BATTERY.html

Wayne.
If your going to buy another charger, get one that does lipo's as well.

[wjcjr]

This is my charger for now, I feel foolish tossing aside a decent charger. It is AC/DC I guess my question is can I instead of hooking the charger to the battery utilize a outlet plug?

Wayne

[SCC]

Oooops
Sorry Wayne. I did'nt realize that you owned the charger allready.

Do you mean you want to plug up the charger to the house mains?

[cjg]

Wayne, for a few dollars more you may want to consider something like the Duratrax ICE which appears to have a lot more features, plus charges LIPOs.

[wjcjr]

OOOops let me try to be more specific,

Recommended from HZ I purchased this charger on the same invoice as my plane, approx. 2 weeks ago. The charger comes with a wall plug in for house circuitry and works rather well.

The hook-up/connection I am referring to, sorry I may have been too vague, is the field hook-up to a 12 Volt DC battery. Instead of a 12V DC outlet plug-in ( cigarette lighter style ) the supplied connectors are gator clips to hook directly to your car battery.

My question lies in there. Can I fashion my own 12V DC outlet plug-in ( cigarette lighter style ) to connect to the power supply leads without sacrificing performance?

It appears E-flite does not offer such an adapter for this charger and as stated before just supplied gator clips to directly hook to vehicle battery.

I hope this is more clear. I have seen other chargers I would like better than this but that is after the fact and I can say this one works great I just need a more convenient way to hook up to the 12V DC supply of my vehicle.

Thanks all and I will look forward to your new responses.

Wayne

[SCC]

I now completely understand the question and i can honestly say, i do not know.
Good idea though. Worth a call to E flite to get a definite answer.

[mrmugen]

I believe most cig. lighters in automobiles run a 10A fuse. I am sure the charger will not draw that much. I use chargers with 110v-converted to 12v with cig style ends all the time.

[wjcjr]

I was assuming a fuse was in line to the lighter to prevent the car-flame thing. I just gave an e-mail to E-flite, maybe I'll call later too. I will get to the bottom of it and inform in case others have the same issue.
Thanks all for hanging in on this subject.
Wayne

[bigtone]

So, what are you saying mrmugen (110v-converted to 12v with cig style ends)?

Your DC charger is charged by a 110v AC to 12v DC. I'm a fan of your work please take a pic!

[mrmugen]

Here is a pic of what I use for some of my chargers. It is a simple thing to make and costs most people nothing (most folks have these class 2 power supplies around their house for all sorts of electronics) to do. It is a 12V 1000mah output adapter. Just simply solder up the cig end and there you go.

[wjcjr]

Got an e-mail from E-flite that it could take 72 hours to get my answer and was invited to call the tech line. I called the tech line and they said go for it and attach a 12V outlet plug to the DC lines. The tech said this is a very common thing people do to this charger rather than use the gator clips for direct hook-up to the battery. I confirmed with him three times about the amp. draw, I think he was getting mad, he assured me the draw is too little to concern yourself with.

So to wrap up the charger can now work in the house with the usual old 110 connector on the AC leads as I have been using it and now I'll have the cigarette lighter plug-in on the DC leads

Wayne

[cjg]

That eflite charger has a max charging rate of 5 amps. Most cig lighter outlets could handle that.

Mr Mugen I'm surprised your 1 amp ac hasn't been overburdened as most charges draw more than 1 amp.

[wjcjr]

All,

I picked up a 12V accessory plug today and soldered and shrink-wrapped to the DC leads. The plug has a 5 amp fuse, charger has a built in 7 amp fuse and car has a 10 amp fuse.

I plugged it into the car today day and so far so good.
Wayne

[mrmugen]

cjg It gets warm but thats it. I have used one of them for about a year now. I never need to charge more than 1.2 amp though. Maybe this is why my luck has stretched so far. I have used a 12v deep cycle for years before this and was kind of a hassle. Might invest in a good power supply soon.