instructables

How to Make a 12v Battery Charger

by Steve Willson Kujur

Hey! everyone My name is Steve . This Charger features 2 step Charging 1. Constant
Current 2. Constant Voltage
Today i'm going to show you How to Make 12v
Battery Charge it is very safe and stable for daily use "it's very
standard "
With this charge you can charge any type of 12 v
battery even your car battery Click Here to See The Video
Click here to see the new video
it is very necessary in cold days because battery
drains out very quickly . Let's Start

How to Make a 12v Battery Charger: Page 1

Step 1: Stuff I Used

Dc to Dc Step Down Converter - click

Alligator Clip - click
Multi-meter - click
Laptop charger

Dc to Dc Step Down Converter

it's will convert 19 volts from your charger to 14 volts to charge the battery
it'll provide constant voltage and constant current. ( very necessary )
it comes with 3 indicators led (red, blue and green) red show constant current blue show load and
green show constant voltage "full charge"

Features

Input voltage range:6-38 VDC (Note: input voltage not exceeding 38V)
Output voltage range:1.25-36VDC adjustable
Output current: 0-5A
Output power: 75W
High efficiency up to 96%
Built in thermal shutdown function
Built in current limit function
Built in output short protection function

Step 2: Prepare the Adapter

Follow the Steps

1. Cut down the jack of the adapter

2. Remove the outer shield with a blade (Carefully)
3. you'll see 2 wire red and black , black is negative and red is positive (see the image)

How to Make a 12v Battery Charger: Page 2

Step 3: Connection

You can see the label over the board

The red wire of adapter will go to "IN+" positive of the board (see the image)
The black wire of adapter will go to "IN-" negative of the board
tight the screw terminal with a screw driver

Now connect alligator clip

Red alligator clip wire will go to "OUT+" Positive of the Board (see the image)
Black alligator clip wire will go to "OUT-" Negative of the Board

How to Make a 12v Battery Charger: Page 3

Step 4: Configuration

Now you need a multi-meter to set it up

Plug the power to the adapter

Connect the black alligator clip to negative lead of multi-meter and red alligator clip to positive lead
you can see 2 Potentiometer over the board (see the image)
first one is voltage and second one is current
Now select the DC voltage reading on your multi-meter and turn the Potentiometer with a screw
driver until you get 14 volts reading on multi-meter
Now select the Current Reading on your multi-meter and turn the second Potentiometer with a
screw driver until you get 2 amps reading on multi-meter (you can go up to 5 amps all it depend
upon the battery capacity if you have a bigger battery "like a car battery you can go up to 5 amps "

How to Make a 12v Battery Charger: Page 4

Step 5: You Are Good to Go

Just plug the red alligator clip to positive of the battery If You see Red led with Blue led that means it is in
and black alligator clip to negative of the battery constant current charging

and plug the power to the adapter Click Here to See The Video
Enjoy
Thank you for visiting my Instructables
You'll see blue led will glow there it means it is
charging If you see green led glows after some time it
Stay tuned for next Projects
means the battery is fully charged

Most batteries require an unstable (cyclic) charging rate or the battery will develop Dendritic growth
and self discharge. How does your charger avoid this issue?
You are correct lead-acid cells have to have a cyclic charge and not a steady charge...once lead-
acid batteries are charged without the benefit of cyclic charging..over time they will self discharge
/not hold a charge at all.

How to Make a 12v Battery Charger: Page 5

Bro i need charger for 6v battery

I'm surprised @instructables let this fly for so long...

Excellent bro

I must make one , thank you for sharing .

You can use a 12V light bulb if you don't have a DC to DC converter.

//www.youtube.com/embed/JfWXKw0JvJ0

This is a big mistake, NOBODY CONNECT THE AMMETER ON THE EXIT AS IT SAYS ON THE
VIDEO ... IT WILL BURST !!!
Connecting the Amperimeter to the output will burst the XL4015E1 IC or Multimeter.
It seems to me another video to sell the regulating boards, these boards only regulate the Volts, if
placing the meter in series with the battery only gives a maximum of 400mA, even with an
Industrial Well of 12.5A Mean Well 12VDC.
Turning the potentiometer knob W 102 does nothing ...
It sucks this board.
Nice!

Request your advice - I keep a spare 12 volt SLA battery in my car. Been looking for a way to
charge it in the car. Do you see any issues with an approach that would use a boost converter off
the 14.4 alternator voltage as power supply for the step down converter for charging? It seems
cleaner than inverting the car power to 110 volts AC to provide power to a lap top charger. Is there
something I am missing?
I made it.
Warning! Be sure to connect your power source to the board BEFORE you connect the battery! If
not it will release the "magic smoke" inside :) and will not work anymore!
Hey just a heads up your charging sealed lead acid batteries with a lithium charger that cost 1.96
cents. Now arguably there are chargers that can recognize between battery chemistries but even
the cadex I use to analyze balance and charge multi cell banks cannot and must be programmed
differently for each and I mean it's overkill as far as charges go.

In basic terms each chemistry of rechargeable battery has a unique charge and discharge cycle.

lithiums being the happiest out of nickel metal hydride / nickel cadmium and sealed lead acid as far
as being fully depleted and then recharged makes them better for items which will die fully between
charges as well as for items that must be recharged from many different states of charge. Be that
half dead or dead for a week.

Without getting into the theory too much the gist of what I'm bringing up is sealed lead acids may
not necessarily be charged most effectively with a lithium battery charge curve.... nor is it
necessarily the safest way to do so, same as how a lithium drill pack can't be charged safely on a
cheap nickel metal charger, because the charge curves are wrong for the different chemistries....

there are specific chargers for specific chemistries and I'm afraid that the 1.98 charger advertised
for lithium may not be the best choice for your application. Do not put it in your car please.

In this case hopping chemistries while adding a multi stage charger isn't actually adding much as

How to Make a 12v Battery Charger: Page 6

far as safety measures go. Sealed leads would prefer constant voltage than ramped voltage,
utilizing constant amperage up until a full charge would be a better move, then at full charge all that
needs to happen is a switch from full to float or trickle charge. if I'm remembering properly. See a
lithium pack charger increases voltage incrementally, not necessarily the best for a SLA.

Take a peek online looking up different charge curves and I bet you'll catch what I mean real quick.
Still for all intents an purposes good one for making something to fix your problems, right on. Just
thought you could use the advice if you were wondering what the deal was with that SLA now that
he's been on that charger.

Take note using your multi meter the next time you choose to you use your set up, read the battery
before applying charge and then watch how the charger attempts to charge the battery. SLA would
really benefit from a higher voltage than what is desired being the original charge voltage. For
example 14.4 volts from an alternator to your car battery. When the battery is low, I bet the charger
will recognize the voltage and begin by applying a lower voltage than the battery is rated for. This
and this alone is enough to damage the cells, that's why I came to tell you. Anyway best of luck to
you
Your comments are well taken, however, it's not clear they apply here. If you look up the chip and
board the OP is using you'll learn more. The part about 'lithium charger' appears to only be
"marketing". Technically speaking, the little board isn't actually a 'charger' per se. It simply could be
used to MAKE one of those. But I expect the seller gets more hits when that appears in the title!
Other vendors of the same part leave out those marketing buzzwords.
This is the component on the board which is just a regulator, not a charge controller:
http://i-makers.info/resource/XL4015%20datasheet.p...
So it appears to be a voltage and current regulator, i.e. it applies the configured voltage up to a
maximum of the configured current. So from a charging standpoint, I believe it works as a current
limited (not controlled) constant voltage charger. As I have not found the full board schematic, this
is a still an educated guess - but the chip itself is sold as a regulator NOT as an intelligent charger
chip.
You are right to be concerned about properly matching battery chemistry to charging approach.
Many thanks!
I've done some more digging and found some videos of people playing with this board. One of
items lists the additional parts on the board - an op-amp and an LM317 regulator. But still no
schematic.
I bought a couple of these and found that when connected to a gel-cel (SLA) and set for an
appropriate max current, it kept the voltage constant but the current draw went down as the battery
charged.
I have several of these little PSU's, they are general purpose step down PSUs (some provide step
up/down). At the current supplied, charge curves will make little difference. SLA used to be used in
older motorcycles with the crudest of chargers.
I use the bigger PSU of this type to supply a steady current to my Li-Po charger ;)
The voltage should be set to 13.8 V (not 14V) for lead acid charging. I'd also set the current quite
low as the charger may not cope at higher currents. As the voltage reaches the set voltage, so
charging will of course diminish. It's not ideal but is probably more accurate than may mains car
battery chargers and at least as good, if not better as those used in burglar (12V) and fire (24V)
alarms. In an emergency, for a few pennies, who really cares? In the past I've charged Ni-Cds via
a length of co-ax cable with a car battery charger ;)

How to Make a 12v Battery Charger: Page 7

In addition, this unit will charge a "flat" battery, whereas many of the "electronic" car battery
chargers will refuse to supply a charge if the battery voltage is "too low". So useful to get some
charge into the battery.
I have to agree elsewhere, it's more of a "how to assemble" rather than "make", little more than
stripping wires is shown - however still useful to those that don't know.
If you want to know how to charge SLA batteries correctly download the panasonic manual and
read it carefully and you will notice that most chargers don't work optimal.
https://eu.industrial.panasonic.com/sites/default/...
P.S. I would be happy to find a manual for charging LiFePo4 as good as this one.
Great feedback! This was something I was concerned about.

Not auch good idea to adjust With connected battery. voltage Setup without. then put a bulb 12
55w and adjust amp's. charging current should be bat capacy /10 now disconnect bulb and
connect battery.
Nice to know about this $2 DC/DC. I would think that one would want to float PbA around 13.6 to
13.8v. If your power supply has a 5v line, I wonder if we could/should set up a handfull of USB
plugs for phone charging too.
Sorry, but it's not "how to make", It's"how to buy". No offence

Definitely how to buy. Maybe "how to use", if you insist...

it's depend upon views . how you see it

Thanks, I have everything but the converter. $2 backup charger is pretty neat.

welcome

Looks like you clipped the cable awfully close to the connector. A helpful tip is to leave about a 6
inch tail so it can be reused at some point in time.
yeah you are right. in my case I don't need this anymore so i did.

How to Make a 12v Battery Charger: Page 8