Cordless Charger Timer

glenn bradley

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Location
SoCal
I have seen some great charging station ideas here. I have utilized my space or have plans to that drove my charger into the house. I would frequently forget to unplug it so I got a timer; the 24hour kind for making it look like your home by turning lights on and off. Well I would wander off and let that thing cycle for a day or two sometimes as well. I know, I'm hopeless.

I put a small shelf over the washing machine, split the duplex outlet and added a wind-down timer to the top outlet. They came in 1 hour or 12 hour and I wanted about 90 minutes. I think I have now protected myself from . . . myself. Not as elegant as others I envy but it'll do the job.
 
I've seen a number of people do this. Is it really necessary?:dunno: I thought most chargers went into a trickle mode once the batteries were fully charged. Not so?:huh:
 
Good idea!:thumb::thumb: I use a similar timer for the flood light that lights the path from the shop to the house and another for the JDS air cleaner. That's really a good idea--why didn't I think of it?:eek:
 
Hey Glenn, I'm guessing you didn't mean to post the same thread twice in the Jigs & Fixtures forum, so I merged the two threads into this one. ;) I know this computer stuff is confusing and a little frightening, but it's OK...we've got your back. :rofl:

Rennie, I think the primary reason for doing this is to cut down on power consumption. Even when idle, I believe most chargers still draw AC current.
 
I've seen a number of people do this. Is it really necessary?:dunno: I thought most chargers went into a trickle mode once the batteries were fully charged. Not so?:huh:

In the modern world? I don't think so. I really should have mentioned that my Makita and DeWalt are around a decade old with only one battery rebuild each. The chargers are not smart. You have to watch the lights to go out or solid respectivly. The manual state to remove the battery after charging. These are circa 9.6 ni-cads? Wow, what power! :rofl:. But they just keep going.
 
Hey Glenn, I'm guessing you didn't mean to post the same thread twice in the Jigs & Fixtures forum, so I merged the two threads into this one.

Thanks Vaughn. I knew I fat-fingered something when the pics disappeared. I re-attached them and wondered if they would pop up somewhere weird. Sometimes no matter how simple the directions, human error will prevail. :D
 
In the modern world? I don't think so. I really should have mentioned that my Makita and DeWalt are around a decade old with only one battery rebuild each. The chargers are not smart. You have to watch the lights to go out or solid respectivly. The manual state to remove the battery after charging. These are circa 9.6 ni-cads? Wow, what power! :rofl:. But they just keep going.
I'll need to double check the manuals on my Ryobi's. Might be a good reson to start phasing over to the new green ones. :D
 
Question for the electrical engineers:

If a battery is plugged into a charger that's not plugged into the wall, does the charger drain the battery? When it's not charging, does the power transformer suck juice from the battery? (I'm guessing there's a diode in the circuit that only allows the current to flow one direction.) Any ideas?
 
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