Quote:
Originally Posted by rocketrob
Doing this is really "old school," as most guys today use seperate 12v power supplies instead -- but, recalling from the old days, using a seperate road car battery can be problematic from many fronts.
First, if you're just charging off your road car's battery there is a possiblity that you could drain it to a point your road car won't start (seen it happen).
Second, a car battery is really not designed or intended to be run much below its normal 12v rating - and why a car's alternator/charging system is designed to kick in and top it off as you're driving down the road. So, once a road-battery drops much below 12v it won't be able to deliver sufficient voltage for you to charge your RC packs to their optimum level.
Third, most road batteries will not stand up (at least not for long) to repeated deep discharges (from charging your packs) and recharges. It's what they call in the battery-biz, a "battery killer."
And finally, if this is what you're intent on doing it would be my advice to get a 12v "marine" battery (this is what we did back in the day), or what people use on their weekend fishing/pleasure boats - which are specifically designed to be discharged and recharged repeatedly.
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What "new school" fields do you know of that has a mains power supply to connect to?? Most of the tracks here in the UK do not have power supplies for racers to plug into as they tend to be in the middle of nowhere therefore a 12v battery is essential.
I use a leisure caravan battery which is brilliant. It stores enough charge for both me and the bulk to do a full weekends national without needing to charge it back up