The above charger fails to charge 12v car battery.Appears to be no visible circuit fault and neither of the neons illuminate.Anybody any suggestions please

nick, March 2011

Slight update
I found that one of the diodes was short circuited and no longer being a diode
They are very "odd" looking things (like buttons) and not a type I have come across before and finding replacemnets in the UK appears impossible unless I buy quantities of 5000

Have emailed the manufacturer but I guess I will not hear back from them

Meanwhile...I found a bridge rectifier in my "box of elecy stuff" and wired it in (after checking the transformer was behaving as it should)

I'm getting DC (ish) out now, but when I put it across the only battery I had indoors (an old worn out motorcycle battery) I got the red charge wanring light light up faintly when on high power (10a) and nothing on lo power

I checked the voltage at the leads with no load and its putting out 10v on low and 12.4v on high - with a very low wattage bulb as the load it didn't manage to light it up and instead just feintly lit the red charge warning/reverse polarity LED up and rolled back the voltage :-/

Will try again tomorrow and see what it does when presented with a good hefty battery to charge
One step forwards two steps back
I have a feeling this is going to end up in the bin

Regards
Rob

Rob, April 2011

I know someone with the same charger and his just blows fuses, even when not plugged into the mains
Does this as soon as a 12v battery is attached
Nothing looks toasted or burned and not many components to go wrong looking at the board

I guess I'm going to bring it home and fiddle and play "swap the components" till I find whats causing it

I'm suspecting the transformer has got a short at the moment, but didn't get chance to get a meter on it yet

Good luck with yours :-)

Rob, March 2011