Monday, August 3, 2009

Battery Tender Plus

Battery Tender Plus www.batterytender.com that I use on the motorcycle, airplane and QRP batteries died while in use at the airport. After drilling the rivets out of the case and putting the meter to it the power transformer was found to have an open secondary. Last weekend I was able to attend the Berryville, VA Hamfest www.svarc.us/hamfest and purchased a replacement transformer # 241-6-20 from this sheet www.signaltransformer.com/data/datasheets/241. The unit seems to be working correctly with this transformer installed. Cost for repair was $5. The original transformer was 1.25 amps and this one is 1.5A so maybe it will last for a while. The Dual Primary transformer allows for 115/230VAC operation and you need to jumper the primary appropriately. Parallel for 115 and series for 230 volt operation. Several small battery chargers that I have used over the years have failed and in three cases it was the transformer. Radio Shack also sells one that worked in another small 12V gel cell charger for about $10 now.