70
You will also need to know the capacity of the battery, which is expressed in Ah or mAh. Often, the
charge current is chosen depending on the capacity. In that case, recommendations for charge current
are likely expressed in “C”, or “Charge rate” or A/Ah. If a battery has a capacity of 2Ah, its C is 2A. If a
charge current is expressed as 0.1C, it would be 0.2A for a 2Ah battery, and 70mA for a 700mAh
battery.
And of course you must know the nominal voltage of the battery. Do not mistake the nominal battery
voltage with the voltage you set on the RD60xx. Every battery type has its own recommended
maximum charge voltage, which can be quite a bit higher than the nominal battery voltage. Most
charging strategies combine Constant Current (CC) and Constant Voltage (CV) charging in different
phases of the charge process. For a simple charger like this, you normally make sure that the CV limit
is the maximum charge voltage of your battery. Know that CV limit for your battery.
21.2. Connecting a battery
Before connecting the battery, make sure the power supply is on, but the output is switched off.
The battery should be connected to the black (-) and the green terminals (+), or respectively G and H in
the image in chapter
. Do not connect the battery to the red terminal! Doing so will
damage the power supply.
When connected, and provided the battery provides more than 0.5V, the battery will be detected, and a
battery icon will be lit up at the bottom of the screen. If the battery provides less voltage, it is likely
damaged beyond repair anyway. The various battery charging functionality in the RD60xx is not
available unless the battery is detected.
You can see information about the battery on multiple screen configurations, the most verbose being
this screen (press
“
◄
”
or
“
►” one or more times to get to this layout):
The battery icon is shown mid bottom, and the battery detailed information is shown at the bottom of
the right column. The battery icon should be white (not grey), and the text “CHARGE: DETECT” should
be shown. The t-BATT line here refers to the external temperature sensor, and will show “---” if not
connected.
