K
kb0nly
Guest
Why do you guys keep suggesting a relay? You don't need a relay. Scanners and charger wire to battery, DONE.. No relay needed.
This is no different than your car, alternator charges battery, scanner and electronics wired to battery.
The only reason i could see for using a relay is to run the scanners off another power supply seperate from the battery and then switch to the battery with power failure, but thats just adding complication and more power consumption.
As long as your battery charger has an output higher than the scanners draw while on you don't need a seperate supply source. If your scanners pull an amp then you should get a charger thats more than one amp, just to be sure you have overhead to charge the battery while also running the scanners.
I usually use a 1-1.5 amp smart charger, just depends on whats on sale... lol
The last one i setup i used an ammeter and the scanners and weather radio were drawing about 600mA, spiking to about 1000mA (1 Amp) when the scanners were unsquelched and producing audio. With his 1a charger he can easily run the three receivers, and since the weather radio is normally squelched and the scanners see long periods of only short transmissions there is plenty to charge the battery inbetween. The last time he run down the battery it took about 12-14 hours for the battery to fully recover and the charger to switch back to float. A slower charge rate is better for the battery anyway. If your concerned about turn around time because you have frequent outages then use a larger current charger for more available charging current.
No relay needed...
This is no different than your car, alternator charges battery, scanner and electronics wired to battery.
The only reason i could see for using a relay is to run the scanners off another power supply seperate from the battery and then switch to the battery with power failure, but thats just adding complication and more power consumption.
As long as your battery charger has an output higher than the scanners draw while on you don't need a seperate supply source. If your scanners pull an amp then you should get a charger thats more than one amp, just to be sure you have overhead to charge the battery while also running the scanners.
I usually use a 1-1.5 amp smart charger, just depends on whats on sale... lol
The last one i setup i used an ammeter and the scanners and weather radio were drawing about 600mA, spiking to about 1000mA (1 Amp) when the scanners were unsquelched and producing audio. With his 1a charger he can easily run the three receivers, and since the weather radio is normally squelched and the scanners see long periods of only short transmissions there is plenty to charge the battery inbetween. The last time he run down the battery it took about 12-14 hours for the battery to fully recover and the charger to switch back to float. A slower charge rate is better for the battery anyway. If your concerned about turn around time because you have frequent outages then use a larger current charger for more available charging current.
No relay needed...