isaac12345
Member level 2
Hi all,
I am trying to design a constant current battery charger which gives out 230mA to charge a NiMh battery pack which at max charge is 11.8V (approx). My input voltage varies from 12 to 15V. I firstly had thought of stepping up the voltage to 16V@1A with the help of a switching step up convertor and then passing that through a lm317t configured as a constant current source to provide me 230mA for the battery pack. But as I am aiming for good efficiency this approach seems to inefficient. Instead I was thinking of simply designing my step up switcher to provide me 230mA@16V and connect the battery pack to the output via a diode(to prevent the battery feeding the circuit when the circuit's switched off). Is such an approach feasible?In other words, will this circuit provide me with a constant current for 8 hrs? Moreover,is there anything that I should be concerned about in particular, especially regarding the safety aspect of this circuit?
Thanks!
I am trying to design a constant current battery charger which gives out 230mA to charge a NiMh battery pack which at max charge is 11.8V (approx). My input voltage varies from 12 to 15V. I firstly had thought of stepping up the voltage to 16V@1A with the help of a switching step up convertor and then passing that through a lm317t configured as a constant current source to provide me 230mA for the battery pack. But as I am aiming for good efficiency this approach seems to inefficient. Instead I was thinking of simply designing my step up switcher to provide me 230mA@16V and connect the battery pack to the output via a diode(to prevent the battery feeding the circuit when the circuit's switched off). Is such an approach feasible?In other words, will this circuit provide me with a constant current for 8 hrs? Moreover,is there anything that I should be concerned about in particular, especially regarding the safety aspect of this circuit?
Thanks!