How to build a battery charging station??

[pmangels17]

Our battery charger has the chargers built in, but additionally it is a power station. Our new one (New for 2014 season) holds and charges six (IIRC) batteries, and also has a fold out table attached to one side, which is really nice to have in the pit area. Also, we have additional space on top to charge our drill batteries (which is really nice to have a designated space for) and extra power strip space to support a few laptop chargers, cell phone cables, power tools, etc. Make sure you include a spot for your drill batteries and at least a few extra power strip spaces for this reason. We also keep our older bookshelf style charger in the shop to charge our test batteries so we can keep our competition batteries separate.

[Charger]

Also, in the competition, I saw teams charging their batteries just in 30 min. How is it possible? It takes us about 2 hours to charge just one battery properly. And is there any way to use 1 charger to charge more than 1 battery?

[adciv]

Originally Posted by Charger

Also, in the competition, I saw teams charging their batteries just in 30 min. How is it possible?

The only legal method would mean they aren't discharging their battery too much. Or their charger isn't very good and isn't fully charging the battery.

It takes us about 2 hours to charge just one battery properly. And is there any way to use 1 charger to charge more than 1 battery?

There is, but you should only use a properly made charger for it. Andymark sells chargers designed to charge 3 simultaneously. There are others out there as well.

A few years ago, we took plywood and made a station with three drawers in it, plus extra room higher up. Each drawer could hold three batteries and an Andymark triple charger. It's worked well for us. We use some of the extra room in it for supplies and the safety kit.

[philso]

Originally Posted by Charger

Also, in the competition, I saw teams charging their batteries just in 30 min. How is it possible? It takes us about 2 hours to charge just one battery properly. And is there any way to use 1 charger to charge more than 1 battery?

Without more information, it is not possible to say whether the team you saw really "charged their batteries in just 30 minutes". If their batteries were only slightly discharged, topping them up would not take very long. A charger with a very high charging current would charge the battery very quickly but is not legal and would most likely damage the battery.

If you are asking if it is possible to use one LEGAL battery charger to charge several batteries connected in parallel, the answer is a qualified yes. The state of charge of the batteries being connected in parallel will not be the same. Often, teams use batteries from different manufacturers so the internal resistances will be somewhat different. Putting a random mix of batteries in parallel and connecting them to one current source (not a multi-output charger) will mean that the charging current for each battery will be different and the charging time for each battery to reach full charge will be different. If the charger used is a trickle charger, the currents will be low enough that the battery can be left charging at that current for a long time without significant damage so eventually, after a long time, all the batteries will reach full charge, one after another. If the charger is not a trickle charger, it is possible that some of the batteries become overcharged, damaging them permanently.