backup battery charger

[PhilBot]

Originally Posted by Tom Line

Yep. We built the circuit last year, and then chucked it out. You're much better off going to a hobby store and spending $25 on a high capacity 7.2 volt pack for RC cars and a nice charger actually comes with it. Once we did so, we never once had a backup battery issue, even when running with the same battery all day (with camera).

Even with a better battery, there's still the issue of someone remembering to change it periodically. The longer it lasts, the longer between changes... so kids tend to forget.

Having it charged on-board means never having to remember to change it. Granted, without the camera this year, the batteries should last longer....

We built a PCB for the charge circuit and got 3 boards made (just the boards) for $60.

I attached the ExpressPCB scematic and PCB files on this post: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...6&postcount=27

We'll be building a new one this year....