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Chargers

dewcon4414

dewcon4414

Well-known member
Maybe some of you electronic gurus can help me out here. I have a couple of chargers that go to a fishing knife one for AC the other for DC. The AC one is a 9VDC at 1 A. The one that came with the Xcal is a 14.3 VDC at 60 MA. It fits perfectly what kind of problem would i run into using say the DC one?

Dew
 
If I understand the post correct. The 9vdc will not charge past say 9 volts. The Excal battery is dead long before 9 volts! So it would do nothing but trickle your battery. The batteries are fully charged at around 14.3vdc they drop down pretty quickly to around 12.6vdc and will run with reduced depth till around 11.3vdc then the threshold will raise till you can't hear targets. I ran some test with Minelab back in 2010 to trouble shoot a Excalibur battery issue! Not sure this was the answer.
 
Buried Crap NJ said:
If I understand the post correct. The 9vdc will not charge past say 9 volts. The Excal battery is dead long before 9 volts! So it would do nothing but trickle your battery. The batteries are fully charged at around 14.3vdc they drop down pretty quickly to around 12.6vdc and will run with reduced depth till around 11.3vdc then the threshold will raise till you can't hear targets. I ran some test with Minelab back in 2010 to trouble shoot a Excalibur battery issue! Not sure this was the answer.
Click to expand...

You say you'll lose depth as the battery drops below 12.6 volts? By how much would you say? I checked the stock battery on my excal II after the charge indicator showed it to be fully charged. It was at 13.9 volts on my meter. I'm going to take my voltage meter with me next time out with excal and check the voltage periodically. Maybe the battery ain't up to par with it being at 13.9 volts?
 
When charged the battery should be around 14.3v it will drop to 12.v and run for 10 or more hrs before it drops to the next level below 11.8v from there it takes about 4 to 6 hrs to get to a level of dead! Anytime the battery goes below the levels set by Minelab as optimum the detector will start to loose depth. That range of voltage is propitiatory in nature! I believe that 11.8 is around that number? Depth loss I can sit and type the amount as I have not tested that but its a common knowledge that voltage loss equals less power output, I surmised that the loss would follow!
 
Thats good info..... so you are saying the charger HAS to produce 14 pluse VDCs to fully charge an Xcal battery? I know people are using a Pro Peek 13.9 V with 8.5 A power supply along with a GWS MC 2002 device and quick charging their batteries. You seem to be saying their batteries are under charged? I know the ML SE indicates it self adjusts the voltage going to the send and receive coils to keep the supple constant and the depth more consistent. Now on the DFX after half use of the battery i noticed a depth loose. So if im trying to find a charger..... it must be 14V? Im asking because im dirt dumb in this respect.

Dew
 
DEW,
Yes the charger I'm using is the quick charger. maybe that's why I'm only getting the 13.9 volts? I don't like the factory charger. I can't tell when it's done? Next time I'll charge it with the factory charger and check it with my volt meter and see what it will get to? My MXT seems not to lose much depth until the battery drop below 9 volts. But my AT-Pro looses depth fast with any drop in voltage for each indicator bar it drops it seems to lose around three inches in depth so at two bars down it looses half of it's depth capability's. Hope the excalibur doesn't do that? I've only had an excalibur for about six weeks now and haven't got enough seat time in to know the differences yet.
 
I dont know i hope not either. But i cant tell an increase in threshold after 6 hours of hunting and im still digging some DEEP holes out there. However, i do use the ML charger which may be making the difference.

Dew
 
dewcon4414 said:
Thats good info..... so you are saying the charger HAS to produce 14 pluse VDCs to fully charge an Xcal battery? I know people are using a Pro Peek 13.9 V with 8.5 A power supply along with a GWS MC 2002 device and quick charging their batteries. You seem to be saying their batteries are under charged? I know the ML SE indicates it self adjusts the voltage going to the send and receive coils to keep the supple constant and the depth more consistent. Now on the DFX after half use of the battery i noticed a depth loose. So if im trying to find a charger..... it must be 14V? Im asking because im dirt dumb in this respect.

Dew
Click to expand...

I recently built one of the quick chargers with the Pro Peek 13.9 VDC out put and the GWS MC 2002 quick charger, and I really like it. My tests using a volt meter shows the Pro Peek putting out exactly 14 volt DC. After the GWS MC 2002 completes its charge my volt meter shows a full charge at 14 Volts DC. The Excal. battery will drop to 13.9 Volts DC after a few minutes off the charger, that's why it has the trickle charger that will come back on about every minute and a half to keep it up to 14 Volts. The manual for the Exal. tells you that you should recharge your battery if left off the charger for long periods of time, so the battery is loosing charge while it sets and not in use.

One reason I like the GWS MC 2002 charger is when I first got mine set up I found I was having trouble getting a good contact with the charger attachment that comes with the Excal. I knew this because the Red light was not staying on and I had to move the charger head around to make contact. A simple adjustment of opening up the space in the center of one of the pins cleared the problem up. Because the charger that comes with the Excal. has no lights or anything else to show your not getting good contact and a charge, would cause you to have a dead battery and not even know why.

Unless I see some really big problem with this set up I will continue to use the Quick charging set up. Rick IL.
 
Let me appear dumb here again. Its my understanding in order to charge something to 14.3 V you must use that amount of voltage less voltage will only produce the volts staged. In order to speed the charging process you slightly increase the output. Its like setting your air compressor at 20 lbs and trying to fill a tire to 80. So..... why not look for a 14 V charger with a fill light that produces more output? Whats the purpose for the GWS... just for the light? Seems if the 13.8 V charger had a light it would do the deed.

Dew
 
I do not pretend to know how the GWS works, but if it is charging the Excalibur Battery in only 15 minutes time to me it has to be doing it with much more voltage then the Minelab charger puts out. I can not say that this is the voltage it is putting into the battery but when I checked the voltage at the plug that goes in to my Minelab battery It was showing 25 volts DC, The instructions says the GWS is a step up converter. How else can you explain 13.8 volts coming from the power source and the GWS putting out 25 Volts DC. The instructions also says the GWS does a battery check to make sure the battery is in good operating condition and has a automatic Delta Peak cut off to prevent battery over charge.

To me it sounds like a good safe means to quick charge your Minelab Battery. Rick
 
No doubt Rick and you are correct its a step up converter that produces the required power and output. Found out erickk lives close and met him the other day so he filled me in.

The new detectors shouldnt loose depth since they have a power regulator to the coil neither of my MLs do.

Dew
 
I Have purchased a GWS Charger and a 13.8 Volt Power supply quite resonable on EBay. I think both cost me less then $50.00 including shipping. I am very happy with the ability to charge my batteries so quickly, and with a 110 V AC power converter in my car I can do it right there. I presently own two Excalibur batteries so that shouldn't prove to be aproblem on any given day as I don't last all that long anyway. I feel it is a good investment. Rick IL
 
My understanding about the GWS charger + power supply had to do with the heat dissipation - the ML charger doesn't get rid of the heat quickly enough, so it shuts down to let things cool off, then kicks in again when the temperature is lower. I don't know how accurate that is, but it's similar to the trickle-charge or quick-shot-charge on a car battery but for a different reason. The higher voltage ML charger, would generate more heat - I am sure of that. What the inner workings are on either charger, I'm not sure of, but that can make a difference too.

The difference between 14.3 and 13.9 v is pretty negligible for this kind of use in the overall view - that's not even half volt (0.4v), which would be well within most tolerances electrically, and electronically.
 
dewcon4414 said:
Thats good info..... so you are saying the charger HAS to produce 14 pluse VDCs to fully charge an Xcal battery? I know people are using a Pro Peek 13.9 V with 8.5 A power supply along with a GWS MC 2002 device and quick charging their batteries. You seem to be saying their batteries are under charged? I know the ML SE indicates it self adjusts the voltage going to the send and receive coils to keep the supple constant and the depth more consistent. Now on the DFX after half use of the battery i noticed a depth loose. So if im trying to find a charger..... it must be 14V? Im asking because im dirt dumb in this respect.

Dew
Click to expand...

Just charged 2 of my excals with above set up and then checked with my VM 14.25 & 14.2 seems fully charged 2 me
 
Wow, this thread definitely got me wondering what my 2 excals charge up to. I purchased quick chargers with peak detection from ebay last year and have been "happily" using these. After reading this thread I put both of my machines on the chargers to test the voltage. Both came in at 12.2v. From what you guys are saying, it seems these chargers are not as great as I thought they were. I will put one machine back on the stock charger for the night and compare what it reads in the morning. I just assumed the people that made/sold these chargers would make them to peak at the "correct" voltage, without me having to think about it. I sure am glad that you posted about this. However, I have not had any problems with long days hunting so maybe I don't have nearly as big a problem as it seems. I dig many things from deep down and have had countless great finds from great depth with these chargers. Ill do the comparison just because I wonder now. Thanks for starting this thread. HH -Marc
 
Following this thread with interest. However i am very dumb when it comes to these technical issues :blush:

Looking at the GWS MC 2002 charger and trying to work out what else would be needed to charge my excalibur battery pack.

Am i right in believing it also requires some form of power input or does this plug into mains. I do already have a DC power unit that i use to drive some other stuff, can this be used as the alternate power?

Also on the out put end do i need to have a plug made up or where can i get them from.

Thanks,
Paul..
 
The GWS comes with alligator clamps. These need to be cut off and bullet plugs soldered onto the wires to fit the power supply
then you need the wires coming out of the GWS to have a plug to fit the excal adapter plug
 
Just ordered one of these with a power supply.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Digital-iMAX-B6-RC-Lipo-NiMh-Battery-Balance-Charger-UK-/350472347663?pt=UK_ConsumerElectronics_Batteries_SM&hash=item5199c7a00f

Seems this will charge some of my other fear as well :)

Paul...
 
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