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Old 12-20-2004, 09:01 AM
coldwar coldwar is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 495
Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkM
As I said earlier, I isolate both the pos. and neg. charger leads from the battery (when not plugged in) by use of a relay. Is this necessary, or recommended??? I did this based only on a gut feel that it would be preferable not to have the charger connected to the battery when not in use...that there may be a slight drain on battery, or possible damage to charger, or something like that. Is that the case, or is the relay totally unnecessary.

Thanks,

Mark
Battery chargers have a diode at the output for protection against back voltage- it conducts in one direction only, and presents a very high resistance in the other direction. Very high resistance, but not a complete open circuit- so it could conceivably discharge your battery if left long enough. The relay makes for better protection against this- now that you have it on there, you might as well leave it.

Dave
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