Charging battery without a charger

[Joe Shmoe]

I've got a 7. 2v battery, it's like the ones that used to fit inside the video camcorder etc.

I don't have the specific charger. Is there anyway of charging it using some generic power supply or something?

I've seen some large multivoltage desktop things in various YouTube videos on electronics. Would anything similar help me?

 

[novocaine]

https://www.mymemory.co.uk/hama-delta-u ... oCoKHw_wcB

 

[Eric The Viking]

Depends on the battery chemistry, and what electronics are built into it.

If it's Lithium Ion, as most of the modern ones tend to be, you need to be fairly careful, as they are explosively intolerant of misuse.

If it's NiCd (Nickel Cadmium), you can do that, but you need to limit the current to 1/10 of the designed operating current (and you need a power supply capable of current limiting, which is unusual outside an electronics workshop. If it's NiMh (Nickel meta-hydride) you might also, but they're rather picky and have a short shelf life, so if it's one of those and old, it may be pretty dead.

I'm sure more knowledgeable folks will be along soon. My direct experience of all this stopped with NiCd, which was when I needed them to work reliably for work, and when charging controller chips became normal (wot we now usually have).

Of course you also need to know which contacts on the battery are for what purposes - some will most probably be sensors and not suitable for connecting a charging voltage to.

E.