Fast Peak nicad Charger.

The scheme comes from an italian magazine, Nuova Elettronica. I have this charger now 4 years and I am absolutery happy with it. The charger works with 12V so you can use it in your car or at the field. I used it when I was racing car models and I never had a battery failure. It is fast, accurate and reliable, as far as you don't connect the battery inverted, and in that case the resistors on the rotary switches blow out. So pay attention!! For the rest it is a beauty!! It charges the battery no matter if it is half charged or fully discharged. The battery must have some voltage otherwise the charger doesn't detect it and don't start the charging. Similarly it doesn't work if there is a diode for protection of the battery, like in the JR transmitter. You have to take the battery off the transmitter. It charges 1 to 6 batteries but it can be easily modified for more. Just change the rotary switch with one with 8 positions and add two resistors. The only problem is that you have to supply at least 14-15 volts to the charger otherwise it won't charge. You can also change the charge current according to a table included below. Or calculate the resistor with the following calculation: ohm = 235 / mAh. There is a button to discharge the battery before charging, and another button to resume a charging. There is also a switch that ends the charge after 90 or 180 minutes. So you don't risk to ruin the batteries if the charger doesn't detect the peak. After a full charge the charger supplies a trickle charge until you leave the battery connected. One of the leds goes on when you supply power to the charger. The other is on when the charger is charging, slow flashing when discharging a pack and fast flashing when the battery is fully charged. This thing works, and I never had troubles except when I inverted the pack. The only way you can trust a nicad pack is to charge it fully every time. This charger will do the job fine. For any problem email me at crono33@hotmail.com.You can order it as kit from this italian company: Centro Ricerche Elettronice snc, Via Cracovia N.19 - 40139 Bologna - ITALY. You can order separately the PCB (LX1159) for ABOUT $10, all the components included the PCB for about $60 and the box with printed panels (MO1159) for about $13. They have a website at www.nuovaelettronica.it but it is very dodgy!!

This is the scheme follows the list of components.

The following is the table for the different charging currents and the relative resistors

Finally the complete circuit assembled with the pcb. Sorry, on the magazine there isn't the drawings of the pcb

And surprise surprise, here is the scan of the PCB.
The dimension of the board is exactly mm. 100x127

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