Good Evening,
I'm building a 12 volt recharging system with a 12 volt, 0.375A (12"x12") solar cell, and this charge controller:
The battery is a 12 volt NiMH, 3AH.
I would also like to be able to use a hank-cranked dynamo charger, and also a way to recharge the battery using regular 120 AC mains. The dynamo that i wish to use comes from a very cheap survival radio, that uses
3.6 volt NiMH, but i think there are Zener diodes that limit the voltage coming from the generator to 7-8 volts, so i think i can remove these to get more voltage (closer to 13-14 volts?).I believe i could just use a regular 13.8 volt DC power supply, and have a 3-way switch to go from the solar cell, to the dynamo, or to the AC power supply, directly to the charge controller above. I other words, the charge controller (made for photovoltaics) would be used for any of the three sources of DC power.
Does this sound like a good idea? Or should i get a separate charger for the DC power supply?
Is there a cheap, simple LED circuit that can indicate the charging function and the state of the battery?
Thanks for your help,
Slick