Gingre said:
Yes but what constitutes a "proper" charger? It can't be "what the
manufacturer recommends or sells" and anyway in this case the manufacturer
doesn't sell them any more. It must either be a voltage or current
characteristic. So could you be more specific about this?
If it would be an old fashioned standard NiCad and you don't know
anything more specific, assume that the charge has to be
14 hrs at 10% of the capacity, when fully discharged.
i.e. a 1 Ah Cell will be charged with 0.1A for 14 hrs.
10% current of this again, can be safely applied as trickle charge 24/7
to keep the battery full and ready to go (1% of capacity).
Your battery has 8 cells with nominal 1.2V*8 = 9.6V. When fully charged
it will have 8*1.4V = 11.2V
Measure the current when fully charged with 12V applied. If it is like
the trickle charge (about 1% of capacity) you could just switch a light
bulb in series that has about the power of 2.4V*[10%of capacity].
It will act as a constant current source over a fair time of the
charging process, and also as a current limiter.
Make sure that your power supply is rated for your charging current.
Cheers
Tony