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What if I try to charge battery with too-little current?

seanspotatobusiness

Sep 11, 2012
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Sep 11, 2012
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I'm intent on using a crappy little wind turbine I'm making to charge a USB battery using something like this voltage regulator that will step the voltage up or down depending on what it's provided with. My question is if I could use the 12V version to charge a battery which expects to receive 2A at 12V. If this could only muster, say, 200-500mA at 12V, how would my battery likely respond?

The battery in question is this: http://www.ianker.com/product/79AN20L-SA

Alternatively, I could buy an alternative battery pack which can accept a low current at 5V.
 

Harald Kapp

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Nov 17, 2011
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Charging a battery at less than nominal charge current will generally simply take proportionally longer - as long as the current is higher than the trickle charge.

The "battery" in your link is actually a so called power bank. It requires 15V...19V input voltage and will draw up to 1.3A for charging the internal battery. It probably will not work from 12V. When it is supplied from a 15V source that is not able to deliver the required amps, the output voltage of the source will drop to less than 15V and the power bank will most probably not be charged.

What are your options?
  • Try the power bank with your power source to see what happens.
  • Get a more powerful turbine/genertaor.
  • Get a power bank that is satisfied by what your turbine/generator can deliver.
 
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