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Battery chargers

PostPosted: Mon Dec 30, 2013 1:59 pm
by Oldiron
Finally broke down and gave my credit card and first born to Horizon Hobby for an Apprentice. One of the things I saw in many reviews were recommendations to get a better battery charger so i ordered one from HobbyKing.

The question is how much "overhead" is there in the input voltage regulators? The spec on the charger recommends an input voltage of 10-18 volts. Now I have a bunch of power supplies laying around but the one I would like to use is an old laptop supply that has a nice ripple free output. Problem is the no load rating is 19.6 volts. Most 12 volt regulators I'm familiar with have a max input rating of around 30 volts. So without tearing the new charger apart to check the regulator against the data sheet do you think I would be safe with the 19.6?