I'm wondering if anyone in the know could advise me about a 12v question I have.
I have a 12v motor vehicle battery jump starter/air pump similar to the one pictured which I have used for a number of years. I just took it into a car battery place to get a new battery fitted as the old one gave up the ghost.
The problem is, as it was being repaired I accidentally broke the little black transformer box that plugs into the 240v wall socket. It is a 12v/500mA one
The question is, could I use a 12v/1Amp one in it's place as this is the closest one I have laying around spare?
I don't think there would be a problem, the battery case would have some form of current limiting built in and to go from 500 Ma to 1000 Ma would not be a problem. This sort of jump starter is very basic and from memory these also have a 17 Ah battery, so the correct charge rate for that size of battery would be 1/10 of the capacity of the battery over 16 ~ hours. So to use a charger in the order of 1 Amp ( 1000 Ma ) would not be a problem as it is the current limiting devise ( most likely a heavy wattage resister ) and the current would have been calculated by Ohm's law.
I just got the unit back from the battery place on the weekend and it seems to be charging off the old one...for the moment, so I taped it back together with duct tape and I'll keep my fingers crossed. If it fails I'll go the 1amp one.
Cheers
Jon.
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