Cheap 12 volt power suply

[oakinteriors1]

Just to power a few lights and a vent fan why wouldn't cordless battery chargers work? I have about 4 of these laying around.. Most are for 18 volts....

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[SLUG36]

i would think the amperage output on the chargers would be low. kinda like a trickle charger. they might work good for LED lighting. but, you might have trouble with a fan.

[woodywrkng]

If there are three terminals in the charger socket, I believe one of them is used to read the battery temperature, and without a battery present I don't know what the charger will provide. Use a voltmeter to see what you've got. If there are two terminals, measure them as well. I would be pretty leary of using 18 volts where 12 volts is expected.

[H.A.]

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[Engineer Guy]

I hit local Joints like 'Habitat For Humanity' or 'Salvation Army'. Typically, in a Box in the back, they have orphaned Power Supplies. Look for those that have the desired Output Voltage while noting the max Current it can supply, and buy those on the cheap.

For running my 2 lil Emergency Radios on Grid, I recycled some old Cellphone Power Supplies. That +5 VDC ran my ~4.5 VDC Radios just fine. Of course, these Supplies could run +5 VDC USB Equipment, too. Look on line for USB Connector wiring protocol. From memory, the 2 outer Pins are Voltage. The 2 inner Pins are 'sense' Pins for Battery Charging, and can be ignored when using them for +5 VDC Power Supplies. If others have had different experiences, or have different opinions, I'm sure they'll pipe up.

Chargers do what the name says: they monitor and charge Batteries; typically through a 'Sense' Lead[s]. Personally, I wouldn't muck with them. Power Supplies just output 'static' Voltage, and are more what you're looking for.

[alex k]

i use an extra coleman cooler power supply . when the battery is out of the trailer
i just use a double male plug wire to backfeed it into the 12 power plug