hogflyer

I just picked up a great deal on a plane with full field support equipment. I went to use the trickle charger that came with it instead of the one I use for my field battery to charge the battery (Hobbico Torque Master 12v gell cell) and for some reason didn't hook my multimeter up to the chargers leads to make sure the output was correct. This battery had been sitting for a while and I hooked it up for a good charge. When I went to check the voltage my multi-meter jumped backwards. I checked my leads and it did it again. I reversed my leads and found the battery was charged in reverse - positive is now negative, negative is now positive. The leads on the charger are reversed (verified by my multimeter).

Question is - what can I do to get this battery back to the correct polarity? Will a 12V light discharge it far enough so I can safely hook up my regular trickle charger with the correct polarity? I tried my Triton to pull it down, but the voltage just jumps back up to 12v. The battery seems to be responding like a good battery, but I afraid it won't last in reverse.

I'm not sure on the age of the battery, but based on the radio batteries being dead and not taking any bit of a charge, this one was most likely complete discharged also considering it took a reverse charge. Is it even worth messing with or should it head off to the recycle facility?

Hogflyer

richrd

The old saying you can'nt break what is already broken[] My dad long time ago used to drain the lead acid down to zero volts and charge backwards then drain the acid and replace recharge correct polarity said it would get him a couple more years. So go ahead put a light bulb on it or something simarler drain to zero volts a recharge correct polarity. Let us know if it comes back to life.
Rich

laryboy

My Feedback: (2)

don't take a chance on fire or explosion. discard the battery and spend 20$

jrcaster

First double-check the leads on the multimeter and make sure you didn't hook them up backwards on the meter.

hogflyer

Multimeter leads are hooked up correctly. I've also checked it with my digital MM which showed a negative charge on this battery and a positive charge on one of my other batteries. Who ever solder the clips on the wires for the charger soldered the red to negative and the black to positive. I think it's worth playing with - I wont be out anything really, and if it is an older battery it may not hold a charge under load for any length of time anyway (I know nothing of the history of this battery other than it has sat for a while).

Hogflyer