Batboard

I bought a NTN1177A gang charger for Jedi series but it is modified with a Motorola DC power cord HKN4191B...

The original 110V AC jack is missing and was wondering if it's possible for this charger to be powered with 12V DC.

I'm a little scared to plug it on my Astron !

Any ideas?

RonJeremy wrote:I bought a NTN1177A gang charger for Jedi series but it is modified with a Motorola DC power cord HKN4191B...

The original 110V AC jack is missing and was wondering if it's possible for this charger to be powered with 12V DC.

I'm a little scared to plug it on my Astron !

Any ideas?

How/Who Modified what? Astron is what size? The six pocket gang chargers we have at work all run on AC... It should have a 3A fuse in the gang charger. I don't have my stock book to look up DC power cord HKN4191B.. if I recall right its a high power cable 20Amp.

pwr cable looks like a standard radius cord. I don't know who modified the charger, I won an auction with a lot of radio stuff including this charger. I have not opened it yet to look where the cable is connected.

My Astron is 13.8

RonJeremy wrote:pwr cable looks like a standard radius cord. I don't know who modified the charger, I won an auction with a lot of radio stuff including this charger. I have not opened it yet to look where the cable is connected.

Well it should work... How big is your Astron? as long as there are fuse's btw. the dc to the charger, & one in the charger, & I believe the astron has one. See at the radio repair shop (city of xxx) we can afford to try to fix anything. 2. send it back, 3. toss it out ex: a battery. (lots of batteries)
The DC cable is listed for 20Amps. If the guy says it does what it was listed to do. start with 1 radio.... me personally I never used a DC cigg. plug to power a gang charger, when we can just pulg them in the AC outlet... maybe will get another post reply to this...

RonJeremy wrote:My Astron is 13.8

Thats the voltage 13.8v... whats the amps, the size of the astron. 25-30A

yes it's weird. The cord enters by the hole (where the ac corde is supposed to be attached to the charger) and looks to be pluged on the board itself. I will open it this afternoon.

Something has been modified on the circuit board, you cannot plug dc to ac outlet ! Hahahaha

btw astron is 50 amp.

just make sure you have a fuse in the charger...someone correct me if I don't remember right, I think its 3A on a gang charger ... then it may work fine... maybe the seller put it on a inverter in his van? PM me the sellers username or item no. when you get a chance. Jim

DC can power an AC device just not vice versa.... polarity is not important but other factors are.....

I know it can not be powered by DC without modification. Jim, I don't have names. It was a city auction.

It should work.... your Astron is big enough... just make sure you have spare fuses, might never need them? can't hurt... let us know what happend Jim

hey Jim,

I guess you were right with the voltage inverter. I opened the charger and no mods have been made. I wrote to the auction manager and he said that the charger was in a fire truck. Maybe they used it on a 110v inverter without ac plug that's why it's not the standard cord. The maxtrac cable plugs on the black and red wires and the blue one is not used inside charger.

How is it on a normal one? Is there a jack back of the charger or the 110v cord enters directly in the casing and plugs to the board?

DO NOT PUT AC ON THAT PLUG! The charger normally has a silver box that is a switching 110VAC to 12V DC supply.

We have modified a number of chargers to run on 12V. The way we do it is to replace the AC supply with a 12v to 12V switching supply. Connecting 12V directly to the circuit board would work but there would be a wide variation in charging currents and there would be nothing to filter out the trash on the vehicle's 12V.

ok thank you. I did not put anything on it. The radius cord plugs directly on two wires of a big white plug.

If I want to come back to the original setup I need the transfo?

RonJeremy wrote:hey Jim,

I guess you were right with the voltage inverter. I opened the charger and no mods have been made. I wrote to the auction manager and he said that the charger was in a fire truck. Maybe they used it on a 110v inverter without ac plug that's why it's not the standard cord. The maxtrac cable plugs on the black and red wires and the blue one is not used inside charger.

How is it on a normal one? Is there a jack back of the charger or the 110v cord enters directly in the casing and plugs to the board?

The ones we have in the shops plug in the wall, 3 prong plug. 115 in & whatever radio battery your charging 9.5 output... or for what ever battery
you might see pics of the back of a gang on a "M" page or greedbay.
so if I get this all you should be able to plug it in to your astron.

Everything works fine on 13.6V DC. Just not glad to see that I have not the internal transfo. I guess I will have to look for parts...

MotoMax300 wrote:DC can power an AC device just not vice versa.... polarity is not important but other factors are.....

What an incredible statement.

To begin with if the unit has a switched mode power supply the smoke will come out.
If the unit has a transformer it will be like a dead short, either the power supply or the unit will smoke, or pop a fuse.

12 volts AC is not 12 volts DC.