Question about my Piranha Digital Peak Charger

[Sparrow338]

Ok so I just reciently bought a piranha digital peak charger. So far it's been working great and really made a huge difference in my batteries run times. However, i've noticed that while the charger is charging a battery its amps will go to zero for a second or two then will jump back up. Seems to usually happen near the end of a batteries charge time. I wanted to know if this is a normal thing or not? BTW: I'm running the charger from a 25 amp continuious switching power supply, so I don't think the capabilities of my PS are the problem. I did try watching the output voltage of the PS with a voltmeter as this happened and there was no sudden drop or spike in the output, kept right a 13.83 volts the whole time so I think it's the charger, not something else. Have any of you seen this before? Or maybe know what is causing it and if it is suppose to do it or not? Thanks for the help in advance.

-Sparrow©

[Duster_360]

I've been using one for almost 4yrs and have never seen that. I'm running off 120v and only prob I've had is false peaking and I figured out what was causing that. If your PS is delivering a steady voltage, I'd guess its the charger.

The part that seems to fail when these go bad is the transformer. I've never read about them having a bad voltage fluctation before they fail though, they just stop charging.

[guver]

The digpir does an open votage check for about 5 seconds every minute. It is normal and effectively gives you a 4.5 amp rate at a 5 amp setting.

[Sparrow338]

Oh good, I was thinking that I would have to pack this thing back up and ship it back. What a reliefe. Just this morning I was watching the charger and noticing that it did it every minute so I was figuring that it is meaning to do it. Thanks for confirming this for me. I don't know if I quite understand how that gives you a 4.5 amp charge rate at 5 amps. Is this because the charger isn't running for a few maybe a minute or two each charging cycle since it turns off every minute? So this time off adds up and makes it as if it was just charging at 4.5 amps instead of 5.0? Well thanks! That makes me feel much better.

-Sparrow©

[guver]

Yep, the setting of 5 amps will deliver about 4500 mah in an hr.

[cenracer1]

I have the same charger and it only does this on dc power.. I thought my power supply was at fault also, but as guver said, its normal... I have had a few false peak issues as well, but just changed the sensitivity and all is well.. been using it for about 2 years for everything except the Lipo's and works really well....

[guver]

They should do it on ac power as well. I wish I could turn it off.