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Accommodations: Staying at Buddy Dive, have Electrical Question
Bonaire Talk: Accommodations: Archives: Archives 2000 to 2006: Archives - 2000-07-16 to 2001-07-11: Staying at Buddy Dive, have Electrical Question
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By George DeCamp on Saturday, February 5, 2000 - 1:35 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

I recently purchased some rechargeable batteries (NiMH)for my camera strobe and wondered if I need an adaptor to plug the recharger in? It already uses an AC adaptor that uses an input of 120Volts and outputs 12V to the batteries. Anyone have a clue whether this will work? I'd hate to get there and find out I can't recharge my batteries and not have any...

Thanks!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By michael gaynor on Sunday, February 6, 2000 - 9:51 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

all the dive shops have recharing stations for guests to use. You can plug chargers in in your room, but run the risk of having them overheat and burnout.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Clay Lansdown on Sunday, February 6, 2000 - 11:13 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Some - not all - of the newer chargers will operate on 110/120 vac and 50/60 Hz (cycles). Take a look at the label on the charger. It will tell you the operating range. If the range above is covered, you can use it in your room. If not, then you will need to follow Michael's advise.
Clay

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By George DeCamp on Sunday, February 6, 2000 - 1:20 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thanks to both of you!!

My charger has an AC adaptor that says;
Input: 120V AC 60Hz 12W
Output: 12VDC 500mA

So it looks like it will take in up to 120V but is looking for 60Hz. Since the voltage is OK but just the cycles are higher maybe it's ok? I won't take a chance until someone says YES because they really know. I have an e-mail to the distributor also to find out.

Really appreciate the info!!!! This is a new model charger used for NiMH batteries, AA in my case but can also do AAA. Using it for my strobe. Can't hurt to walk to the dive shop and charge them! :-)

Thanks again Michael and Clay!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By michael gaynor on Sunday, February 6, 2000 - 7:29 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Use the charge station at the dive shop...the 50 cycles is the killer...I have lots of burned out adaptors as evidence.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Clay Lansdown on Monday, February 7, 2000 - 11:39 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Michael is right. 50 cycles will cause the charger to run quite a bit hotter and most of these chargers don't have much of a safety factor built in. I would use the charging station provided by the dive shop.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By George DeCamp on Monday, February 7, 2000 - 12:30 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thanks Michael and Clay! I also heard from Carol at Buddy Dive, here is what she said;

"Bon Dia George and greetings from Bonaire! The power from the electrical outlets on Bonaire is 127 volts operating at 50 cycles Hz.).Unfortunately,this doesn’t match the power requirements of most European or American appliances. Therefore, we do not recommend that you use the outlets in your apartment for any sensitive plugs-ins, such as laptops or battery charges. You can, however, plug your battery rechargers into a power strip in our Activity Center that is protected from fluctuations by a transformer. You can generally use common appliances such as hairdryers in your apartments without difficulty, although they may tend to run a bit “hot.”"

***END***

So that solves that! Again thanks for the info!!

George

 


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