Charging - Dedicated Charger vs PSU + buck voltage control?

Hi Everyone,

I've got a dedicated charger from em3ev for my 14S lipo pack with BMS (settable 58.8v @ 5A) which works fine. You set the voltage, plug it in and it runs until the voltage is right then stops (the light goes from green to red).

If I wanted a more powerful charger, what is stopping me from using an old server PSU with a 600watt adjustable voltage buck converter to plug into the BMS? Will this have the same effect as the "proper" charger or do I need to add something else to make it turn off automatically? I just assumed that as it is a switching PSU, it will supply as much or as little current as needed ?

Thanks,

Raged

I used a buck/boost supply driven by solar panels to charge my Solar Power Cruiser and never had a problem.

The output voltage remained constant (within .2 V) with input solar panel voltage between 12V and 21V.

If you have real power available on the input side of the DC-to-DC converter, you may want the converter to be constant current / constant voltage so you can limit the current at the beginning of charge and limit the voltage at the end of charge. http://www.amazon.com/DROK-Constant-Current-Converter-Regulated/dp/B00E8D7XYG

Sweet, I actually bought something similar :



$16 delivered as a 2nd fast bulk charger. Theres 2 trimpots, one controls voltage and other looks like it controls current. I think I need a watt meter to put inline to see the volt and amps going to the battery in realtime to see if it's trimming the amps properly at target voltage...

Thanks mate.