What?s the difference between a DC Power supply and a battery charger?
A battery charger is a type of DC Power supply (PSU) which is specifically designed for charging batteries. While any DC Power supply can be used to charge batteries, there are serious potential pitfalls to using a generic power supply as a battery charger. For example, a DC Power supply may include regulation circuits, which may be damaged if a battery is connected to the output, before the AC Power supply is switched on. The regulation circuit in a power supply is not designed to reduce parasitic load and so may draw power from the battery if left connected when AC power is switched off. These two issues can be addressed by adding a blocking diode, but then the volt drop of the diode (which is temperature dependant) needs to be allowed for. Generic power supplies do not provide multiple stage charging with different voltage limits, or temperature compensation of the charge voltage, or reverse battery connection protection. In general, it?s better to use a battery charger that was des
