On Sunday, September 16, 2012 12:25:00 AM UTC-6, (unknown) wrote:
http://www.tecmate.com/u_optimate_5.php



They are used by the 2-meter radio folks and lots of motorcycle people. Aircraft Spruce sells them to airplane people.



Seems like a highly versatile compact, durable charger/maintainer/diagnostic tool at a decent price.



Perhaps overkill for our needs?



They also manufacture a nice universal USP power cord that you can use to charge/operate your cell phone directly from the ship's batteries should you ever find yourself landed out with a dying cell phone.

Use caution with these. Ive found the best chargers for the AGM batteries like Power-Sonic which most of us use are the chargers sold by Power-Sonic. The Power-Sonic charger for the 12V 9AH battery (Commonly used for gliders) shows a charge rate of 800MA and this thing is 2.5A. Further, Ive tried several different chargers and the PS chargers determine peak and switch to float CONSISTENTLY (Emphasis) better than most of the chargers Ive tried. The higher the charge rate or the continuous charge past peak, The hotter the internal battery temp during charging the shorter the battery life.