We fly RC planes and use a lot of small wall wart chargers. You can safely use
a charger rated for the full voltage of the battery (or a little bit more) and
no more than 1/10 the current. It will take some time to charge; 20% more time
than simple division would suggest, due to inefficiencies in the charging
process.
A 1000 mA battery, charged with a 100 mA charger would take (1000/100) or 10
hours to charge. Add 20%, so it "should" charge in about 12 hours. With a 1/10
rated charger however, you can let it trickle charge for a while after the
"rated" charging period without risking any damage to the battery.
When the battery is fully charged you may notice that it gets slightly warm.
This is because the charger puts out (somewhat) constant energy and since the
battery is no longer taking a charge, it heats up to dissapate the energy.
These are all general rules and varying the amps, voltage, etc., by small
amounts will not greatly affect the results, but try to stay close. Also,
NiCads, unlike many other batteries, have no issue and may benefit from a very
occassional, full and complete discharge.
Jack
> > Ok, I got a free dive light in a weird set of circumstances.
>
> > Problem is that the charger is pretty expensive, and I have no idea if the
> > battery pack is good. If it isn't, the price of the charger and new
> > battery pack is almost as much as a new light (which I would prefer.)
> >
> > But if I can use a normal power pack, I could recharge the battery to at
> > least see if it is any good.
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