Keeping track of battery charging using a reminder event WLC-11

There are some playful reminders on when to do some things. The State of Florida has your Drivers License and your vehicle tags expire on your birthday. That is a great way to remember to renew them. The local volunteer fire department asks us to change the battery in our smoke detectors (and dust them) when the clocks change. I am lax when it comes to checking my “grab and go kit” and recharging the batteries in it.

My digital camera only eats Lithium AA batteries, so I keep a rotating stock for it. It is expensive, but I don’t have to charge them.

I built a rechargeable 12v battery pack from 5 (7) amp hour gel cells. It weighs about 30 Lbs. and is in a semi-rigid canvas bag with strap handles. I also have a 12v gel-cell multi-pack (8 of the 12v gel batteries with Anderson power-pole and cigar socket ends) that I assembled in a marine battery plastic box with lid. Since the idea with the first pack was to have a ready to go battery bag, I need to remember to top it off monthly. The batteries are in parallel. I know that “eddy currents” within the pack can discharge it, as the slightly different charge states/ voltages within the pack take it to the lowest common voltage.  

To get back to the reminder event, I wanted a monthly event that would remind me when to charge up the big pack, the handheld radio batteries, the jumper box and mega-spotlight in the truck. I was going to pick a date, like the first or last day of the month but they did not seem significant enough.

 Then I decided I would do it on the night that my radio club meets. I set them up to charge when I get up in the morning, and charge them until I get back home from the radio club meeting. The reminder works both ways! Not only am I reminded to charge up the batteries on meeting night, but I don’t forget to go to the club meeting!

Since I do a lot of ham radio support to non-profit events like marathons and bike races, I use one (or two if I use the GPS-APRS radio) of four hand held radios. Keeping them in an “action-packer” grab and go kit makes it easy to find them and their accessories when I need them. But if there is not an event in a month, the hand held radios might not get charged. 

I now charge the radios along with the big battery packs on radio club meeting night. Add a hand held GPS, two hand help police scanners, a car jumper box, a multi purpose battery/ light/ am-fm radio battery box, a HD radio, a flood light, and two flashlights, and that is three power strips of chargers at one time. 

Charging time also makes it a good time to inventory the bag/kit contents to make sure all the radio accessories are still in there.