ZZ charge timing capacitor

[Azimov]

Anyone know which of the two electrolytic caps in the ZZ controller handles charge duration? I've seen pics and descriptions of the bit timer cap, but find nothing concerning the timing cap in the ZZ controller. I want to play with changing charge time but am unsure which cap controls this. Any help would be appreciated, a pic or description of location would be even better.

[theshape]

in the FCC docs it talks about C15.

Here is the description of the circuit.

and here is the schematic

and a picture of the board here

[Azimov]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! This is exactly what I needed. I suspected that cap was the one in question since it is the largest value on the board. I love this forum! I subscribe to another, but am considering dropping it as it seems rampant with ZZ haters and never answers any questions I post. I'm sticking here for sure!

[DesertJedi]

Ok, I know little to nothing about electronics. With that in mind, can you cut out this capacitor and eliminate the charge "timer" altogether??? This would be lots more convenient that pulling it off the charger...waiting, putting it back on...waiting, putting it back on when charging a 150 nmh battery. Good idea or bad idea? If not a good idea, what else would be a simple way to extend the charge time to handle the 150 nmh batteries. Oh, did I mention that I know little to nothing about electronics

[Azimov]

Well, lets see. the best way to extend the charge time is replacing the cap or the resister. A larger value on either will give you a longer charge time. The cap is a 10uF and times the charge for 45 seconds. If you replace it with a 20uF the time would double, 30uF and it would triple and so on. If you do this pay attention to the polarity of the cap. Electrolytic caps have positive and negative leads and need to be replaced the same way. The negative lead is the one on the side of the cap with the stripe. Usually the resister is changed to lengthen or shorten the timing circuit, but I haven't looked at it enough to figure those values. Either way will produce the same result. Simply pulling the cap out won't work and would disable the circuit all together. I would suggest hooking the charge pad directly to the batteries in the controller for an unlimited charge time at a higher output.

[DesertJedi]

Thanks for the followup. What I was thinking (and failed to mention in my earlier post) was to jumper the gap when you cut out the capacitor? Barring that, I like your idea and will give it a try. Thanks