Universal Battery charger

[jonwilhelmjr]

OK so i want to start out by saying that i am by no means a electrical engineer or English person. this brings me to my idea that i am looking for some suggestion on or advise. i am going to college for robotics engineering and as i build many robot projects i run into the issue of having many batteries. i have several dozen AA batteries, AAA, D, C, 9V, 12V, 6V, 3V, . . . that vary from NIMH, NI-CAD, Alkaline, Li-po, or just lithium in general. OK so needless to say i have a lot of batteries and they go fast when you test motors. what i want to do is build/buy a battery charger that will work for all of these. if i could have it all automatic that would be nice but i understand that i would have to have some user interface. if any one is willing to respond with some suggestions with how i should go about this that would be great or even just point me in the right direction.

[sonicj]

LOTS to choose from... what's your budget?  as would be expected, the higher quality chargers cost a bit more, but even the low cost multi-chargers can be quite nice.

hobbyking is a well known vendor: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__216__408__Battery_Chargers_Acc_-Battery_Chargers.html

the imax b6 and its clones are usually a safe bet and good starting point. the UI is a little cumbersome in my opinion, but certainly workable. they can charge all of the common chemistries and are available in various wattages.

some things to consider: internal or external power supply, delta V & delta T terminations, charge rate, fan noise, balance lead breakouts, max number of cells, accuracy & resolution (see user reviews), etc.
-sj