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.
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.htmlthe 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