battery charging and death

[Ned Ritchie]

Here is what the Military, Railroads, & others use:

http://www.pulsetech.com/

Ned

-----Original Message-----
From: quattro-bounces at audifans.com [mailto:quattro-bounces at audifans.com] On
Behalf Of Brett Dikeman
Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2005 11:29 AM
To: SJ
Cc: quattro at audifans.com
Subject: Re: battery charging and death


>>In my afternoon battery surf-fest, I found
>>http://www.battery-rechargeable-charger.com which has some very
>>straight forward seeming information.
>>    
>>
>**** Thats what I ended up buying. The Vector 2/6/10 Smart battery charger.
>I found mine at the local Radio Shack. Works nice.
>The battery clamps are a bit too big to easily clamp on the jumper post. It
>has a digital readout that shows you the battery voltage. When its
charging,
>the readout shows you the actual current output. And it shuts itself off
>when the battery reaches full charge.
>  
>
The "vector" chargers are not suitable for storage use; note the term 
"trickle" and current of 2A; that's way, way too much for anything 
except very large batteries.  Further, as for 'documenting' how they 
work, it's not necessary, because lead acid battery charging techniques 
have been known for decades.  Fixed current to peak voltage followed by 
a fixed voltage phase.  Once that is complete, you drop to float voltage.

Note that they have a "battery minder package" which includes a 
dial-style automatic timer module to switch it on every 12 hours.  
Battery Tender and others make proper maintenance chargers that won't 
cook the battery, don't need timers, etc.  Motorcycle/ATV people have 
been using them for years.  A number of them also encorporate a monthly 
peak charge, which is recommended by most battery companies.


Ed Kellock wrote:

>I take it you do not believe in sulfation/desulfation?  ;-)  I believe
>I first heard of it from Brett a few weeks ago.  I didn't question the
>process.  He spoke of a circuit that can be made to reverse the
>process.
>
Correct.  They pulse the battery slowly with a very high voltage, but 
very short duration spike. This apparently causes the sulfide crystals 
to go back into solution.  Nobody is quite sure why, but the results 
are, even visually, impressive; sulfide buildup is bright white, and 
after a week on one of these widgets, the stuff is gone and the battery 
takes a full charge and scores near perfect on a battery load tester.

There is a sort of 'club' that makes them, shares information about 
circuit design and recovery technique; they've been experimenting with 
everything from stuff based on 555 timer chips to units using PIC/STAMP 
microcontrollers and various ideas on meters to indicate progress.    
Many designs use an inductor to generate the spike, and the fancier 
designs incorporate monitoring temperature of the inductor(they can 
overheat if pulsed too frequently) and adjusting saturation time of the 
inductor and whatnot based on voltage.

A number of them go around to repair shops, dumps, etc and ask for old 
batteries (which they get freely, since otherwise it's a hazardous 
materials disposal fee), and manage to recover a good number of them, 
enough to supply themselves with batteries for PV systems, UPS systems, 
trolling motors, etc...or to resell for some $.  Just because one 
company which sells grossly overpriced versions and makes unique and 
outrageous claims (mileage, emissions, etc) doesn't mean the whole 
process is bogus.

They're $10 in parts, tops, and very simple construction; numerous 
circuit designs have been published in places like off-the-grid-living 
magazines.  The best designs source their power for the spikes from a 
small wall-wart, solar panel, etc...though the ones that use the 
battery's energy itself are fine for batteries that are regularly 
charged (cars) since the drain is akin to that of radio/clock memory etc.

Brett

-- 
"They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin
http://www.users.cloud9.net/~brett/

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