Author Topic: Charging small wet cell from main bank  (Read 1816 times)

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Quigs

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Charging small wet cell from main bank
« on: September 22, 2005, 05:03:52 AM »
With spring just appearing here at the bottom of the world, the grass is growing as I watch and the battery on my ride-on mower is flat.


I could attach a K-Mart battery charger and power it from the inverter, with crap efficiency and a long wait, OR I could tap the main 1000ah battery bank (24 volt but I could tap it at 12 or 14 volts) and eliminate the middle-man.


is this wise?  Or am I risking magic smoke and loud noises?


You advice will be appreciated


Quigs

« Last Edit: September 22, 2005, 05:03:52 AM by (unknown) »

crashk6

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Re: Charging small wet cell from main bank
« Reply #1 on: September 22, 2005, 05:20:27 AM »
It will only charge to the state of charge your main bank is at, and you risk throwing the individual cell voltage out of balance. That being said, there is a way to do this and avoid the pitfalls, you need a DC to DC converter with an input voltage range around that of your main bank and a stabilized output voltage at about the float voltage of the battery you wish to charge.


If your not good with building electronics from scratch then you can buy a ready-made units.


http://www.solarconverters.com/


They make solid preforming electrical devices for the RE industry. Browse there "auto transformer" section under products. If you order one, specicy you want a fixed output voltage. Feel free to inform them of your application and they will be happy to tailor the set points to your particular setup.

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crashK6

« Last Edit: September 22, 2005, 05:20:27 AM by crashk6 »

Norm

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Re: Charging small wet cell from main bank
« Reply #2 on: September 22, 2005, 05:42:45 AM »
  Jump start your riding mower from your car and

let the mower recharge it's own battery....then you

can forget about all this other stuff.

                 ( :>) Norm.
« Last Edit: September 22, 2005, 05:42:45 AM by Norm »