jonathon- i'm wondering if the lack of water consumption is due to the limited cycles, or possibly the lack of acid within the cells. either way, i temped to put the controller to the "L-16" setting.
when my cohort arrived with the batteries, he was all flustered and told me the guy at the supplier told him to get em charging and add water as soon as possible. i didn't slow down and think to mark the cells water was added to, and or measure how much water was added. this is my fault, and i knew better, but joined the crazed deal, and topped em off and connected them to the panels.
later that day after the sun went down i took hdro readings of each cell, and they were all really really close, but not pegging the meter as tip top. like i said, none of the plates were showing, and i'll bet i added a 1/4 cup at most to the lowest cells. the more i think about this, i need to document each cell after they have sat for an hour or so, and possibly use a dropper to add acid to the lowest reading cells. then measure again. there were some cells that didn't lose anything and needed no water, so with some deductive reasoning, i should be able to figure out which read the highest, and match the lowers by adding maybe 6 drops of acid at a time? then let them cycle a few days, and hope they meet the highest cells.
does this sound like a good idea? any idea on how much acid to add at a time? i'm guessing it isn't much.
mike- i originally bought the fanuc motor to make a 12v mill. then after LEARNING, i decided 24 volt would be a far better choice for an expanding system. i knew this wouldn't be ideal for my motor, but i'm in a pretty high wind area, so figured it would still do decently well. i guess i'll find out this spring. spent over 20hrs last weekend welding on my tower pipes ect. it's really close to ready for install! cable is in my living room right now! footings poured last spring.
back to fanuc... are you saying the voltages on the name plates is irrelevant? only the rpm and amps make a difference in these motors? i do know that fanucs are highly looked upon. i got mine "new old stock" and it goes for 4-5k new.
your new monster is 300v? isn't that good? or do you think it will be too slow (@24v) to match to blades? if that's the case, i've always wanted to find a motor like that to hook to a giant VAWT with no tower to see if i could get 50-100 watts on a regular basis. maybe even if gearing was needed. we don't live too far apart if you need to find a new home for it.
thanks again for the wealth of info!
adam