Happy Happy Joy Joy.

[dinges]

I'm happy;

just went to my scrapdealer, and he had 2 pallets full of gell-cell batteries (Sonnenschein, famous brand here in Europe). Asked if I could buy 5 or 10, said 'just give me 10E for 10'. Helped to load the car, even gave me 13 :-)

Some are 12Ah (12V 12Ah), have 8 of these; others are 24Ah (2 of these);

He said he wasn't sure they were ok; I said I was already happy if just one was ok (these batteries are about 50E/pce over here. Since there were so many of the same type, I didn't believe they were all duff. Probably routine replacement of alarms or something. Did a quick voltage test at home, and 3 of the 13 are low on voltage. Will give them all a quick check-out, and if they stand it, get me some more.

(already have pictures in my mind of rows and rows of batteries, all charged :-) )

Have an old UPS that has 2 12V/7Ah batteries; I was for some time planning to add an external connector to the outside, to use external source (2 12V batteries, external). With my 'new' batteries, this will move up on the priority list. Perhaps 2 33Ah batteries...

If these batteries can stand a load test, I'll buy 20 more!

Did I say I was happy ?

Peter,

The Netherlands.

(I also scored me some 7018 welding rods, 4mm. For free :-) Just what I need now I'm learning to weld. The very morning, I was looking at the local DIY shop and was amazed by their ridiculous prices; Didn't even have an E... number on them, just 'easy to weld with/all positions, etc.' Right...

[Nando]

Peter:

Carry, always, when going to your hunting trips a VOLTMETER, a good size low value resistor, pliers, wire cutter and screw drivers.

This way, one time I bought 28 wet nickel cadmium 50 A/h cells for 28 dollars total price, they even helped me to place them in my van, HEAVY !! INDEED.

Nando

[dinges]

I do always carry a Leatherman wave on me (actually, two...), a BM705 pocket knife, swiss army knife, 2-3 torches (I'm afraid in the dark ;-), piece of string, compass, whistle, cellphone,... (And I don't even look like this guy)

http://ericlefou.1.online.fr/MES_TRUCS/MESobjets/Mon_equipement/international.htm

I always have a voltmeter in the car, but I didn't bother getting it out; the batteries looked so good, price was good, so I wasn't going to fuss.

Your advise is sound though! The only thing I missed today was a good screwdriver; there's on the Leathermans, but not very good. Will see where I have room left on my body to put a screwdriver.

BTW, I figured if the batteries were duff, I'd still have the lead... (about 100kg of it, actually)

Peter,

The Netherlands.

[Bruce S]

Peter;

   WAY COOOOOL!!

IF you ever make it down into Brussels,( actually in Overjiise) let me know a few days ahead of time. Our company has a nice little testing device that can not only tell you if the batts are good but how much capacity is left in them and if you have tiome they can even do a Lifecycle run, This is similar to desulfating, but in a stable, controlled, systamatic method.

Gunther will be more than happy to help.

Cheers and Luck;

Bruce S  

[Nando]

BRUCE:

I would like to get information about the little device, technical will be OK my address in the heading of my message

Nando

[dinges]

Also interested in this device; a commercial product that your company bought, or manufactures, or homebuilt?

I know the area a bit (Overijse). Belgium is just way to close to us ;-) Which company is it you/your friend works at?

Bruce, are you in Belgium too?

Peter,

The Netherlands.

[Bruce S]

Peter,

  Try as I might, I can't seem to get the company to export me to our offices in Brussels. Actually vistied  IJmuiden right at the harbour last time over, pretty cool place, I saw windmills even out in little ponds just chugging right along, and that Kilometer long solar panel along the highway is quite a site.

Actually I travel there twice a year to test the emergency telephone switch over. It's an all weekend event which I usually stretch into 10 days when possible.

The unit is a commercial one cost E4500,00 juts for the unit, adapters E100,00 more per.

It's saved our collective butts and proved it's worth in the first 6 months of use in just the shipping costs of returned medical devices alone.

 The Companies name is Biomedical Systems, the world headquarters is here in St. Louis, but our EU headquarters is Located in the old AT&T offices. Web page is biomedsys.com if you want to give it a look.

We can continue this discussion off forum of you like. I'll drop Gunther an email letting him know as well.

Cheers;

Bruce S

[Nando]

BRUCE:

Can you include me in the group ?.

My address is in the message heading.

Thanks

Nando

[dinges]

Bruce,

You want to live/work in Brussels?! I try to avoid it as much as I can, just as Antwerp or any major city in NL; too much traffic problems.

The company name does ring a bell (have heard of it before, perhaps on the news?), but can't say I really know it.

So you visited my country eh? I know Ijmuiden a bit; they've got a dumpshop (called 'Baco')) that I used to visit every few months when I was still studying. Haven't visited it in years. Personally I've found Ijmuiden a bit of a sad, industrial place. But then, I've only visited the industrial district :-)

Too bad that nice piece of test equipment is so expensive; but guess that's the case with most good (calibrated) gear :-(  That's why much of my test equipment is homebuilt. Just haven't found a good design for an Ah-meter yet. Right now, the batteries are being loaded with a 5A car headlight, with stopwatch next to it; when voltage drops to 11.00 V, I manually stop the discharge. Should be pretty easy to automate this though, an opamp driving a MOSFet that switches the load and a clock.

I have seen a link on this board for an Ah-meter, used in modelflying. Looked pretty nice, much functionality, if only it wouldn't cost money... Maybe I'll have a look anyhow at availability over here in NL/BE.

Glad to know you liked my country (or at least its PV panels and windmills.)

Peter,

The Netherlands.

[Bruce S]

No happy on the outcome, but I sent you and Nando a private email explaining.

For what it's worth the testing unit is a Cadex model 7500.

It's testing procedure is based on the chemistry of the battery and it's "C" for both charging and such. It also has a thermal probe for over heating and to shut down.

For me Brussels proper wouldn't be too nice, but the country side very nice, and the Grand Platz is always ummm interesting:-))

I have visited your country quite a few times, mostly with the military back in middle 70's. And I really liked your country then, the police there are also much nicer than Luxembourg.

Ijmuiden, is where our e-trike was manufactured. I have since re-worked the electronics, lights, derailer system, power regulation and power taps, but it is a pretty thing to see on the streets.

We where in the news a few years back, mostly nowadays for the buildings being touted as the offices of the future. We use all high-efficient lighting, waste-heat recovery for heating and cooling. Our newest 3 story high building uses less energy than most 2 story ones. We even tried going with H2 powered genset for backup but the city refused to allow it, so we had to go with a CAT diesel genset that uses B20.

Plus we have a server room that's a gift from heaven.

On the money part: With a wife in her last year of University and a teenage daughter, I can understand the no money plight.

I have an idea of putting up a barter page in the classified section where everyone can go and offer services in exchange for parts or swapping. Even offer items to have just for the cost of shipping.

I emailed Admin about this part and was told that some time back they had something similar and it was a big hit.

Thoughts?

Bruce S

 

[dinges]

Glad you liked our police :-)

The problem is, our police is so tolerant (you can discuss, argue, until recently even call them names), dutchmen when abroad think the police are also tolerant and start showing the same behaviour; not wise :-)

Remember a famous Dutch singer (Hans de Booij) who spent a night in jail because he treated the Belgian police (Rijkswacht, a policeforce very military in nature) the same as he did in NL ;-)

Where in NL were you? I live in Woensdrecht, which has a famous military air force base; back in the early eighties, it was going to house some 48 cruise missiles with nuclear warheads. Caused quite some debate over here. Mr. Gorbachov's change of policy ended the need for that though.

Just tested some of the batts; have loaded one (a 12Ahr variant with a 4.5 Amp load (lightbulb); it lasted for almost 2 hrs, giving an 8.2Ahr. Not bad for such a heavy load (.35C). This one is ok! (Oh yeah, that was in the 'as is' condition, straight from the scrapyard; no charging was done...

Now, 5 others are paralleled and being charged (converted an old PC power supply to 13.8V at 10 amps; ideal for float charging). Will check them for capacity later.

2 of the 24 Ahr batteries are both duff; even though they were produced in week 19 of 2004 (the others are older). Probably they were replaced because defect? The 12Ahr batteries were so many of them, that was probabaly routine maintenance.

Have one bigger battery, 40 Ah; this has so far given about 10Ahr of energy, uncharged. Hope this one works out too.

I'll make some pix of the batteries and post them. When I'm back at the scrapyard, I'll make pictures of both pallets of batteries too; just to let you guys drool over the keyboard :-)

Peter,

The Netherlands.

[dinges]

BTW, I charge at 13.8V (14.4V is acceptable for sealed gell cells). Temp in the garage is about 18deg. C, not 25deg.C as specified on the batteries.

I discharge until 11.00V. I even went a bit further with the first battery, to 10.00V (this was acceptable, according to the label; 1.67V/cell...), but found that the voltage drops very quickly from 11.00 to 10.00 V; you don't get much extra energy, and the lower voltage can't be too good on the battery.

About your e-trike: go ahead an say it, it was such rubbish that you completely had to rebuild it ;-)

Just teasing.

The idea on swapping may be good, only my problem is that I'm so far away from the rest of you guys (though there are some members in NL/Europe) that it won't benefit me much; though for American members, I think this is a good idea. Perhaps a 'point' systems, with credits, might be possible, instead of 'direct/one-on-one' swaps? This would mean a lot of administration though. For now a classifieds/swap page might be nice?

Peter,

The Netherlands.

[dinges]

Did a full check on the first battery today.

With a .35C load, I get about 8.1Ah. According to the datasheet from sonnenschein, I should get 8.0 A. :-)

Now I'll check out the other 7; one of which is duff. Even if just 2 or 3 of the others are ok, I will still make another trip to the scrapyard.

The other batteries (not sonnenschein, there were only a few of these others BTW) aren't ok; both 2 24Ah batteries are duff; the one 40Ah battery I have may be good or not, have to check it closer; only got 10Ah out of it, in the 'as is' condition, but when re-charging, voltage went back up to 13.8V way too quick and charge current was too low :-(

The grey ones from Sonnenschein seem ok so far, and there are 2 full pallets to choose from; will use my DMM this time to quickly weed out the really duff ones.

Peter,

The Netherlands

[dinges]

And when I went back last tuesday, they were all gone... Too bad. A day before, on monday, they were hauled off for destruction.

Good news is that they regularly get these batteries. Now there was a pallet with heavy steel red batteries (30cm*30*15cm), but they looked SO bad I didn't bother. Might be fork lift batteries? Couldn't check the brand, they looked so bad. Some were cracked too.

Too bad. Better luck next time. (though I did find a few boxes with cable 'shoes' for e.g. thick car wire or welding wire. My father bought these for 1$/pce a couple of weeks ago; now I have about 100 for free :-) Slowly but surely, I'm collecting all the parts for a RE system, as you can see.

Plus, those trips to the scrapyard do pay up, it seems.

Still happy.

Peter,

The Netherlands.