I have a battery backup system as part of my Fiber-to-the-home service from a 
certain regional telecom provider. The battery for this system is a 12V sealed 
lead-acid battery (not unlike a golf cart or scooter battery). The trouble is 
that there is a system alarm when the battery “wears out” and needs to be 
replaced — it’s been beeping every 8-9 minutes for the past few months. I’m not 
really interested in consuming another battery for no real reason (I don’t need 
backup because if the power is out at my house I have no need for internet 
access). That said, I’m thinking of a non-destructive way to trick the 
charger/alarm circuit into thinking it has a fully-charged, new & happy 12V 
battery.

I don’t know much about lead-acid charger circuits but I suspect some sort of 
current-limited voltage-regulated supply that alarms when the battery no longer 
holds 11V or some other specified threshold.

Would a simple 12V zener diode work, or would a charge circuit just dump a 
wasteful amount of current into the diode? Perhaps a 13V zener so that no 
current even flows? I have easy access to the battery terminals, and medium 
access to the rest of the circuit.

I’m ok with mangling the alarm itself, but I’d prefer a nice “plug-n-play” 
solution since I know at least three friends in a similar situation who aren’t 
as destructive.

-Andy



--
Andrew M.C. Dawes
Associate Professor of Physics
Pacific University
amcdawes.com<http://amcdawes.com>

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