Recently I was balancing an 85 Cell pack for a customer. I had the pack charging at a few amps on my PFC UNisolated charger. ( the Green Box). And as I probed around with my meter, I found one cell exceptionally low. I also have a little R/C Charger that puts out 10amps, (depending on the input power supply) and can charge one battery nicely without over charging it. I have quite a collection of power supplies and had picked one of the highest output that I had. It had not occurred to me that the 3-pronged supply I had picked would have the GND wire connected DIRECTLY to the NEG of the 12V output. Good News is... the power supply is fine ! The Bad new is my R/C charger took up the bad habit of smoking and died very quickly. The funny thing is.. I had thought about the whole situation before doing it, since dangling leads have a way of running to the worst possible place. And I really like this I-Charger what would charge up to 10 cells and would keep track of amp hours.
The other interesting thing I learned this week, while selling one 12V -4 cell block of the GBS Batteries. A customer I have spent HOURS on the phone how to work a Voltmeter, got these cells in the mail, along with the regulators. He called me up and informed me that they had come, that he was going to have to attach the regulators to the batteries. We talked about (+) and (-) and which way they go, and I thought things were pretty clear, until he told me that he had 4 regulators but there was only places for 3 of them. I knew we had 4 cells, but said ... let me send you a picture when I get home. I get a call back that he has hooked the regulators up, I ask are the lights on.. .he says no.. again much talk of (+) and (-)...and why is there one extra regulator. I send him a picture and find that he has hooked the regulators across 2 cells the (+) of one and the (-) of the second.....and this is why in the group of 4 there was only 3 places to hook them! Over the years I have been a lot kinder in my thoughts, toward myself for doing stupid things and toward other people. I strive to be that person that picks up on the little hints and avoids mishaps. I just hate blowing up parts for no good reason. I am sorry about Wayne and the paint Dust. I am glad he posted what happened, because it is a heads up. And this is one of the wonderful things about this list. Recent discussion of the 5 cent Electric theft is a good example of how a little knowledge ahead of time can save things. A lot of things in the "story" don't quite add up, but we still can learn a lot from this. Steve Clunn -- Steve Clunn Merging the best of the past with the best of the future. www.Greenshedconversions.com _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
