so, here's a Q, how is he going to take the pack OUT of series, and put it into parallel for charging?
Wouldn't that require a contactor for each battery to take it out of series, and some relays to connect to the 12V charger bus? Or is his system going to be 12V.... On Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 6:54 AM, Johnathan Vail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > You are right they will balance each other out and charge to the same > level but that isn't really what you want. You want the best charge for > the individual cell. Any time you have multiple cells charged together > the stronger ones will beat up on the weaker ones. > > In extreme cases with high amp charges one cell will reach max charge > before the other one and the extra current could cause over heating of the > electrolyte. > > Lead acid batteries are generally very forgiving and you can do well to > charge batteries in parallel with a constant voltage source. With a high > current quick charger you need to monitor the current very carefully and > turn it back down to a constant voltage for trickle or level charge when > the battery nears capacity. > > I think the performance differences between different chargers of the same > model is negligible compared to the difference between batteries > especially as they age. > > > > > On Thu, March 13, 2008 9:32 am, David Herron wrote: > > When you put batteries in parallel they automatically balance each other > > ... and they will automatically all be charged to the same level by the > > charger. > > > > If you bank charge with one charger per battery how do you have any > > gaurantee the chargers actually all behave the same way? Chargers are > > analog devices and some of the components could be different from > > charger to charger. > > > > One issue I haven't seen Andrew address is ... if you connect in > > parallel two batteries who aren't at the same voltage.. clearly they're > > going to try and equalize when you connect them, so there should be a > > large spark. > > > > > -- > Blog: http://volcano.newts.org > > > -- Travis Gintz 1986 Honda VFR DC conversion Http://blog.evfr.net/
