After some more thinking on the subject.
Recommended procedure for battery charging with the diesel:
1. Start the engine, and begin charging. (with the battery switch in "BOTH"
position)
Continue charging until the battery voltage reaches the maximum and the
regulator
begins to taper down the charge current.
2. Shutdown the engine
Shutdown when the current drops to 80% (recommended) or 30% or 99%.
Just know that when the charge current begins to taper down, the efficiency
of the charging process also begins to go down.
3. Flip the battery switch to "BANK 1" on odd days and to "BANK 2" on even days.
The Equalizer LED's will first indicate "CHARGING" and then "FLOATING" and
then "CHARGED".
The cycle timing will depend on the Ampere Hour rating and condition of
your batteries.
4. Flip the battery switch back to "BOTH" position.
Does this make sense?
Cheers
Ahmet
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Date: Fri, 20 May 2011 23:06:04 -0400
Subject: Re: [Liveaboard] Cruiser Battery Equalizer
Hi All,
At this time the paper design for the battery equilizer is beginning to meet
all it's requirements.
LT Spice simulation claims feedback loops are stable.
The black metal box is going to have one ON/OFF switch, a terminal strip and
three LED's.
LED's marked "Charging", "Floating" and "Charged".
I will add a panel voltmeter if you like or you can use your own multimeter.
Monday, I will order the ferrite core, bobbin, copper strip and nomex
insulation for the transformer.
I will be away on business for a month but I expect to have a beta unit ready
for Mr. Jerry Peters to evaluate wihin a couple of months.
Let me know if there are any other inputs.
Fair Winds
Ahmet
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Date: Thu, 5 May 2011 23:44:37 -0400
Subject: Re: [Liveaboard] Battery Equalizer
Thank you for the excellent inputs Ben.
It is 22:30 and I just got home from a friend's retirement party.
Although we have been drinking ouzo all night I will try to explain what
I thought would be a typical daily battery charging scenario in terms
of labor required by the sailor :
1. Start the engine, and let it accelerate to the optimum charging speed.
2. Either watch your ammeter or get an audible alarm from your DC/DC
when the battery voltage levels of at its maximum amplitude.
3. Shutdown the engine.
4. Flip the battery switch to bank#1 on odd days and bank 2 on even days.
5. After less than eight hours the DC/DC will beep again indicating it has done
its job.
Simply flip the battery switch back to "BOTH"
Not too complicated if you ask me.
The DC/DC is designed by the cruisers for the cruisers so it will do exactly
what we want it to do.
The DC/DC will survive with input shorted, output shorted, or the input shorted
to output.
As Ben said, a couple of comparators in the DC/DC detects battery switch
positions
and enables the DC/DC when bank#1 or #2 is selected. DC/DC shuts itsself down
in all
other battery switch positions automatically. No fussing from the user is
required.
No need for extra batteries. DC/DC uses an average of less than 300mA per day.
Can we buy the 12Vdc to 15Vdc DC/DC instead of building one ?
I would love to buy it instead of building it but I don't think we can find one.
Anybody who knows a part number please speak up.
More later.
Thanks again Ben.
> From: [email protected]
> Date: Thu, 5 May 2011 11:09:01 -0400
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [Liveaboard] Ahmet's Equalizer
>
> On Tue, May 03, 2011 at 01:07:33PM -0400, [email protected] wrote:
> >
> > A postscript to my latest message describing Ahmet's Equalizer.
> >
> > I thought Ahmet was quite clear in his explanation of the device he had
> > come up with. It was clear to me at least.
> >
> > "A very efficient DC/DC power converter (after a bulk charge with the
> > engine or Honda 2000)
> > takes the energy from one battery bank and slowly tops up the other house
> > bank. Next day
> > the process is repeated topping off or equalizing the other house bank"
>
> It sounds like a reasonable idea - although you want to be aware that
> you're trading a certain amount of battery life (by cycling the
> batteries more than you would otherwise) as well as battery capacity
> (since a fair amount of that capacity is now going to be used for this
> job) for this ability. If you're already fully exercising your banks on
> a daily basis, you'll need to add more batteries.
>
> Also, unless I'm mistaken, this presumes that you're only going to draw
> from one bank at a time - i.e., that you have at least double the
> capacity that you use for your daily needs (a *highly* doubtful
> assertion for most cruising boats.) Even if you do have that capacity,
> the question is, which bank will you use for your daily energy needs? If
> it's the one that you're charging from, then you'll be loading that bank
> pretty heavily by pulling both what you need *and* the charge current
> for the second bank (i.e., each bank will now need to be powerful enough
> to supply your needs and to charge the other bank.) If, on the other
> hand, you're going to draw from the one being charged, then that bank
> will never get fully charged. Perhaps I'm failing to understand the
> usage scenario here.
>
> Next, this system will need a variety of sensors that would cut it off.
> E.g., when the two banks are tied together via a "Both" setting on the
> battery switch (this would short the input of the converter to the
> output - perhaps not the most desirable scenario. :) You also probably
> don't want this operating when the engine is running (maybe not - I'm
> not very clear on that design goal) and maybe when there's a large load
> on either one of the banks (you'd need a shunt for each bank, a pair of
> comparators matched to the shunts, and some serious brain sweat put into
> figuring out what "large" means in this case. It would be different for
> each bank capacity/load combination.)
>
> Overall, it doesn't sound like a big problem to build one, especially
> since you can get good quality, high-current boost converters fairly
> cheaply these days - no need to design or build them yourself, like you
> had to in the 70s or early 80s. Again, the problem that I'm seeing is
> that of usage, given the typical battery use on a cruising boat. I may
> be wrong, but it seems like you'd be fussing with the thing all the
> time, and having to make decisions about what to do with it on a daily
> basis. That, in my experience, means that it just won't get used after
> the first week or so.
>
>
> Ben
> --
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