Lead acid batteries. A novice embarrasses himself.

[mael]

[mael]

[Bob Boyce]

[mael]

[mael]

[brian]

good subject,bob do you think you could post the circuit? i thought chemlec had one on his site but its for lithium batteries thanks.

[Bob Boyce]

[mael]

I thought that might have been the case.

Would you please indicate the pulse-with, and the voltages/currents necessary in a specific instance?

* I can charge a lead/acid battery at 20 Amps and the same one can be charged with 1 Amp. At least they both seem to reach the same conclusion.

Is there any optimum voltage/current to charge a battery? I ask as I am wondering if it is a waste to charge at a high current if it means a lot of the energy is wasted in (unwanted) heat?

* And getting a bit off topic; alkaline batteries - the small penlight sizes and thereabouts:-

Isn't the way to charge them to be very gentle and let the heat determine the degree of charge at any given point? ie... if it starts getting warm then reduce the charge so as to maintain a constant temperature, and when the temperature increases whenever any significant charge is attempted - then the battery is as good as it is going to get?

I'm just curious about that. - I replaced an alkaline battery in one of my wall clocks and I remember hearing about how they can be charged under certain conditions with certain manufacturers.

[brian]

alkaline charger. i havent tried this yet.

[Chris]

I too would love to get more "into" the topic of rejuvinating lead acid batteries. Tons of them around if you have the knowledge to rejuvinate them, you'd have a great source of backup power.

I have a circuit that I built to rejuvinate batteries but it's not something I have tested enough to know whether or not it's really working. I did successfully "fix" a huge 12v "valve" type industrial gel battery. Very expensive battery.

It was only reading 10v or so and nothing was working so I built this curcuit after looking it up online. It is only 2 components and it DID fix my big battery. It failed to fix several others though. I'm not sure if they were just too far gone or what?

At any rate this circuit will cause a voltage rise in the battery to some very scary points so USE WITH CAUTION!!! I actually got a small 12v gell cell to POP because I suspect I ignited the hydrogen gas that was being given off from electrolysis. It blew the little rubber stoppers out under the sealed lid.

Anyway you can actually hear it "cooking" off the crystals and if you have an analog V meter, you can see the needle moving up and down as it is doing its job.

This circuit can charge any voltage battery. I would be interested in hearing thought on how good or bad this type of charger is to use? I always put it on a timer so I don't kill my batteries when using it.

You need to use a non-polarized capaciter in this circuit and the larger the cap the more current you deliver to the battery being recharged.

~ ------<cap>----<FWBR>------ ~

Sorry for the ANSI art ...bad art at that. I'm at work now and will scan the document with better descriptions at home.

The FWBR (Full Wave Bridge Rectifier) is your source to charge your battery. The + from the FWBR goes to the + on your battery and the (-) goes to your negative on your battery.

Try it for brief periods of time when starting. Put your volt meter in parallel with the battery.

I'll put a much better diagram on later today. Please let me know if you have played with this simple circuit before and what your thoughts on it are.

[brian]

this site has good info on lead acid batteriesalso here is a reviving circuit http://www.electronics-lab.com/projects ... index.html note for 230vac mains

[mael]

Hmmm!

Just when I had steeled myself up to using a 555 you go and tell me I'm going to need an"LM317T."

Now what's that when it's at home? OK! It's a voltage regulator, but the nearest place I could buy one is hundreds of kilometers away over a very deep bit of water.

So I'm going to have to scrounge one from somewhere and somehow recognize that it's the component I'm after.

Can anyone advise me how to find an LM317T amongst the scrap? ie... tell me where to look and what will work satisfactorily if the same one can not be easily procured.

*** I was just getting the 'fight or flight' syndrome about rigging up a 555 - started to get a sweat as well! But then the fearsome thought of working with ICs was cooled suddenly. - Maybe I can find something amongst the great electrical shops' dumps around here?

[Terry]

[coffeyw]

Here's a good place to learn about

Coffey

[mael]