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DryCamper11 wrote:Yeah, I hear 'ya on the disadvantages re cycles and regulation. I didn't get too far into the circuits in the 808, more impressed by the weight and layout then anything.westend wrote:
it's built so darn well and seems to be treating my batteries good. It has one big piece of iron for a transformer and a large heatsink for the rectifiers. I don't know if Progressive Ind. was ahead of it's time or if others were built to a lesser standard. Maybe I got lucky.:)
Those old converters were heavy and solid. My heat sinks are 8" x 8" plates - one on each side. They had massive transformers with huge diodes on the heat sinks. Mine, built in 1972-3, will probably last another 50 years, but it just doesn't have the smarts to treat a battery well. They had lousy voltage regulation and no concept of stages (bulk, absorption, float, equalization, etc.).
I'm considering pulling out the transformer to run my outdoor 12V lighting system. I thought about keeping it, adding some linear voltage control and smart circuitry for battery charging, but the cost/time wasn't worth it.
My plans are to add a more modern converter in the future and keep the old one for backup. Currently, solar does all of my charging.
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