Meanwell is here!!
Ordered a Meanwell SP-200-15 from Jameco on Thursday, it arrived Saturday, looking all shiney and new. Here is the link to the listing on Jameco: http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Pr...
Forum Discussion
Us Battery has updated their site. My former bookmarked USbattery charging recommendation page now draws a blank.
2 of 3 of the recommended charging profiles used to state 15.3v was to be held as a "finishing" charge for some amount of time, the only stage for which is was not recommended was for a single stage ferro resonant charging source. I can no longer find this "finishing" charge recommendation, and they now state 15.3v is an 'Equalizing' charge.
No matter, I found their recommendations, although unconventionally high, were not high enough, for my battery.
Me thinks the Paisley tie brigade has been following some threads here and is afraid the 15.3v and 16v requirements is hurting their bottom line and/or being used as weaponry in the Trojan vs USbattery marketing war.
USbattery group 31 clicky
I have the USbattery group 31, and 15.3v 'finishing' charge is not quite enough to keep the SG from falling after 14 cycles, and time is needed at 16v, after a normal full "finishing" charge, before I get it back into the 1.275+ range.
It is obvious the battery holds higher voltages the next couple discharge cycles after it sees this 16v and tapers downward cycle after until the next 16v EQ cycle. Lesser EQ voltages sometimes failed to raise the SG to the max or just extended the duration needed, beyond acceptable, to me. I tried to step it up slowly, 15.5, 15,7, .8 and finally said screw it and gave into Mex's 16v reccomendation and the battery screamed "BINGO!, there it is, finally! Whohoo!!"
Batteries can talk, you just need the desire, and the tools to listen to them, and A former battery engineer in the background to slap you upside the head when you start mouthing the 14.4 is god, internet gospel.
The longer it holds 15.3v per day, the less time needed at 16v to max out the SG. warmer temps help too.
I've also found that the 14.7 ABSV recommendation was too low and caused even more time required at 16v to max out SG.
I now do 14.9 ABSv and 15.3v float finish every single day, via 198 watts of solar after cycling 40 to 50 AH each and every night on a "130 A/H" battery, and after 250 cycles, this is what this particular battery needs. The more alternator amps I can feed it in the beginning of the recharge cycle, the happier the battery. This battery will initially suck up 75 amps from my alternator when 65 amp Hr from full. My vehicles Voltage Regulator also allows 14.9v for a period. USbattery recommendations is a 10% bulk rate, so 13 amps for this particular battery. My solar can just do 13 amps on a good day. But perhaps the reccommendations are irrelevant, certainly their figures are not written in stone, and each battery coming off the same assembly line could very well be different as to what will make the SG get up near max on a regular charge cycle.
I've got the measuring tools, the desire, the daily cycling and the data to back it up. Skoff if you want, no skin off my back, time will tell how many cycles I get. Right now the battery is thumping its chest, and behaving well and I beat the living urine out of it, night after night, every night. The power pedestal is not far away, but I take perverse pleasure in Not using it.
As far as the turnigy/Watts up/GT power inline RC meters go, I think they are inaccurate. Mine gets very warm passing 25 amps, the voltage reads higher on its screen than the battery terminals, by .2 or .3 volts when passing 25 amps when charging at that rate, and I take the AH/WH readings with a pretty big grain of salt. This increased measured voltage obviously throws out A/H and W/h readings. Trust it completely at your own peril. Do not trust it to read loads under 0.2 amps, unless you can verify by other methods that it can.
Mine is incapable of reading loads under 0.2 amps, and is inaccurate under 0.8 amps, verified by 2 DMM's, a fluke and a cen tech, a sears clamp on DC ammeter, and a shunted ammeter. Seems accurate above these draws, but it heats up and reads higher voltage than what exists. Trust if you must, but verify before making claims.
I've been waffling for years now on which charging source to acquire to replace my Schumacher sc2500a. All the standard converters are off the list. The Meanwell is currently(pun intended) at the top of my list. I can use my Solar to achieve the 16v every ~14 cycles my screwy 31 requires. I want something that can hold the ABsv it needs, and the 15.3v 'finishing' charge, and my desire for a float charger which can handle cycling loads I use in the winter, like my mattress heating pad, and can be dialed in for either of my 2 batteries, depending on which battery I decide to cycle, the 31 or the AGM. I'll likely mostly use it for floating at 13.1 or 13.6 and powering my RV overnight come wintertime, but when I want 14.9, or 15.3v I want a charger which can meet it, not just declare that undercharging is safe fine and dandy with some safe lawyer approved algorithm which will sulfate my daily cycled battery into uselessness in a month.
Okay, that is all. The Pacific Ocean beat me up today. Thank you Hurricane Marie for the wonderful awe inspiring, insignificance teaching energy you radiated. I am humbled.
2 of 3 of the recommended charging profiles used to state 15.3v was to be held as a "finishing" charge for some amount of time, the only stage for which is was not recommended was for a single stage ferro resonant charging source. I can no longer find this "finishing" charge recommendation, and they now state 15.3v is an 'Equalizing' charge.
No matter, I found their recommendations, although unconventionally high, were not high enough, for my battery.
Me thinks the Paisley tie brigade has been following some threads here and is afraid the 15.3v and 16v requirements is hurting their bottom line and/or being used as weaponry in the Trojan vs USbattery marketing war.
USbattery group 31 clicky
I have the USbattery group 31, and 15.3v 'finishing' charge is not quite enough to keep the SG from falling after 14 cycles, and time is needed at 16v, after a normal full "finishing" charge, before I get it back into the 1.275+ range.
It is obvious the battery holds higher voltages the next couple discharge cycles after it sees this 16v and tapers downward cycle after until the next 16v EQ cycle. Lesser EQ voltages sometimes failed to raise the SG to the max or just extended the duration needed, beyond acceptable, to me. I tried to step it up slowly, 15.5, 15,7, .8 and finally said screw it and gave into Mex's 16v reccomendation and the battery screamed "BINGO!, there it is, finally! Whohoo!!"
Batteries can talk, you just need the desire, and the tools to listen to them, and A former battery engineer in the background to slap you upside the head when you start mouthing the 14.4 is god, internet gospel.
The longer it holds 15.3v per day, the less time needed at 16v to max out the SG. warmer temps help too.
I've also found that the 14.7 ABSV recommendation was too low and caused even more time required at 16v to max out SG.
I now do 14.9 ABSv and 15.3v float finish every single day, via 198 watts of solar after cycling 40 to 50 AH each and every night on a "130 A/H" battery, and after 250 cycles, this is what this particular battery needs. The more alternator amps I can feed it in the beginning of the recharge cycle, the happier the battery. This battery will initially suck up 75 amps from my alternator when 65 amp Hr from full. My vehicles Voltage Regulator also allows 14.9v for a period. USbattery recommendations is a 10% bulk rate, so 13 amps for this particular battery. My solar can just do 13 amps on a good day. But perhaps the reccommendations are irrelevant, certainly their figures are not written in stone, and each battery coming off the same assembly line could very well be different as to what will make the SG get up near max on a regular charge cycle.
I've got the measuring tools, the desire, the daily cycling and the data to back it up. Skoff if you want, no skin off my back, time will tell how many cycles I get. Right now the battery is thumping its chest, and behaving well and I beat the living urine out of it, night after night, every night. The power pedestal is not far away, but I take perverse pleasure in Not using it.
As far as the turnigy/Watts up/GT power inline RC meters go, I think they are inaccurate. Mine gets very warm passing 25 amps, the voltage reads higher on its screen than the battery terminals, by .2 or .3 volts when passing 25 amps when charging at that rate, and I take the AH/WH readings with a pretty big grain of salt. This increased measured voltage obviously throws out A/H and W/h readings. Trust it completely at your own peril. Do not trust it to read loads under 0.2 amps, unless you can verify by other methods that it can.
Mine is incapable of reading loads under 0.2 amps, and is inaccurate under 0.8 amps, verified by 2 DMM's, a fluke and a cen tech, a sears clamp on DC ammeter, and a shunted ammeter. Seems accurate above these draws, but it heats up and reads higher voltage than what exists. Trust if you must, but verify before making claims.
I've been waffling for years now on which charging source to acquire to replace my Schumacher sc2500a. All the standard converters are off the list. The Meanwell is currently(pun intended) at the top of my list. I can use my Solar to achieve the 16v every ~14 cycles my screwy 31 requires. I want something that can hold the ABsv it needs, and the 15.3v 'finishing' charge, and my desire for a float charger which can handle cycling loads I use in the winter, like my mattress heating pad, and can be dialed in for either of my 2 batteries, depending on which battery I decide to cycle, the 31 or the AGM. I'll likely mostly use it for floating at 13.1 or 13.6 and powering my RV overnight come wintertime, but when I want 14.9, or 15.3v I want a charger which can meet it, not just declare that undercharging is safe fine and dandy with some safe lawyer approved algorithm which will sulfate my daily cycled battery into uselessness in a month.
Okay, that is all. The Pacific Ocean beat me up today. Thank you Hurricane Marie for the wonderful awe inspiring, insignificance teaching energy you radiated. I am humbled.
