Measuring V loss during charging
I know that a discharged battery can pull down the voltage at the charger. I was trying to measure voltage loss in my converter wiring, switches, etc. The two 105 AH batteries were 12.13v prior to charging. It's a WFCO converter with horrible OEM wire routing.
So getting started:
Charging current was 15A at time of measurements*
V at converter outputs was 13.60
V at batts was 13.06
I repeated this process with a HF charger clamped to the batts, with the converter off, and saw a similar V drop at the batteries versus at some Anderson power pole connectors in the middle of the HF cable. It went from 14.00v at mid-cable to 13.43v at the battery clamps and batteries.
I also did it with a Turnigy power meter in between the halves of the HF cable. Similar results. There were drops of 0.05v at each half of the two sets of power pole connectors. And apparently the Turnigy meter itself dropped 0.1v. But the big V drop, 0.7v less than the point 3 feet upstream, was registered at the battery.
How can a person tell how much of the V difference is loss due to wiring etc.?
*Charging started with amps in the mid 20's, but tapering right away. It was fairly steady at 15-ish when I took my measurments.
There were no significant other loads on the converter during this charging. Let's leave the WFCO discussions for another thread. Thanks.
So getting started:
Charging current was 15A at time of measurements*
V at converter outputs was 13.60
V at batts was 13.06
I repeated this process with a HF charger clamped to the batts, with the converter off, and saw a similar V drop at the batteries versus at some Anderson power pole connectors in the middle of the HF cable. It went from 14.00v at mid-cable to 13.43v at the battery clamps and batteries.
I also did it with a Turnigy power meter in between the halves of the HF cable. Similar results. There were drops of 0.05v at each half of the two sets of power pole connectors. And apparently the Turnigy meter itself dropped 0.1v. But the big V drop, 0.7v less than the point 3 feet upstream, was registered at the battery.
How can a person tell how much of the V difference is loss due to wiring etc.?
*Charging started with amps in the mid 20's, but tapering right away. It was fairly steady at 15-ish when I took my measurments.
There were no significant other loads on the converter during this charging. Let's leave the WFCO discussions for another thread. Thanks.
