Oversize Image What A REAL Battery Charge Control Looks Like

a good solar charge controller does all this, some even more with set and forget. They are current available for various sources and no need to post over size picks, my does a top charge monthly all on it own.

Tenp comp is automatic not setting temp, remote temp sensor and remote voltage to get that that just right.

It's called FLEXIBILITY and REPEATABILITY.

It's easy Gordon Three.

Set charging voltage to 14.7.

Try a three hour charge. Check after 2 hours. Are the cells bubbling slightly? The battery is charged. Next time set the charger for an hour and a half. No matter what the start voltage is, it is so very easy to remember ("Three hours at starting 12.2 volts" where most folks start the recharging process.

Due to LAG and OVER-RUN not even a spot check of gravity is accurate for determining true state of charge.

To give you an idea...we had an all nighter outage a few days ago. I woke up and the 13.36 float section had limited the Lifeline to 13.45 volts.

I set the pot to 14.4 volts and wound the Intermatic to three hours of charge and walked off. Two and a half hours later the battery was sitting at 14.40 volts and amperage was .55 so I let the timer run the extra hour before the Borg defaulted to 13.27 float voltage.

Let's say the battery was a flooded one. Set the bulk charge at 14.6 volts and the timer to 3 hours. The battery should be bubbling at three hours because it did exactly that the last two times the battery was found at that state of charge.

I have to admit the guy who cannot boil eggs and needs his DW to tie his shoes for him may run into confounding issues, but then the DW should assume battery charging duty or maybe they need to vacation at the Holiday Inn if boondocking is an issue.

I can leave a battery that has reached 14.7 volts and is absorbing 3.0 amps for 8 hours and the most the battery will endure is slight bubbling in the cells. It won't hurt the battery. I can leave my Lifeline at 14.4 volts for DAYS and it won't get damaged. But WAIT THERE'S MORE! That's what shutoff timers are for.

This isn't U239 implosion theory engineering. By first LIMITING VOLTAGE the whole ballgame changes it's tune. Old fashioned battery chargers could not regulate their voltage. This is the background bogeyman that runs rampant through gossip and superstition of people who are not aware of how batteries and charging actually work.

My BORG is different because when the main timer shuts off the unit defaults to preset float voltage.

This is CONTROLLED VOLTAGE BATTERY CHARGING with a timer shutoff.

It isn't a REPLACEMENT for a converter -- it is a battery CHARGER.

Now the TRACE CHARGER ABOVE is a lot more automatic. It is set to start recharging a depleted battery. Today's CONVERTERS will blow it away for battery maintenance, but cycle that battery on vacation then no converter on the face of the earth is as east to use as something with the features of a good battery charger. BFL13's recommendation is a good charger.

Mex may I ask you to reduce the width of the photo--it makes it hard to read the thread. (keep it below 400).

While I agree the Trace stuff was wonderful, many times such items are not available. That is one reason I chose an inverter charger that had "custom" battery settings and a a temperature sensor.

I'm Urban docking right now and surviving on less than 1 KWH per day for all my house needs. So far I've managed to get to "float" each day. The generator is not with me so I'm relying on my Blue Sky 3024 di to replenish the energy.

I don't run the vent fan until the batteries are at float.

So this charger has a built in specific gravity checker? Isn't that the only way to know "for sure" that an antique lead battery is charging correctly?

Electro chemical is impossible to control without utilizing 15 sensors. Without sensors plug and play is all focused and based on asssssssssumption. 99.00000000% in error.

The psychosis of algorithms is one of the largest battery killers in history. Only a purposefully ignorant user of manual controls is worse. But then looking at obituaries, I see the result of purposely ignorant drivers of automobiles.

The problem Jim@HiTek is there are few if any OPTIONS to gain analog control of battery charging. The industry is learning but far too slowly.

Have no worries about freeze-face sneering the other 50% of the time I am laughing.

"Stand in front of kiosk. The menu will guide you through your DOCTOR KIOSK algorithm examination. At the end, the kiosk will dispense needed Rx if any."

Absolutely agreed about component selection. Why do they even select 85c minimum voltage electrolytic caps and borderline rectifiers in a power supply? Frank Oropeza made millions of dollars at Transpo electronics designing voltage regulators that used FETs, sold them for 1/10th the cost of OEM and they had superior performance and lifespan.

Now we're back to CHEAP AT ANY PRICE with no alternatives...Hwang Ho, minimalist.

You sneer too hard, your face will stick that way. I don't advise it.

Thirty year old tech isn't up to snuff with today's microcontroller controlled devices. What might LOOK like a new piece of junk on the outside can have some pretty elegant firmware going on inside. Because programmers often share their knowledge and what might have been learned 30 years ago about making the best charger gets spread around to engineers like wildfire. And eventually it trickles down to todays tech. And firmware is cheap so not opposed by marketing types.

Now, how it gets instituted by today's engineers and whether or not they use quality components is a whole 'nuther question.

Far superior model. Under this cap is button. Press button. Plug And Play

This is a THIRTY YEAR OLD CHARGER CONTROL from a Trace modified sine wave. This is why I SNEER at the kindergarten grade snotrags on the market today.