PD or Iota for my upgrade?

Wayne Dohnal wrote:

I see no need for lab conditions to determine if the PD can output rated current into a RV battery for more than a split second.

The amount of current the RV battery will draw depends on a few things, like depth of discharge, battery make and model, battery temperature, battery condition, wiring to the battery and probably a few more things. How the heck can these things be held constant for multiple tests without a highly-controlled environment? I'm hearing that with a resistor the nature of the load is important, and with a battery it doesn't matter. How can a PD converter be capable of driving a resistor at full power indefinitely, yet go wimpy when there's a battery there instead? There would have to be something about the nature of the load that negatively affects the converter. I can't image what it is, or how to figure it out, but wouldn't mind learning about it.

I agree. I'm willing to learn, but I see no way that the converter can output full power to a conventional resistive load bank (commonly used to test the output capabilities of devices like RV converters) and then turn "wimpy" and suddenly be unable to output the same power to a battery load. I won't try to argue I'm right because I've got credentials, and no one can confirm them any way, but I'll admit I have an EE degree from MIT so that if anyone thinks they have an explanation, they can make it as technical as they want to make it. It can even refer to Kirchoff's First (current) and Second (voltage) laws. :) (Which I hope anyone who is familiar with those laws will understand were not violated by anything I posted - which I'd be happy to explain in boringly excessive detail if anyone wants such an explanation.)

If no one can think of a reason why a battery load should suddenly cause the output of a converter to weaken, then I agree with Sal, testing to show one way or the other makes sense. I'll see if I can find the equipment and time to do such a test. I was thinking about doing it before and already have a resistive load bank half constructed from some hair dryer heating elements. I was going to ensure that the PD output met specs and try to decide if it was worthwhile to improve cooling.

It's always worthwhile to test the real world against your theoretical understanding of how the world works.