PD or Iota for my upgrade?

KendallP wrote:
To be honest, I've been leaning IOTA for many months now.

Based on what I've learned, I'd lean that way, too, if not for the manual control and access to the circuit diagrams of the PD. I really hate tracing circuit diagrams, which is what I usually have to do when I want to control/fix my own devices.

The PD is certainly not immune to high resistance applications. The science is about as basic as it gets. The IOTA uses a trigger point. When that point is reached, it drops out of boost in about 20 minutes. All you need is a big, IOTA converter, a small battery and inadequate cabling or any combination of the above. It's not voodoo.

This makes sense for the Iota to trigger earlier than the PD, particularly if the Iota is holding a higher current level for longer during the initial stages. As soon as either one sees high voltage on the battery, it's got to think the battery is nearly charged. That PD patents say 4 hours above 14 volts is where it triggers, but that may have changed in production designs.

The external circuit components are easy to change, but the timing is in the programming of the microcontroller. They typically have the anti-copy protection fuse burnt in the production devices so you can't download the code and modify timing. You're limited to changing the external circuit (voltages, etc.) unless you're willing to write your own code. (One of the PD patents would give you a good running start on that task by explaining everything from charging mode timing routines to switch debounce code if you really wanted to try it.)