PD or Iota for my upgrade?
I'm thinking about a converter and battery upgrade. The batteries will be wet cell lead acid 6 volt Possible T-105s or the 230AH, EGC2 from Sam's club. I'll probably go for four. (Does nayone have...
Forum Discussion
As long as people are talking about pendants and plugs, I'll stick this bit of info into the thread about the PD9200 series. The pendant sold is nothing more than a switch and an LED connected to the same connector used to connect a telephone handset to the telephone base. Three of the four wires are used - power for the LED, ground and a signal lead. I've installed two switches and two LEDs in my RV that simulate two pendants so I can see the status of the PD by the blinking LED and control the output mode from two locations.
One switch/LED pair is installed next to the batteries, for when I'm working on them and want to change output voltage/mode. The other pair is mounted near my TriMetric and voltage monitoring unit at the central RV control area.
To build a pendant is trivial. You connect an LED between the LED lead and ground. The switch is connected between the signal lead and ground. Pressing the momentary contact switch button shorts the signal lead to ground causing the PD to switch modes. Press for <1s and you get boost mode. Hold for >3s you get normal mode and >6s gives float/trickle mode. You can put as many switches as you want in parallel to control it from anywhere.
The LEDs take more care. You can use just about any single LED, but if you want multiple, you need to limit current draw and make sure both LEDs are lit at the same voltage. I used some low power LEDs that were voltage matched and put them in parallel, but I wouldn't add more than two, or they'd get pretty dim and might draw excessive current (it's supplied directly from the microcontroller through a resistor).
If anyone wants the phone connector pinout, I'll look it up and post it. The same pendant is used for all 9200 series units.
I'll also comment that the PD9280, has the TCMS "Charge Wizard" built in, but it has a circuit board that would allow a remote unit to be connected (the connector isn't installed, but the board is marked for the four pins of that connector.
I'm not familiar with the PD units that do not have the integrated microcontroller, but the patents describe it as using three of four pins on connector H2, and that's how the circuit board is labeled. One is an input to the Charge Wizard (the converter output voltage), one is an output to the converter to control the output voltage and one is ground. Any PD that has a separate TCMS/Charge Wizard would be really easy to control remotely.
One switch/LED pair is installed next to the batteries, for when I'm working on them and want to change output voltage/mode. The other pair is mounted near my TriMetric and voltage monitoring unit at the central RV control area.
To build a pendant is trivial. You connect an LED between the LED lead and ground. The switch is connected between the signal lead and ground. Pressing the momentary contact switch button shorts the signal lead to ground causing the PD to switch modes. Press for <1s and you get boost mode. Hold for >3s you get normal mode and >6s gives float/trickle mode. You can put as many switches as you want in parallel to control it from anywhere.
The LEDs take more care. You can use just about any single LED, but if you want multiple, you need to limit current draw and make sure both LEDs are lit at the same voltage. I used some low power LEDs that were voltage matched and put them in parallel, but I wouldn't add more than two, or they'd get pretty dim and might draw excessive current (it's supplied directly from the microcontroller through a resistor).
If anyone wants the phone connector pinout, I'll look it up and post it. The same pendant is used for all 9200 series units.
I'll also comment that the PD9280, has the TCMS "Charge Wizard" built in, but it has a circuit board that would allow a remote unit to be connected (the connector isn't installed, but the board is marked for the four pins of that connector.
I'm not familiar with the PD units that do not have the integrated microcontroller, but the patents describe it as using three of four pins on connector H2, and that's how the circuit board is labeled. One is an input to the Charge Wizard (the converter output voltage), one is an output to the converter to control the output voltage and one is ground. Any PD that has a separate TCMS/Charge Wizard would be really easy to control remotely.
