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Forum Index : Electronics : Cheap/Simple Bulk Charger?
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| GeoffHammond Newbie  Joined: 18/07/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2 |
(First Post!) I have the following off-grid power system, which I partly inherited with the house and am slowly making "better": 24V, 1050AH, flooded lead acid battery 3.8kW Solar Panels through Plasmatronics PL60 and two SSRs Whisper 1kW wind turbine Dunlite 5.2KVA petrol generator Selectronics SE32 inverter RGS Battery charger. The battery charger has a plate on the back that claims it will charge to 40Amps. It doesn't and the manufacturer has disappeared. There is no documentation to be found. No matter as it is dying slowly and it is the wrong colour anyway. I only use the generator/charger as a bulk charging device when the weather is neither sunny nor windy, relying on the good weather to come along soon for the balance of my charging needs. I have most of the bits to build an alternator-based charger, but the existing generator has an auto/remote start and is controlled by the SE32 to keep the battery above my minimum discharge level without human intervention. I want to maintain this level of automation. If I were doing it "properly" I would pay around $1k for a multi-stage battery charger that would do what I want plus a whole bunch of stuff that I do not. Where's the fun in that? 
I am thinking of buying a cheap ($130) ebay 24V, 40Amp car/truck battery charger (such as this to do the work. Has anyone done this sort of thing already? What are the predicted/experienced downsides? Thanks in advance. |
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Downwind Guru  Joined: 09/09/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2333 |
I have built chargers out of small old mig welders, and rewound microwave oven transformers, all of which will punch out 20 to 40 amps easy enough at 28 volts. Glenn (Gizmo) done a charger on the forum some time back using a small standard arc welder for a transformer, so might be worth a forum search to find Glenn's project. Pete. Sometimes it just works |
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| GeoffHammond Newbie Joined: 18/07/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2 |
Cheers, Downwind. I've read Gizmo's stuff and to be frank, it's a little bit more hardcore than I want right now. I figure that the ebay charger is almost an out-of-the-box disappointment/solution. |
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| Downwind Guru Joined: 09/09/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2333 |
I got the impression you wanted to build something rather than buy an item. After looking at the fleebay link it would appear to be not a bad price for what you get. You could spend half that cost on dicking around and building your own, but by the time you add in cost for labour, then the fleebay one is cheap. It looks to be transformer based by it size, and i prefer transformer chargers over switch mode, as they seem to last longer and can be more forgiving to older batteries. Pete. Sometimes it just works |
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Bub73 Senior Member  Joined: 10/12/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 116 |
The battery charger has a plate on the back that claims it will charge to 40Amps. It doesn't and the manufacturer has disappeared. There is no documentation to be found. No matter as it is dying slowly and it is the wrong colour anyway. The old metal rectifier is probably getting weak, This is a common occurrence that happens with age more than use. Probably the best to update the rectifier to the new solid stae jobs and you may even get more amps out of it when done. we have done several one a 1920's era Tungar and a 1950 era Haier and several smaller units. you might go back to the battery thread and look it over as we put info up on this project. http://www.thebackshed.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2979&PN =1 Bub & Isaiah |
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