Marine Battery Charger Curcuit??
ro...@pacifier.com
I have a 30' boat which has 2 12v batteries in parallel as one bank, and 2 6v
batteries in series as the other bank. I would like to find plans to build a
battery charger that would maintain the configuration of batteries in my boat.
I can read schematics, and am fairly handy with a soldering iron, however, as
I am a machinist by trade, I am not to swift at designing electronic circuits.
:) If anyone could help me out on this, I would appreciate it. Any good
designers out there?? :o)
Please leave email to ro...@pacifier.com
Thanks! Ron Hays
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Tgtaylor1
>I have a 30' boat which has 2 12v batteries in parallel as one bank, and 2 6v
>batteries in series as the other bank. I would like to find plans to build a
>battery charger that would maintain the configuration of batteries in my
>boat.
>I can read schematics, and am fairly handy with a soldering iron, however, as
>I am a machinist by trade, I am not to swift at designing electronic
>circuits.
>:) If anyone could help me out on this, I would appreciate it. Any good
>designers out there?? :o)
>
>
Given the harsh nature of the marine environment, and the fact that a badly
timed spark can produce a nasty explosion during charging (hydrogen gas from
the batteries), I would really reccomend going with an off the shelf device.
You can find some decent ones for around $60 or so. That'll probably be less
than what you would need to pay in parts if you do build your own.
Some things are OK to play around with and have little or no consequences if
things go bad. But with beefy marine batteries, I would tend to play it safe.
-Bodnar,B.L.
In article <199804221250...@ladder03.news.aol.com>,
About 22 years ago, I worked (summer job) at a company called "La Marche
Manufacturing" in Des Plaines, IL. This company designed and manufactured all
sorts of exotic battery chargers and UPSs. This was also my first
introduction to statistical quality control (the owners of the company were
VERY strict about this). La Marche is still in existence.
If you're interested in a VERY HIGH RELIABILITY marine battery charger,
consider contacting them. I was certainly impressed with the quality --
especially after I saw a marine charger being returned for service. The
complaint? The charger had been in non-stop operation since 1949 (or some
date like this) and hammer had been dropped on the panel meter, thus cracking
the face. "Please replace the face of the meter" was the request. I think
the charger's owner received a new charger, instead. Incidently, the ENTIRE
service department consisted of ONE technician.
The designs were based on magnetic amplifiers with the usual transient
suppression electronics. Non-stop operation and high reliability and complete
customer satisfaction were the major selling points. The company also
designed and constructed weird chargers -- e.g., for coal mine locomotive
battery charging (the entire charger, about 3 meters long and one meter wide,
was *blast proof*), explosive gas areas (e.g., paint rooms), high
humidity/salt conditions (marine chargers for ocean docks), and so forth.
Cordially,
Bohdan Bodnar
bbo...@lucent.com
Greg Szekeres
In article <6hkkg7$tud$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>, ro...@pacifier.com says...
>
>I have a 30' boat which has 2 12v batteries in parallel as one bank, and 2 6v
>batteries in series as the other bank. I would like to find plans to build a
>battery charger that would maintain the configuration of batteries in my boat.
>I can read schematics, and am fairly handy with a soldering iron, however, as
>I am a machinist by trade, I am not to swift at designing electronic circuits.
>:) If anyone could help me out on this, I would appreciate it. Any good
>designers out there?? :o)
>
I think there is one commercial dual battery charger as
discussed in rec.boats.electronics.
greg