12-12-2012, 07:19 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-12-2012, 07:25 PM by Thunderbird.)
The brightness of the LED means that the battery is pretty flat and needs more work., and also that the battry charger is putting out too many volts and possibly cooking the battery.
If a meter accross the battery shows more than about 14.5 volts its too high.
Try wiring a car tail light bulb in series with 1 lead of the charger to limit the current. You dont want the cells gassing very much at all.
Next time you want to discharge the battery, monitor it and stop discharging at at 10.5 volts. Use a couple of headlight bulbs to do the discharge.
It will take a LONG time to work on the really tired battery, like 2 weeks or more, and the best way to tell how the battery is getting on is to read the voltage accross it after its been charged and desulfated. Leave the charger and desulfator disconnected for 10 minutes to bleed off surface charge, then measure the battery voltage, over 13 volts is good, 13.8 volts is great, lower than that, more desulfating required.
If any battery under charge has hot spots along the sides, the hot spot probably indicates a shorted cell. You can try to repair it by discharging with the 2 headlight bulbs until the battery drops to 10.5 volts than recharge.
Im about to do exactly that with some of my batteries later this week. Im going to use some old jug elements I found in the skunkworks and drop 'em in some water to draw 50 to 100 amps out of the car battery.
no 
near the batteries 
Oh and 1 more thing, at supercrap auto they have these battery doodads that measure the specific gravity of the acid, its the most accurate way of knowing the state of charge of a wet lead acid cell, I think I paid $5 for mine.
If a meter accross the battery shows more than about 14.5 volts its too high.
Try wiring a car tail light bulb in series with 1 lead of the charger to limit the current. You dont want the cells gassing very much at all.
Next time you want to discharge the battery, monitor it and stop discharging at at 10.5 volts. Use a couple of headlight bulbs to do the discharge.
It will take a LONG time to work on the really tired battery, like 2 weeks or more, and the best way to tell how the battery is getting on is to read the voltage accross it after its been charged and desulfated. Leave the charger and desulfator disconnected for 10 minutes to bleed off surface charge, then measure the battery voltage, over 13 volts is good, 13.8 volts is great, lower than that, more desulfating required.
If any battery under charge has hot spots along the sides, the hot spot probably indicates a shorted cell. You can try to repair it by discharging with the 2 headlight bulbs until the battery drops to 10.5 volts than recharge.
Im about to do exactly that with some of my batteries later this week. Im going to use some old jug elements I found in the skunkworks and drop 'em in some water to draw 50 to 100 amps out of the car battery.
no near the batteries Oh and 1 more thing, at supercrap auto they have these battery doodads that measure the specific gravity of the acid, its the most accurate way of knowing the state of charge of a wet lead acid cell, I think I paid $5 for mine.
"If a clutered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign." Albert Einstein
Well, I have the cluttered desk, I guess that's a start!
Well, I have the cluttered desk, I guess that's a start!
![[Image: Exploded.jpg]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/79515856/Exploded.jpg)
is what Im expecting to find 
Going to make the new version modular, with the low voltage and high voltage parts on separate boards for ease of testing and changes during beta testing. Stay tuned. 
