Hi All,
I hope someone can help me out on this. I use a Go Motorboard Scooter and recently attemted to upgrade my battery from a 14.4v NiMH battery with an 18v Lead Acid Battery. On first use the difference was huge, but then the battery lost it's power. I was told that I would be able to use my NiMH charger for this - but I am guessing that is not correct. SO...I'm looking to get a charger for this battery pack that we built.
It was built in series consisting of (3) 6 volt sealed batteries (am I saying this correctly). I believe that the amp hours are 4.5.
Does anyone have any suggestion, ideas for me? I'd really like to get this scooter up and running on 18V - it does make a big difference in performance.
Any suggestions?
Thank you in advance
David
David
I would have done the same thing you did change to a Pb-acid battery because it is cheaper and less expensive. I have tons of Variac's around and tons more 12 volt chargers of the transformer caliber.Figure out dead time and figure charge current time to 2.4 v/c and when it gets to 21.6 volt total it be full. My HP brick also make 21.0 volts. I have seen 16 volt chargers but not regulated 18 volt chargers. I presume you are using 6 volt 10 AH gel cells? My 90 amp car starter charger charges my 16 volt pack at 25 amps with Variac tweaked up to 140 volt out put. Also a Full wave bridge rectifier plugged into 120 VAC in series with 100 watt light bulb will make almost 1 ampere into any battery almost, current limited via bulb. From 1.2 volt to 96 volt pack. Dont use switch mode charger for anything in equals regulated out. 100-250 volt AC usually means it is a DC - DC converter really.
Rusty
KB1UKU
Hey David,
If you want a relatively cheap and easy way to charge your 18V pack, consider buying a couple of these. The ones that look like an average "wall wart" can be very easily modified to charge any 18V battery. You would just need some wire cutters, wire stripper, solder, and heat shrink, along with some battery clamps like these. You also could buy three 6V chargers, but then you'd have to figure out how to charge in parallel (which is better for the batteries, BTW), and not very hard. Good luck.
Robert
The best solar & alt energy forum on Earth
Thanks guys...after some googling, I actualy found an 18v PbAcid charger and got it yesterday. Spoke to the guy and gave him my specs (I'm a newbie at this, some of what you guys wrote - the technical stuff, was a bit over my head), and thi is what he sold me... I think it works. http://www.powerstream.com/ Go to Battery Chargers and find the only 18V PbAcid Charger there.
Here's where I'm stuck. I have 3 6volt Pb Acid Batterys with about 5 amps in series (I put Red to a Black and that Red to another Black. The remainig 2 connections from 2 different battery's, one Red and One Black was set up to my scooter and it worked beautifully. I think it stopped working when I lost juice - got around a bit and then it just died.
SO...when I got the charger I thought I'd be able to just connect the Red clip on the charger to the Red wire on the series and same for black. The LED light stayed on green (as if it was charged) the entire time. I thought that was odd, so I tested the battery's separately 2 of them had charging to go (LED light changed to red) and one of them stayed Green.
so Now I'm trying to charge each battery separately, but it's taking a while. How long should each battery charge for? Is there an easy way to wire these bad boys so that I don't have to do them separately?
Finally, the Grand Finale. Once I do get them wired correctly, I'm going to want to place them in my scooter and run the wires to the motor (so it runs) & to the adapter that I bought so that I can easily charge the battery http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=306
Is what I'm trying to do possible? Run wires in series that will sit in my scooter and go directly to my source (Motor) and run wires that will run from my batteries to the charger using that connector.
I appreciate any help that can be offered....Once I get this solution fixd, I think I'll be all good.
Thak you,
David
Can I connnect all 3 battery's (Red, Red and Red/black, black, black) to the Red/black Charger Clamp? Will that equally charge the battery's - Is that safe? I tried that for a few hours one of the battery's got hotter than the others.
if I can do this, can i make this connection in conjunction with the seriesed connection to the motor when it's in the scooter. One end leading to the motor and the other leading to the charger. OR is this just not possible because of the series?
Thanks again...I appreciate any help.
David