Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:05:54 -0600
Reply-To: Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Little problem with trickle charger
In-Reply-To: <4AFDFF21.9020305@gmail.com>
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Put the ammeter where exactly? No smart-alecking needed beyond this point.
Thanks, grand-dad (we've obviously never met if you use the term
"youngster," unless you are about 100! : )
Jim
On Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 6:51 PM, Rocket J Squirrel
<camping.elliott@gmail.com> wrote:
> Welp, mighty good questions, ya got there, youngster.
>
> The answers are, of course, "it depends."
>
> Without knowing the design of the charger, a fellow can't easily know how
> much current it parasites off the battery when unpowered. Now, one would
> think, one would /hope/ that the designer said to hisself, "self, I'd best
> make sure that my customers' batteries are not discharged if there is a
> power outage at his or her house."
>
> But one never knows, does one?
>
> Use an ammeter.
>
> A diode would take away 0.5 to 0.6V from the charge voltage, which is pretty
> significant when considering how much voltage a battery needs in order to be
> fully charged. 12.6V is full charge. 12.0V ain't.
>
> --
> Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
> 84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
> 74 Westrailia: (Ladybug Trailer company, San Juan Capistrano, Calif.)
> Bend, OR
> KG6RCR
>
>
>
> On 11/13/2009 4:35 PM Jim Felder wrote:
>
>> About a month ago, I mated a trickle charger with a cig lighter plug
>> so I could plug up the westy electrical socket to a power source, plug
>> the trickle charger in to the interior 110v socket, and plug the cig
>> lighter plug into the receptacle on the bulkhead under the seat. No
>> muss, no fuss, but not quite permanently wired in. That turned out to
>> be a good thing, as I noticed on a recent camping trip that even with
>> the charger unplugged from the interior 110 receptacle, the LED light
>> on the charger glowed when the setup was plugged into the cig lighter
>> socket. That means that the battery was feeding the charger.
>>
>> Is there any significant current loss going backward through the
>> charger? Is it just running the LED, or is it running down my battery?
>> I presume the proper diode in the proper place would stop this. Can
>> anyone describe what I should to do modify?
>>
>> Jim
>>
>
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