Have not wired a diode into a charging circuit since I built wind turbines for sailboats in 1980 -86 so please forgive what I fear is a dumb oversight on my part.
I have two garden Etractors and an almost finished freighter trike, each using a pack of 5 leaf modules for nominal 36V. I like to run them between 40 and 38 volts to ensure the longest life possible, seems to be good with range so would like to automate the charging.
Step 1: put two small 42V 1.7 amp chargers in parallel and charged a 36V SLA pack, no problem, with our hero being the charge controller.
So thanks to another poster on Endless Sphere I was reminded of diodes, which will eat about .75 volts. Great means that the 42V charger is now topping out at 41.2 perfect thinks I. Bought a bunch of 5 amp diodes (hexagonal body, stud & nut one end solder loop on other).
charging. My first try to take a bank of 4pcs 2 amp chargers in parallel, each with it's own diode resulted in a rather exciting battery discharge which destroyed a 30 amp inline fuse holder, when connected to the tractor battery pack.
Would one of you young charger mavens mind drawing a circuit diagram indicating which way round the diodes should go on pos or neg charger wires?
Will test the chargers I used yesterday if they are blown I still have 12 of them so do not want to waste any more, thanks in advance.
PS> Am only allowed to work on my own projects on Sundays, SWMBO has honey do the other 6 days.
I have two garden Etractors and an almost finished freighter trike, each using a pack of 5 leaf modules for nominal 36V. I like to run them between 40 and 38 volts to ensure the longest life possible, seems to be good with range so would like to automate the charging.
Step 1: put two small 42V 1.7 amp chargers in parallel and charged a 36V SLA pack, no problem, with our hero being the charge controller.
So thanks to another poster on Endless Sphere I was reminded of diodes, which will eat about .75 volts. Great means that the 42V charger is now topping out at 41.2 perfect thinks I. Bought a bunch of 5 amp diodes (hexagonal body, stud & nut one end solder loop on other).
charging. My first try to take a bank of 4pcs 2 amp chargers in parallel, each with it's own diode resulted in a rather exciting battery discharge which destroyed a 30 amp inline fuse holder, when connected to the tractor battery pack.
Would one of you young charger mavens mind drawing a circuit diagram indicating which way round the diodes should go on pos or neg charger wires?
Will test the chargers I used yesterday if they are blown I still have 12 of them so do not want to waste any more, thanks in advance.
PS> Am only allowed to work on my own projects on Sundays, SWMBO has honey do the other 6 days.