Re: Charging deep-cycle U1s from car & inverter?

From: Joerg (notthisjoergsch_at_removethispacbell.net)
Date: 06/24/04 

Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2004 21:17:10 GMT

Hi Lance,

A good inverter might work since you probably don't want to mess with
switching the scooter batteries around to parallel 12V configuration for
charging. Also, an inverter is nice for other stuff you might want to
use someday. Or if friends come along for a longer ride and only have AC
adaptors for their laptops. If the charger or other things need true
sine wave look at "Trace" inverters. More expensive but supposedly very
good. I have seen them even at RV outlets. You might want to check for
versions that can be set to turn themselves off below a certain input
voltage, to avoid accidentally draining your car battery.

You could also build your own boost converter to 24V 3.5A around an
LM3478 or similar but the slight efficiency gain may not be worth the
hassle.

But be careful turning off your engine and keeping the charger on. 24V
at 3.5A means about 8-10A from your car battery, considering inverter
losses. After a few hours you have a dead battery and the car won't
start. Even for shorter charge times that's not good because a car
battery is not a deep cycle version. It suffers a lot when doing deep
cycle discharges.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

Relevant Pages

  • Re: microcontroller circuit help
    ... get power from the car battery when the charger isn't getting power, ... and it'll power from the charger otherwise. ... run-of-the-mill car battery charger and a car battery,and an inverter ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: power inverters
    ... I know some of you use power inverters to run regular a.c. ... without killing my battery and unplug without losing cart power. ... Make sure the inverter is off when charging the ... the charger will not correctly transit from bulk charge ...
    (rec.arts.movies.production.sound)
  • Re: Inverter Advice
    ... battery recharger. ... She wants a small inverter to run a laptop *OR* power a camera ... power the camera charger yet. ...
    (rec.outdoors.rv-travel)
  • Re: Another Battery Charging Question
    ... from one battery through an inverter through a battery charger to ... I think your charger is rated at 20 Amps max. ... You're correct about the loss of efficiency but there may be several ...
    (rec.outdoors.rv-travel)
  • Re: Inverter Advice
    ... battery recharger. ... She wants a small inverter to run a laptop *OR* power a camera ... power the camera charger yet. ...
    (rec.outdoors.rv-travel)