To the list:I have been reading the list for a while now and have seen that there seem to be a lot of ET users with battery charger problems. Bout 7 years ago I built a pair of battery charger controllers foe my E8 and E12. They work on the following principle: When the battery voltage drops to under a set voltage (I like 38V) the charger goes on for about 4 minutes. Then it shuts off until the voltage again falls below the setpoint. So if the batteries are low, the charger will be on nearly continuously, and when they are pretty nearly charged, the charger goes on intermittently. In the winter, when the mower is not being usrd, it might go on once a day or so. So all I do is plug it n when I?m done with it and unplug it when I want to use it. It seems to work well. I?m on the second set of batteries for the E12 and the first set for the E8. They need water only once a year or so. So, because of all the comments about battery chargers, I made another controller using a programmable controller chip ( a PIC16C71 by Microchip). It seems to function exactly like my original ones. If anyone is interested, I will swap it for a spare large blade motor for the E8. I also have a good 36V golf cart charger that it can control, which I would be happy to swap for a spare drive motor for the E8. Then I will have at least one spare for every motor. If it seems warranted, I can have PC boards made and supply these things fairly cheaply. The whole thing is a small board about 2? X 2? which mounts directly on a solid state relay (see picture). There are a black and a red wire that go to the 36v batteries somewhere that is always live. The relay replaces the timer. It can be mounted most anywhere. It can go in a box or be encapsulated, or unprotected.
Comments? Harry Landis Norton, MA ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
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