RE: (ET) Voltmeters/battery

["Hazen, Dwight L" <hazen indiana edu>]

I agree. A 220AH battery will hardly notice the occasional use of the
lift. If you a worried about this rotate your batteries after every
mowing. Na I did not say that:) I guess under some use like tilling, the
rear lift is used a lot causing the rear tapped cells to be discharged
more than the front batteries? If this is a problem then you could use a
12 charger and charge the pack three times. rear/rear, rear/front and
the front batteries to equalize the charge over the pack. A six volt
charger would be even better. But it would take days! You could use the
internal charger to bulk charge then finish off the pack using a 12 0r 6
volt charger. Elec-Traks are so much fun!   

Some one said they noticed that the new battery they added to their
Electrac was not charging or discharging at the same rate as the older
batteries in the tractor. This is exactly what happens when you place a
new battery in with old ones. It is best to change them all.

In fact I had to return two brand new batteries a few years ago due to
an imbalance of over .2 volts between the other four. The owner of the
store still tries to give me a hard time about that one. He says he
never had a customer return a battery because it was too good! But I
will only accept a .1 volt difference between new batteries. The owner
and I figure the two batteries had a different acid mix in them from the
factory. They performed better than the other four but were not matched
to the pack ever after a few charge discharge cycles.

I have done lots of Elec-Traking this week. Mowing, yard sweeping and
wood trailer towing due to a wind storm that dropped two trees into my
yard. More fun that a person should have. 

 Dwight  

Dwight L. Hazen, Indiana University, UITS 
Bloomington, In. 47408-7378
812-855-5367 IP phone 317-278-4014    
hazen indiana edu http://php.ucs.indiana.edu/~hazen/
Ham Radio wb9tlh arrl net http://wb9tlh.ampr.us
 

-----Original Message-----
From: goodguyforsure [mailto:goodguyforsure hotmail com] 
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2003 10:36 PM
To: elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu
Subject: Re: (ET) Voltmeters/battery

I think all this talk of differential use of the batteries that are
tapped
is nonsense!  I don't use my lights and the lift gets used once per 2
hour
mowing session! That little bit of draw will hardly show on the
batteries.....
John Briese
I-5
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave & Debbie Barden" <daveb seanet com>
To: "matt" <matty tds net>; <elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu>
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2003 10:08 AM
Subject: Re: (ET) Voltmeters/battery


> My e12 taps 12v for the lights and 18v for the front lift motor.
those
> batteries that are tapped will always read lower than the batteries
that
are
> not. to get equal draw on all batteries you would need to replace the
taps
with
> a dc-dc converter(s) to provide power to the lights and lift motor.
>
> dave
> seattle
>
> > At 11:35 AM 5/13/03 -0500, you wrote:
> > >Hi,
> > >Recently several of you suggested that it might be nice to know the
> > >relative state of each battery in the pack. I too thought that
would be
> > >interesting to know since it is messy and time consuming to
determine
> > >that by hydrometer. So I  hooked up six voltmeters, one to each
battery.
> > >So.....they are indeed wonderful indicators of relative battery
> > >condition especially under load. Hydrometer readings verify the
> > >voltmeter readings. Usually one of the three cells go bad first in
a
six
> > >volt battery. A voltmeter cannot indicate which one, of course, but
it
> > >does give a relative indication of what is going on. Under load the
> > >relative strength of each battery in the pack is quite visible even
with
> > >the cheap meters I am using. If anyone is interested in knowing
more I
> > >can individually email digital photos and/or a schematic diagram
(the
> > >list owner does not permit this due to storage limitations).
> > >Regards,
> > >Tom
> >
> >  It would be interesting to know what batts go bad first.
> > The one after the charger? Next to the cut out switch?
> > One farthest from the charger?
> > on mine it was the 2 next to the cut out switch. One in front, one
in
back.
> > >
> > >
> > Matthew P.Magda Jr.
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
>
>