Battery charging questions

[BB_TX]

Wal - It almost surely has diodes. That is the most common way an AC voltage is converted to a DC voltage. And diodes have been around much longer than 20 years. If you left it connected and turned off, there would most likely be some very small amount of leakage current thru the circuits that could drain your battery if left for an extended period. I am talking many days for a fully charged tractor battery. Most all electronic circuits have some small amount of leakage current. But if you operated it daily for short periods, you should have no problem with it.

 

[Wal]

Bill,

Sounds good to me /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Like I said previously, my knowledge of electricity is a bit weak /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[gerard]

thanx Bird - you're talking about what I suspected, I know they aren't cheap which is why I haven't "bit the bullet" on one yet. Course I'm running out of tools to buy so one of those may be in my future!! Maybe santa will be good this year.......... /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[frank_f15]

same here, no grass cutting, no snow. althogh this past sunday it was cold enough for the ground to be frozen, so it allowed me to move some wood, and use the tractor. if ur battery is good 3 or 4 weeks without starting is no problem, but i usually after 3 weeks start it up and let it run at least 20 min, and also drive it for a few mi. gets everything moving and lubricated.

 

[Soundguy]

You do realize that 20 years ago was only 1983..( Very close to when the shuttle blew up....) We aren't talking high technology here... 'solid state' circuitry was around in the 60's wide spread... heck, non-silicon diodes ( selineum based rectifiers were around in the 30's or 40's.. silicon became popular in late 50's ).


It has been some time since I worked with tubes.. probably 14 or 15 years...but as I remember, even if it is a TUBE rectifier powered charger....I'm betting the output is isolated...

Very easy to check, by just looking inside...

If in doubt, insert your multimeter inline with the charger and observe the 1amp charge.. then turn off / unplug.. look for a reverse current flow...

Soundguy

 

[jinman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( even if it is a TUBE rectifier powered charger )</font>

Wow! That got me to thinking (dangerous) about what I've seen in the past. I worked on shipboard radar system in the 60s up through the 80s, and was witness to the "solid state revolution" as all tube circuits became solid state. Thinking back, I've worked on many tube type power supplies, but I can't ever remember seeing a tube type battery charger. Wouldn't that be a unique collector's item to own? /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif Surely someone made one. Anybody ever see one?

 

[RichNJKubota]

I've been using a "Battery Minder" from VDC.
http://www.vdcelectronics.com/
Works great.
Rich

 

[Jeff396]

I use a Battery Tender on my T-Bird, Triumph motorcycle and Kubota with great success. They come with the usual charger jaws and one you can attach to the nuts on the cables which has a female plug on the end. For Christmas I found an outdoor safe Battery Tender made by Deltron for my brother. He recently became a snowbird and leaves a vehicle in Florida in the summer and New York in the winter. Since he has no garage I thought this was a great gift idea. Here's a link.....

http://www.batterymart.com/battery.mv?p=DEL-022-0150-DL&source=newsletter2

Jeff

 

[BIGUN]

I bought a clamp meter at the Harbor Freight Store a couple of months ago for around $15 on sale. It had the clamp and leads also. I don’t find it on their website though, only a more expensive one. I haven’t used it yet so I can’t comment on how well it works.

 

[PineRidge]

Compare this float charger for $7.49 at Harbor Freight. This is the model that I own. Battery charger click here