rn Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 01:53:19AM -0400, Tobias Gogolin wrote:
> Hi happens that I find the piclist to be the community of the fittest
> electronic engineers that I know on the web, that's why I ask here and not
> on some of grid living list...
> 
> I may have mentioned before that I use 10 pc. 12V car batteries at my of
> grid ranch, and that I charge those using a simple rectifier, either Bridge
> from 120V AC or 2 diodes using half of each of the 2 120V outlets around the
> center of my generators 240 V AC output (I do that to reduce the chance of
> any one of the automatic breakers of the 2 120V circuits from tripping).

> 
> This seems to work quite good, but I just read that it is not advisable to
> charge Car batteries on pulse current, and since they would be charged only
> when the generators output voltage reaches above their current charge
> voltage, it definitely is pulse...

I saw the term 'car battery' and an alarm went off in my head. What exactly
is your application? The reason that I ask is that car batteries are
specifically constructed for a single application: deliver a large amount
of power in a short timeframe (starting) and then expect to be immediately
recharged. They are not good for other applications such as delivering
steady power for long periods of time. Batteries for that application are
called deep cycle batteries. Just a heads up.

As for charging, this is a common problem in the electric vechicle world
because an EV main pack would be contructed quite similarly to the pack you
described. The circuit that you described above is called a Bad Boy
charger, and you've described some of the problems with it including
tripping breakers and poor power factor correction. Several improved, and
more importantly safer, circuits are outlined here:

http://www.evalbum.com/tech

Specifically take a look at the Bonn charger circuit described by Lee Hart.

Hope this helps,

BAJ
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