T-Pain Is On A Boat: Re: [Electric Boats] Re: Battery charger limits and the Honda 2000 generator

Friday, March 5, 2010

Re: [Electric Boats] Re: Battery charger limits and the Honda 2000 generator

"When you add the load of the motor into this equation the firmware is now wondering why it can't attain that pre-programed bulk charge voltage in a given period of time, and may shut down thinking that there is a problem with the battery bank itself."

This is a very good point and may explain an issue I had last season. I did an unexpected test last year using my Honda and Zivan NG-1 charger. All was fine in the begining My Honda 2000 and Zivan where propelling the boat quite nicely. After a few hours I noticed that the battery voltage was starting to drop. After several hours of this the voltage started to go under 48 volts and I began to get really concerned. I thought the charger might have glitched and stopped charging. I disconnected it from the Honda which reset it. Which seemed to correct the problem. But, there really was no problem it was just the charger doing what it was programmed to do as Capt. Todd mentioned. So the motor was actually operating on the battery only for several hours and not the Honda/charger combination as I thought. The lesson learned is to keep an eye on the battery voltage and if it starts to drop it might be time to reset the charger.

Capt. Mike

http://biankablog.blogspot.com

--- On Thu, 3/4/10, Kevin Pemberton <pembertonkevin@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Kevin Pemberton <pembertonkevin@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Electric Boats] Re: Battery charger limits and the Honda 2000 generator
To: electricboats@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thursday, March 4, 2010, 2:52 PM

Todd good point. If you desire to run under the Hybrid label, you may
want a simple analog charger, unless you are using LiPo, or other
sensitive batteries.

Over charging is no problem, nor is slow charging, because you will
likely use everything the charger has to offer in moving the boat. Maybe
a relay to switch between the two chargers depending on the drive power
being on.

Kevin P.

dennis wolfe wrote:
>
>
> Hey Todd,
>
> I never thought of that. Longest I've run with the Delta-Q charger
> putting out 18 amps was about 3 hours - worked fine. It's programmed
> for my 220 ah bank so it would expect to put out bulk charge for 12
> ish hours to fully charge a dead bank.
>
> Denny
>
>
>
>
>
> This idea of a 'serial hybrid' (genny-2-charger- 2-batts-2- motor)
> certainly works and has it's benefits. But realize that many of
> these high-tech smart chargers have sophisticated algorithms in
> their firmware that factor 'time of recovery' as part of their
> computations. So for instance even a deeply discharged bank should
> get up to optimum bulk charge voltage (let's use 14.7 volts/12
> volt battery for example) in a certain period of time.
>
> When you add the load of the motor into this equation the firmware
> is now wondering why it can't attain that pre-programed bulk
> charge voltage in a given period of time, and may shut down
> thinking that there is a problem with the battery bank itself.
>
> I would guess that most chargers could handle short periods of use
> in this way, but extended runs might be a problem.
> Capt. Todd
>