Brian; was very interested to see your post.
Well the Elcon charger came this week and I installed it yesterday. It charges my AGM bank higher than the Dual Pro. I did test it out yesterday with my Honda 2000 generator. With my boat tied up in the slip I ran the motor while hooked up to the generator. Monitoring the paktrakr, I pulled 27 amp before the generator started bogging down. The voltage pulling at 27amp was a constant 49.2 and would occasionally climb then drop, but not below 49.2. When I shut down everything after 10min of use the voltage read 51.4 which is where I had started. I am very happy with these results as 20amp easily pushes my boat 4knts (in calm waters). This is a great set up! I rarely will use the generator, but I feel comfortable cruising longer distances now with this back up. It is also nice to have two chargers onboard. Hopefully the cost of LiFePo4 will come down to more reasonable cost in the future. Then I will already have a charger that will work for the new bank. Next project is to build a platform off the stern where I can place the generator while in use to keep the smell and sound to a minimum. I already have an idea utilizing my existing swim ladder. I will give an update when I have more experience using this set up. Thanks again for all the input!
Brian
--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, "Eric" <ewdysar@...> wrote:
>
> Brian,
>
> You will need separate chargers for your AGMs and Lithium banks. The batteries have significantly different charging needs. Elcon chargers have different charging profiles available for the common LiFePO4 battery brands on the market. Be sure to confirm that any charger that you are considering has lithium specific profiles available. I spent a couple of months trying to get a properly configured charger from Delta Q, but the factory finally said that they would not release their lithium profiles unless I had bought ALL of my storage equipment, including batteries and BMS through one of their distributors.
>
> But I agree with you, there is no sense in throwing away perfectly servicable equipment when you can transition slowly from one technology to the other. If I were to set up both banks, I would put contactors on both the positive and negative leads from each battery bank so that they can be completely isolated from the other and the drive system. With the chargers wired to the battery sides of the contactors, each bank can be charged independently. One bank can be "activated" to the drive , while the other is being charged. One drawback that I could see is the need for separate instrumentation to track the current in and out of each pack, if you are so inclined. But this configuration should work fairly well.
>
> Fair winds,
> Eric
>
> --- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, "Brian Holt" <drmsudo@> wrote:
> >
> > Eric- thanks again. I am thinking of one add on bank of LI then I will be able to continue to use the current agm batteries I have with the charger. The future will hopefully hold a much better system. This way I continue to get the $ out of my current design and expand it with the new. Do you know about the charger that will work with my Honda 2k? Thanks.
> > Brian
> >
>
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