Bargain Battery Charger

[Uwe]

For $89, I'm pretty pleased:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JH74MF6/

It's keeping the 7P T'reg right around 13.5V with the ignition on.

FWIW, I'm monitoring Vbat and Vign using VCDS-Mobile in a browser screen while scanning the car using VCDS via WiFi. Yes, the HEX-NET can do both at the same time.

-Uwe-

 

[Uwe]

OK, I'm not sure I like this:

With the ignition off now (T'reg shut it down w/o being asked, presumably due to inactivity) this charger is now has Vbatt at ~16.15 in it's 6th stage, a "Recondition" mode.

Gonna keep watching it.

[time passes]

OK, that didn't last very long. It dropped to ~13.3.

It didn't stay there long either. Now it's back up to ~16.15..

 

[Eric]

Ordered one for here. I like the desulphation and reconditionning stages

 

[MartinsX]

I haven't any manuals for Your charger, but in manual for charger I use, is told: "Recondition" mode is for deeply discharged batteries.
In this mode charger gives pulses of voltage up to 15,8V, but current is limited to 1,5A.
I use "Supply" mode of charger to keep battery charged while testing car

 

[Uwe]

This thing does not have any selectable modes -- just an ON/OFF switch. Connect it, turn it on, and it does what it wants.

I've turned it off for now. I don't like seeing 16V... With everything off for the last ~30 minutes, battery is currently showing 13.01V, so I think the battery is full.

I think it will do for the purpose I need it though. It can supply enough current for me to do testing of new VCDS versions without having to idle the engine, which the other chargers I have here cannot.

-Uwe-

 

[MartinsX]

In another workshop, I work for, I use that one: http://www.manson.com.hk/products/detail/64
Not sure those are available in states, but laboratory power supplies from this manufacturer become popular in Eastern Europe in last years because of relatively low price.This one model has voltage and current range exactly for automotive applications plus fixed voltage mode with 13,8V preset.

 

[Uwe]

Can't find those in the US. On eBay they seem to be in Europe and Australia.

Prices look comparable to something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004VBGUNU/

We've bought a number of Xantrex (formerly Trace Engineering) chargers and they've served us very well.

-Uwe-

 

[vreihen]

I've heard that these "smart" chargers send all kinds of ripples/spikes (including AC!) into the battery, under the guise of desulfication and reconditioning. Probably best to use them with the vehicle's battery terminals off, and not as bench power supplies.

I think that I posted here a few weeks ago how I went out into the race car hauler and discovered that my expensive digital battery charger/tender went into fault mode at some point over the last two years and left me with a dead battery. My < $20.00 Craftsman charger that I bought in the 1970's has never to this day let me down. Transformers and bridge rectifiers for the win.....

 

[MartinsX]

Can't find those in the US. On eBay they seem to be in Europe and Australia.
-Uwe-

Yup, SPS-9400 by default are for 230VAC mains. Or You can place special order by contacting manufacturer directly.

 

[DV52]

Yup, SPS-9400 by default are for 230VAC mains. Or You can place special order by contacting manufacturer directly.

Martin: Of course, the other option is for America to adopt a REAL distribution mains voltage - think of saving in copper wire that would be made if USA went to a proper 415/240V system!

Don

 

[vreihen]

If America is going anywhere, it will be to 36 volts DC from solar panels. Why promulgate the obsolete concept of a power grid, when even the landline telephone companies are giving up on copper wires?????

 

[DV52]

.................. when even the landline telephone companies are giving up on copper wires?????

vrehein: hmm copper telecoms is not a dirty word down here!. We had a great opportunity for our Government to install a state-of-the-art optic fibre network for the whole of Australia (it was/is called "National Broadband Network - NBN". First version of NBN was a full fibre network from the exchange to every house in Australia. But instead, our decision makers decided to install what's laughingly called "fibre-to-the-node" topology. So we have this superfast trunk-line to the neighbourhood and then the data packets are throttled-back onto our existing (read aged and decaying) copper network. Result, our NBN gives us speed that are barely achieved in 3rd world countries.

And the topper is that our existing ISPs must vacate the network when NBN arrives - outrageous!!
Don

 

[Uwe]

I just hope that the local municipalities get performance bonds from them to tear down their crumbling copper cable plant before they leave, so that we the taxpayers do not get stuck with the bill of cleaning up their mess as it falls off of the utility poles.
[...]
If I was in better health, I would cut the (long-abandoned) service drop to our house at the pole, and ship the line back to the telco with an invoice for cleaning up their litter.

Since it is copper, it has non-negligible scrap value. If it falls off the pole, someone will pick it up and carry it away.

 

[vreihen]

Since it is copper, it has non-negligible scrap value. If it falls off the pole, someone will pick it up and carry it away.

One would think so, but even the ghetto rats around here are too lazy (or ignorant) to pick up the falling phone lines and scrap them. As I've said before, I estimate that 15% of the copper lines in Newburgh are hanging down to the ground as scrap, and people just coil up old house phone service lines around the poles rather than cut/scrap it.

About a month ago, my wife got $50 when she took a garbage can full of old Christmas lights and cut off appliance power cords over to our friend's scrap yard. I would expect that he paid her a few pennies above the price that others get, but it certainly is about what a minimum wage burger flipper takes home for a day's McWork.....

 

[Uwe]

I split some stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with battery chargers into it's own thread here:
http://forums.ross-tech.com/showthread.php?11886-Internet-Service

-Uwe-

 

[Jack@European_Parts]

Since it is copper, it has non-negligible scrap value. If it falls off the pole, someone will pick it up and carry it away.

Shit there are people mining the old trans AT&T line in some areas............

 

[Djaylulu]

American wiring is strange because to get 240v they double up two 110v lines! I took a course on the 2014 National electric code out of interest and also so I could do my own rewiring. What they said was that In years to come you will have a high voltage breaker panel and a low voltage breaker panel with USB outlets all over the house and even in light fittings for LED installations. Sadly cooking the Thanksgiving dinner or drying clothes from a 37v solar panel is a way off being possible any time soon - well reliably possible.

 

[Uwe]

New accessory for when I use the bargain charger:

 

[Jack@European_Parts]

Lol kill-A Watt for cig lighter......... /\

Art got me one of these about 10 years ago as a gag gift when shop went to demand meter!

 

[Uwe]

Kill-A-Watts are great!