Charging lead acid batteries

[Hiemal]

Very handy chart. Now if I could just find my second battery. Apparently my brother took one to try an make a coil gun and now he doesnt know where it is.

Blah. I'm thinking I'll probably switch to lithium iron phosphate batteries soon anyways.

If you switch to lithium batteries you have to be even more careful with cell balancing, since they take much less kindly to misbalance between them.

 

[Blarg King]

Eh from what I've read lithium iron phosphate batteries are fairly forgiving and similar to lead acid where they just give off over charging as waste heat (but none of the exploding of other lithium batteries)

Plus I've found a lot of cell balancing chargers on ebay. Easier to come by than lead acid ones.

 

[Blarg King]

Right. Found the other battery. They were both at 5.9 volts so I wired them in series and hooked them up to my solar charger.

Gotta say, I'm impressed with newer solar technology. Its a crappy overcast winter day and the panel still puts out 18 volts.

 

[Hiemal]

Right. Found the other battery. They were both at 5.9 volts so I wired them in series and hooked them up to my solar charger.

Gotta say, I'm impressed with newer solar technology. Its a crappy overcast winter day and the panel still puts out 18 volts.

Sure! Solar panels will put out a good amount of voltage but the thing is that they won't be able to supply as much current under cloudy days.