I have an IC-7000 radio, which I use when mobile (running from a gell cell battery).
However, a limitation of the radio is that it is designed to be run from an inverter at 13.8v. Once the voltage of a gell cell starts to fall, the output power of the radio falls very quickly. The radio gives out 100w at 13.8v, but only 70w at 12v.
This is an issue, as gel cells spend most of their discharge cycle between around 12.5 and 11.5v. The radio uses a maximum of 25A at 13.8v.
There I two solutions I can see:
1) Use two batteries in series, giving 24v. Then use a switching regulator such as **broken link removed** to reduce the voltage 13.8v.
2) Use one battery, then a boost regulator **broken link removed** to up the voltage to 13.8v.
Any thoughts or suggestions? Obviously two batteries in series would result in a longer run time as the current being taken out the batteries would be greatly reduced. The second product I linked to above seems like a very simple circuit - any ideas what the part number of the ICs used might be?
Thanks for any thoughts,
Andrew
However, a limitation of the radio is that it is designed to be run from an inverter at 13.8v. Once the voltage of a gell cell starts to fall, the output power of the radio falls very quickly. The radio gives out 100w at 13.8v, but only 70w at 12v.
This is an issue, as gel cells spend most of their discharge cycle between around 12.5 and 11.5v. The radio uses a maximum of 25A at 13.8v.
There I two solutions I can see:
1) Use two batteries in series, giving 24v. Then use a switching regulator such as **broken link removed** to reduce the voltage 13.8v.
2) Use one battery, then a boost regulator **broken link removed** to up the voltage to 13.8v.
Any thoughts or suggestions? Obviously two batteries in series would result in a longer run time as the current being taken out the batteries would be greatly reduced. The second product I linked to above seems like a very simple circuit - any ideas what the part number of the ICs used might be?
Thanks for any thoughts,
Andrew