Lead acid battery Regenerator (12KW pulse power) DiY - worth a try?

[smilem]

Hello, can gurus check please is this project posted on hackaday opensource is worth building?

Battery Desulfator Kit, TESLA 12V compatible

A spin-off circuit from a 5 yr project with proper science, instrumentation and a lot of effort. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd0HBqpBgok This multiple award winning project is being commercialized @ protofabtt@gmail.com. I wanted to enable the DIY community worldwide to be able to perform...

hackaday.io

 

[smilem]

I tried emailing author protofabtt@gmail.com and asked simple questions:

Do you have the schematic, PCB files in more recent version like Altium etc?

Can you tell me what is the Reflex + Reflex - connections?
Where should I connect the POT to adjust voltage?
What frequency I should use to PWM the input from arduino?
Why the frequency input used 12V input, if main PSU 36V

reply is "I am not in a position to assist your efforts at this time."

 

[Pommie]

It's on YouTube, must be legit. [/Sarcasm]

Not actually watched it as normally complete nonsense on YouTube?

Mike.

 

[Tony Stewart]

It seems to work but is poorly documented and is probably boiling the acid. https://hackaday.io/project/25741-battery-desulfator-kit-tesla-12v-compatible The proper way to measure performance improvement is a full charged change in Specific gravity (s.g.) before and after must be fully balanced (equal s.g. to be good). Alternatively measuring the ESR, dV for each cell before and after to predict Ah capacity and imbalance of cells which causes runaway sulphation from an undercharged condition.

 

[crutschow]

I think when a lead-acid battery has failed, for whatever reason, the likelihood of bringing it back for significant further useful life is small and not worth the cost and effort.

 

[smilem]

Well I have few UPS 12V 12Ah batteries that are 6 years old, been taken care of, and show 13Ah and 14Ah capacity over 20Hr discharge curve, but internal resistance is a bit higher, and because proper capacity, the cause is sulphation.

I would like to try to make them recover as mutch as possible.

Anyone got a clue about answers to question on my first post?

 

[Tony Stewart]

Pulse chargers that desulphate the plates do work! You do not need to exceed the rated voltage 14.2 typ or 14.5 max which also desulphates but also wears out the battery, This video vibrates the plates acoustically which may sound good, but the most effective ones are ultrasonic and use very high dI/dt but are low power on average which is supplied by the DC charger. It depends if you want a blow torch design or a BIC lighter that stays with the battery and activates only when the alternator or charger runs.

 

[smilem]

Well I had used the Megapulse Australia original mystery box, that should not blow-up if you reverse polarity but does. So the manufacturer can't design reverse polarity but designs and sells 150AUD battery restoration device?

Obviously it does not do anything measurable by int ressistance or capacity measurements = it does not work.

 

[smilem]

"This video vibrates the plates acoustically which may sound good, but the most effective ones are ultrasonic" - How do you know ultrasonics are not part of the acoustically heard sounds?

 

[Tony Stewart]

An impulse at ultrasonic frequencies such as 25 kHz ought to have at least 1000 harmonics to excite a wide range of piezo-electric resonances of lead sulphate crystals. Oblation occurs at the resonant frequency of the crystal mass. Based on my tests of the Solartech rejuvenator which we produced by the thousands in batches some 20 yrs ago at C-MAC when I was Eng Mgr, this is what I found works as I described. I tested it on a motive power battery used by Air Canada. Since this $25 Mfg costed little device drew only a few watts, it took a week to raise the s.g. to normal high equal levels on a so-called "bad battery". It was designed to be mounted between the battery posts but had a nagging problem of AM interference for truckers who loved it but were annoyed by the aliasing noise on weak AM signals.

 

[smilem]

You are quite a pro then, do you have experience with megapulse device then? As I said my is being repaired.
But I had no real evidence of it working whatsoever. I built this circuit by Sucahyo, the only thing it does overheats

https://freeenergyindonesia.proboards.com/post/32

 

[Tony Stewart]

I've never heard of these.

The reasons some devices do not have polarity protection are many. Usually Cost, or loss of performance. A pulser is a polarized design but I agree, there ought to be at least a protection relay until a DC OK signal is present.

 

[smilem]

This is the one I have.

manual https://www.shop-e.gr/images/product_pdf/Megapulse_battery_desulfator_manual.pdf

"
4. Troubleshooting
If FAB does not activate it may be due to one of the following or a combination:
• Unit connected incorrectly (reverse polarity) – change the wires to the correct terminals.
"

"
1. General information
• FAB is compatible with all charging systems and is protected against accidental reverse
polarity connection.
"

But in reality there is a loud bang sound with burning smell.

 

[Tony Stewart]

These look like a variation of the original Solartech design perhaps with some digital improvements. I can imagine some trouble with connecting the product they would have to overcome. Such as intermittent contacts during the active state where the discharged current pulses might cause over-voltage failures. An MOV inside usually takes care of that as the nominal mJ consumption is low. Good luck with the repair service. From looking at Megapulse's patents at least they had a better Engineer at one time than Solartech who sold his patent for a tidy sum.