carbonzit & colin55
As stated in a previous post I rely heavily on individuals such as yourselves when I get in over my head. I do not have a great deal of practical knowledge when it comes to the actual design and function of electronic components but I do have experience with alternative energy sources, especially solar. That is why it is not just by chance that I happen to have a charge controller on hand.
I know from actual experience that the charge controller monitors the batteries SOC merely by adjusting the voltage. Rarely, in a solar system do you have too much current. In fact that would be a pleasant thing to have to deal with. So there is little or no reason for the designer of such equipment to concern themselves with that. When a lead acid battery is deeply discharged the counter voltage seen by the power supply is low and the battery will accept all the current available. For all practical purposes it appears almost as a dead short. I know that it’s not but suffice to say the battery will attempt to take on all that can be thrown at it. If there is too much current available, again this is never a problem with a solar array the battery will do harm to itself. When the battery is in this state the controller will go into what is called bulk charging mode and with the particular controller deliver up to 60 amps continuously, 85 amps before shut down. Way to much for my battery bank as it is currently configured. My battery bank needs no more than 25 amps to safely charge.
So I think you will see I am attempting to use a piece of equipment out of context. I have a solar array but it’s not functioning properly right now so I have been living off a generator. It is a Honda 2000i rated at 120 VAC at 13 amps. Actually it would be to my advantage to be able to charge off this generator even when funds are available and the solar array is back up and running.
I am hoping to provide a power supply to the controller that will not damage it or the batteries.
The linear power supply we have been discussing will without some sort of restraint attempt to deliver all the current it can until it smokes something, most probably the transformer.
As to the issue of how smooth the DC output needs to be, I’m only guessing. I have had no luck getting an informed response from Xantrex. It seems impossible to get to the actual engineers and the technical support people are not equipped to answer such questions. I do know the controller was designed to operate with solar, (which is pure DC), wind, (which is most often rectified AC) and hydro (which can come in either flavor). I though of erring on the safe side and smoothing things out a bit.
Also isn’t actual output voltage a little higher when the DC ripple is smoothed out somewhat?
So what do you all think?
If I am to go the route of using an inductor I will need some help with the component values.
To limit the power supplies’ output will I still need to place a resistor in series with the secondary output? Where would it be placed? Is .6 ohms the correct value?
Finally will I be able to attain an output of 15.3 volts? Actually I could get by with a little less. It takes 15 volts to equalize a battery back such as the one I have and there is a .3 volt loss over the controller. This is a maintenance function, performed about once a month. I have other means of doing that but I do need 14.3 volts to properly charge the batteries. Perhaps this is the first and most important question because if too much is lost as alec_t alluded to in post #7 then all the other brain damage is without purpose.
alec_t have you any other thoughts on this matter.
At the very least I have learned a great deal and I can’t begin to tell you all how grateful I am for your support.