hackableFM
New Member
Some of you might remember 'Mr Nice Guy' from a week or two ago. Well I am here and need some advice.
I have revived an old fluorescent lantern, the tube driver circuit still works well so all I needed to do was fit new Battery (6V 4Ah, Sealed Lead acid type) and a charger circuit. I have thought about this and decided not to play around with circuits that pull back on the current at different states of charge and just throw a constant current at it and "let it decide itself" how much current it needs.
I have read up on suitable charger circuits here on the forum and plumped for **broken link removed** one, using the design with an L200 constant Current & Voltage regulator. I have built the circuit and set the output to 6.90V @ 1A. I have installed the Battery and Regulator. All seems fine and the light works from the battery I now intend to fit a full wave rectifier before this charger circuit which should allow a range of power sources (12-24V Approx AC or DC) to be plugged into the lamp in order to charge it.
My question is.... What the hell voltage should I be charging the battery at? Is the 6.90V correct or should I be opting for the cycle voltage of 7.2 - 7.5 Volts? I understand the difference between cycle and standby but I am only going to be using this lantern once every few months. and the lantern is only likely to get plugged in to charge a day or two before I am due to use it. Should I be charging the battery to the standby voltage when I get back from using the lamp and then just topping it back up to the standby voltage days before its needed again? Or should it be considered at cycle use and just wait till days before it's needed and whack it up to 7.5 volts days before its needed?
I hope you understand what I mean, I want to charge this is a way which is least likely to cause the battery any heartache!
Thanks..
HackableFM...
I have revived an old fluorescent lantern, the tube driver circuit still works well so all I needed to do was fit new Battery (6V 4Ah, Sealed Lead acid type) and a charger circuit. I have thought about this and decided not to play around with circuits that pull back on the current at different states of charge and just throw a constant current at it and "let it decide itself" how much current it needs.
I have read up on suitable charger circuits here on the forum and plumped for **broken link removed** one, using the design with an L200 constant Current & Voltage regulator. I have built the circuit and set the output to 6.90V @ 1A. I have installed the Battery and Regulator. All seems fine and the light works from the battery I now intend to fit a full wave rectifier before this charger circuit which should allow a range of power sources (12-24V Approx AC or DC) to be plugged into the lamp in order to charge it.
My question is.... What the hell voltage should I be charging the battery at? Is the 6.90V correct or should I be opting for the cycle voltage of 7.2 - 7.5 Volts? I understand the difference between cycle and standby but I am only going to be using this lantern once every few months. and the lantern is only likely to get plugged in to charge a day or two before I am due to use it. Should I be charging the battery to the standby voltage when I get back from using the lamp and then just topping it back up to the standby voltage days before its needed again? Or should it be considered at cycle use and just wait till days before it's needed and whack it up to 7.5 volts days before its needed?
I hope you understand what I mean, I want to charge this is a way which is least likely to cause the battery any heartache!
Thanks..
HackableFM...