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Voltage Regulation and Battery Banks

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fzn10

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Hi, I read the following somewhere on the net

"Even if the open circuit voltage produced by the turbine is
high, the battery will hold the system voltage down to its own level."

I would have imagined that this applies to even a small battery such as a 3.7V button cell battery, but iv been looking at circuits that use a dynamo to charge a 3.7V cell battery, and they seem to be using an Adjustable Regulator to limit voltage and current, could someone please give me an insight into this.

Thanx
 
fzn10 said:
Hi, I read the following somewhere on the net

"Even if the open circuit voltage produced by the turbine is
high, the battery will hold the system voltage down to its own level."

I would have imagined that this applies to even a small battery such as a 3.7V button cell battery, but iv been looking at circuits that use a dynamo to charge a 3.7V cell battery, and they seem to be using an Adjustable Regulator to limit voltage and current, could someone please give me an insight into this.

Thanx

think about it this way, you have two devices, a charging device of a certain capacity and a storage device of a certain capacity.

Now, if the storage device has a much larger capacity than the charging device its a bit like a child pushing an elephant, the elephant will move at its own pace no matter how much the child pushes.

But, if its the other way round the charging device (elephant) needs to be restrained in order not to overwhelm the storage device ( child).

Makes sense now?

Klaus
 
Different battery technologies tolerate overcharge to varying degrees. They do turn the extra current into heat but the chemical reaction also damages the cell to some degree.

Also even a cell which has not reached full charge may be damaged by charging it with too much current. A small rechargeable button cell cannot take a lot of current.

Batteries not designed for charging- including most lithium coin cells, which you might be thinking of- don't recharge very effectively.
 
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