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Skepticism, research and thoughts....
Several years back I played with the battery switching circuits. A couple switches I designed and built, diagrams, were posted earlier. I was pretty much convinced it was working as I was seeing it - a very efficient use of energy. In the back of my mind I knew something wasn't right in my interpretation of the events. I purchased a couple watt meters and placed them in line with the battery switching process and cleared up my unanswered questions very quickly. I was very disappointed in what I saw and moved on to other projects quite abruptly.
After a while of pondering I started calculating what I thought was the problem(s). With 4 batteries switching from parallel to series connections gives you a gross mismatch of passive storage and you always loose energy in the transfer from high to low. In the case of the 4 battery switch, if each battery is 10ah you end up with a 20ah parallel and a 10ah series. The 3 battery system is better - a much closer match - series 10ah into a single 10ah.... 1 amp in 1 amp out. Still the problem exists with the higher potential series into the lower potential single - 1 amp at 24 volts to 1 amp at 12 volts .
The objective is to maintain an imbalance to drive a load between potentials. Charging the single isn't a problem, driving a load between them isn't a problem... maintaining a charge on the series batteries (is in my mind) the main problem. The load needs to not only run between potentials but also assist in restoring the higher potential series batteries. The 3 battery system allows 1 battery to charge while discharging 2, or more closely, one battery in the series is charging another battery while the second battery in series is running a load.
It gives us the appearance we are gaining something because we are charging the single and to some extent this is correct but are we really just deceiving ourselves? Maybe were overlooking the truth with false belief's/hopes that there is some magic going on here.
Ok then, let's put the hopes, dreams and beliefs aside while remaining mildly objective and dig toward the truth....
The series batteries are being drained through the load into the single battery and back to the series through the neg connection. A basic DC circuit. We switch the charged battery periodically with one that is being drained more that the other to maintain a higher potential and recharge one that has drained. Seems logical...
Let's turn it around a bit and look at from a different angle... Lets say we don't switch batteries around, instead let's maintain the voltage of the charging battery by removing the amount it is being charged to assist in charging the series batteries. Everything that is being added to the charge battery is being removed to maintain the source batteries as well as keeping the charge battery in a charged state.
A boost circuit to drain the charge battery and add charge to the series. 1 amp into the charge battery and 1 amp out to the series battery - It then boils down to the overall efficiency of the circuits and load to maintain both series and single charge batteries state of charge.
One of the simple experiments I did while running with this train of thought was using 2 identical 7ah 12V batteries, a simple JT circuit between the positives. As long as there was a potential difference of .5 down to .25 volts the LED's would light quite brightly. It takes a very long time to equalize the batteries through a JT circuit. I noticed that by simply tapping the high pos/ low pos with a 1v battery would offset the potential enough for several more hours of run time. It occurred to me that a boost circuit with an RC time constant of several seconds would shift the potential sufficiently to maintain a continuous potential difference while the JT circuit tried to equalize the batteries. In this particular case there was probably more losses to the ambient and internal battery resistance than the circuits but I did prove to myself there was potential in this process. ( pun intended)
I've tried a multiple of variations and found that it basically boils down to the efficiency of the load ( use of energy ) and the efficiency of transformation from low to high ( pumping the water uphill). The larger the potential difference between the batteries the more looses will occur in the transforming process.... this being the key process. Matching the load wattage to the transformation wattage maintaining the potential difference as efficiently as possible.
Several years back I played with the battery switching circuits. A couple switches I designed and built, diagrams, were posted earlier. I was pretty much convinced it was working as I was seeing it - a very efficient use of energy. In the back of my mind I knew something wasn't right in my interpretation of the events. I purchased a couple watt meters and placed them in line with the battery switching process and cleared up my unanswered questions very quickly. I was very disappointed in what I saw and moved on to other projects quite abruptly.
After a while of pondering I started calculating what I thought was the problem(s). With 4 batteries switching from parallel to series connections gives you a gross mismatch of passive storage and you always loose energy in the transfer from high to low. In the case of the 4 battery switch, if each battery is 10ah you end up with a 20ah parallel and a 10ah series. The 3 battery system is better - a much closer match - series 10ah into a single 10ah.... 1 amp in 1 amp out. Still the problem exists with the higher potential series into the lower potential single - 1 amp at 24 volts to 1 amp at 12 volts .
The objective is to maintain an imbalance to drive a load between potentials. Charging the single isn't a problem, driving a load between them isn't a problem... maintaining a charge on the series batteries (is in my mind) the main problem. The load needs to not only run between potentials but also assist in restoring the higher potential series batteries. The 3 battery system allows 1 battery to charge while discharging 2, or more closely, one battery in the series is charging another battery while the second battery in series is running a load.
It gives us the appearance we are gaining something because we are charging the single and to some extent this is correct but are we really just deceiving ourselves? Maybe were overlooking the truth with false belief's/hopes that there is some magic going on here.
Ok then, let's put the hopes, dreams and beliefs aside while remaining mildly objective and dig toward the truth....
The series batteries are being drained through the load into the single battery and back to the series through the neg connection. A basic DC circuit. We switch the charged battery periodically with one that is being drained more that the other to maintain a higher potential and recharge one that has drained. Seems logical...
Let's turn it around a bit and look at from a different angle... Lets say we don't switch batteries around, instead let's maintain the voltage of the charging battery by removing the amount it is being charged to assist in charging the series batteries. Everything that is being added to the charge battery is being removed to maintain the source batteries as well as keeping the charge battery in a charged state.
A boost circuit to drain the charge battery and add charge to the series. 1 amp into the charge battery and 1 amp out to the series battery - It then boils down to the overall efficiency of the circuits and load to maintain both series and single charge batteries state of charge.
One of the simple experiments I did while running with this train of thought was using 2 identical 7ah 12V batteries, a simple JT circuit between the positives. As long as there was a potential difference of .5 down to .25 volts the LED's would light quite brightly. It takes a very long time to equalize the batteries through a JT circuit. I noticed that by simply tapping the high pos/ low pos with a 1v battery would offset the potential enough for several more hours of run time. It occurred to me that a boost circuit with an RC time constant of several seconds would shift the potential sufficiently to maintain a continuous potential difference while the JT circuit tried to equalize the batteries. In this particular case there was probably more losses to the ambient and internal battery resistance than the circuits but I did prove to myself there was potential in this process. ( pun intended)
I've tried a multiple of variations and found that it basically boils down to the efficiency of the load ( use of energy ) and the efficiency of transformation from low to high ( pumping the water uphill). The larger the potential difference between the batteries the more looses will occur in the transforming process.... this being the key process. Matching the load wattage to the transformation wattage maintaining the potential difference as efficiently as possible.
to bad i have order the less winding turn boost converter like the first Dave show in is video... But as i understand it may work..? I will see it when i recive it!
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