Dave's 2BGS, Duncan's Drawing
At the risk of derailing my own thread...
I decided to try this with a very dead LA battery I removed from my car last month. In its dying days, I was able to charge it fully, and that would last 2 days. I tried to put the charger on it today, and it won't even take a charge - not even registering 1mV. Dead as a doornail. Useless as t*ts on a bull.
I used a DC motor from a battery-powered hand drill. The motor sprang to life once things were connected as per Duncan's diagram. The battery began to charge into negative polarity. It rose to -3V and I had to let the motor rest. With a load on the shaft, it wanted to draw more amperage (I suppose) and the charge in the battery rose higher and faster. I don't have a way to keep a load on it right now, but the concept is fascinating.
It would seem to me that this completely useless battery is drawing energy in from the environment and I suppose the sulfation inside it is acting as a kind of catalytic layer, enabling it to draw from the ambient.
With the DC motor, I'm assuming we're getting an AC signal inside the motor(positive as magnet approaches TDC on rotor coil, crossing zero to negative as magnet recedes away from TDC). Maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong.
I'm wondering how the electrical action of the motor is interacting with the sulfated battery to enable the battery to charge. This information might be useful for other applications involving LABs.
Bob
Edit: To be fair, I should mention that I started the process off with one of UFOPolitics' 5 pole modified motors, which sprang into life once connected. It was running pretty fast, and I was worried about burning out the brushes, so I switched to the old drill DC motor, which seemed to actually push the voltage in the dead battery higher into the negative range. Like I said, I stopped at just past 3V to let the motor rest, so as not to burn it out. If I can find a way to put and keep a load on it, I will, and I'm sure that will enable the battery to charge quite rapidly.
Originally posted by Duncan
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I decided to try this with a very dead LA battery I removed from my car last month. In its dying days, I was able to charge it fully, and that would last 2 days. I tried to put the charger on it today, and it won't even take a charge - not even registering 1mV. Dead as a doornail. Useless as t*ts on a bull.
I used a DC motor from a battery-powered hand drill. The motor sprang to life once things were connected as per Duncan's diagram. The battery began to charge into negative polarity. It rose to -3V and I had to let the motor rest. With a load on the shaft, it wanted to draw more amperage (I suppose) and the charge in the battery rose higher and faster. I don't have a way to keep a load on it right now, but the concept is fascinating.
It would seem to me that this completely useless battery is drawing energy in from the environment and I suppose the sulfation inside it is acting as a kind of catalytic layer, enabling it to draw from the ambient.
With the DC motor, I'm assuming we're getting an AC signal inside the motor(positive as magnet approaches TDC on rotor coil, crossing zero to negative as magnet recedes away from TDC). Maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong.
I'm wondering how the electrical action of the motor is interacting with the sulfated battery to enable the battery to charge. This information might be useful for other applications involving LABs.
Bob
Edit: To be fair, I should mention that I started the process off with one of UFOPolitics' 5 pole modified motors, which sprang into life once connected. It was running pretty fast, and I was worried about burning out the brushes, so I switched to the old drill DC motor, which seemed to actually push the voltage in the dead battery higher into the negative range. Like I said, I stopped at just past 3V to let the motor rest, so as not to burn it out. If I can find a way to put and keep a load on it, I will, and I'm sure that will enable the battery to charge quite rapidly.
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