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Very Strange battery effects in Simple TS like circuit

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  • Very Strange battery effects in Simple TS like circuit

    I'm getting some consistently very odd and I believe strange effects with this simple circuit that doesn't seem explainable by regular electrical circuit theory unless I'm missing something (and that's very possible). I believe this circuit has similarities to the mechanical Tesla Switch but in a very simplified form. I've wanted to build a 4 battery mechanical Tesla switch but lacking the time and all the parts I decided to try this after seeing someone do something similar on another forum with 5 AA batteries (3 charging 2). That experimenter originally removed one of the commutators from his DC motor but later tried his circuit without removing a commutator and it seemed to work just as well. I left mine on. I also am using three 12 volt car batteries instead of AA NiMH and all three of these car batteries were in very poor condition and likely sulfated or with dead cells. I had spent weeks trying to charge them with a regular car charger using 2 amps to 10 amps charging current. They would always fall back to a level that indicated they had sulfation or a dead cell. I had also tried a pulse charger circuit I built on them with little luck. At this time I think two are still probably running 1 cell short but one seems to be recovered since I've been using this Motor pulse circuit.

    However that's not the strange part at all. Bear with me please as this may take some explanation about a couple of the oddities I've found while charging them with the circuit below.

    First odd effect: I often run a regular battery charger across a single battery (A in this case) at 2 Amps that is in the series part of the circuit where battery A and B are being used to charge C (because A is in such poor shape). While running the circuit which uses a 12 volt DC motor (I think it was a automotive wiper motor which has 3 speeds - 3 different color positive wires) I found that if I put a second charger across battery B that battery B would suddenly lose a lot of voltage if I removed the charger after a couple minutes. Battery B is a strong battery but probably has 1 dead cell so voltage has remained around 10.5 to 11.5 volts or so even when running this circuit for a while with no charger on it. But after putting the charger on it at 10 Amps and then removing it the motor almost stops and that battery reads about 4 to 5 volts (which is lower than I've ever seen it). Then within maybe 15 to 30 seconds the motor speeds back up and the voltage across that battery returns to 10.5 to 11.5 volts or so. This process has been repeated several times with the same results.

    Second strange effect: The battery 'B' increases in voltage slowly over just a few minutes even though it has no charger on it. Battery B and battery A are being used to charge battery C. Note that Battery A is weaker by far than B and is a lower voltage than B unless a charger is attached.

    Third strange effect: If I have one charger on battery A and I then put a second charger on battery B by attaching the charger cables first but leaving the charger off there is no change in the motor speed (expected). When I turn on the charger the motor speed increases some (expected). But when I turn off the charger with the cables still attached the motor either stops or slows down so much it's almost at a stop. And when reading the voltage on battery B it drops to 4 or 5 volts. As mentioned above it will come back very quickly once I remove the charger cables.

    I also tried putting a Bedini SSG on the two charging batteries so it would run off the B battery and charge the A battery while both A and B charge C. This greatly extended the time A and B would run the motor and charge C before the motor would slow down. In all tests battery C was taking a charge better and would have an ending voltage after a day of rest that was higher than any charging I did with a 10 Amp charger. I often ran the 10 Amp charger on a battery (not using this circuit) for several hours at a time. In nearly all cases it would be back down around 10 volts after a day of rest. But by just using the odd circuit with sometimes adding a 2 amp charger on one of the charging batteries the end result was a much better charge in a much shorter time.

    Also somewhat interesting is that the main DC motor has a fair amount of torque but it is not turning anything other than it's own shaft. While I suspect it would not gain much to hook it up to a small generator since I'm sure that would cause it to draw a lot more current I considered that due to some of the odd behaviors I've seen in this circuit.

    So is there a normal explanation for some of these oddities? I'm no EE but based on what I do know some of this seems odd. Is it possible the power that is being pulsed through the motor commutators in the battery C is getting some sort of radiant energy? When using some voltmeters on the AC setting I get a reading of around 25 volts AC across the C battery. I assume the meter is just reading pulsed DC.

    My main purpose in trying this circuit has just been to somehow recover these 3 batteries. They all seem to benefit to an extent from the process as long as I have just one 2 amp charger on A or B. The C battery of course gets the greatest benefit and I've begun swapping them around to the C position to get the other 2 recovered also. I don't think there's any OU here at all but unless I'm missing something obvious there seems to be some unusual effects.

    A couple other notes when you look at the circuit below. Both the motor negative and motor positive are hooked to positives of batteries. That is not a mistake in the circuit diagram. The way I see it the motor is running off the difference between A+B (about 24 volts) and C (12 volts). And that voltage is being pulsed into C through the motor commutators if I understood the other experimenter correctly.
    Attached Files
    Last edited by ewizard; 10-04-2010, 02:47 AM.
    There is no important work, there are only a series of moments to demonstrate your mastery and impeccability. Quote from Almine

  • #2
    You don't use diode? can you retry the experiment again? But this time put an amp meter between the motor and the battery to see the direction of current flow.

    Comment


    • #3
      I found that if I put a second charger across battery B that battery B would suddenly lose a lot of voltage if I removed the charger after a couple minutes
      That sounds like a short through ground from the 2 AC to DC Chargers. If you have both of them plugged in to the wall and they are charging 2 batteries in hooked in series then they will short through the AC side ground. Then when 1 side is unhooked they should return to normal charging pattern. The ground short may not be avoided by adding input BIG diodes to both chargers output.
      And with all that I hope I am understanding the situation....
      Second strange effect: The battery 'B' increases in voltage slowly over just a few minutes even though it has no charger on it. Battery B and battery A are being used to charge battery C. Note that Battery A is weaker by far than B and is a lower voltage than B unless a charger is attached.
      The battery closest to the load will always discharge furthest in a TS type setup.

      Third strange effect: If I have one charger on battery A and I then put a second charger on battery B by attaching the charger cables first but leaving the charger off there is no change in the motor speed (expected). When I turn on the charger the motor speed increases some (expected). But when I turn off the charger with the cables still attached the motor either stops or slows down so much it's almost at a stop. And when reading the voltage on battery B it drops to 4 or 5 volts. As mentioned above it will come back very quickly once I remove the charger cables.
      Same thing as above, due to a short on the AC side.
      Just remeber when you set things up from AC of a house. The entire house is grounded. All grounds run together. Any AC component/appliance, even a battery charger extends that ground/neutral to the anything its may be attached to. Battery chargers to not isolate the battery ground from the system in case the battery has problem and starts drawing amperage at excessive rate from the transformer. This can flip the internal breaker or and external breaker if need be. Its a Safety thing.


      Now on another front...

      If you wanna get some charging outa that pulse it and rotate the batteries frequently. To slow the rate of BEMF in the electric motor you can pulse it at 100 hz or so via a communtator or switch. Then if spend a little time you can come up with a relay setup that will rotate your batteries out into the charge position. Slowly over time if its possible for the batteries to charge they will.

      Bits had a 3 battery rotator I believe posted on the TS thread.

      Cheers
      Matt

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Matthew Jones View Post
        Bits had a 3 battery rotator I believe posted on the TS thread.

        Cheers
        Matt
        Hi Matt, infact it is a 4 battery swapper and I will be demo it at this conference in Nov.

        Renaissance Charge November 2010 Alternative Energy Conference

        Jeff

        Comment


        • #5
          I thought someone had one that rotated out 3 batteries. I'll look through it an d try to find it.

          Matt

          Comment


          • #6
            Matt, Thanks for your help with this. It did occur to me that it could be a short through ground but I thought the charger transformers would isolate that possibility. When I read your explanation though I thought that must be it until I got out the Ohm meter. I checked both chargers with the switches on but unplugged from the wall. In all cases there was infinite resistance between both on all points on the wall plug and all points on the DC output terminals. At least on a 2 Megohm range nothing showed up for a current path. To clarify I checked ground to negative, ground to positive, neutral to negative, neutral to positive, hot to negative and hot to positive on both chargers and they seem completely isolated. I don't think that would change if it was plugged in to the wall would it? I'll see if I can check that out...
            Edit : I just checked between the hot side of the outlet and the negative of the DC output with the charger on and was seeing 100.4 VAC. Now I'm even a bit more confused. I guess I'm probably lucky I didn't blow one of the chargers up unless that's a sort of ghost voltage I'm reading.

            Originally posted by Matthew Jones View Post
            That sounds like a short through ground from the 2 AC to DC Chargers. If you have both of them plugged in to the wall and they are charging 2 batteries in hooked in series then they will short through the AC side ground. Then when 1 side is unhooked they should return to normal charging pattern. The ground short may not be avoided by adding input BIG diodes to both chargers output.
            And with all that I hope I am understanding the situation....


            The battery closest to the load will always discharge furthest in a TS type setup.



            Same thing as above, due to a short on the AC side.
            Just remeber when you set things up from AC of a house. The entire house is grounded. All grounds run together. Any AC component/appliance, even a battery charger extends that ground/neutral to the anything its may be attached to. Battery chargers to not isolate the battery ground from the system in case the battery has problem and starts drawing amperage at excessive rate from the transformer. This can flip the internal breaker or and external breaker if need be. Its a Safety thing.


            Now on another front...

            If you wanna get some charging outa that pulse it and rotate the batteries frequently. To slow the rate of BEMF in the electric motor you can pulse it at 100 hz or so via a communtator or switch. Then if spend a little time you can come up with a relay setup that will rotate your batteries out into the charge position. Slowly over time if its possible for the batteries to charge they will.

            Bits had a 3 battery rotator I believe posted on the TS thread.

            Cheers
            Matt
            Last edited by ewizard; 10-04-2010, 06:26 PM.
            There is no important work, there are only a series of moments to demonstrate your mastery and impeccability. Quote from Almine

            Comment


            • #7
              Its just a ground loop, or neutral loop. The charger might have to be on for you to even see it. I know the battery is not totally isolated. I have seen the same thing happen before.
              It just safety stuff, it kinda hard to explain in detail, since I hardly understand myself. LOL

              Cheers
              Matt

              Comment

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