[EVDL] Lee's Light bulb regulater

Typical use for Lead-Acid is one 6.2 and one 6.8V, adding up
to 13V which may be slightly under the fresh-off-charger
voltage (my AGMs stayed at 13.25V for hours when left alone
after a fresh charge) but this will only remove a slight bit of
surface charge, the batteries will typically sit at anywhere
between 12 and 12.8V depending on SOC (empty - 99% full)
So the 13V drop allows a 2.5 or 3V bulb to regulate the full
batteries which try to go to 15+ Volts while the lower ones
are catching up.
It is important to have your charger throttle back, preferably
to less than 1 Amp at that point, so that the full batteries
are not hit too hard while the lower ones can catch up in the
course of hours if necessary.
With the batteries coming closer together during each charge
cycle, the time they spend equalizing should reduce over time
and after a while only the difference in self-discharge should
be visible in some balancers coming on later than others.
When you see all lights on you should terminate the charge,
it is just wasting energy.

Another very important thing is to use GOOD quality bulbs.
Cheap ones tend to fail early and now you have constructed
an UN-balancer!
There are people who say you should not use bulbs at all, only
resistors (and maybe a small LED with series resistor to give
an indication without affecting operation much) to make the
balancers robust.

The whole idea is to draw *no* current when the battery is
below its max resting voltage and to draw full current at the
max charging voltage.

Success,

Cor van de Water
Director HW & Systems Architecture Group
Proxim Wireless Corporation http://www.proxim.com
Email: [email protected] Private: http://www.cvandewater.com
Skype: cor_van_de_water IM: [email protected]
Tel: +1 408 383 7626 VoIP: +31 20 3987567 FWD# 25925
Tel: +91 (040)23117400 x203 XoIP: +31877841130

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On
Behalf Of Steve Clunn
Sent: Sunday, September 05, 2010 9:55 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [EVDL] Lee's Light bulb regulater

I went to http://www.seattleeva.org/wiki/Zener-lamp_regulator
to see what exact value the zener diodes where and on the site it showed
two 5.1v zener . This seems very low for a 12v agm .
seems like I remember 6.8v but this also seems a bit low as two would
add up to 13.6v . I know the lights will drop some of the voltage .
Steve Clunn

--
Tomorrows Ride TODAY !
Visit our shop web page at: www.Greenshedconversions.com

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Wow, I didn't realize in how many places there is info about Lee's Zener
regulators...

Here is another http://teva2.com/projects.htm

Rush Dougherty
www.TEVA2.com
Tucson AZ

----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Clunn" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, September 04, 2010 9:25 PM
Subject: [EVDL] Lee's Light bulb regulater


>I went to http://www.seattleeva.org/wiki/Zener-lamp_regulator
> to see what exact value the zener diodes where and on the site it
> showed two 5.1v zener . This seems very low for a 12v agm .
> seems like I remember 6.8v but this also seems a bit low as two would
> add up to 13.6v . I know the lights will drop some of the voltage .
> Steve Clunn
>
> --
> Tomorrows Ride TODAY !
> Visit our shop web page at: www.Greenshedconversions.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> | REPLYING: address your message to [email protected] only.
> | Multiple-address or CCed messages may be rejected.
> | UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub
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>

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With the interest in these regulators, I finally went back through the
archives and compiled most of what Lee had written into what I hope is a
fairly complete description of how they work, along with instructions on how
to build them.

Cor Van de Water sent along his suggestions on a slightly different circuit
using an LED and resistors in place of the lamps, so I included that
suggestion too, for those who might wish to try it.

I hope it helps someone.

http://www.evdl.org/pages/hartregs.html

I also compiled suggestions on recasting battery posts by Steve Clunn,
Roland Wiench, and Bob Rice. These are of course strictly for information,
entertainment, and education, since I don't want anyone to get hurt. ;-)

http://www.evdl.org/pages/battpost.html

David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA
EVDL Administrator

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