AccuCycle Power Supply Question
10-18-2006, 11:30 PM
#1
AccuCycle Power Supply Question
Hi Everyone,
I have an AccuCycle Plus and I have several questions regarding it. I thought I had a pretty good handle on electronics and electrical items, but now I am doubting everything.
The first question I have is with regard to the power supply. At home of course, I use the normal 120V power supply. At the field I used to use the Accu-Cycle field convertor to draw power from a 12V motorcycle battery to the AccuCycle and occasionally I would use a car battery with the field convertor to supply power to the AccuCycle. Is there any harm in powering the unit from a car battery that could deliver 800 cold cranking amps as compared to a motorcycle battery that could (if needed) deliver 150 cold cranking amps?
I would also like to ask this question with regard to an R/C Power Panel ( normal r/c power panel to supply power to glow plug, starter and fuel pump ). Is there any difference between using a 12V mortorcycle battery or a 12V car battery to power the unit? --- If there are no shorts in the power panel itself, will the bigger 12V battery do any harm?
Another question that I had is that the online manual for the accu-cycle Elite states "Do not use automotive battery chargers to power the unit." Can someone go into further detail why this causes damage to the unit? (For example - the automotive charger has it's own internal circuits sensing the battery draw and this prevents it from supplying a constant clean power source that the Accu-Cycle needs to operate correctly. - this is just a guess, I don't know if this is the case or not.)
Thanks,
Paul D.
I have an AccuCycle Plus and I have several questions regarding it. I thought I had a pretty good handle on electronics and electrical items, but now I am doubting everything.
The first question I have is with regard to the power supply. At home of course, I use the normal 120V power supply. At the field I used to use the Accu-Cycle field convertor to draw power from a 12V motorcycle battery to the AccuCycle and occasionally I would use a car battery with the field convertor to supply power to the AccuCycle. Is there any harm in powering the unit from a car battery that could deliver 800 cold cranking amps as compared to a motorcycle battery that could (if needed) deliver 150 cold cranking amps?
I would also like to ask this question with regard to an R/C Power Panel ( normal r/c power panel to supply power to glow plug, starter and fuel pump ). Is there any difference between using a 12V mortorcycle battery or a 12V car battery to power the unit? --- If there are no shorts in the power panel itself, will the bigger 12V battery do any harm?
Another question that I had is that the online manual for the accu-cycle Elite states "Do not use automotive battery chargers to power the unit." Can someone go into further detail why this causes damage to the unit? (For example - the automotive charger has it's own internal circuits sensing the battery draw and this prevents it from supplying a constant clean power source that the Accu-Cycle needs to operate correctly. - this is just a guess, I don't know if this is the case or not.)
Thanks,
Paul D.
10-19-2006, 08:35 AM
#3
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RE: AccuCycle Power Supply Question
ORIGINAL: rutanman
Hi Everyone,
I have an AccuCycle Plus and I have several questions regarding it. I thought I had a pretty good handle on electronics and electrical items, but now I am doubting everything.
The first question I have is with regard to the power supply. At home of course, I use the normal 120V power supply. At the field I used to use the Accu-Cycle field convertor to draw power from a 12V motorcycle battery to the AccuCycle and occasionally I would use a car battery with the field convertor to supply power to the AccuCycle. Is there any harm in powering the unit from a car battery that could deliver 800 cold cranking amps as compared to a motorcycle battery that could (if needed) deliver 150 cold cranking amps?
I would also like to ask this question with regard to an R/C Power Panel ( normal r/c power panel to supply power to glow plug, starter and fuel pump ). Is there any difference between using a 12V mortorcycle battery or a 12V car battery to power the unit? --- If there are no shorts in the power panel itself, will the bigger 12V battery do any harm?
Another question that I had is that the online manual for the accu-cycle Elite states "Do not use automotive battery chargers to power the unit." Can someone go into further detail why this causes damage to the unit? (For example - the automotive charger has it's own internal circuits sensing the battery draw and this prevents it from supplying a constant clean power source that the Accu-Cycle needs to operate correctly. - this is just a guess, I don't know if this is the case or not.)
Thanks,
Paul D.
Hi Everyone,
I have an AccuCycle Plus and I have several questions regarding it. I thought I had a pretty good handle on electronics and electrical items, but now I am doubting everything.
The first question I have is with regard to the power supply. At home of course, I use the normal 120V power supply. At the field I used to use the Accu-Cycle field convertor to draw power from a 12V motorcycle battery to the AccuCycle and occasionally I would use a car battery with the field convertor to supply power to the AccuCycle. Is there any harm in powering the unit from a car battery that could deliver 800 cold cranking amps as compared to a motorcycle battery that could (if needed) deliver 150 cold cranking amps?
I would also like to ask this question with regard to an R/C Power Panel ( normal r/c power panel to supply power to glow plug, starter and fuel pump ). Is there any difference between using a 12V mortorcycle battery or a 12V car battery to power the unit? --- If there are no shorts in the power panel itself, will the bigger 12V battery do any harm?
Another question that I had is that the online manual for the accu-cycle Elite states "Do not use automotive battery chargers to power the unit." Can someone go into further detail why this causes damage to the unit? (For example - the automotive charger has it's own internal circuits sensing the battery draw and this prevents it from supplying a constant clean power source that the Accu-Cycle needs to operate correctly. - this is just a guess, I don't know if this is the case or not.)
Thanks,
Paul D.
Same for the power panel
aautomotive battery chargers typically do not have the filtering needed by the chargers, the 12V is not pure and the chargers do not like that.
10-20-2006, 12:32 AM
#6
RE: AccuCycle Power Supply Question
Thanks Mike and everyone for the replies,
Mike,
You mentioned that the auto chargers do not have the filtering needed by the battery chargers. Can you explain the term filtering a little bit more. and by their very nature (/construction) do 12V batteries have their own filtering? I think of filtering and think automatically of a circuit that senses voltage or amperage and limits either or both of these.
If an auto charger would be connected to a R/C battery charger would this cause permanent damage? or would the unit just fail to operate properly?(temporary damage - recalibration needed) (Please bear with my questions and my long post, I only ask because I am trying to diagnose whether the erratic behavior of my AccuCycle is - due to past power I supplied to it , or - if it is just a matter of it going out of calibration - or caused by reversing the polarityof a RX battery by plugging it in wrong and hitting the charge button)
Some background:
I had used motorcycle batteries to supply power to all my field box needs but mid season this year I got tired of charging and having to replace/ add battery acid to motorcycle batteries so I figured I go with an off the shelf self contained battery unit (called a jump start unit). The field box setup with the unit is beautiful and very convenient.
The jump start unit to the power panel seems ideal and appears to work flawlessly.
I assumed that this unit was the equivalent of a car battery so I didn't think twice about hooking my AccuCycle to it.
Here is a link to the jump start unit:
http://www.blackanddecker.com/Produc...roductID=15581
quick specs.
from the jumper type cables:
12V 300 amps instant for 5 secs then constant 225 amps available (the automatic switch from 300 amps to 225 amps seems like it might cause problems????)
from the accessory outlet:
12V 5 amp resetting breaker
I guess one of my main questions is: Do you feel that it would be ok to use a jump start unit like the one mentioned above to power the AccuCycle? Do you feel that this jump start unit would fall under the definition of a battery or would it be considered to be a charger? I guess this is my round about way of asking, "Did I screw up hooking this unit to my AccuCycle?"
Common sense would say to hook up the r/c battery charger to the accessory ( cigarette style outlet of the unit ). I thought about having all of my other field box power coming from this unit and thought about the amperage of my engine starter constantly throwing the 5 amp breaker in the accessory outlet in the unit (at least, I think the starter would draw more than 5 amps). I decided that the 225 amp constant source would be more than enough for all my current and future R/C field box needs so I made special connections in the bottom of my field box to take in power from the 12V Jump Start unit to the field box.
A picture of the unit connected to my field box is attached below.
Like I mentioned above, I am just trying to nail down if using of the jump start unit or inadvertently plugging in my r/c batteies to my charger in reverse polarity has caused my accucycle to start acting erratic. The accucycle seems to charge and cycle TX batteries correctly, but when it comes to the RX batteries the unit shows only half to 1/3 or less of what the batteries are capable of. At first I thought I had a bad RX battery. I cycled it many times and each time the storage capacity got less and less. When it happened to my other 3 batteries, I started suspecting the AccuCycle. If I charge the batteries with the regular wall chargers (50 mA) then the AccuCycle can discharge them to their full capacity. But after it discharges them then it goes into charge mode and only last minutes to full charge, instead of the approx two hours that it used to take for the same battery.
Thanks again and sorry for the long post.
Paul D.
Mike,
You mentioned that the auto chargers do not have the filtering needed by the battery chargers. Can you explain the term filtering a little bit more. and by their very nature (/construction) do 12V batteries have their own filtering? I think of filtering and think automatically of a circuit that senses voltage or amperage and limits either or both of these.
If an auto charger would be connected to a R/C battery charger would this cause permanent damage? or would the unit just fail to operate properly?(temporary damage - recalibration needed) (Please bear with my questions and my long post, I only ask because I am trying to diagnose whether the erratic behavior of my AccuCycle is - due to past power I supplied to it , or - if it is just a matter of it going out of calibration - or caused by reversing the polarityof a RX battery by plugging it in wrong and hitting the charge button)
Some background:
I had used motorcycle batteries to supply power to all my field box needs but mid season this year I got tired of charging and having to replace/ add battery acid to motorcycle batteries so I figured I go with an off the shelf self contained battery unit (called a jump start unit). The field box setup with the unit is beautiful and very convenient.
The jump start unit to the power panel seems ideal and appears to work flawlessly.
I assumed that this unit was the equivalent of a car battery so I didn't think twice about hooking my AccuCycle to it.
Here is a link to the jump start unit:
http://www.blackanddecker.com/Produc...roductID=15581
quick specs.
from the jumper type cables:
12V 300 amps instant for 5 secs then constant 225 amps available (the automatic switch from 300 amps to 225 amps seems like it might cause problems????)
from the accessory outlet:
12V 5 amp resetting breaker
I guess one of my main questions is: Do you feel that it would be ok to use a jump start unit like the one mentioned above to power the AccuCycle? Do you feel that this jump start unit would fall under the definition of a battery or would it be considered to be a charger? I guess this is my round about way of asking, "Did I screw up hooking this unit to my AccuCycle?"
Common sense would say to hook up the r/c battery charger to the accessory ( cigarette style outlet of the unit ). I thought about having all of my other field box power coming from this unit and thought about the amperage of my engine starter constantly throwing the 5 amp breaker in the accessory outlet in the unit (at least, I think the starter would draw more than 5 amps). I decided that the 225 amp constant source would be more than enough for all my current and future R/C field box needs so I made special connections in the bottom of my field box to take in power from the 12V Jump Start unit to the field box.
A picture of the unit connected to my field box is attached below.
Like I mentioned above, I am just trying to nail down if using of the jump start unit or inadvertently plugging in my r/c batteies to my charger in reverse polarity has caused my accucycle to start acting erratic. The accucycle seems to charge and cycle TX batteries correctly, but when it comes to the RX batteries the unit shows only half to 1/3 or less of what the batteries are capable of. At first I thought I had a bad RX battery. I cycled it many times and each time the storage capacity got less and less. When it happened to my other 3 batteries, I started suspecting the AccuCycle. If I charge the batteries with the regular wall chargers (50 mA) then the AccuCycle can discharge them to their full capacity. But after it discharges them then it goes into charge mode and only last minutes to full charge, instead of the approx two hours that it used to take for the same battery.
Thanks again and sorry for the long post.
Paul D.
10-23-2006, 08:54 AM
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RE: AccuCycle Power Supply Question
The reason they do not recommend battery charges as power supplies is what they said no filtering and put out 17V peak. Some times you can use the battery as a filter aka charge the battery while using your charger to charge another batttery. BUT always a but... the voltage on the big lead acid battery may pulse because the battery is not a great filter and then some chargers see the pulse "ripple" an it messes up the peak detection and stop early. I charge my moto bat and use my ICE with no problems. This way I charge all the batteries at once. But some chargers just do not behave well on this settup.
Rich
Rich
