29 Jun
2004
29 Jun
'04
11:06 a.m.
At 01:17 PM 6/27/04 -0700, Marvin Johnston wrote:
I just found out about a new type of battery charger
called the
BatteryMinder that will (it is claimed) rejuvenate Lead/Acid batteries
that are dead due to sulphating. A friend of mine used one on a battery
that had been totally discharged for too long, and was able to recover
it. He sent me a 12v one and I am looking around for some batteries to
try it out ... like a couple of dozen Sharp PC-5000 lead/acid batteries
:). If this works on *old* lead acid batteries, I will be one happy
camper :)!
If anyone is curious, their web site is at:
http://www.vdcelectronics.com/batteryminder.htm
It smells like a scam, ie very expensive, so I went and read the patent.
Curious stuff.
The basic idea has been around for a bit, this patent is for a
refinement/variation. Sulphate crystals resonate at 3.26 mhz, and
apparently if you "hit" them with pulses around an amp that contain enough
energy at that frequency the crystals break up and go back into solution.
Older techniques used oscillators and transformers, and apparently were not
dual function, ie they knocked off crystals, but lacked basic bulk charging
circuits.
This design has a dual function, simple bulk recharge, then the pulse mode
to keep it charged and whack the sulphates. Pulse mode is a 20 khz
apparently variable width 1 amp pulse with edges tailored to hit the magic
3.26 mhz.
Let us know how it works and don't forget to put a scope on it.