BILL BAUER wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:
> you can.  I can recall one bit of training material that talked about
> golf cart batteries, and they compared the overall number of cycles you'd
> get out of a set if they were charged after every 9 holes or after 18...
> The former lasted a *lot* longer.
 BB> That's all very true, Roy, but how they are charged is also 
 BB> going to make a lot of difference. 
You'll get no argument from me on that!
 BB> There is a lot of difference between constant voltage charging 
 BB> and constant current charging. The temperature at which they 
 BB> are charged can also make or break a battery. 
What temperatures would you consider optimum?  Under what circumstances?
 BB> There are quite a few parameters that need attention in 
 BB> designing a good battery charge system and off the shelf 
 BB> chargers are seldom if ever designed to help get the most life 
 BB> out of a battery. 
Yeah.  The handiest charger I've got here at the moment is a simple unit, 
with a timer on the front.  No regulation at all,  though it'll push a little 
harder and for a little longer than a regulated charger,  so it's handy for 
stuff that's run down real far,  but mostly I need to keep an eye on what's 
going on.  That's why this one is right here next to my desk...
 BB> I've never fooled with golf cart batteries or their chargers. 
 BB> How are they designed? Constant current or constant voltage?
I've never messed with chargers specifically for those either,  just read 
about them in some of the training material I had to work with.
 BB> I would like to build my chargers so that they started out as 
 BB> constant current devices and would cut off after the batteries 
 BB> reached 90% of charge and then shut off so that I could then 
 BB> put them on a constant voltage charger.
I'm always interested in looking at more info with regard to charger design, 
if you know of any.
 BB> Another factor is how long they are charged. Most people won't 
 BB> let a battery charge long enough nor at high enough charging 
 BB> rates to drive the acid out of the plates and back into the 
 BB> solution. 
I don't think that most people have a good idea of what it takes to bring a 
battery back up to a state of charge.  When I had that store I used to get 
people coming in all the time with something that they had assumed was no 
good becuase they'd stuck it on a charger for "almost an hour!" or something 
equally silly.
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