From: Roy McNeill 
Reply-To: Fidonet AVtech Echo 



Brenton wrote:

> David, the one smart thing Bob suggested was to look at how your batteries are
> wired.  It is not uncommon for large DC battery banks as used in outback
> situations to consist of half a dozen 2v cells hooked up in series.  I have seen
> a few setups like this in the north west corner of South Australia and 2v cells
> seem to be the go.  If your battery pack does indeed consist of 2v cells, then
> you could just take a tap off of the third one which would provide you with an
> output voltage close enough to power your little DVD player with 100%
> efficiency. 

This could have a long-term effect on the batteries. Sucking 3 amps or 
so out of 3 cells while leaving the
others alone will get the "others" regularly overcharged, chewing up 
water if they're ordinary car batteries
with fill-up holes, or shortening their life if they're sealed. The 
sucked cells will be charged to a lower max
voltage, because the "others" voltage will be higher, so the sucked 
cells won't get fully charged.

Cheers

- I'm not a complete idiot. There are still some parts missing.

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