"Xeno" wrote in message
...
On 22/6/19 7:58 pm, Rod Speed wrote:


"Xeno" wrote in message
...
On 22/6/19 9:57 am, Rod Speed wrote:


"Commander Kinsey" wrote in message
news On Fri, 21 Jun 2019 23:57:52 +0100, Rod Speed
wrote:



"Commander Kinsey" wrote in message
news On Fri, 21 Jun 2019 22:57:44 +0100, Max Demian

wrote:

On 21/06/2019 21:19, Commander Kinsey wrote:
How does a lead acid battery charger (or car alternator) know when
to
switch to trickle charge? I can understand it noticing a drop in
charging current if the battery is on its own, but what if a
random
changing load is connected, as there is in a running car?

The voltage perhaps.

Why would the voltage change?

That's the way batterys work, the battery voltage does change as its
charged.

That's determined by the alternator or charger.

Nope.

Yip.

Nope.

I can put any voltage I like across a battery's terminals.

Nope.

The battery then chooses how much current is drawn.

And that current changes depending on the how charged the battery is.

Let's say the charger/alternator gives out 14.4V initially, to
charge the
battery quickly. It'll just sit at 14.4V forever, providing the
charger
can give out enough current to charge the slightly flat battery and
power
any connected loads.

Its more complicated than that with the current going to the battery
and the
battery is charged.

If the battery had no loads connected, it would take a lot less
current
when it became full, but the voltage would stay the same.

No it doesn't even with a very crude battery charger.

For example, I'm currently keeping my car's battery topped up with a
bench supply overnight. It's set to 13.8V, with a current limiter
only to prevent overloading the supply.

It actually specify the current being supplied.

The voltage stays at 13.8V all the time, sometimes 100mA is drawn,
sometimes up to 4A. The only way I or the supply can tell the battery
is full, is by the current dropping to 100mA. But it's actually
always full, as when 4A is drawn, that's going to a load.

What load ? There no load with a battery being charged with a bench
supply.

Correction

Nope.

the *battery* is the *load*.

Not when the battery is fully charged and is being charged
with a bench supply that is delivering 4A to the battery.

Take the case of an alternator charging a battery at ~4 amps.

That isnt what was being discussed there. What was being discussed
there was charging the battery out of the car with a bench supply.

The battery is the load and it also provides, as part of that function,
the reference *voltage* that the alternator *must have* in order to
control the output.

None of that is relevant to what was being discussed there,
charging the battery out of the car with a bench supply.

In the process of being charged it is using electric current. That makes
it the load.

See above.

What happens to the charger when you disconnect the power with the battery
connected?

With a BENCH SUPPLY, it continues to provide the
same voltage as it did with the battery connected.

It should, if designed correctly, shut down since it no longer sees a
load. Otherwise it may destroy itself.

That is just plain wrong with a BENCH SUPPLY.
None of those destroy themselves with no load.

Even when it is fully charged it will still take a trickle charge

4A isnt a trickle charge.

That depends entirely on the amp hour rating of the battery.

We're discussing a normal car battery in a steaming turd with
wheels frog car.

Also, my bench charger

We arent discussing a bench charger, we are discussing a bench SUPPLY.

will start off at 4 amps, its maximum capacity. As the battery becomes
charged, that current will drop down to *1 amp* and, from that point, it
will maintain a *trickle charge*.

So that is nothing like the situation being discussed
with a BENCH SUPPLY which is still delivering 4A to
a battery that has been removed from the car.

From Wikipedia;
For lead-acid batteries under no load float charging (such as
in SLI batteries), trickle charging happens naturally at the
end-of-charge, when the lead-acid battery internal resistance
to the charging current increases enough to reduce additional
charging current to a trickle, hence the name. In such cases,
the trickle charging equals the energy expended by the
lead-acid battery splitting the water in the electrolyte into
hydrogen and oxygen gases

Irrelevant to what is being discussed, 4A isnt a trickle charge.

The car alternator regulator is no different.

We arent discussing that there.

It sees the battery as a load, determines the voltage reference and pumps
up its output. When the regulator sees the battery voltage at the peak
setpoint, it too will drop the current to a trickle. If you add a load,
say by turning headlights on, that is in *parallel* to the battery and it
will drop the system voltage down a tad. The regulator will see that and
pump up the output current appropriately. The current will apportion
itself to the *two* loads as appropriate to their individual internal
resistances.

All irrelevant to charging a battery out of the car with a BENCH SUPPLY.

Here, educate yourself;
https://www.swtc.edu/ag_power/electr...l_circuits.htm

I knew all that before you were even born, thanks.

so it is still a load even when fully charged.

Not when its still taking 4A,

If the battery is *taking* 4 amps, then it *is definitely the load*.

But it wont be taking 4A WHEN THE BATTERY IS OUT OF THE
CAR WITH A BENCH SUPPLY. Because the battery voltage will
have risen once it has been charged so the original 4A will
have dropped significantly WITH A BENCH SUPPLY.

If the charger monitored the current it was providing, how does it
know if the battery is still charging at 10 amps, or if the battery
is full and there's a 10 amp load?

By checking the current actually being delivered to the battery.

I guess that may be true, if the car's computer has two ammeters

It has more than one wire to the positive terminal of the battery.
So it can see what current is going to the rest of the car.

and subtracts one from the other. But AFAIK, the alternator
regulator only works by it's own current sensor. And that current
could be going into the battery, or past it to the loads.

Not when there is more than one wire going to the
positive terminal of the battery, and there always is.