Quote:
Originally Posted by steffen707
So if you just plug the charger in to the wall, once its fully charged, does the charger shut off, or does the lithium cell pack passive circuit just stop the charger from overcharging?
Reason i'm asking specifics, is I wonder if you need to run the charger on a timer, so that it will shut off after 5 hours, to let the passive circuit run for 30 minutes and balance the cells. I read on that site batteryspace.com that after charging up the lithium pack, you need to allow that 30 min to balance...
For now i'm just playing around with my regular old lead/acid starting battery, but want to make sure all my research is right before I go dumping a bunch of cash on this. My main concerns are how long can i drive, which correlates with the available AH, max discharge allowed, and amount amps my car pulls with load and without.
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I do usually run my LiFePO4 charger on a timer, but only because the fan will keep going after charging is completed - in the middle of the night when I'm sleeping. I prefer to shut of the unit entirely via timer, though it would not overcharge the LiFePO4 pack if not shut off.
Once the battery is charged the charger goes into "not charging" mode. Its LED changes from red to green to let you know. Sends no more current to the battery, so far as I know. At that point the "PCM" (protection circuit module) goes to work balancing the cells. The PCM is built into the battery pack. Follow the batteryspace.com link to the charger; you can see pretty good detail there.
On the batteryspace.com site the packs with PCM have a link to it (PCM is available for purchase individually). You can read the specifics for the PCM there. FYI John at batteryspace told me that for my (largish) 40AH pack, I should allow more like an hour for the PCM to do its job.