linear PS for "trickle charging"

[rajuncajun]

I'm looking at the IHB155-0.12 linear power supply from international power (available from mouser for $46.15). It's rated at 135-170V adjustable output rated at up to 120 mA (0.12 A) and has built in foldback current limiting. It seems this would be suitable on the workbench for an inexpensive top-off trickle charger. Thoughts?

I'm having a very interesting month car-wise, last week my wife's '03 HCH threw an IMA light with a P1449 code. I'm working on getting a salvage yard pack to try and rebuild using her old battery for spare subpacks. There's no way I can afford to pay Honda to replace it and although he does great work HybridBatteryRepair will end up costing a bit too much for my budget since I'd have to ship it and I'm quite a bit away from NYC. Plus, I would like to do it myself if possible since I have some test equipment already from other electronics projects.

Then yesterday my 2000 Insight threw an IMA light on the highway. Luckily it wasn't sold until Apr 2001 so it's under warranty, I'm getting a new pack for free from Honda for that car!

I have 2 triton Jr chargers for measuring subpack capacity and I plan to use either a variac with rectifier (carefully monitored for current and voltage to the pack) or this linear power supply to top off the salvage pack and old HCH pack before cycling the subpacks to test capacity. Maybe it the future it would work for a grid charger too.

Anyone done this themselves successfully?

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

foldback current limiting may not work well for charging, and at .12A, it will take days to top off and re-balance the pack.
May be better to build my simple grid charger:
http://99mpg.com/Data/resources/down...balancer_2.pdf
Good luck

[E27006]

Looking on the web for the specs, the Jr charges at 5 Amps maximum, discharges at 1 Amp or 5 watts maximum, 5 watts on a subpack is only .55 Amps.


I do not think the Jr is up to the task, its limited specification will need weeks of your time to process all your subpacks.

You really should consider using 8 or 10 Amp charge/10 Amp discharge, even with two units on the go, you are looking at 4 to 5 days of work to cycle your pack.

Please consider units such as Robitronics Overloader (blue case) or Overloader 2 (red case) models, these are suitable, they are also sold under other names and are often found on Ebay at a reasonable price.

[Blue-Civic-Hybrid]

Originally Posted by Mike Dabrowski 2000

foldback current limiting may not work well for charging, and at .12A, it will take days to top off and re-balance the pack.
May be better to build my simple grid charger:
http://99mpg.com/Data/resources/down...balancer_2.pdf
Good luck

Thanks for that schematic, maybe I'll build one myself!

[rajuncajun]

Thanks Mike, I've followed that sticky thread some but it's getting huge. I remember some talk at the outset that the Mean Well power supplies were sold only to OEMs, is there a distributor people are using to get them?

[rajuncajun]

Nevermind, mouser actually has all this stuff now. Thanks!

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

Powergate, Peak to Peak, TRC electronics, Mouser, Jameco, Digikey all have the supplies.
Prices vary widely and depend a lot on quantity.

I am still working on my grid chargers designs and now that I have a break from dealing with the snow, I should be able to get the first prototypes built up next week, then it will proceed quickly, with the likely ETA of early March.
If you will build your own, be aware that I changed the LED circuit to this:
http://99mpg.com/ProjectCars/mimapac...cementfor1wat/
Which is much more reliable than the single 1W led shown in the drawing.

[rajuncajun]

I went ahead and got one of these linear supplies to mess around with an it turns out the current limiting is adjustable. I had it charging a hch pack on the bench steadily at 300ma with the output voltage set at 162 v. Then I had a brain fart and hooked it up with the supply off and no diode at the output and a brief spark ended things for my ps. Luckily the supply uses a socketed lm723cn regulator and 2n3055 pass transistor, which are probably all I cooked so I think it's fixable.

Quick question though, where is the best place to connect a grid charger to the civic or insight battery such that it can charge with or without power to the bcm? I don't care about whether the bcm monitors current in, from what I hear there's no harm in it doing a positive recall each time after a top off charge. I'm talking about when it's actually in the car, I don't want to remove it every time I grid charge it.

I'm sure these instructions are posted somewhere already but I can't find them for some reason.

Thanks!

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

Here is my loaner connection for the insight:
http://99mpg.com/Projectcars/buildin...ctingthecharg/

and I believe Peter and Artric have versions. I don't think there is a civic one yet.

[rajuncajun]

Great, thanks mike! I'm getting my insight back tomorrow with a fresh ima pack from the dealership at no cost to me. It will definitely be the last warranty pack for this vehicle so I plan to baby it with the occasional grid source top off charge.

Now I just need to get busy going through the civic salvage pack for my wife's car...once I fix my grid charger.