power supply

[strideredc]

what would you recomend for my triton jr charger, i dont realy want to power it off my car as you have to leave the keys in it to keep the power on?

any ideas? cheap if possible...

 

[SilverFox]

Hello Strideredc,

The Triton Jr is designed to be used from the car battery. You should pop the hood and hook it directly to the battery. No keys required for that method.

Inside use requires a power supply. I use a Mastech HY3010E with excellent results.

Tom

 

[strideredc]

thanks silverfox, i will look in to this...

 

[havand]

Are you trying to power it on location or in your house? If you're trying to power it in your house, there are some companies that sell on ebay that have cheap ~12v ac-dc supplies. Just bought a 12.5V @ 12.5A for ~35 shipped. I think the name of the company that makes it is 'Emtel'. If you're worried about your car battery, you could look into picking up a dedicated SLA battery to power it on location, then just throw it back on the trickle charger when you get home.

 

[SilverFox]

Hello Havand,

Hobby chargers are designed to be used with "clean" DC power. When you hook them up to a power supply, you introduce ripple. Ripple can interfere with the chargers ability to detect the end of charge signal, causing a malfunction.

When choosing a power supply for a hobby charger, you should pick one with the lowest ripple value that you can afford. Unfortunately, low ripple power supplies are also more expensive.

Unfortunately, the charger usually will appear to be working just fine, until your batteries end up cooked.

Tom

 

[havand]

Hello Havand,

Hobby chargers are designed to be used with "clean" DC power. When you hook them up to a power supply, you introduce ripple. Ripple can interfere with the chargers ability to detect the end of charge signal, causing a malfunction.

When choosing a power supply for a hobby charger, you should pick one with the lowest ripple value that you can afford. Unfortunately, low ripple power supplies are also more expensive.

Unfortunately, the charger usually will appear to be working just fine, until your batteries end up cooked.

Tom

Tom,

Do manufacturers typically give a ripple value? If so, what is 'acceptable'?

::: Greg

 

[SilverFox]

Hello Greg,

The better manufacturers will give you values for ripple and noise.

I am not sure what is acceptable, however my Schulze runs well on the Mastech HY3010E and it lists under ripple and noise in Constant Voltage mode it is less than 3 mV rms and when in Constant Current mode it is less than 10 mA rms. I don't think these are exceptional specifications, but I have seen a lot worse.

I believe these figures are the maximum amounts when the unit is running at 30 volts and 10 amps. I am running just under half that, so I believe the ripple and noise are also reduced.

My other Mastech power supply is the HY1803D. It lists ripple and noise as less than 1 mV rms.

Tom

 

[Aircraft800]

FilverFox,

Would it help to use a POWER LEAD FILTER? I use a PC Power supply to power my charger, but I was unaware of ripple and noise effecting the charge. Is there a way to measure ripple and noise? I'd like to see how much a PC Power Supply puts out, I would think it's kinda low considering it was used to power up delicate circuitry.

Thanks!

 

[havand]

Tom,

I just checked the specs on the supply I picked up...Not nearly as good as yours. Here are the specs:

DC Output Voltage 12V​

Tolerance ±1%​

Output Rated Current 12.5A​

Output Current Range 0~12.5A​

Ripple and Noise 120mVp-p​

Line Regulation ±0.3%​

Load Regulation ±0.3%​

DC Output Power 150W​

Efficiency 80%​

DC Voltage Adjustment 10.6-13.2V​

Input Voltage Range 88~132VAC or 178-264VAC (switch selectable)​

Input Frequency 47~63Hz​

AC Current 3.2A (115V) or 1.6A (230V)​

Inrush Current 30A (cold start)​

Overload Protection 105~150% (Re-Power On Holdback Current Shutdown Recovery)​

Over Voltage Protection 115%~135%​

Temperature Coefficient ±0.03% / °C (32~122°F)​

Setup/Rise/Holdup Time 100ms/50ms/20ms​

Vibration 10~500Hz:2G 2 axes 10min/1 cycle (1 hour/each axis)​

Withstand Voltage I/P-O/P:3KV, I/P-FG:1.5KV, O/P-FG:0.5KV 1 min.​

Operating Temperature 14°F~140°F @ 20%~90% rel. humidity​

Storage Temperature -4°F~176°F @ 10%-95% rel. humidity
Dimensions 7.83 x 4.33 x 1.97 in.​

My question would be, is it worse to run one of these higher end chargers (I have an ICE) off a slightly rippling power supply...or to use a DSD or equally crappy charger that most seem to? (ie, which is more dangerous and has a better chance of cooking batteries)

::: GReg

Hello Greg,

The better manufacturers will give you values for ripple and noise.

I am not sure what is acceptable, however my Schulze runs well on the Mastech HY3010E and it lists under ripple and noise in Constant Voltage mode it is less than 3 mV rms and when in Constant Current mode it is less than 10 mA rms. I don't think these are exceptional specifications, but I have seen a lot worse.

I believe these figures are the maximum amounts when the unit is running at 30 volts and 10 amps. I am running just under half that, so I believe the ripple and noise are also reduced.

My other Mastech power supply is the HY1803D. It lists ripple and noise as less than 1 mV rms.

Tom

 

[SilverFox]

Hello Greg,

I would suggest you save up and get a better power supply...

I am not sure how the ICE handles ripple. I know that Schulze will not warranty chargers that have been used with high ripple power supplies. This leads me to believe that the power supply can do some damage to the charger itself in addition to screwing up the end of charge termination signal.

Perhaps you can get a small battery and use it to filter out the ripple. Your power supply could be set to something like 12.5 - 13.0 volts and you could run the ICE off of the combination of power supply and 12 volt battery.

Tom

 

[LightBeing]

I got a high qualtiy Astron 12 volt power supply that is typically used for powering Ham Radio's and so on. I might sell that. It's 7 Amp continuous or I think 10 amp intermittent output - heavy heavy heat sinks.

 

[250]

This thread has started me to wonder about my current set-up. I pretty much have the same concerns as Aircraft800. I read threads about using a computer power supply to power my Triton (original) and by dumb luck found a junked computer in a neighbors trash soon after. Its been working fine as far as I can tell but now I am wondering.

I looked into testing ripple and noise with a DMM. I found this "To test for ripple, set a meter to read AC. Then connect a .1mfd (microfarad) capacitor to the red lead. With the power turned on, measure the DC voltage. Any ripple present will be displayed as AC voltage." Sounds easy enough but what is a microfara, are they cheap, and where do I get one? Sounds like a simple Radio Shack part but I may be wrong.

Also SilverFox wrote this "Perhaps you can get a small battery and use it to filter out the ripple. Your power supply could be set to something like 12.5 - 13.0 volts and you could run the ICE off of the combination of power supply and 12 volt battery." If you would run the two at the same time wouldn't the ripple just take the path of least resistance and go right from the power supply to the charger. I am assuming the power supply is on an the connections from the power supply an the charger are both on the battery lugs.

Lastly, an this depends on the answer to the previous paragraph, how much can a small motorcycle, lawn tractor, or smaller SLA battery handle if hooked up to the Triton without a switched on power supply. My charging is limited to AAA, AA, several sizes of LiIon, and 14.4 an 18 V battery packs. Only 2300 MAH rated capacity on the bigger batteries.

Thanks

 

[SilverFox]

Hello 250,

I believe most computer power supplies are reasonably ripple free, so you should be good to go. If you haven't had any termination issues and the Triton is still working, your set up should be OK.

Tom

 

[250]

Good to know, thanks.