EVDL Administrator via EV wrote: Lee Hart via EV wrote:
I had a 1980 C-car. Its charger was pretty crude, but it was a little more than this... http://www.evdl.org/docs/c_car_charger.jpg
Yep; that's it! :-) This circuit is in my 1973 GE SCR manual, and goes back even further than that (GE Application Note 200.33)
Notice no current control of any kind. No shutoff timer. It simply keeps reducing the on-time as the voltage approaches the set-point. But it just keeps charging forever; it never turns off or switches to a lower "float" voltage. It would be death to lithiums.
I don't recall the hysterisis.
There isn't any.
As the battery approaches full, the duty cycle gets very short, eventually reaching a second or less.
Agreed. Nevertheless, it still keeps switching back on every minute or so, to charge some more.
It's a nice simple cheap charger, suitable for flooded lead-acid batteries. But it would be bad for AGMs, and especially bad for lithiums.
As for the need for a BMS, we don't know anything about Gail's "adoptee," but I would caution against assuming that he can (or wants to) invest significant amounts of time in EV maintenance. We want this person to have a good experience with his C-car.
Absolutely! C-cars are crude little vehicles, but are still a great set of "training wheels" and can be a lot of fun. There are lots of things 'broken', but everything is easy to fix if you're even slightly mechanically inclined.
The average person just wants to drive the car, not babysit it. The era of regular automotive self maintenance is just about over.
Aye, and that's the rub. Unless Gail knows the buyer very well (and the buyer knows *himself* pretty well), we don't want him to steer him in over his head, into something he can't afford and can't fix.
Few auto owners pop the hood weekly or even monthly. Many never open it at all.
Part of the problem is that cars have become so complicated that they "scare away" people, even those who want to do their own maintenance. In this respect, the ComutaCar is a breath of fresh air. It's easier to work on than an old VW Beetle, or even the old Ford model T!
-- The greatest pleasure in life is to create something that wasn't there before. -- Roy Spence -- Lee Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, www.sunrise-ev.com _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
