[aprssig] Charge controllers

[Phillip B. Pacier]

Well, I have not bought an Astron yet.  I'm currently using what I 
thought was a good battery charger, with amperage capability above and 
beyond the transmit draw of the radio, but it keeps failing.  Also, when 
the A/C power is restored, the charger needs to be turned on.  That just 
wont work!

73
Phil - AD6NH

Jim Lux wrote:

>I'm using an EchoCharger to charge a deepcycle battery from the car
>electrical system, which is a similar application.  You want to charge the
>battery, but only when the engine is running, and you don't want to
>discharge the deep cycle back into the car's electrical system, AND, you
>want a "real" battery charger with all the steps and tiers to improve
>battery life.  They run around $100.
>
>There are a lot of this sort of thing for RVs, as well.
>
>But why use the Astron at all.  I suspect you could buy a good battery
>charger, designed for this sort of application, for less than price of a
>Astron and a charge controller together.  It's not an unusual application to
>want to float charge a big battery while also supplying the load current.
>The "real deal" usually has a separate wire to the battery and to the load,
>so that it can distinguish between the two.  If you don't worry about last
>percent of efficiency, etc., you could probably also cobble up something
>with a couple Schottky diodes to OR the output of the Astron and the
>battery, and then get an inexpensive float charger for the battery. Set the
>Astron voltage slightly higher than the battery charge voltage, and all the
>current will be drawn from the Astron, because the battery's diode will be
>reverse biased.
>
>
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