[BC] makeshift battery charger at TX site

[Donald Chester]

> From: wpio-fm <wpio at gate.net>

> Aside from the long windedness of this story, did I do what you guys
> would have done to make a field-fix battery charger? Was I on the right
> track to use just one diode stack, or say, could I have series'd three
> or four of them, eliminated the series 100 watt lamps and gotten more
> current going without going too high on the charge voltage?

I have done that many times, the makeshift trickle  charger. I think your problem was that it would have taken several hours or overnight to fully charge the battery. 

One 100-watt lamp would have been enough. Two bulbs probably limited the charging rate too much; with one lamp it might have charged just enough to start the engine if it had fired right away. You only want it to act as a current limiting resistor enough to avoid damaging anything. A 100-watt bulb across the full 120 volts would still pull less than 1 amp, but the current is limited further by the half wave rectification, plus subtracting the battery voltage, so you had no reason to worry. I made mine with one standard 600 piv 1A diode, a 100-watt light bulb and some clip leads. Later, I wired up a "permanent" version, using 4 diodes in a bridge rectifier circuit to get a better charging rate, with everything solidly mounted on a piece of perf board. Kept it handy and used it many times when a battery or charging system would get cantankerous and I needed a quick fix.

Don