Hi all,
I'm very new to electronics, please forgive me if what I'm asking is a silly question. I have tried searching for an answer but as I don't really know what I'm doing I could be searching for totally the wrong thing and not been able to find anything.
The people I work with have asked me to come up with a system that will run some motors off a battery if power is lost. An example might be a electric gate that automatically opens when the power goes out.
With my limited knowledge I was able to make this system fairly easy. My main background is as a programmer, so I used an atmega328p and had the power going directly to a input pin. I could do a check against that pin to see if the power went out, if it did I would use a hbridge to control the motor which would run of the battery. This all works fine, tested it and had no problems with it.
The problem I now I have though, is I need to keep the battery charged. The battery would be lucky to be used once every year or 2 (how ever often there is a blackout).
The system itself will be running off an 18v AC power, so using an if the shelf charger is not an option. They also want it to fit nicely inside a project box which would not be possible with off the shelf charging packs either.
I know you need to adjust voltage and current to ensure batteries don't over charge or get damaged. Making something like this is well beyond my knowledge, I searched for any ICs that can do it, but everything I found was for small batteries, to small for my usage anyways.
So I guess my long winded question is, does anyone know of an easy way to keep a battery charged long term for emergency back up use. If there is some sort of IC I could look into, or maybe if there is a way to pass in the minimal voltage / current to charge it over a long period of time that won't damage the battery.
I'm not really limited to the battery I use, I'm open to suggestions as to what would last the longest for this period of time and be the easiest to work with / charge. I'm currently using this
https://www.jaycar.com.au/12v-7-2ah-sla-battery-nbn-back-up-battery/p/SB2486
But can really get away with anything that will fit into a project box. The battery itself is used sparingly. When it used it's about 3amps being drawn for just under a minute.
Hope I've been able to explain things enough to make sense. An appreciate any help anyone may be able to offer me with this!
I'm very new to electronics, please forgive me if what I'm asking is a silly question. I have tried searching for an answer but as I don't really know what I'm doing I could be searching for totally the wrong thing and not been able to find anything.
The people I work with have asked me to come up with a system that will run some motors off a battery if power is lost. An example might be a electric gate that automatically opens when the power goes out.
With my limited knowledge I was able to make this system fairly easy. My main background is as a programmer, so I used an atmega328p and had the power going directly to a input pin. I could do a check against that pin to see if the power went out, if it did I would use a hbridge to control the motor which would run of the battery. This all works fine, tested it and had no problems with it.
The problem I now I have though, is I need to keep the battery charged. The battery would be lucky to be used once every year or 2 (how ever often there is a blackout).
The system itself will be running off an 18v AC power, so using an if the shelf charger is not an option. They also want it to fit nicely inside a project box which would not be possible with off the shelf charging packs either.
I know you need to adjust voltage and current to ensure batteries don't over charge or get damaged. Making something like this is well beyond my knowledge, I searched for any ICs that can do it, but everything I found was for small batteries, to small for my usage anyways.
So I guess my long winded question is, does anyone know of an easy way to keep a battery charged long term for emergency back up use. If there is some sort of IC I could look into, or maybe if there is a way to pass in the minimal voltage / current to charge it over a long period of time that won't damage the battery.
I'm not really limited to the battery I use, I'm open to suggestions as to what would last the longest for this period of time and be the easiest to work with / charge. I'm currently using this
https://www.jaycar.com.au/12v-7-2ah-sla-battery-nbn-back-up-battery/p/SB2486
But can really get away with anything that will fit into a project box. The battery itself is used sparingly. When it used it's about 3amps being drawn for just under a minute.
Hope I've been able to explain things enough to make sense. An appreciate any help anyone may be able to offer me with this!