Associated Battery charger model 6001

Thread Starter

Richard C

Joined Dec 20, 2008
10
Re:Associated Battery Charger model 6001 Greetings, I have the above charger. At the calipers I get a reading in AC Volts. The charger has a rectifier. I have never seen a bad rectifier that permits current flow. What do you think? should the rectifier be replaced? Should I be getting the reading in DC volts? Richard C

I had it on a very old battery on the charger for an hour and it seemed to take a small charge.
 

leftyretro

Joined Nov 25, 2008
395
Re:Associated Battery Charger model 6001 Greetings, I have the above charger. At the calipers I get a reading in AC Volts. The charger has a rectifier. I have never seen a bad rectifier that permits current flow. What do you think? should the rectifier be replaced? Should I be getting the reading in DC volts? Richard C

I had it on a very old battery on the charger for an hour and it seemed to take a small charge.
With out a schematic of the charge it's hard to say. If there is a single diode rectifier and no filter capacitor then a AC meter will read the pulsating DC as a AC voltage. Need to know more about the specific charge to say more about it.

Lefty
 

beenthere

Joined Apr 20, 2004
15,819
AC chargers like this typically use half wave rectified DC. There must be some magic in the misspelled circuit board where the control goes on.
 

Thread Starter

Richard C

Joined Dec 20, 2008
10
Greetings, Lefty was saying as you read pulsating DC would be read as AC. A half wave rectifier would cut of the bottom half of the wave, that would pulse I think.
I'ed like to check someones model 6001 with a meter. Maybe it is as it should be. My cheepy charger reads in DC Volts.
If anyone has a Associated Charger and can throw a meter on it to check if they are getting AC or DC Voltage at the calipers I would appreciate it.
 
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Thread Starter

Richard C

Joined Dec 20, 2008
10
Greetings, I talked to Chris at BATTERY SERVICES EQUIP,in Sacramento they repair these chargers it is as Lefty and a couple friends said: half wave rectifier will read AC volts. However when I contacted Associated, the maker of the charger, earlier I was told by their teck to "send it to them" " he doesn't know how it was possible to get an AC reading"
Chris who has repaired them for 35years confirmed AC is the reading I would/should get. Richard
 

leftyretro

Joined Nov 25, 2008
395
Greetings, I talked to Chris at BATTERY SERVICES EQUIP,in Sacramento they repair these chargers it is as Lefty and a couple friends said: half wave rectifier will read AC volts. However when I contacted Associated, the maker of the charger, earlier I was told by their teck to "send it to them" " he doesn't know how it was possible to get an AC reading"
Chris who has repaired them for 35years confirmed AC is the reading I would/should get. Richard
Richard:

Well looking over the drawing that you posted, it appears that this charger is using a full wave rectifier. They draw the diode assembly in a strange way but the fact that it's using a center tapped secondary winding and the center tap is wired to the battey negitive says that it has to be a dual diode. Now even a full wave rectifier with not filter capacitor will read some amount of AC voltage with a meter, and this is called the ripple voltage. Note also that there is a resistor that is wired to bypass one of the diodes and that is going to allow some amount of AC voltage to appear on the output terminals, so I think that your reading of some AC voltage on the output is normal for this model.

Now if one of the two diodes were the fail open then it would fall back to being half wave rectifier. Nothing wrong with either type of rectifier as it will still charge a battery. Maybe more can be told if you could tell us the amount of AC voltage your reading and DC voltage and what the readings are when hooked to a battery and again when not hooked to a battery. Is it too simple to ask, is the charger functional, does it charge a battery?

Lefty
 
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Thread Starter

Richard C

Joined Dec 20, 2008
10
Lefty, I get no DC reading. The AC reading is at the calipers. 13 1/2 volts charger set on 12 volt HI, 7 volts charger set on 6 volt HI. I haven't charged a battery fully yet. I live at 6700 ft in the Sierra Nevada mountains at the moment we are up to our amp meter in snow. I'll put the charger on the GMC and post the outcome. Battery Services Equipment is an authorised repair station, Chris knows the model I mentioned well, I talked to him on the phone. I think the person I was Emailing at Assoiciated didn't have it together. Richard
 

Thread Starter

Richard C

Joined Dec 20, 2008
10
Lefty, I charged the battery in the GMC. The battery was low enough that the horn just buzzed. I set the charger on 12 Volt LOW, AMP CHARGE on 2 [ the selection on Amp Charge is: low, 2, 3, and High] for 2 hours. This brought the battery up to 3/4 charge. I rotated the AMP CHARGE dial and took a reading with my meter using the clamp as was told by the charger repair fellow. On low the reading was 1.6 amps, on 2 it was 2.8 amps, on 3 it was 4.9 amps. on high the reading was 7.9 amps. I didn't try it on 12 volt High. I'll let it sit over night and connect the ground lead and try to start the van. Seems like it works. The Amp meter is 1-100 amps so it was not easy to read two or three amps. Thankyou for the help. Richard
 
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