Help on lead acid battery Charger Transformer

Thread Starter

piniiii

Joined Oct 30, 2019
20
Hi all, Someone took an old battery Charger i have and managed to burn the primary winding of the Transformer. This happened a while ago, but i want to restore the Charger and this si the most difficult part.
I want to know any possible way of rewind the Transformer. The Charger has kind of a "selection switch" that activates different windings on the primary of the Transformer so You low or Boost the voltage in order to Charge battery of different capacity, all those windings are gone.
Any tough on this? Can i make only one primary winding that would give me around 14 volts and then with a triac or something on the primary Boost or lower them?
(It's a really old vintage Charger)
Thanks to you all and sorry for my bad English
 

MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,704
You need to provide us with more information.
1) What type of battery are you charging? Car battery? Sealed lead acid battery?
2) What is the charge capacity of the battery? for example 8Ah?
3) Show us a photo of the battery.
4) What is the current capacity of the charger?
5) Show us a photo of the charger and perhaps the label on the charger.
 

Thread Starter

piniiii

Joined Oct 30, 2019
20
You need to provide us with more information.
1) What type of battery are you charging? Car battery? Sealed lead acid battery?
2) What is the charge capacity of the battery? for example 8Ah?
3) Show us a photo of the battery.
4) What is the current capacity of the charger?
5) Show us a photo of the charger and perhaps the label on the charger.

Hi how are You, i work on cars and agro so expect all kind of battery between 45ah to 200ah, the current capacity of the Charger/starter was "350 amp" but i don't know if that is true. Will post photos soon
 

LowQCab

Joined Nov 6, 2012
4,022
Quite often, old Battery-Chargers are extremely crude devices.
It's very expensive to create a "proper" and relatively efficient Transformer,
so they cut corners like nothing You could imagine.

It amazes me that some of them actually work as well as they do.

Something that You may want to keep in mind is that EVERYTHING is now
equipped with Computers, which may, or may not, be able to withstand
the "Dirty-Power" and tremendous Voltage-Ripple that
these old Chargers blast into the Battery that they are connected to.

The Battery can usually take the abuse,
the rest of the Electronics ......... maybe not.

Your Transformer was probably wound with Aluminum-Wire, Bad, Bad, Bad.
Your Transformer's Laminated Core is probably a very "lossy" design that creates
a tremendous amount of Heat, and is grossly inefficient, on purpose.
This is because High-Current-Voltage-Regulators are very expensive.

You would be better-off if You would mount a Car-Alternator to a piece of wood,
and mount a 5-Horsepower Gas-Engine next to it,
with a ~6-inch Belt-Pulley on the Engine.
This will give You a well regulated ~14.5-Volts,
with Amperage determined by your choice of Alternator Model.
I recommend the Big 100-Amp Truck Alternators from General-Motors.
If You want more Current than that, you'll have to get a more powerful Engine,
and a Custom 200-Amp Alternator from Mechman.
.
.
.
 

Thread Starter

piniiii

Joined Oct 30, 2019
20
Yep this thing its the same bad thing you talk about. Anyway i was trying to kind of restore it because here where i live they are expensive like hell. I got a cheap "Smart" one a week ago and it is no good on charging high amp batteries. Anyway i like they idea of the alternator and i have a couple of them lying aroud so i guess that would be a better choice than this old rusty Transformer. Thanks a lot
 

LowQCab

Joined Nov 6, 2012
4,022
It's noisy, but if You take the time to build it right it's a valuable Tool around any Shop.
And it doesn't have to be plugged-in, it can be easily taken out on the Road.
.
.
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Thread Starter

piniiii

Joined Oct 30, 2019
20
Yeah i was thinking about how practical it is and also sometimes when i need to test or repair alternators and it would be really handy, thanks you for the idea. Also a brand new 6.5 HP engine here are really cheap
 

LowQCab

Joined Nov 6, 2012
4,022
Remember that to get the most out of the Alternator,
You need to spin it as fast as possible,
so make the Engine Pulley as large as is practical.
~8-Inches is probably ideal.

You can turn down the Charging Current by simply letting the Engine idle.
.
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.
 
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