hi i recently built a homemade battery with soda cans and copper tubing.
im sure most of you know what this simple contraption is.
im trying to get enough power to charge a 12 volt dc car battery.

im getting a reading of 13.8 volts from 16 soda cans but i cant seem to get any amperage .anyone know how i could increase my amperage without increasing my voltage beyond the point of charging car batteries.

sorry if i sound lame im tottaly new to this. any comments would be appreciated.

ps.just wanted thank those of you who share your wealth of knowledge
with all us newbies . YOU REALLY MAKE LIFE BETTER

 

Hello,

The current a battery can deliver is mainly determined by the area of the plates.

Take a look at the battery university for more information:
http://www.batteryuniversity.com/

This is a link from a EDUCYPEDIA page on batteries:
http://www.educypedia.be/electronics/componentbattery.htm

Greetings,
Bertus

 

thanks bertus i suspected it would be the size of the plates maybe i;ll construct an alluminum and copper plate capacitor wired in paralell tied into my series soda cans.think it would help? thanks again GOD I LOVE THIS SITE

 

hi i recently built a homemade battery with soda cans and copper tubing.
im sure most of you know what this simple contraption is.
im trying to get enough power to charge a 12 volt dc car battery.

im getting a reading of 13.8 volts from 16 soda cans but i cant seem to get any amperage .anyone know how i could increase my amperage without increasing my voltage beyond the point of charging car batteries.

Your home-made battery won't produce much current, I'm afraid. You would need to build a whole bunch of them and connect them in parallel.

 

Think hundreds of plates, in parallel. Sounds like you have the series part down already.

Car batteries plates are about 0.2" each, per pair. Think how many pair they have to do their job. They are also laid out in a grid to maximize surface area.

 

I don't know what you're using for an electrolyte, but placing those cans inside a leak-proof container is a good idea. It won't take too long for the cans to become full of holes from electrochemical action.

 

Might want to make sure the car battery isn't trying to charge your batteries as well, that could make a mess.

If you have an Ammeter, measure the short circuit current of your battery, depending on type of cans and electrolyte, I doubt it is over 1 Amp at 13.8V. No Ammeter, see if it will light a 12V/15W light bulb. If not, there isn't enough current.

Solar is about the best "free energy" for charging a car battery, but it takes quite a while unless a very large panel is used. Even with the "top off" charge, a high current "bulk charge" is needed periodically to circulate the electrolyte so dissolved components are reabsorbed.

 

thanks everyone for your input .i think i have enough info to carry on with the building of the capacitor wired in paralell . the project is contained in an old deep freeze its leak proof and offers lots of area for adding capacitors.
ps can;t tell ya how much i appreciste your input thanks on behalf of myself and many others.

god bless you all

 

In a deep freeze? You are aware, I hope, that any baterry with a water-based electrolyte will release some hydrogen when charging. You have not mentioned what electrolyte you are using. Aluminum by itself is also pretty reactive and can release hydrogen by just chemical reaction. So, you have two sources of hydrogen: electrolysis amd chemical.

Be careful.

John