small, simple 48 volt battery charger for lead acid batteries

 

I'm disabled, don't drive a car - but I have a 48 volt electric scooter
that I use to get around town - it's just great. It runs on 4 12 volt
lead acid batteries. I have a nice charger for when I"m home - but need
to build a durable, simple, small one to take with me, on the scooter,
for long trips...
Does anyone have any schematics or plans that come to mind that that
you can share or that you could point me toward? A quick steady charge
for a [near] full charge on a return trip...
Thanks alot - happy building...
Jerry

 

How about a 60V PV panel and an MPPT controller?

 


yeswedeliver wrote:

Hi, Jerry.  Sorry to say, a home-brew charger cobbled together from
advice on the internets probably isn't a good idea.  Here's a link from
a European supplier of portable wheelchair rechargers that goes into a
little non-technical detail on what you'd have to look at if you were
going to make one of these:

http://www.ladac.no/dbLadac/brosj/MF026UK.pdf

You can smoke your batteries or the drive electronics if this is done
wrong.  The potential cost of getting stuck and having to arrange
emergency repairs while you're away from home far exceeds any potential
cost savings.

A paraplegic friend of mine has a secondary market portable switching
power supply charger which works well for her (she does drive, and can
take it with her), and might be small enough to carry under the chair
itself.  But making one is definitely not hobbyist level work.

Cheers
Chris

 


yeswedeliver wrote:

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2006/5/8/6559/50626
This guy uses a dimmer.
If you have experience doing this sort of thing, you might try it.
If you don't have experience, you are just going to ruin your
batteries, injure yourself.

 


kell wrote:

This link is hilarious.  Thanks for the humor.

I particularly like how he's got it set up on a board on the grass,
with strategically placed cinder blocks and prefab shed in the
background.

Best quote: "My big problem is seeing through my cheap helmet. I am
going to get those solar powered helmets that auto darken."

The only things missing from the page are a tailless one-eyed hound dog
and a Pontiac Trans-Am on the cinder blocks.

Needless to say, the charging method shown in the post is, if not
suicidal, definitely insane.

If I were on a desert island, it was a life-or-death situation, there
were no other way, I had good eye and face protection and a nearby
tidal pool to jump into to wash off the acid after the battery
explosion, and I was guaranteed I'd never have to use the batteries for
anything again whether it worked or not, I might try it, but I'd think
'er over, first.  And ask the hound dog.

Cheers, and thanks again for the laugh, Kell.  You made my morning.

Chris