HELP With Step-Down Transformer and Converter

No.

The 12 volt battery I was referring to is *made* of 6 pcs of 2 volt cylindrical lead acid gel cells. I think it may be easier to find a 12 volt battery of 6 cells than to find the individual 2 volt cells.

If you use a shunt + millivoltmeter, then for the AC setup the millivoltmeter must be AC responding; for the DC setup the millivoltmeter would have to be DC responding. This millivoltmeter could be a hand-held DVM, such as a "Fluke" meter.

If you want a self-contained ammeter (no shunt, in other words), it would be the clamp-on type, and those are pretty much all AC responding.

This would be for the AC setup (on the primary of the transformer); for the DC setup the breaker(s) will also serve as the safety disconnect.

This would be for the AC (3000 amp) setup. For the DC setup, you might want a

1000 amp shunt. If you can live with the reduced resolution, you *could* use a 5000 amp shunt in your DC setup; just switch the millivoltmeter from AC responding to DC responding.

This could be a hand-held DVM, such as those made by Fluke, or any other similar unit.

Or three 250 amp breakers in parallel, or some other combination that adds up to 750 amps (all the same, of course), if you can't find a 750 amp breaker.

The individual 2 volt units are properly referred to as "cells"; when you connect a number of them together, you have a battery (of cells). The 12 volt battery is properly referred to as a battery of 2 volt cells, so the connection is AC outlet>>>>charger>>>Cell #1>>>Cell #2>>>etc.>>>Cell #6. If you got the cells already wired up as a 12 volt battery, you just rewire it that way to charge.

The breaker *is* the switch. The shunt is in series after the breaker and the millivoltmeter is connected to the small screws on each side of the shunt--the meter connection points. Like this:

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _Cir.Breaker_ _Shunt_ _ | | | | | Cell#1 Cell#2 Cell#3..........Cell#6 | |_ _ _ _ _ |_ _ _ _ _|_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _|_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _|

The piece of wire that conpletes the connection from the right side of the shunt and comes back to the bottom connection to the 6 cells is what determines how much current there will be. That's the piece that I said should be about 8 feet of 2/0 (that's pronounced "two aught") cable.

If you get a 12 volt battery made of Gates cylindrical cells, the "wires" that connect the cells together will be straps of plated copper. They will be very easy to get at. If you get a 12 volt battery with a "rectangular" shape, the individual cells will not be accessible without destroying the battery. The individual Gates cells are readily visible and accessible in the type of battery I'm recommending. To wire th cells in parallel you need to use very heavy copper conductors. You could get copper tubing at the hardware store, say 3/8" and cut off appropriate lengths, flatten the ends with a hammer and drill holes to connect to the cells.

Right. But the 2 volt cell voltage will drop when they are shorted. I don't know exactly how much, but the voltage will drop more or less linearly along the length of the cable. For some length the voltage drop will be .9 to 1.5 volts.

Well, it would be pulsed DC all right!

I'm going to try to email you. If the email address in the header isn't going to reach you, can you post one that works? You could always go get a throw-away hot mail or yahoo account for this purpose. If you post a real email address that you don't want to get spammed, don't forget to disguise it, say with alternate spaces between letters or some such.

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