To busbar or not to busbar

[Sunking]

Thank you for the insight and your time, both are valuable.

You are more than welcome. I live just south of you about 4500 milke in Panama. Cold as hell here today at 70 degrees. Burrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Good Luck.

[PNjunction]

PNjunction, The batts will be indoors but excellent point. Would you have a recommendation on an AC charger? Thank you for the advice.

Whoa - you *already* have 4 of them? Since they are Concorde's, I'd be willing to take a chance on them to find out.

The simplest measure would be to use a 5A Tecmate-Optimate 6 charger on it. But not as your sole charger. The Optimate 6 will balance the cells without having to go the high-voltage route, and most importantly TEST them, to give you an indication of where you stand with them. If they haven't been abused but just floated properly for 3 years, then you might be golden for now. Or they may be trash. The Optimate will let you know.

Thing is, at 5A, and if they are pretty heavily discharged, you'll be burning fuel genny just to find out - especially for the long term test which takes 12 hours at least. You might be able to just go by the 30-minute post-charge test. If you have a place with AC available for some reason, you could test them out there of course.

For bulk charging, I like the Samlex line, but the Samlex / Cotek, like the CX1225 looks pretty good, since voltages (14.4 / 14.7) are user-adjustable, and a temperature sensor is an option, which I recommend. Even so, if you are comfortable indoors, and they are also, you might get by without it. Not that I prefer that, but sometimes that is what you have to do. Of course as Sunking mentioned, the local marine guys might have some good chargers.

Still, at the very least, I'd put the Optimate 6 on it, for diagnostics and the ability to equalize cells without having to nuts if you don't have the skill / time for doing an EQ manually - which ONLY Concorde seems to allow.

If those batteries turn out to be good, also consider that you could just have "hot swaps / standby's available, while using just one battery at a time.

So instead of getting too far ahead of things, put an Optimate 6 on them, and see where you stand. We'll move forward, or you'll just have some nice core-exchange material.

[Gpearston]

You are more than welcome. I live just south of you about 4500 milke in Panama. Cold as hell here today at 70 degrees. Burrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Good Luck.

70, I wondered where all the heat went. Did some work in Mexico but never made it as far south as Panama. You ever deal with a telecom called New Global? Used to run their VoIP ops. Did a lot of over the border minutes. The old cays...

Take care and stay warm

[Gpearston]

Whoa - you *already* have 4 of them? Since they are Concorde's, I'd be willing to take a chance on them to find out.

The simplest measure would be to use a 5A Tecmate-Optimate 6 charger on it. But not as your sole charger. The Optimate 6 will balance the cells without having to go the high-voltage route, and most importantly TEST them, to give you an indication of where you stand with them. If they haven't been abused but just floated properly for 3 years, then you might be golden for now. Or they may be trash. The Optimate will let you know.

Thing is, at 5A, and if they are pretty heavily discharged, you'll be burning fuel genny just to find out - especially for the long term test which takes 12 hours at least. You might be able to just go by the 30-minute post-charge test. If you have a place with AC available for some reason, you could test them out there of course.

For bulk charging, I like the Samlex line, but the Samlex / Cotek, like the CX1225 looks pretty good, since voltages (14.4 / 14.7) are user-adjustable, and a temperature sensor is an option, which I recommend. Even so, if you are comfortable indoors, and they are also, you might get by without it. Not that I prefer that, but sometimes that is what you have to do. Of course as Sunking mentioned, the local marine guys might have some good chargers.

Still, at the very least, I'd put the Optimate 6 on it, for diagnostics and the ability to equalize cells without having to nuts if you don't have the skill / time for doing an EQ manually - which ONLY Concorde seems to allow.

If those batteries turn out to be good, also consider that you could just have "hot swaps / standby's available, while using just one battery at a time.

So instead of getting too far ahead of things, put an Optimate 6 on them, and see where you stand. We'll move forward, or you'll just have some nice core-exchange material.

Thank you, both of those recommendations sound interesting. I had not come across the CX 1225 before. How is it on RF generation? Not a show stopper just want to know. My primary source of entertainment is the radio (AM no less).

[Sunking]

You ever deal with a telecom called New Global? Used to run their VoIP ops.

No done a little work on the side for Movil and Digicel here Panama, and a rai bit of work for Digicel and Lime in Jamaica a few years back. Pretty much retired now days doing a little work for the government in Panama electric utility. They do not let many Expats work in Panama to protect the local population. Pretty much have to be a contractor to work in Panama with a special skill or profession. Wife is a Doctor and she works part time for peanuts in the public sector, and engineers can find work easily down here as a contractor. I retired after 35 years or so working in the USA.