I'm trying to find a stabalizer circuit for the house battery.
Someone (probably Larry?) a while back mentioned a device that could
take a wide range of input voltages and supply a reliable and smooth 12
VDC.

Any ideas?

Richard

In article ,
cavelamb himself wrote:

I'm trying to find a stabalizer circuit for the house battery.
Someone (probably Larry?) a while back mentioned a device that could
take a wide range of input voltages and supply a reliable and smooth 12
VDC.

Any ideas?

Richard

It really depends on how big the Load is. I use a bunch of 3 - 18 Vdc
Input, 12 Vdc Output Switching Power Supply Blocks, to run Network
Switches and Hubs, in my MicroISP Business, supplying IP Service out
here in the Alaskan Bush. I can feed any DC Voltage up the POE (Power
over Ethernet) wire as long as the Input to the Remote Power Supplies
is within the 3-18 Vdc range of the Input. These Power Supplies can
be had in various sizes from 1 -20 Watts. The price rises as the
Power goes up. My 5 Watt ones are in the $10US price Range.

--
Bruce in alaska
add path after fast to reply

Bruce in alaska wrote:

In article ,
cavelamb himself wrote:


I'm trying to find a stabalizer circuit for the house battery.
Someone (probably Larry?) a while back mentioned a device that could
take a wide range of input voltages and supply a reliable and smooth 12
VDC.

Any ideas?

Richard


It really depends on how big the Load is. I use a bunch of 3 - 18 Vdc
Input, 12 Vdc Output Switching Power Supply Blocks, to run Network
Switches and Hubs, in my MicroISP Business, supplying IP Service out
here in the Alaskan Bush. I can feed any DC Voltage up the POE (Power
over Ethernet) wire as long as the Input to the Remote Power Supplies
is within the 3-18 Vdc range of the Input. These Power Supplies can
be had in various sizes from 1 -20 Watts. The price rises as the
Power goes up. My 5 Watt ones are in the $10US price Range.


Thanks Bruce,

Not a heavy load, a couple of amps, but voltage sensitive.

Have you a name for this supply I can Google?

Richard

--
(remove the X to email)

Now just why the HELL do I have to press 1 for English?
John Wayne

In article ,
cavelamb himself wrote:

Thanks Bruce,

Not a heavy load, a couple of amps, but voltage sensitive.

Have you a name for this supply I can Google?

Richard

--
(remove the X to email)

Now just why the HELL do I have to press 1 for English?
John Wayne

Look up DC/DC Switching converters in ANY of the big Electronics
Warehouse Outfits, like Mouser, DigiKey, Jamesco, Allied, etc.

--
Bruce in alaska
add path after fast to reply

cavelamb himself wrote in
m:

I'm trying to find a stabalizer circuit for the house battery.
Someone (probably Larry?) a while back mentioned a device that could
take a wide range of input voltages and supply a reliable and smooth
12
VDC.

Any ideas?

Richard


Totally unnecessary. Any voltage from 10-18VDC will run any electronics
made for boats.

If you want to make it smoother, take all the connections apart, wire
brush them to a nice shine then put them all back together and spray
some battery post protector on them.

What you're talking about is a voltage regulator. The only problem is
you'd have to have a much higher voltage to start out with than a
standard battery. The regulators need "overhead" voltage, unless
there's some kind of switching power supply, which I do NOT recommend
because switchers make a lot of RF noise to tear up your VHF and SSB
radios!

The battery is a natural regulator and holds its voltage quite steady at
the posts. The voltage drops you see are caused by light wiring,
corroded breakers, corroded contacts and wires.

by the way....to find where a corroded contact is is quite easy with a
simple voltmeter. Load the circuit to full load. Put the meter ACROSS
each connection and breaker. If the connection is perfect, you read no
voltage. A corroded connector has a voltage drop you can measure UNDER
LOAD CURRENT....narrows down where it is.

wrote in news
Not true. I have a spare depth sounder (a cheap Humminbird fish
finder) that goes berserk at anything over about 15 volts. Keeping the
input voltage to all those other, more expensive instruments
controlled at 12 volts lets them run at lower temps, which in
electronics, equals longer life and greater reliability.



It is impossible to put 15 VDC across a normally-charging, functional on
all cells, lead acid 6-cell battery.

If there is 15V on that battery you are WAY overcharging it or have
corroded battery terminals causing series resistance the charging current
is flowing through. This is not a problem bacause a NORMAL alternator with
a working regulator will simply cut the current back, as it folds over the
voltage at its 14.2VDC setting.

Your fishfinder is going berserk because the regulator has lost control of
your alternator's charging and is charging a battery with high internal
resistance caused by a dead cell, probably, to create pulsating DC across
the bad battery....that whining sound in your car stereo is caused by it.
Now with several volts peak of pulsating DC riding on top of the battery
voltage, the pulses are causing havoc in the sonar's digital circuits.
They expect it to be running on SMOOTH DC....

look at:http://www.logicsupply.com/products/m2_atx
I use them to run my cpu, monitor and TV.


Hanz


wrote:
On Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:31:17 +0000, Larry wrote:


wrote in news

Not true. I have a spare depth sounder (a cheap Humminbird fish
finder) that goes berserk at anything over about 15 volts. Keeping the
input voltage to all those other, more expensive instruments
controlled at 12 volts lets them run at lower temps, which in
electronics, equals longer life and greater reliability.



It is impossible to put 15 VDC across a normally-charging, functional on
all cells, lead acid 6-cell battery.

If there is 15V on that battery you are WAY overcharging it or have
corroded battery terminals causing series resistance the charging current
is flowing through. This is not a problem bacause a NORMAL alternator with
a working regulator will simply cut the current back, as it folds over the
voltage at its 14.2VDC setting.

Your fishfinder is going berserk because the regulator has lost control of
your alternator's charging and is charging a battery with high internal
resistance caused by a dead cell, probably, to create pulsating DC across
the bad battery....that whining sound in your car stereo is caused by it.
Now with several volts peak of pulsating DC riding on top of the battery
voltage, the pulses are causing havoc in the sonar's digital circuits.
They expect it to be running on SMOOTH DC....


See, you really don't know as much as you think. You said any marine electronic
device can run on 10-18 volts, which is simply WRONG. My charging source is the
alternator built into a 9.9 hp outboard. Regulation is more or less
non-existent. When voltage gets up around 15 volts, I turn on some cabin lights
to bring it back down.

Sorry Larry you are only half right on that one. While you are correct that
a properly installed and adjusted charging system will never see anything
higher than 15V many things go schitzo when they see more than 13.5 to 14V.
Even 12V nominal halogen bulbs will loose much of their expected life if run
at battery charging voltages. Some "smart" regulators even have a "halogen
protection" setting that limit charging voltage expressly for that purpose.

The solution for sensitive electronics is a DC/DC converter. I have
installed three on Rutu. One supplies the halogen navigation lights, one is
set to 13.2 for the radios and the third also set to 13.2V is available for
what ever else needs regulated power. Unlike normal voltage regulators that
control voltage by generating heat DC/DC converters, while not perfect, are
far more efficient.

The down side is that the cheap ones can put out harmonics that show up on
HF and SSB bands so they need to be well shielded and have ferrites on all
leads.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

"Larry" wrote

Totally unnecessary. Any voltage from 10-18VDC will run any electronics
made for boats.

If you want to make it smoother, take all the connections apart, wire
brush them to a nice shine then put them all back together and spray
some battery post protector on them.

What you're talking about is a voltage regulator. The only problem is
you'd have to have a much higher voltage to start out with than a
standard battery. The regulators need "overhead" voltage, unless
there's some kind of switching power supply, which I do NOT recommend
because switchers make a lot of RF noise to tear up your VHF and SSB
radios!

The battery is a natural regulator and holds its voltage quite steady at
the posts. The voltage drops you see are caused by light wiring,
corroded breakers, corroded contacts and wires.

by the way....to find where a corroded contact is is quite easy with a
simple voltmeter. Load the circuit to full load. Put the meter ACROSS
each connection and breaker. If the connection is perfect, you read no
voltage. A corroded connector has a voltage drop you can measure UNDER
LOAD CURRENT....narrows down where it is.

Glenn Ashmore wrote:

Sorry Larry you are only half right on that one. While you are correct that
a properly installed and adjusted charging system will never see anything
higher than 15V many things go schitzo when they see more than 13.5 to 14V.
Even 12V nominal halogen bulbs will loose much of their expected life if run
at battery charging voltages. Some "smart" regulators even have a "halogen
protection" setting that limit charging voltage expressly for that purpose.

The solution for sensitive electronics is a DC/DC converter. I have
installed three on Rutu. One supplies the halogen navigation lights, one is
set to 13.2 for the radios and the third also set to 13.2V is available for
what ever else needs regulated power. Unlike normal voltage regulators that
control voltage by generating heat DC/DC converters, while not perfect, are
far more efficient.

The down side is that the cheap ones can put out harmonics that show up on
HF and SSB bands so they need to be well shielded and have ferrites on all
leads.



What brand of DC-DC converters are you using?

At the moment I need to cover:

1) Laptop, Flat Monitor, several USB hard drives.

2) DVD player and flat screen TV

And I'm wondering if the rest of the stuff should be treated likewise?
VHF, GPC, Autopilot, etc?


Someone here had a good recomendation a year or so back.
HP computer supply or some such thing that could be found on Ebay.


Richard

Geoff Schultz wrote:

cavelamb himself wrote in
m:


Someone here had a good recomendation a year or so back.
HP computer supply or some such thing that could be found on Ebay.


Richard


You're looking for a HP F1064A

-- Geoff
www.GeoffSchultz.org


Yes!

Thanks Geoff!

Richard