Lead acid battery Problems

Martin Burnard · June 11th, 2008, 10:17 PM

Proteus 3 10W HID

Problems.
1/ Battery on charge.... Red LED no longer goes out to show full charge.
2/ Battery on charge for 24 hours. 48 hours later light will not fire.
3/ Battery on charge for 24 hours. Place torch in the bath, as of writing this it has been on for 3 hours!!!

Back up battery charges as normal, hence discounted the faultas being in the charger.

Any ideas why battery is not holding but burning for so long?

Martin Burnard · June 11th, 2008, 11:02 PM

Just gone out!

3 hours 45 minutes of continuos burn.

MacTheFish · June 11th, 2008, 11:08 PM

Recharge the batteries.
Take a voltimeter and check the voltage in regular perioids of time.
You can then draw a graph of the voltage in time.

I have seen a website describing voltage problems and explaining
what actually is broken.

Will look for it

Mac

Martin Burnard · June 11th, 2008, 11:17 PM

Thanks.

se2schul · June 12th, 2008, 04:38 PM

I'd think that step one would be using a multimeter to determine if this is in fact a battery problem. It could very well be the connection to the charger.

If the charger connection passes the test, you will want to use a multimeter to check various things like the resistence over the connectors and wires on the battery. If any part has too much resistence, it could cause problems like you're seeing. If your battery pack is made up of 2 SLA's wired together, look at the solder joints and connection points for corrosion or poor connections.

After that, you'll want to use the multimeter to monitor the charging process. After the charging process, you want to use the multimeter to check the voltage of the battery when it's resting and when it's under load.

If you're methodical about it, diagnosing light problems is usually straightforward.

Hope that helps.
Steve

Martin Burnard · June 12th, 2008, 06:14 PM

Thanks

I have been having a good look at the wires on the battery, and can see a split in the insulation of the black one, using a hand lens I can see that the wires are grey (therefore corroded) so this may be the route of my problem.

June 11th, 2008, 10:17 PM	#1 (permalink)
Martin Burnard(Offline) New Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Plymouth, UK Posts: 580	Lead acid battery Problems Proteus 3 10W HID Problems. 1/ Battery on charge.... Red LED no longer goes out to show full charge. 2/ Battery on charge for 24 hours. 48 hours later light will not fire. 3/ Battery on charge for 24 hours. Place torch in the bath, as of writing this it has been on for 3 hours!!! Back up battery charges as normal, hence discounted the faultas being in the charger. Any ideas why battery is not holding but burning for so long? __________________ I once enjoyed a sado-masachistic frenzy of total tintintabulation leading to a state of metampsychosis... or did I make that up? www.bananafrogcars.co.uk

June 11th, 2008, 11:02 PM	#2 (permalink)
Martin Burnard(Offline) New Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Plymouth, UK Posts: 580	Just gone out! 3 hours 45 minutes of continuos burn. __________________ I once enjoyed a sado-masachistic frenzy of total tintintabulation leading to a state of metampsychosis... or did I make that up? www.bananafrogcars.co.uk

June 11th, 2008, 11:17 PM	#4 (permalink)
Martin Burnard(Offline) New Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Plymouth, UK Posts: 580	Thanks. __________________ I once enjoyed a sado-masachistic frenzy of total tintintabulation leading to a state of metampsychosis... or did I make that up? www.bananafrogcars.co.uk

June 12th, 2008, 04:38 PM	#5 (permalink)
se2schul(Offline) New Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Ottawa, Canada Posts: 69	I'd think that step one would be using a multimeter to determine if this is in fact a battery problem. It could very well be the connection to the charger. If the charger connection passes the test, you will want to use a multimeter to check various things like the resistence over the connectors and wires on the battery. If any part has too much resistence, it could cause problems like you're seeing. If your battery pack is made up of 2 SLA's wired together, look at the solder joints and connection points for corrosion or poor connections. After that, you'll want to use the multimeter to monitor the charging process. After the charging process, you want to use the multimeter to check the voltage of the battery when it's resting and when it's under load. If you're methodical about it, diagnosing light problems is usually straightforward. Hope that helps. Steve Last edited by se2schul; June 12th, 2008 at 05:16 PM.

June 12th, 2008, 06:14 PM	#6 (permalink)
Martin Burnard(Offline) New Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Plymouth, UK Posts: 580	Thanks I have been having a good look at the wires on the battery, and can see a split in the insulation of the black one, using a hand lens I can see that the wires are grey (therefore corroded) so this may be the route of my problem. __________________ I once enjoyed a sado-masachistic frenzy of total tintintabulation leading to a state of metampsychosis... or did I make that up? www.bananafrogcars.co.uk

June 11th, 2008, 11:08 PM	#3 (permalink)
MacTheFish(Offline) New Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Manchester Posts: 26	Recharge the batteries. Take a voltimeter and check the voltage in regular perioids of time. You can then draw a graph of the voltage in time. I have seen a website describing voltage problems and explaining what actually is broken. Will look for it Mac