Idea I had...

[[OC]Lucifer]

I got a nifty little power supply that puts out 13.65v dc at 65 amps. I mentioned it here with pictures - http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=503923 anyway, I had an idea of hooking it up to a bunch of deep cycle batteries to supply a steady 12v when my main power is down. I am operating off the idea that the power supply would charge the batteries when my main power is on since it supplies more than 12 volts, which should get split between all the batteries. Now, my question is, how many amps will it charge them at? The full 65? Because it so, Ill need something to manage that because it will certainly boil the batteries over. Thanks in advance for any help.

[gearhead1972]

if that pwer supply was not made to charge batteries, ie: not automatic and will continue to supply 13.6 volts at 65 amp no matter what. That coul and would be very dangerous. you would need a way to monitor that batteries and unplug the power supply when they are charged.

[Deadbot1_1973]

Like gearhead said...VERY dangerous. If it continues charging and they gas out...possibility of a big badda BOOM!!!

to answer your question...it will charge at the full 65A as most deep cycles are made for 14.4v(12v is kind of misnomer).

To give you a fair idea of how dangerous this can be....

Our previous shop mechanic left a Caterpillar battery(from one of the big track plows we use to install mainline telephone cable) on the charger overnight. The charger's circuitry didn't funtion correctly and the battery got overcharged. The 8' x8' room it was in contained the blast, but EVERYTHING in that room was destroyed. What wasn't burned by heat was burned by acid.
Never underestimate the hazards of lead acid batteries. They are a storage medium for fairly large amounts of energy...In a failure situation, that energy has to go somewhere. Make damn sure it's not to you.

[[OC]Lucifer]

Glad I asked before trying it. Guess I'd need some kind of charge controller - maybe like they use in houses that run on solar - right?

[Adragontattoo]

Honestly just try to find a junk UPS. If you get lucky and it is a big enough one it will power your rig and monitor just fine.

[IAmMoen]

i have seen little schematics either on here or elsewhere ( I believe it was here) for taking an old ups and hooking it up to a couple deep cycle batteries. The person unplugged their power and after like 12 hours the batteries were lower than full but still WAY usable. And the plans are actually quite easy, especially because it is built to work with a battery and not have continuous 12v @ 65 amps.

[Deadbot1_1973]

It's stupid easy to hook up a bigger battery in an old UPS. Just connect positive to positive and negative to negative. A 12v batterry is a 12v battery in this case. The only potential problem would be burning the charging circuit out early, as it's not meant for such a large capacity.

Edit:......linky to the thread that IAmMoen was talking about....I think.:beer: (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=502584)