8 C charging?

[Daddyo79]

OK...

So I was charging 3, 5000 mah packs in parralell last weekend at 1 C (15 amps), left the room for a bit and when I came back I noticed my power supply (47a from feathermerchant) had shut down. I pulled the plug and looked for a reset button, but there was none. I was starting to cuss in my head thinking the power supply had crapped out, when I noticed my lead wires from the power supply to the charger were FRIED!!!! The insulation had melted off them!

I put new wires on, 10 gauge, and fired everything up again. After a couple of minutes I reached down to feel the wires running to the charger (15 amps, 3C if it was one battery) and those suckers were HOT! After playing with it a bit I've found that the biggest load I can put on those wires is about 13 amps.

Now, HOW THE HELL CAN YOU CHARGE AT 8C IF THE WIRES BURN UP at 3C???????

Are there super big gauge leads available for the i306b? There's no way the leads that came with it can handle 40 amps! Am I missing something? It's OK to tell me I'm wrong... I'm married, I'm really used to it!

[tptompkins]

Weird. I have a 3010B with 12 guage wire and I charge at 27 amps no problem. My wires aren't getting hot like that. It sounds like you have some sort of issue going on with either your PS or your charger but I'm not sure what the issue could be. Maybe somebody else can give you more insight.

Tommy

[lazor 22]

I charge at 30 amps all the time with no problems. Man you have just been having bad luck. Hope it gets better for you.

[DominicD]

Is it a 12V or 24V supply ?

[Slyster]

Tommy.. thats because you are charging at 24V. The charger can't go over 15A when only powered by 12V.

If I tried 12V at 30A (if it could do that) the wires would be really HOT.

[lazor 22]

Oh right, do you have 2 of them hooked together or just one? Mine are 2 hooked together to make it 24v 47a.

[tptompkins]

Originally Posted by Slyster

Tommy.. thats because you are charging at 24V. The charger can't go over 15A when only powered by 12V.

If I tried 12V at 30A (if it could do that) the wires would be really HOT.

Right - I was assuming that he is using a 24V PS. I don't have a feathermerchant PS. I'm using two P350s hooked in series.

Tommy

[Daddyo79]

Ahhhhh!
Yeah... this is a 12v 47A power supply.
So if I connect this hummer (i306b) to my truck battery at idle, I'll be able to charge at higher amperage without burning up the wires?

[lazor 22]

Buy another one of them and hook them together. It's not that hard to do really. He has instructions on his RCG blog.

[Slyster]

Originally Posted by Daddyo79

Ahhhhh!
Yeah... this is a 12v 47A power supply.
So if I connect this hummer (i306b) to my truck battery at idle, I'll be able to charge at higher amperage without burning up the wires?

Does your hummer use 24 volts? My van uses the typical 12V car battery but if the Hummer uses 24V you would be fine. The wires would run much cooler.

[Daddyo79]

Originally Posted by Slyster

Does your hummer use 24 volts? My van uses the typical 12V car battery but if the Hummer uses 24V you would be fine. The wires would run much cooler.

errr... I didn't mean H2 or H3 kind of hummer, I meant it as slang for my power supply!

[Slyster]

Oh.. LOL.. I was thinking "this guys rich!!"

SO now I see where I read to fast.. so your truck.. that's 12V too no? you need TWO car batteries in series to get 24V.. that's what I do.. although I use deep cycles.

Or like Lincoln said hook two PSU's together

[rmalt]

Don't forget to calculate how many watts are required.