Homebrew charger

[Roswell Bob]

I am mulling over the top-balance issue. I have a 60amp bench supply that I was going to use to balance. I recall having to repair a few of these over the years and am dealing with some reluctance hooking this thing up to my brand new cells and walking away. I also have a good size variac and a 10kW wound wound 60Hz transformer. I'm thinking to wind a few large turns on the transformer and put into a large diode bridge. There will be significant 120Hz ripple on the cells. I suppose I can mediate the ripple with an inductor to some extent and keep current reasonable to prevent cell heating. Should I expect any other problems?

 

[time2roll]

I would stick with the 60 amp bench supply. If you feel you must watch the charging consider running a single cell up each day to make it quicker. Then run them all up in parallel. 60 amps should not take terribly long. Could also remove the connection and verify voltage periodically.

 

[Roswell Bob]

I would stick with the 60 amp bench supply. If you feel you must watch the charging consider running a single cell up each day to make it quicker. Then run them all up in parallel. 60 amps should not take terribly long. Could also remove the connection and verify voltage periodically.

Thanks. I think you are right. Why reinvent the wheel. I'll pay close attention to the setup.