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Re: Big Constant Current Battery Charger

Tesla List wrote:
> 
> >From bert.hickman-at-aquila-dot-comThu Sep 26 21:58:29 1996
> Date: Thu, 26 Sep 1996 19:12:49 -0700
> From: Bert Hickman <bert.hickman-at-aquila-dot-com>
> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject: Big Constant Current Battery Charger
> 
> All,
> 
> I have a friend who's in the recycling (junk) business. I've asked him
> to keep an eye peeled for things like variacs, welders, big caps, etc.
> He just called to tell me that one of his industrial clients has a BIG
> battery charger which is used to charge forklift batteries. From his
> description, its a cube about 1.5 feet on a side that weighs in at least
> 200 pounds and has what appears to be a large dry transformer inside. At
> first, I wasn't very interested. However, when he mentioned it was a
> "constant current" type, it made me wonder if this unit operated similar
> to an AC welder and maybe had a big shunted transformer or big ballast.
> 
> I will probably go to have a look at the beast, but first wanted to
> check if anyone is familiar with how these chargers operate and if there
> would be anything inside that a coiler could use. It sounded like I
> could get the unit fairly cheaply (assuming my wife didn't kill me...!)
> 
> Is anyone out there familiar with these things?? Should I make an offer
> for it?
> 
> Thanks in advance!
> 
> -- Bert --

Bert:
	We utilize a large number of elctric forklifts at work and most of them
have either 36 or 48 VDC systems.  The chargers on these units were, as
I recall, 3 phase systems on the AC side.  If you are real interested in
really agravating your wife, I could get some of the circuit diagrams
from the manuals at work on "similar" units and photocopy them.  Might
give you some ideas.  Actually, if you get the charger model number, I
could probalbly see if our main vendor for forklifts would track down
the schematic for exactly what you have. I always enjoy hunting down
things like this and utilizing what others consider of little value. 
Not really sure how you plan to implement this item, but have fun.  Let
me know if I can be of any help.