[gsw]

hi, i need to charge the leisure battery occasionally to keep it tip top, i have a split charger fitted aswell,

can the charger be plugged onto the battery with everything still connected eg the pum , spit charger and flow controller or do i have to disconnect all of this before i charge?

dont want to blow up the new setup before its had its first outing!!!!

greg

[jeff1]

Without knowing the internal design of your split charge, Its always safer to disconnect anything from your battery before recharging.

If the internal design contains a little component called a diode then it will be safe to leave it connected, but take the above advice.

Little knowledge for you all about a split charge relay.

Many people believe a split charge relay is a magic piece of kit, but in reality all it is, is an automatic switch, its either on or off and it will only ever be switched on when your engine is running.

[gsw]

cheers jeff

[alanwilson]

jeff - most use a silicon zener diode is that right?

[jeff1]

At low reverse voltages a Zener diode behaves in a similar manner to an ordinary silicon diode, that is, it passes only a very small leakage current. If, however, the reverse bias is increased until it reaches the breakdown region, then a small reverse voltage increase causes a considerable increase in leakage current; the reverse current is then called the Zener current. The characteristics of a Zener diode operating under reverse breakdown conditions are similar to those of a struck glow discharge tube. Because of this, Zener diodes can be used in a similar way, i. e. as stabilizers, limiters, ripple reduction elements, reference voltage sources, and also as DC coupling elements with a constant voltage drop.

[alanwilson]

yeah I understand, what is the breakdown voltage?  0.7V??

I just can't see any reason for the varistreams not being fitted with a zener diode - wouldn't that stop them blowing when the terminals are connected up reverse?

[jeff1]

I'm not 100% sure of the layout of the components inside a varistream but they do contain some protection causing the main fuse to blow, this happened to myself when I was to busy yapping to a custy one day and I connected it in reverse, Pants turned brown but after checking all I had done was blown the fuse, took a spare one from the cars fuse box and it worked fine afterwards, I now always have a pack of spare fuses stuck behind the varistream.

I've no idea about the digital varistream.

[alanwilson]

I must have a look and see what they have done to protect against this - as far as I know with the older models there was no protection, I have both the old and new varistreams so I'll have a look

[jeff1]

I must have a look and see what they have done to protect against this - as far as I know with the older models there was no protection, I have both the old and new varistreams so I'll have a look

Let me know what you find.
Mind you if they put protection in them, then they may be doing them selfs out of money, but for the sake of 50p protection can be added if they haven't already.