Nice addition to your arsenal Jorge. Stoked for you.

You're right about where I am with the install. I had to make the livewell first. What kind of battery you (or anyone else) are going to use.

I connected the battery to the unit, powered it up and let it run continuously to see how long the battery would last. I ran it for 4hrs last night and another 4-5 this morning and it finally went dead. However, when I connected the battery to the charger it popped the 3amp fuse about 5minutes into the charge, I replaced the fuse with another 3am and that one also popped in about the same amount of time. Not wanting to just bypass the fuse I popped in a 5amp fuse and it starting charging without popping the fuse.

I've had a 3amp in-line fuse since I bought the battery and have never had this issue, as a matter of fact this is the first time I've ever drained the battery. Any idea what might be causing this?

What kind of charger are you using? If like you said that this is the first time you've taken the battery this far down then I can think of two scenarios:

1. If you have a constant current->constant voltage charger where all this time you've only operated in the constant voltage range and the current draw in that mode is relatively low.

2. You have a charger that only does constant voltage and the current draw in that mode can be high for a depleted battery.

In addition, I presume that you are using a ~10Ah battery? If you are charging at rates approaching 5A then you might be reducing the life of your battery.

But how would the size of the fuse affect it's ability to charge?

Let's say your charger is a CC/CV charger which charges at 4A up to 11.9V then holds the voltage at 12.0V until the current reaches 100mA. You may not have been discharging the battery low enough for it to require it to need to go to the CC portion of the charge cycle.

See a typical CC/CV charge cycle below. My theory is that you were formerly working in the I2 region during normal day to day use with you old fish finder. In your case I1>3A>I2


http://www.electriccarinternational....CCCV_curve.JPG

If your blowing that fuse your definitely drawing more than 3 amps, ok we'll assume you dont have a short. Since your battery is completely dead, it'll draw as much as your charger is going to put out assuming its in good operating condition, and if thats 3+ amps your fuse is going to blow. If your charger puts out a max of 5 amps with a completely dead battery, with a 3 amp fuse installed....=blown fuse. Half charged battery, charger might put out half the amps or less 3amp fuse ok.

I think your ok jorge, carry on!:luxhello:

I'm up to 75% charging and changed the fuse back to 3amp.....no issues. Thanks for the information, need to make sure I don't drain the battery.

I'm interested in knowing how long it took to go from 0-75%,0-100%, and the rating of your battery.

0-75% - approximately 60minutes
0-100% - still waiting

Battery: 12v 10aph

Charging it using this charger
Settings:
12v
6A

http://www.northernautoparts.com/Ima...s/ph_28116.jpg

I have the same charger. I would suggest using the 2A setting and leaving it overnight. Even for a depleted battery it should take a little more than 5 hours accounting for the CV portion of the charge cycle.

C/1.7 is really too high of a charge rate for a battery like that. 6A is their suggestion for truck batteries. The size we're using are what's common in ATVs and jetskis or in the case of the charger I think they use motorcycle or lawnmower as an example for the 2A setting.

Some electrician explained it to me before...

I forgot the details but basically keep your charger at 2A and you get the best charge.


I have that same charger and found an overnight at 2A is the goods.



In other words your 75% of the S1 cycle must exceed the 100% of the S. 2 portion of the process....but only if the 10amp fuse was made using a 6 element alloy.


Pm me with additional questions.:D