Power supply and battery for shack.

[Dub]

I'm starting to assemble equipment for my station in the house. So far we've been doing all of our communicating outside on our breeze way but winter is coming and we're not going to want to sit out there much.

I have a nice Astron 50 amp power supply and wanted to use it in conjunction with a deep cycle, 12 volt automotive battery. I'm going to use a normally open relay configuration to disconnect the battery from the power supply when the power supply is not on. My concern is over charging the battery. Since the power supply doesn't ramp down once the battery is fully charged I don't want to risk damage to the battery by over charging it.

Anybody have any suggestion for charge management? Charge regulator or something like that. Or would it just be better to keep the battery charged and on hand for those times during a power outage?

Dub

[cruiserlarry]

I sell many brands / types of battery maintainers / charge controllers for off road vehicles and expedition-type usage, as well as for back-up power protection in the ham shack. IMO the best bang for the buck is the Battery Saver R2 50w charger / maintainer / deep cycle conditioner:

BATTERY SAVER R2

[Dub]

Not quite what I was looking for. That's a battery charger itself. Not sure it would be a good idea to have that charger on while broadcasting. That's why I want to use the power supply and regulate the charge going to the battery.

Dub

[cruiserlarry]

Not quite what I was looking for. That's a battery charger itself. Not sure it would be a good idea to have that charger on while broadcasting. That's why I want to use the power supply and regulate the charge going to the battery.

Dub

That unit is a charge maintainer, which will regulate the charge going to the battery - if you are using a 12 volt deep cycle battery to power the power supply, this unit can help maintain the charge to the battery, especially between uses. By conditioning the battery regularly, you'll get more life and longer charge cycles out of the deep cycle battery.

A charge controller is usually used to regulate the amount and target of charges going to a battery from different mediums, i.e. solar, battery charger, and alternator for mobile use.

I think you are looking more for an upvertor to take the 12 volt output of the battery to power the 110 volt input of the power supply. This will require a bank of batteries to be efficient, not just one, as you'll have a 10x voltage multiplier plus line resistance, using up a 12 volt battery quickly for 110 volt / 50 amps....Since most HF radios can run on 12 volts (that's how they isolate themselves from AC noise), you can probably skip the power supply and just power the rig directly from the battery itself, eliminating voltage conversion loss all together. The Battery Saver will keep the deep cycle battery or batteries ready to go...

[Dub]

I want to use the power supply (Astron VS-50m) to charge a deep cycle battery and power a 12 volt transceiver connected in parallel with the battery and power supply. That way when I have AC power available the power supply will provide power to the transceiver as well as keeping the battery charged. My concern is overcharging the battery.

Maybe I should simply keep a battery tender connected to the battery to maintain a full charge and only use it in emergencies and use the power supply for every day use. A 50% effecient transmitter amplifier capable of 200 watts output is going to draw a maximum of around 32 amps. The power supply should easily be able to keep up with that. I was just thinking it would be nice to keep the power supply, battery and transceiver connected all the time so that when I lose AC I would automatically go to battery power.

I'll figure it out. Now I have to decide what transceiver will be my first.

Dub

[cruiserlarry]

I'm not sure where you are saying anything that is different from what I was suggesting...The Battery Saver R2 can be left on the 12 volt deep cycle battery indefinitely, keeping it charged and maintained. You can have the Astron power supply hooked up to the transceiver for 110 volt power when available then connect the transceiver to the 12 volt battery when no 110 is available. If you don't want to unplug the transceiver from the power supply and plug it into the 12 volt battery manually, you can add a battery switch between the transceiver, and the power supply output and the 12 volt battery, and turn the switch when AC fails...

If you are looking for a great first time (or full time) transceiver to test the HF waters, and one that is extremely good at picking out weak signals, I have a Yaesu FT-450AT HF/6M radio available in excellent condition (no scratches, non-smoking environment, very low hours as it is a back-up rig). It has built-in autotuner and DSP, hand mike, and power pole connectors on the power cord, and takes up a small footprint for easy portability as well as shack use - $550.00.

[DaveK]

I want to use the power supply (Astron VS-50m) to charge a deep cycle battery and power a 12 volt transceiver connected in parallel with the battery and power supply. That way when I have AC power available the power supply will provide power to the transceiver as well as keeping the battery charged. My concern is overcharging the battery.

Maybe I should simply keep a battery tender connected to the battery to maintain a full charge and only use it in emergencies and use the power supply for every day use. A 50% effecient transmitter amplifier capable of 200 watts output is going to draw a maximum of around 32 amps. The power supply should easily be able to keep up with that. I was just thinking it would be nice to keep the power supply, battery and transceiver connected all the time so that when I lose AC I would automatically go to battery power.

I'll figure it out. Now I have to decide what transceiver will be my first.

Dub

Dub

It sounds like you need a UPS (uninterruptible power source). See http://www.amazon.com/b?node=764572.