Branch's SSG Build

[Tom C]

Branch,

by any chance did you check the internal impedance of the battery before you started? A drop in internal impedance would tell you how much material is returning to solution.

Tom C

[Branch Gordon]

Hi Tom-

No I didn't. Forgot all about my new meter haha.

Branch,

by any chance did you check the internal impedance of the battery before you started? A drop in internal impedance would tell you how much material is returning to solution.

Tom C

[Branch Gordon]

Here is a continuation of the same run. It's still chugging along. I think I'm gonna stop it for a bit and do a short discharge.

[Branch Gordon]

Just posting a vid of a new charge run here.

[BobZilla]

Great video Branch. Machine is running nice man. I do think you could try moving those coils back when you get a chance but even so nice job man!

[James_Somewhere_In_Idaho]

Hi Guys

Didn't Peter L. say that the build they demonstrated in 2014 had the drive coil positioned 3/8 inch away for best performance? Yours looks really close. But it sounds nice and seems to run smooth.

[Branch Gordon]

Hey guys just sharing a run and some recent info on what I'm doing. I'm working in mode 1 right now with a single 12V garden battery on the back. On the primary side I have a 225AH deep cycle Trojan at 12V. I have it tuned right now at 5 spikes, which is putting around 240mA into the charge battery. Charging up to 15.3V each run. Coil distance is at 3/4" I think...experimenting with the coils being further away from the magnets, and running the machine at very low RPM's. For garden batteries I think tuning to 1 spike is way too much current.

What I wanted to show was how these curves are looking with this battery as it gets more conditioned.

I'm attaching some charge charts in chronological order. You can see how they start out looking fairly normal, and then I get all this stairstepping stuff going on.







I have switched around the tunings on a couple of these runs so the times may not be consistent, but the end result is the same. Since settling on 240mA out, I am seeing a consistent rise in COP for the last three runs. I will post here with more as I get further along.

[BobZilla]

Branch,
Those wavy patterns are most likely the meter sampling rate combined with the firing rate of the machine. Because your running at lower than normal RPM your catching the sample at the rise and fall and because it is a cyclical pattern it appears wavy over time. It's showing great improvement (higher top end) but the pattern is showing you snapshots at one second intervals. Kind of like how your eyes pick up movement in a strobe light, you know things are moving but in a strobe they look choppy, or if the movement is in phase with the strobe things appear to stand still.

The last chart shows it the best and I would think that is because the battery is reaching it's highest voltage, higher than previous and is actually rising and falling the most because as you said it is conditioned. The rpm speeds up a bit at the end also which changes that phase with the meter.

So anyway the charts look great and the battery is improving big time, I am just droning on about why you see the pattern in the chart.

[Branch Gordon]

Hey Bob-

I remember now you saying something about that before, and I had forgotten. A couple of those charts are misleading however, in that the voltage displayed isn't actually the voltage I terminated the charge at. It's actually a screenshot taken after the charge was stopped, and the voltage had started falling. Every one of these runs has been above 15.3V. So I'm really thinking the more pronounced effect as I continue is a by-product of conditioning.

I am not seeing an increase in capacity yet. In fact, disappointingly, I saw a decrease in capacity on this last discharge. I have read some people say that there will be a slight decrease in capacity as the battery adjusts to a negative charge.

Continuing on...

[BobZilla]

Perhaps there is something more going on,, hard to say from a distance. The effect I described about the meter phasing does happen though. It could be that one of the cells is acting up a bit too. Hard to say but Rock on man ;-)

[Yaro1776]

Yo Branch,

Very nice looking build you have there - it must have been a bit challenging to synch the three coils and boards - excellent effort!

Since I have no real experience in the multi coil configs I can't pass onto you any direct experience here, but one can assume that there are valid comparisons to a single coil SG. From your information it is apparent that you are operating the wheel at a low rpm - perhaps under 200 or around 160 RPM - in order to have the five spikes. In my Amp Sensor thread experiments I noted an oscillation in a narrow rpm band of the amp readings in what I describe as the transition zone - this behavior may correlate with your saw tooth pattern. It also may be that after multiple charge and discharge cycles your spike pattern may be shifting or morphing to another config. Just speculation here that may be of use to you. As Bob Z points out you just may be hitting a certain rpm band that in conjunction with the software produces this wave. Then again maybe not...

Over the past while I have rejuvenated many batteries NiMH, NiCad and LAB and it does appear that there is a plateau for the rejuve process for most of these batteries. The slight decrease in capacity after multiple cycles has been noted also. It is a fact that excessive charge and discharge cycles in Mode 1 will alter and degrade a battery's capacity. Many experimenters have experienced this particular phenomenon, but you are undoubtedly aware of this.

Shooting in the dark here, but there should be some consistency and relevance in the rejuve process irrespective of the number of coils.

Looking forward to your next transmissions and experiments. Thanks for sharing!!!

Be well Bro,
Yaro

[Branch Gordon]

Posting here today because I am finally having some success with rejuvenating a lead acid battery. I have taken a car battery from an output of only 2AH to over 30AH. Started off only able to light a small LED strip. Now I can light a full LED bulb for over 24 hours. I have been recording all my data, and taking screenshots of charts. I want to do a few more runs to see where it plateaus out at, and then I'll be posting my data. Stay tuned...

[Branch Gordon]

Here's a chart showing the discharges I've done so far. I think the 2nd one decreased in capacity maybe because it wasn't used to the radiant charge yet? Not sure.

Note that the last two I increased the load to 400mA, and then to 800mA.

I'll post more detail after some more runs.

[izham]

Hi Branch:
I've read all your post. You're doing a very good job.


Izham

[Yaro1776]

Hello Branch,

Very good of you to share the run data from your last round of testing. It does show markedly the improvement in this particular battery's A-h capacity. Noted the last two runs were way different - did you change the charging configuration in a major way?

In the last two runs you also extended the battery rest period from a nominal 2-3 minutes to over 10 hrs before taking a voltage read. The earlier runs may have looked better with an extended rest period, irregardless the battery at that point still had no guts to it.

Anyway, your test data graphically shows the major improvement in the battery's performance - no questions there.

Very cool stuff for all the SSG followers. So, keep it up!

Yaro