[Nut-upsuser] Eaton 5PX 3rd party batteries

[Dan Langille]

resending, sorry, I mangled the list address.

On Tue, Nov 12, 2024, at 11:49 PM, Harlan Stenn wrote:

> - put each battery on a charger for several hours

Do you have a recommendation for a battery charger? Or a list of features to look for?

> Anyway, when I have a set of replacement new batteries, I then:
> 
> - put each battery on a charger for several hours
> - rotating thru the entire set at least twice
> - then I take my bench supply with a (self-made) octopus cable
>    with individually-fused "hot" wires, and starting at .1V over the
>    average voltage, start adding batteries in parallel, waiting for the
>    current draw to reduce to a trickle.  Once all of the batteries are
>    connected in parallel and drawing a trickle, I start bumping the
>    voltage by .1V until I get to either 13.5VDC (or the published
>    trickle charge voltage) and I let this sit there for a day.

By individually-fused "hot" wires, I'm guessing that's a cable with
connectors with a fuse inline.

This is reminding me of my changes to my home-office Eaton 5PX for
quieter fans.

The purpose of waiting for a day is for stabilization? Waiting for one
of them to die? Achieve a solid charge?

> When all the batteries are "balanced" in the parallel string, I then 
> install them into the battery tray(s) or directly into the unit.

The goal there is to get them all to the published trickle charge voltage
before installing them in the UPS.

> Sometimes I will take the "old" batteries and run them thru the above 
> process to see if they will "recondition".  Sometimes we will use these 
> for lighting or other non-UPS tasks.

Which makes me consider my next steps: disposal. There are a number of
commercial battery centers nearby. I'll start calling around before showing
up with 20 batteries. ;)

-- 
  Dan Langille
  dan at langille.org