soldering electrcals, also battery related questions

pabloescaban

VIP Member
where to begin?
right i have 4 lead acid 12v batteries for a model boat (baitboat to the anglers present) and i have various things etc that i connect to it, Solar panel charger, mains charger, battery tester etc.
It was using a tamiya style plug on both battery and related chargers etc but the connection is crap with these things - a dead battery is reporting fully charged after 5 mins when this cannot be the case - the tamiya connectors are giving false information - a slight 'wiggle' is reporting not connected or fully charged.
This is obviously no good to me as i might be sending a £400 piece of equipment to the other side of a lake with no means of getting it back and so I've purchased jack plugs, male and female like these


the wire looks a bit flimsy to me but trying to solder jack plugs manually has proven to be impossible to me as the gap between live and neutral is less than a mm and my soldering skills aren't that good, this is why i got the ones with leads already on.
My question is this, would i be better putting the male on the batteries and the female in the boat / charger / tester / solar charger or the other way around?

also, is it better to allow the batteries to be run down to dead or nearly dead every once in a while as some of them rarely get used or if they do get used, only periodically and then recharged, or to keep them topped up and not let them get too low

TIA! :)
 

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I would suggest the permanent live (batteries) is female.
Batteries can be trickle charged with an intelligent charger.
Some batteries do perform better after a couple of discharge / charge cycles.


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Cheers, I do have an intelligent charger, it puts out 1 amp until the battery is 95% charged and then automatically drops to a miniscule amount, 50mah so that overcharging is almost impossible but the pins in tamiya connectors are rubbish, flimsy thin brass which seem to stretch too easily so that when the male goes into the female, after a short while there's little or no contact
MiniFemale.jpg

I've got a small auto bulb that I'm gonna solder onto a lead and use to discharge each battery before recharging
 
I don't know what size battrues you are charging,
But I'm thinking reasonably small, like a motorbike battery,
1amp is a very high charge rate for a small battery, the slower the charge the better,
Optimate are a very good charger,
You actually get proper plugs/sockets for batteries, I'll have a look later when I get home and see what we use on the race bikes.
You don't want to 100% discharge lead acid batteries, but do want them almost empty, a good intelligent charger will do that for you
 
The batteries are 7AH lead acids, sealed.
the intelligent charger puts out 720ma not an amp, but it does drop down to very little, about 50ish ma when almost full, I can't find the box just now but I have read it when i first got it.
Not sure how the charger can discharge the batteries...I was going to connect the auto bulb and wait until it dimmed
 
I believe there are also balanced chargers if you are charging all batteries at once.
Ps if it means soldering the right connectors, learn, practice and solder.
Batteries have a lot of power if shorted!


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we use the mk 1 version of this charger for the total loss race bikes [ ie, they have no alternator or self charging system ] , small 7Ah to 9Ah batteries
https://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/moto...ners/optimate-2-12v-battery-charger-optimiser
although I know a few guys use various versions of these , with good reports
https://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/perf...ers-conditioners/ctek-mxs-3-8-battery-charger
these are proper DC battery connectors,
https://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/motorsport/battery-jack-plugs-anderson/anderson-jack-plugs
 
the boat is the same, it completely drains the battery
The charger is similar to the 820mah charger above...those connections are ridiculously expensive £15 apiece? - the connectors would cost more than the batteries!
 
the boat is the same, it completely drains the battery
The charger is similar to the 820mah charger above...those connections are ridiculously expensive £15 apiece? - the connectors would cost more than the batteries!

you can get smaller cheaper versions of them,
the problem with jack plugs and batteries is that they are really only rated at a couple of amps max, and arent designed to be used under load,
DC is highly dangerous, its the amps that do the damage, and a DC arc will ionise to the point of not being able to stop it, sparks and lead acid batteries are not a good mix
a cheap alternative to connect the batteries would be MC4 solar PV plugs and sockets, how many would you need.?
 
Cheers for the offer but I've just ordered those for £2.80...not that bulky? - that site says they're 85mm by 20mm?

compared with a jack plug they are quite large,
did you get a disconnecting tool with them?
tbh, you wont really need one, you can cut the locking tabs off them if you wanted, they can be disconnected using a screwdriver, but it gets tedious after a few
 
once they're on, they ain't comin off again unless I chop em off :(y):
when you plug them into each other, [ie, your battery to the charger] they 'lock in'
its just a little spring tab, cut it off, thats what I've done with the ones on my test leads that get plugged in and out regularly
 
oh those things, yeah I'll cut em off, they're regularly removed, each battery will only do a few hours in the boat so they're in and out and on charge, the solar charger charges them up quicker than a mains charger when it's sunny and it's usually quite bright when we go France.
I use the tester on them too as the solar will overcharge them if you don't keep your eye on them, so they're gonna be connected and disconnected 3 or 4 times a day, every day for a week
 
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