Desulfator Accelerated Ballistic Ion Battery Charger High Performance Maintainer

Figure 1. Typical lead acid cell

In secondary cell Figure 1 (rechargeable) electrolytic systems the electrical conduction is done by ions. Ions are charge carriers. They moving at a lot slower speed because of the electrolyte's density and resistance hinder their movements. Assuming that in a rechargeable cell there is just a single charge carrier ion floats toward its target electrode. The strongest field strength line determines the path of least resistance. And that line is located between the two shortest points between the electrode terminals in the electrolyte. So the single ion will target this nearest spot and moves toward it until reaching it. If more than one ion would be in the electrolyte they will also repel one another because of their charges. The ion's targets would still be the nearest points after the repulsive and all forces were all summed up.

With the customary tenth of an ampere-hour capacity (1/10 C) Direct Current (DC) chargers, the number of ions moving in any one time is not so many with respect to the available free crystalline surface points on the electrodes. And the close proximity of the neighboring ions places each ion into the same grid as the one before it with only minor location variations. The ion paths follow spatial grid lines similar to the electric field or magnetic flux lines as everywhere in nature orderly spacing is desired. The result is less than desired because the few target points will build up and get closer to the opposite electrode. Thus the resulting higher electrical field density forces progressively more ions onto this same path. Clearly it is best to vary the voltage for battery charging instead of the presently accepted closely regulated and highly filtered DC potential.

Figure 2. Ion ballistics charger circuit block diagram

In order to force many more ions to connect to their targets in more separate points, large current density is required. Actual electron microscope pictures published by Hungarian researchers clearly demonstrated the value of cell charging with ultra high current density. The large current however, in present day standard chargers, would result in unacceptably high, damaging internal cell temperatures. The simple solution is the ballistics ion charging method described here. Ballistic ions result from high field strength that accelerates them into high speed. This method work exceedingly well for lead acid battery desulfator circuits because of the waveform abrupt rise times and resulting high number of harmonics.

In theory, it makes little difference, if a battery is being charged with one ampere current for an hour or with ten amperes for a tenth of an hour. The ampere-hour product and the resultant charge accumulation are the same both ways. The smaller current for the longer time is a more efficient method. In order to have random grid spacing on the target electrodes a varying, random voltage required. And to produce a finely spaced grid target point crystalline spread requires very high current density that consists of a multitude of arriving ions. Clearly the stream of this high ion density has to rest its flow often to keep temperature to rise too high within the cell. One of many possible solutions that provide for all of these different requirements can be a simple circuit block diagram Figure 2.

Figure 3. Trigger and charge pulse waveforms

As shown on the battery charger waveforms Figure 3 the Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR) D1 rectifies the 60 Hz pulse train, but only when it receives a trigger pulse within the positive half power cycle. The 6 Hz oscillator is free running and its frequency is not critical. Any frequency around 1/10 to 1/20 the power line's 60 Hz is fine. The SCR turn-on at time T0 is abrupt and full of high frequency harmonics that is great to resonate and crack the lead sulfate crystals. The SCR automatically commutates off as the zero crossing occurs on the voltage line. The next turn-on signal can happen at any time within the positive half cycle after ten or more cycles elapsed. During that time the electrolyte is allowed to cool. The power transformer used is a 24 VAC type that is standard type usually shielded and it is widely used to power a home furnace thermostat. The six cycles per second [6 Hz] trigger signal pulse with is not critical. Any pulse with from two to six millisecond [MS] is useable. The trigger pulse amplitude has to be able to reliably trigger the SCR used. The trigger generator circuit may be a 555 timer or any type of simple oscillator.