30
| The charging cycle
6. the chArging cycle
After connecting the device to the battery and to a mains socket (220 to 240
V/ AC, 50/60 Hz) the LED
1
“mains” lights up. After selecting the battery
type by pressing the “Mode” button, the device switches first tests the battery.
If a battery is connected incorrectly, the LED
13
“polarity” will light up. If the
voltage of the battery is in the range of 1.0 ... 14.3 V, the device enters the
charging mode.
chArging technology
The device has three different stages of charging:
•
i PhAse
, the charging current is approx. 1 A or 4 A.
•
u1 PhAse
(= main charging phase) with a constant voltage of
14.3 V or 14.7 V.
•
u2 PhAse
(charge protection) with a constant voltage of 13.8 V.
If the charger detects a deep discharged battery (<10.5 V), the LED
7
“Deep
discharge”
will light up and the battery is recharged. If the charging voltage rises
above 10.5 V, the LED is switched off and the LEDs
8
,
9
and
10
(depending
on the battery status) are switched on.
The battery is initially charged with a constant current (I-phase) until the charging
voltage (14.3 V) is reached. Then the voltage is kept constant (U1 phase) and
the charging current adapts to the charge state of the battery. The more charged
the battery is, the lower the charging current. If a charging current of approx.
300 mA is reached, the charging process is interrupted and the charger auto-
matically switches to the test mode. If the test is not passed, the battery is rated
“defective” by the charger, the device switches off and the LED
14
“defect”
lights up.
If, however, all test criteria are met and the battery is found to be “Good”, the
charger switches on LED
11
“Ready”
and goes into maintenance mode (U2
phase). The battery is now charged, ready for operation and can be discon-
nected from the charger. Is the battery connected to the charger, the internal
program carries out a “maintenance charge” every hour (in the charging mode
“Li-Ion” once a day). The charging current is now adjusted so that the battery
voltage is automatically maintained at 13.8V.
