Background
Inside Dimension Comparison Ver 1 vs. Ver 2
Power Pole Socket Option Idea
Battery Options
Tested just after charging
Li-Ion Pack
Background
This is the second battery adapter
made for the
BA-5590/U family of
military batteries. The battery consists of two independent
"
12 volt"
batteries and the load can be wired to connect them either in
series
for a "24 volt" battery or in parallel for a "12 volt"
battery.
The first
5590BA battery adapter was
designed using 0.060" thick aluminum. And these was no
planning
for the use of Sub C cells so it's difficult to get 20 SC cells
into
the first version. Version 2 holds 20 SC cells close packed
with
a little extra room on all sides.
The lid attach method on the first version depended on bending
parts of
the lid inward to act as fingers that mate with slots on the sides
of
the main box. The combination of the stiffness of the 0.060"
aluminum and the length of the fingers made it difficult to remove
the
lid. Version 2 uses 0.050" aluminum so the sides are
more
flexible and the inward pointing fingers have been replaced with
what's
called a lance. This is similar to a punch that moves the
metal
about it's own thickness and leaves the punched metal
attached.
Thus the new "fingers" are much shorter making for easy lid
installation.
The overall dimensions meet the 5" x 4.4" x 2.45" plus zero minus
1/16"
outline of the BA-5590/U and the socket is where it's supposed to
be so
it's a form and fit replacement for any of the BA-5590 family of
batteries.
30 April 2008 - top photo (above) shows 12 AWG wires with crimped
connections. The wire is super flex, i.e. there's a large
number
of very fine wires, not the stranding like used for house
wiring.
They measure 1 milli Ohm each including the Power Pole
terminal and the socket pin. For more see the
HP 4328A Milliohmmeter web page.
The adapter without any batteries weighs about 9 oz.
Inside Dimension Comparison Ver 1 vs. Ver 2
|
Ver 1
|
Ver 2
|
Delta
|
20 SCPack 0.9"
|
High
|
4.729
|
4.876
|
+0.147
|
4.798
|
Wide
|
4.250
|
4.278
|
+0.028
|
4.050
|
Deep
|
2.245
|
2.335
|
+0.090
|
1.930
|
Power Pole Socket Option Idea
2019 - The Vagabond
battery for the Paul Buff E640 Studio Strobe light has Power
Pole connectors.
28
Oct 2007 - Boxes back from laser marking. A pair of power pole
connectors will pass through the wire clearance hole below the
socket. If there is enough slack in the battery pack wires
they
could be threaded through the hole one pair at a time then coupled
into
a 4 terminal block. The blue support blocks could then be used
to
anchor the block of connectors to the existing bracket which would
need
a couple of holes drilled and a spacer between the connector block
and
the bracket.
The photo shows a two pair of Power Pole connectors where each pair
is
the ARES standard configuration, but they are stacked. That
way
you could plug in two independent "12 volt" ARES loads or make a
jumper
cable to get 24 volts. For some ham radio applications the
high
current output would support short transmissions where high current
is
needed.
If the blue support blocks are not used a 3/32" cotter pin passing
through the hole in the connector block, going through a spacer and
a
single new hole in the bracket would also work. The connector
block would have some "wiggle" and that's a good thing since the
connector should have some play.
The
SC cells used in RC racing cars have the ability to run at (30
Amps 2006 (2008 40 Amps) so
an option for this battery adapter may be (idea stage) to use a
different socket bracket to support Anderson Power Products "
Power Pole" connectors using
contacts rated for 45 Amps.
Twenty SC cells in series would have a voltage of about 24.0 when
empty
and with a current of 30 amps would be delivering 720 watts!
The
parallel configuration would be 12 volts at 60 amps for 720 watts!
That's a lot of power.
The DARPA
Wearable
Power
$1,000,000 contest is asking only for 200 Watts max power, but
they
want about 2 kWhrs weighing no more than 4 kg (8.8 pounds).
With
4.5 AH SC cells the capacity of the adapter would be about 20 *
1.2 V *
4.5 AH = 108 Whrs far short of the 2,000 Whrs they are looking
for. They specified the two voltages as 10 to 16 VDC and 20
to 32
VDC. This is interesting because it eliminates Li cell
batteries
that produce a little more and have been know to blow out some
equipment (Javilin) that can not handle the higher voltage.
The version 2 adapter weighs 3 ¼ pounds with the 3.3 AH SC cell
pack, maybe a little more with 4.5 AH cells.
To support the Power Pole high current idea the internal wires
need to be 14 ga or larger.
15 Oct 2007 - A sample of 14 ga wire is on order to see if it will
fit
the connector pin solder cup (the dimensions say it's a little too
big).
22 Oct 2007 - The 14 AWG wire will work with the connector solder
cup. Wire on order, here in a couple of days.
If the regular socket is used it makes sense to use the heavy wire
to
minimize IR drop even when lighter loads are being powered.
The problem is soldering the wire. Extremely
difficult. The
solution is to crimp the 14 AWG wire into the brass connector pin.
Battery Options
SC Pack
14 May 2008 Charging and discharging
to see if capacity improves (what I was told).
|
|
Triton2
Charger & 4.7 AH 20 cell Pack
|
Load Testing EL1132 Electronic Load
controled by Sony Viao w/ LabVIEW
|
|
Life
Size (72 dpi) image showing Power Pole Connectors
partially separated.
Red
is Receding.
If you remember this alleration when it comes time to
seperate a pair
of Power Pole connectors you will know to push on the
front of the red
shell and support the back of the black shell.
|
The Triton2 charger can charge all 20 cells in series. The
wires
on the battery pack do not have the Power Pole connectors
impermanently
paired up so they can easily be connected in series. But the
Triton2 has a charging power limit of 90 Watts so for a 28 Volt
pack
the current can only get to 3.2 Amps (which is what's shown in the
photo at left) even though the set current was 4.0 Amps. The
set
current would be used if the pack voltage was below 22.5 Volts.
In a similar manner the discharge is limited to 20 Watts, which
for a
28 volt pack is only 0.7 Amps, not really enough to do much.
By
load testing the two sides separately that can be doubled to 1.4
Amps,
but still short of a realistic load.
You can see the thermal sensor plugged between the pack shrink
wrap and
the center cells. So far it has not terminated charging but
is a
safety backup.
12 May 2008 - the battery pack weighs 3 lbs 1.5 oz.
When in the 5590BAv2 that total would be 3 lbs 11 oz.
At a constant 2 amps
discharge it
lasts about 4.1 hours (about 8 AH capacity).
11 May 2008 - Using 9 min Rx @ 320 ma
& 1 min Tx @ 1.7 Amps, series connected 20 volt cuttoff.
The
run time is 9.5 hours.
That's equivalent of over 17 Amp
Hours
although these cells are rated 4.7 AH. Compared to the 40
Amp
loads they are designed to deliver the radio loads are much
lighter,
increasing the Amp Hour capacity.
5 May 2008 - The pack is here and fits
perfectly. See top photo on this page. Now for some
electrical testing. There are 20 each 4.7 AH cells in this
pack.
Capacity is 20 cells * 4.7 V/cell*
1.2V = 112 Watt Hours!
2 May 2008 - The pack can be ordered from
Cheap Battery Packs
soon with a predefined configuration.
20 Elite 4 AH cells, copper bars, 14 AWG wire PRC68 configuration
less than $150 including shipping to California YMMV
20 cells * 4 AH/cell * 1.2V discharged = 96 WH, at 1.3 Volts
average
maybe 104 WH so around 100 WH capacity. These cells are
rated to
discharge 40 Amps.
That's 40A * >24V >= 960 Watts. But the 5590 type
connector
can not support 40 Amps for very long. An option would be to
replace the 5590 socket with Power Pole connectors.
If the discharge rate was 1,000 Watts and the capacity is 100 WH
then
the time would be 0.1 hours or 6 minutes. That's way too
long for
the 5590 connector would not take it.
When used in a radio the advantage is that the voltage drop during
transmit will be lower than with a higher resistance battery and
so you
get more talk time in transmit.
11 Nov 2007 - The reason for my
current
focus on the high current performance is not so much that the load
would be drawing huge currents all the time, but on the need to be
able
to supply a current higher than the average current for short
periods
of time. Many devices have a startup power requirement
that's
considerably higher than their run current. If the battery
can not supply the starting power then it can't power the
equipment. Also by designing for the higher currents
resistive
losses are lowered for the lower currents.
1 Nov 2007 - The 20 SC pack made for
the first version 5590BA has been refitted with 14 AWG wire and
Power Pole connectors with
45 Amp contacts. It
drops right into the 5590BAv2.
A
Triton2 Charger Discharger Cycler
is
being used to get this pack up and running since it's been sitting
for
many months. The discharger can be used to evaluate how well
another charger works with a limit of 3 Amps max. The Amrel
EL1132 can handle 300 watts, which at 28 Volts is a little over 10
Amp
discharge current. Testing at 30 Amps from 30 Volts requires
a
resistor of about 0.9 Ohms that's good for about 900 Watts.
Not easy to come by.
This pack requires a height of 4.798" and width of 4.050" when
0.900" dia SC
cells are used close packed. You can see in the comparison
table they will not fit in version 1 but
have room to spare in version 2.
The pack was made in 2005 and has been sitting for over a
year.
Using the Battery Space charger then load testing there was almost
no
charge. The old 18 AWG wires and 15 Amp Power Pole connectors
have been replaced with 14 AWG super flex wires and 45 Amp Power
Pole
connectors. Using the Triton2
charger in cycle mode produced
these input and output capacities:
Cycle #
|
Charge
|
Discharge
|
% D/C
|
1
|
2917
|
2040
|
70
|
2
|
2873
|
2533
|
88
|
3
|
2872
|
2543
|
89
|
Not bad, still in spec at Nov 2007.
Next getting ring terminals to make test cable for Amrel EL1132
Electronic Load to allow testing battery pack using 45 Amp Power Pole
connectors instead of the 10 Amp rated 5590 connectors.
Load Test 2005 SC Cell Pack
9 Nov 2007 - The test was done using the Power Pole connectors on
the
battery pack, not using the 5590BA socket that's probably rated for
only 10 Amps. Two sides connected in series.
I
|
V
|
Watts
|
1
|
26.18
|
26
|
2
|
26.0
|
52
|
3
|
25.75
|
77
|
4
|
25.5
|
102
|
5
|
25.2
|
126
|
6
|
24.8
|
148
|
7
|
24.5
|
171
|
8
|
24.2
|
194
|
9
|
23.8
|
214
|
10
|
23.6
|
236
|
11
|
23.3
|
256
|
12
|
23.0
|
276
|
13
|
22.8
|
296
|
14
|
22.6
|
316
|
15
|
22.5
|
3371
|
Note 1 - The EL1132 is rated for
300
Watts and at 337 Watts it started making beeping sounds, so no
higher
currents were tested. The limitation is the tester, not the
battey.
Using Excel to fit the V vs. I data gives the equation: y =
-0.2847x + 26.526 where the resistance of the battery and test wires
is
0.28 Ohms and the open circuit voltage is 26.5 Volts.
R2 = 0.9932 is a measure of the quality of fit. When this same
pack was tested in the first version 5590BA (including the socket)
with
18 ASW wires on the pack and 15 Amp Power Pole connectors the
internal
resistnace was 0.35 Ohms. At 5 Amps in the old thest the
voltage
was 26.1, a little higher than this test. Maybe the pack is
older
or not fully charged. Will try again right after charging.
Tested just after charging.
I
|
V
|
Watts
|
0.1
|
27.9
|
3
|
1
|
27.7
|
28
|
2
|
27.5
|
55
|
3
|
27.3
|
82
|
4
|
27.0
|
108
|
5
|
26.7
|
134
|
6
|
26.4
|
158
|
7
|
26.0
|
182
|
8
|
25.6
|
204
|
9
|
25.3
|
228
|
10
|
24.85
|
249
|
11
|
24.5
|
270
|
12
|
24.3
|
292
|
13
|
24.0
|
312
|
14
|
23.8
|
3611
|
Note 1 - The EL1132 is rated for
300
Watts and at 361 Watts it started making beeping sounds, so no
higher
currents were tested. The limitation is the tester, not the
battey.
When the I V data is plotted in Excel equation for the points
is:
y = -0.3186x + 28.153 R2 = 0.9935 Note the open circuit
voltage is now higher, about 1.41 Volts per cell.
For an output voltage of 20.0 (where most "24 Volt" equipment turns
off) the current according to the equation would be 25.6 Amps for
these
two year old Ni-MH cells.
20 Volts @ 25.6 Amps is 512 Watts for these two year cells rated 3.3
AH. Twenty cells @ 1.2 volts would be 79 Watt hours so at 512
Watts would run for maybe 9 minutes.
Checking a couple of SC cell suppliers:
http://www.cheapbatterypacks.com/?sid=853305&pgid=loosecells&chem=NIMH
is showing Ni-MH: 4.5 AH cells $ 7.35 each and 2.2 AH $ 4.65
Ni-CAD: 2.4 AH @ $5.75 and 1.3 AH @ $4.35
http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=226
is showing set of 20 matched Ni-MH 4.2 AH @ $ 4.30, 4.5 AH about $8
http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=296
Ni-Cad: 2.1 AH @ $ 2.30
This is probably because the 4.6 Ah rating was at much higher
currents (up to 10C).
4.6 Ah Rated (17 Ah Tested) Ni-MH Pack
|
added 17 Nov 2009
This Ni-MH pack was custom made off shore since I haven't
been able to find high current rated cells in the U.S.
They are rated 4.6 Ah (30 Amps for 8 min = 4 Ah). But
when tested using the electronic load with the following
parameters:
0.32 Amps for 9 minutes
1.70 Amps for 1 minute
with an ending voltage of 20.9 V
the capacity was 17 Ah. |
2.6 Ah Rated Li-Ion Pack
|
added 17 Nov 2009
The two battery packs are model LCH4S4R1WR and the charger
is model CH-LI4`8-4 both from Battery Space with
a total about $230.
The battery packs come with shrink tube at the ends of wires
and I've added the Power
Pole
connectors. The packs contain four series 18650 size
cylindrical
Li-Ion cells rated 2600 mAh. Also as part of the pack
is the
protection PCB.
The charger is specific for a 14.8 V pack. |
|
The two packs take up a small
amount of space but there's not enough room to hold 4
packs.
Maybe a custom pack with staggered cells would allow twice
the number
of cells, i.e. 16 cells instead of 8 cells.
|
Battery Comparison 13 Oct 2007
Table based on user made battery pack. i.e. neither labor to
make
pack included nor cost of misc links, connectors, wire, etc.
Make
|
Size
|
Chem
|
AH cap
|
$/cell
|
#
cell
|
Watt hrs
per pack
|
$/pack
|
$/Wh
|
ELITE4500 |
SC
|
Ni-MH
|
4.5
|
7.35
|
20
|
108
|
147
|
1.36
|
ELITE3600 |
SC |
Ni-MH
|
3.6
|
4.95
|
20
|
86.4
|
99
|
1.15
|
4200
|
SC |
Ni-MH
|
4.2
|
4.30
|
20
|
100
|
85.95
|
0.85
|
2100
|
SC |
Ni-Cad
|
2.1
|
2.26
|
20
|
50.4
|
22.95
|
0.46
|
10xAA
(4 packs)
|
AA
|
Ni-MH
|
2.2
|
2.60
|
40
|
106
|
103.80
|
0.98
|
2600
(in b. holders)
|
AA
|
Ni-MH |
2.6
|
1.43
|
20
|
62.4
|
28.60
|
0.46
|
LS91
(in b. holders) |
AA
|
Li-FeS2
|
3.0
|
1.97
|
20
|
72
|
39.35
|
0.55
|
4.6 Ah
Rated
(17 Ah meas)
|
SC
|
Ni-MH
|
17.0
|
na
|
20
|
408
|
na
|
na
|
2.6 Ah
rated
|
18650
|
Li-Ion
|
2.6?
|
21
|
8
|
71
|
170
|
2.40
|
The 5590BAv2 may be sold as the box
with secondary style socket terminated with short super flex 16
AWG
wires terminated with a pair of 45 Amp rated
Power Pole connectors (4
terminals) in standard ARES configuration. And also offer
optional battery packs.
20 SC Cell Packs
Packs are made using either spot welding or soldered copper link
bars. The table above shows only a few of the SC cells that
are
on the market. Since the 0.9" diameter cells easily fit ver
2
commercial packs can be made without custom fitting. The SC
pack
I made for version 1 just drops in with room to spare.
An interesting prospect is the ability of delivering 30 amps at 30
volts or 60 amps at 15 volts, i.e. 900 Watts. The cells and
wiring are up to it but I don't know about the connector.
I've
heard that each contact can handle 10 Amps, i.e. good for
delivering 10
A @ 30 V or 20 A @ 15 V for 300 Watts.
40 AA Adapter
This would be an adapter that can hold 40 AA cells. It
allows the
use of Alkaline, Ni-Cad, Ni-MH, LiFeS4 (Energizer L91 1.5 volt
Lithium),
Sanyo eneloop Ready To Use
(long shelf life) Ni-MH, or
whatever new chemistry comes out in the future. AA cells
typically are where the newest technology shows up first.
Short
wire leads with Power Pole connectors. A string of 10 cells
gives
15 volts so 20 cells is the number needed for the two sides to the
5590
family battery. So you could install just 20 cells or for
more
capacity install all 40.
I'm investigating the eneloop
Ready
To Use Sayno AA cells. They claim a much longer shelf
life than other Ni-MH cells. This is being done with a Maha
C9000.
CR123 Photo Battery Adapter
The same idea as for the AA adapter, except for the CR123 photo
batteries. These are 3 volt cells so a string of 5 gives 15
volts
so 10 cells is the minimum number to have a working 5590 family
battery, adding multiples of 10 cells to give 20, 30, 40 or maybe
50
cells adds capacity.
Links
back to Brooke's: PRC68, Battery, BA-5590/U
Family, 5590BAv1, Battery Patents, Military Information, personal home, Alphabetical list of web pages
page created 15 Oct 2007