battery lead-acid charger schematic board
goodboy_pl,
this is very good of you.
And i admire such pioneers as yorself...bringing in efficient switching designs.
But you will know that you cannot use uc3844 for your power (100W) like that.
You will know that you need a PFC front end.
So i am afraid you will need a boost PFC front end.........and then i would suggest a design like you've done but with a 2 switch flyback as in uk you will have 400V to switch.
you could alternativley use a flyback pfc using say L6561 or NCP1651 and then just use the uc3909 battery charge controller in buck configuration...this would be the cheapest solution.
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anyway, i am sure you will know which questions i will ask you nxt......as i have toiled over the uc3909 myself.
1. How did you decide the value of the R and C that connect to pin 14 of the uc3909 as on page 7, figure 2 of the uc3909 datasheet
UC3909 DATASHEET
http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datasheet/texasinstruments/uc3909.pdf
As you know, these are stability components, whose value is critical.
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Also, when the charger that you have built is swithced ON, your uc3844 will commence switching and the voltage on the secondary (to which the battery is connected) will start rising. However, since the secondary voltage will initially be less than 10.5V, the UC3909 will firstly go into low current "trickle charge" mode.......and the uc3909 will command the uc3844 to keep the voltage at that level which keeps the secondary current at the trickle charge level. As the battery voltage builds up the uc3909 will command bulk charging then constant voltage charging.
but what if the user clips the battery connection + and - together before switching the charger on?.....your charger will be starting into a short circuit.............the secondary voltage will not build up and the uc3909 will NEVER ACTUALLY POWER UP. The UC3909 will thus not feed back an OFF signal for the UC3844 to brake and thus your flyback transformer will quickly go into saturation and your primary fuse (if you fitted one) will blow.
The problem for you is this............you selected a flyback topology......flybacks have high peak currents.....so you will have had to select a primary fuse bigger than you would like......so your short circuit current will likely damage your charger beyond repair.
Another reason that your primary fuse will unfortunatley be over-sized is because you did not use a pfc front end......you have used a diode bridge.....these only have a narrow conduction angle, and thus high peak currents.....another reason why your primary fuse will be even bigger than you would like.
Not only that, but because you did not use a pfc front end, you have electrolytics after the diode bridge...and therefore high inrush current........another reason why your primary fuse will unfortunateley have to be oversized.
So your charger will be destroyed by the first user who clips or contacts the battery charger connection crocodile clips together.
this is the great problem of battery chargers.......the dreaded customer is being relied upon to make the most important connection of the intended circuit...the connection to the battery that is to be charged.....................and your customer will leave the clips dangling together at some point........at which point..............
BANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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this is why customer proof topologies are the only way forward with chargers.
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Of course, the way you can get round it is to put a fuse on the secondary just before the battery charger. But you are then again relying on the customer to put in the right size fuse when he/she replaces it......................and i am afraid that the great public dont know the difference between a 1A fuse, a 4A fuse and a 10A fuse....they all look the same, pretty much.
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so you are back to the first problem
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ok i hear you say.............
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...you will put in a soild state means of detecting secondary overcurrent and disconnect the battery by means of a series FET when an over current occurs due to the customer shorting the output.
...ok....the "fuse-FET" will be put after the secondary electrolytic caps...by the battery
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now that really is problem solved.
But you still have the problem of wht happens if
customer attaches a knack*r*d battery to your charger, one that can never charge up?
Customer attachs a fully charged battery to your charger the wrong way round...........
UUUUUUUUUUGHHHHHH!!!!!!!
That gives a problem because that series FET that you fitted to cut off any short circuit currents was a MOSFET.......you needed it to be a MOSFET because you needed it to break the short circuit current quickly..........but MOSFETS have antiparallel diodes in them....................and when the customer attaches a fully charged battery the wrong way round....(remember a customer cannot tell if a battery is charged or not by looking at it so they assume its discharged) your antiparallel diode unfortunately conducts and does not act like a fuse any more.....it's not able to break the short circuit current because of its inbuilt diode....that dreadful intrinsic diode thats ALWAYS there....lurking like a bad penny............every mosfet has one......and......................
BANG goes your charger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!..........damaged beyond repair because you used a flyback topology with a diode bridge and smoothing caps at the front end and had to use an over-sized primary fuse.
So i am afraid that your circuit relies on the customer to design the most important connection in your circuit...the connection of the two crocodile clips that go to the battery.
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the only way round it is to use a PFC front end......................and then you can get the rating of that primary fuse down really low.............so low that no damage occurs to the charger
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however, the customer will still put the wrong fuse in and destroys the charger.
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ok, so now we know that the only way round it is to use a PFC front end and use a series FET in the primary circuit, and a current sense detector to switch off this fet if an over current occurs.
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boost PFC's have overcurrent cut-off, but it is no good because with a boost, the input is connected to the output caps via a diode all the time
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flyback pfc's offer respite from this problem.
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