14. Pb (lead-acid) programs (Output 1)
This program is designed for charging and discharging lead / sulphuric acid and lead / gel batteries with
nominal voltages of exactly 2, 4, 6 and 12 V (1, 2, 3 and 6 cells).
Caution: the charger will not recognize lead-acid batteries with other nominal voltages, and such bat-
teries must not be connected to it.
Lead-acid batteries behave entirely differently to Ni-Cd and Ni-MH batteries. Lead-acid batteries can
only deliver relatively low currents relative to their capacity, and similar restrictions very defi nitely apply
to charging. Manufacturers usually state 14 to 16 hours for achieving nominal capacity when rechar-
ging at the normal charge current. The „normal" charge current is defi ned as one tenth of the battery's
nominal capacity. Example: battery capacity = 12 Ah —> normal charge current = 1.2 A. In contrast
to Ni-Cd and Ni-MH batteries, lead-acid chargers generally monitor the battery's voltage in order to
determine when it is fully charged.
Caution: lead-acid batteries cannot and must not be fast-charged! Always select the charge
current which the battery manufacturer recommends. Please also bear in mind that the nominal
capacity (i.e. useful life) of a lead-acid battery is very quickly compromised by incorrect handling, in-
cluding overcharging, repeated 100% discharges and, in particular, deep discharging. The magnitude
of the charge / discharge currents is also crucial to the actual battery capacity which can be exploited,
i.e. the higher the current, the lower the capacity which the battery can deliver.
The values selected in the user settings for charge termination delay and safety timer have no effect
in the Pb charge programs.
P b
m a n u a l
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
2 sec.
P b - C : 2 . 5 A
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
+
-
INC
DEC
If the battery manufacturer states a low maximum charge current, then it is important to limit the charge
current to that value to avoid the charger setting a higher current if the battery appears to be willing
to accept charge.
The battery can then be connected to the charger and the charge process started: the unit starts
charging at 0.00 A and slowly raises the current until it reaches the set limit.
The charger constantly assesses the state of the battery during the charge process, and adjusts the
charge current to suit its condition.
The charge program automatically determines the number of cells (cell count) in the battery by measu-
ring its overall voltage.
44
Pb
MODE
MANUAL-
discharge
program
program
Pb manual program
In this program you can set the maximum permissible charge
current using the INC / DEC buttons, but only before you
connect the lead-acid battery for charging.
This setting only determines the top limit which the charger is
permitted to feed to the battery.
Pb
MODE