Originally Posted by
BioFarmer93
Well,
There is some weirdness going on with the 'beast.. Plumbing and electrical- from the plumbing end of things, I think I'm just going to trash the dual reservoir idea and route everything into one as the balance of electrolyte in one reservoir or the other seems to unduly affect the flow into the bubblers. Everything was taken apart and checked- no trash was ever located. I was relieved when that was the case because I had exercised OCD-like meticulousness with the cleanliness of the build and would have really started to doubt my worthiness as a builder had it been otherwise.
The electrical weirdness was discovered by accident when I was skipping the last group during a power up. I’d power the first six groups only starting from the left, then I would switch jumper cable locations and only power six groups starting from the right. I would use my multimeter to measure voltages across different groups and sets of groups looking for differences in voltage. The voltage coming off of my batteries from my running engine was clamped at 12.7V exactly as it should be, measured at the gator jaws of the unconnected cables. Each group pulled between 2.1V – 2.3V, and running only 6 out of seven groups showed 12.7V on the meter. The 7th group was still connected, but I was skipping it by supplying power starting at the 6th group. When I got a wild hare and measured all the way across at the main electrical connections, I got a surprise. I was expecting to see 12.7 again, but no, I got 13.4V! I immediately measured at the jaws again thinking that my alternators output had suddenly gone up- nope… I pulled the jumper cables off and measured them no-load – 12.7V. Walked out to the truck and measured at the batts- 12.7V. Came back in and hooked back up, 13.4V from end to end, one group beyond where all rationality is telling me the circuit ends.. Swapped ends for the orphan group- same deal, 13.4 and 12.7 IN the circuit.. swapped polarities, same thing. Swapped orphans with swapped polarities, same thing.
Anyone have any theories on this? Come on Nick, I know you secretly read here.. Larry? You’ve been too quiet too long.. Shane? Carter? Lee? Lurkers?