Great video!!! Thanks! Always wanted to know how it works and why it's carbon pile. It's clear now! Should be quite useful if now how to use it properly.
Thanks for watching. I have the electronic battery testers but when it goes to assessing a battery by putting it through its paces, I find the old carbon pile more revealing...
@@razenby Oh, those testers. I saw them lying)) Long time ago my dear Peugeot 205 didn't wan't to start. It was winter and -30C. The starter was cranking but the engine didn't want too. I tried every 2-3 minutes by 5 sec. It took me the whole hour and I finely won! What surprised me was that the battery never showed any sign of weakness. So the idea is to put a battery to a similar test. Ten tests by 5 sec 200A in 10-15 minutes. The voltage drop on the last test should give you valuable information about internal resistance and capacity.
Very informative video. I have always wondered what those "other" dial readouts were. I'm sorry to say that I've never got the green amp hour dial on left to coincide with the values on the other two dials. It is of interest to me that recently my 7 year old battery went to zero readout under load. I would have thought there would be an in-between time when the needle went up but not into the green. I know it wasn't the meter because my other battery measured OK. I test about once every six months. I've never had my readouts go all the way into the "high green" even with brand new batteries. Just a little over into the "good" range. But the batteries have worked. I wonder if it is a question of calibration of the instrument.
It may be out of calibration. It is a crude circuit but I need a 300 amp current source to calibrate it or a meter shunt to put in series when it is under test.
Good question. The CCA rating depends on the definition of the test as there are about 4 different ratings by country / Continent. Most real CCA measurement are made during a two stage tests. The first High CCA test then a resting pause in between conducted at various specified low temperatures. Usually the battery has to sustain around 7 volts at the CCA rated current for a specified number of seconds (around 15) . Then after a specified delay a further discharge for 30 or seconds or so. There is a temperature compensation chart on the side of the tester. This tester uses an approximation by drawing less test current and looking for a higher sustained voltage. You could say they extrapolate the result to gauge the condition of the battery. This kit wouldn't take a thousand amps via the clamps and cables the whole thing would have to be much beefier with eyelet lugs connected to the battery by bolts. Having said that I have found that it give a pretty good indication of battery health. A tre 100A CCA test would need thicker cables, better clamps, bigger carbon pile and probably a cooling fan etc.. That is my understanding.
@@BrewCityRider apparently i have come a long way with my battery knowledge. as i know that cca is for starting batteries and AH is for deep cycle. i have been playing with batteries for about 4 years now, as i diy'd my pv system, and my 45kwh lead acid bank. about to now move into lifpo like i should have from the beginning, but i really wanted to master lead acid first and have been helping people with lead acid/agm batteries left and right, in fact i just got back from helping a dude test his battery and alternator on the vehicle.
I’ve rebuilt several of those for friends and clients. Some of them just regular old car battery tester‘s but also some HUGE massive units used to test forklift batteries, solar batteries, etc. those forklift battery packs come in to my buddies scrap yard regularly. Sometimes only a year old with all of the electronics still mounted to monitor electrolytes and about 10 other different types of sensors. I snag the electronic sometimes because he just crushes everything anyway. The Amazon warehouse just writes them off for taxes I guess but they still have 80% of the life left in them it’s disgusting to see them trashed like that. He gets dozens in every few months and they’re the size of a Volkswagen beetle and weigh thousands of pounds. So obviously the load testers have to be pretty big. They just scrap everything he doesn’t really resell or anything like that except parts that I want to buy so he has no need to test them. But at another scrapyard I picked up a huge load tester the size of like a rolling toolbox and it has all types of different resistive loads inside. I’ve even seen some of the big ones that have big coil submerged in oil. I guess the same thing that folks show on TH-cam where they build one with an oven heating coil submerged in a pink can of olive oil to test generators and things like that. I love all test equipment below testers have always been such an interesting topic. From the big dumb ones that are basically just a heating coil to the real fancy computer kikisui models like I use on my workbench. Always fun Basically if you’ve ever seen those huge resistors… It’s just a ceramic shaft wound with nichrome/nitinol wire. Similar to what you see in a lot of resistive heaters from the 60s and 70s. And you’ll still see them in big industrial HVAC units for drying the air and other weird processes inside those huge rooftop units. Literally almost the same thing if you’ve ever opened up a huge dissipation/load dump unit like you’ll find on massive magnetic cranes… They have multiple resistors capable of several kilowatt each. Or if you see these huge refrigerator size motor driver and PFC correction units. Used in factories and on huge screw chiller compressors and things like that… They will have some massive dissipation resistors inside. I find more of them than I could ever use and even though I guess there’s some more expensive at the beginning… There’s not much of a secondary market for them unless you find someone who Tinker is like myself. Those huge motor controller starter units that look like a massive refrigerator… Goes without saying they’re $50,000 to 100,000 each or more when new. They sell them at government auctions around here all the time and sometimes they go for less than scrap price. Got a few beautiful Siemens brand servo drivers out of one last month and after load testing made good on eBay with them. I think it weighed 1200 pounds and I paid about nine cents per pound from what I could figure that half of the stuff inside was aluminum and thick copper. It’s just sickening the stuff like that it’s out there by the truckload full from agencies around here like TVA and others But those huge resistors are really cool and neatly engineered even though they’re not too expensive. It’s basically just a big resistive heater . Not sure how that would compare to the carbon piles but I’ve been inside of both kinds, I think maybe the nichrome wire is a bit more resilient in terms of being heated white hot and having all types of dust and residues. But who knows I just think it’s super interesting either way. Thanks for the great video!
That is true. Corporate types never saved anything from the trash. It is seems so lazy but seems to be the norm. I have sen major electronics companies swapping out electronic modules and crushing them before disposal to prevent people like us rescuing and repairing them. They would rather Take, Make and Throw away then Reuse and Restore. Great if you can save them and put them to good use. I just reused an 80kWh Mercedes EV battery from a blown up SUV in Ukraine. It will have a long and useful life..
Would this work well for a reliable indication of storage capacity in a FLA leisure battery? I like the idea of a quick reading. I subbed and hit the bell, good video. Now I'm off to watch the follow ups, cheers 👍
Ni , not really. The Cranking amps can be related but, unless you have a very bad battery, measuring one wont give you much idea about the other. Leisure batteries are not designed to deliver very high currents so best not stress them in this way.
Thanks for showing the inside.
No problem 👍
did you ever test that Chinese digital tester from your Noco video? that was awesome by the way.
The small board with the electronics is the 15 second timer, hence the buzzer.
That is good news.. I thought it was 500A current regulator....
Great video!!! Thanks! Always wanted to know how it works and why it's carbon pile. It's clear now! Should be quite useful if now how to use it properly.
Thanks for watching. I have the electronic battery testers but when it goes to assessing a battery by putting it through its paces, I find the old carbon pile more revealing...
@@razenby Oh, those testers. I saw them lying)) Long time ago my dear Peugeot 205 didn't wan't to start. It was winter and -30C. The starter was cranking but the engine didn't want too. I tried every 2-3 minutes by 5 sec. It took me the whole hour and I finely won! What surprised me was that the battery never showed any sign of weakness. So the idea is to put a battery to a similar test. Ten tests by 5 sec 200A in 10-15 minutes. The voltage drop on the last test should give you valuable information about internal resistance and capacity.
Very informative video. I have always wondered what those "other" dial readouts were. I'm sorry to say that I've never got the green amp hour dial on left to coincide with the values on the other two dials. It is of interest to me that recently my 7 year old battery went to zero readout under load. I would have thought there would be an in-between time when the needle went up but not into the green. I know it wasn't the meter because my other battery measured OK. I test about once every six months. I've never had my readouts go all the way into the "high green" even with brand new batteries. Just a little over into the "good" range. But the batteries have worked. I wonder if it is a question of calibration of the instrument.
It may be out of calibration. It is a crude circuit but I need a 300 amp current source to calibrate it or a meter shunt to put in series when it is under test.
thanks for the video, I was wondering why they call it "carbon pile" didn't think it's literally a pile of carbon XD
I have a modern impedance tester but the old pile tester give the battery a realistic workout. Thanks for watching..
Thanks for the video!
You're welcome!
Why is cold cranking amps different then amps on dial? The needle can point to both at the same time but there different?
Good question. The CCA rating depends on the definition of the test as there are about 4 different ratings by country / Continent. Most real CCA measurement are made during a two stage tests. The first High CCA test then a resting pause in between conducted at various specified low temperatures. Usually the battery has to sustain around 7 volts at the CCA rated current for a specified number of seconds (around 15) . Then after a specified delay a further discharge for 30 or seconds or so. There is a temperature compensation chart on the side of the tester. This tester uses an approximation by drawing less test current and looking for a higher sustained voltage. You could say they extrapolate the result to gauge the condition of the battery. This kit wouldn't take a thousand amps via the clamps and cables the whole thing would have to be much beefier with eyelet lugs connected to the battery by bolts. Having said that I have found that it give a pretty good indication of battery health. A tre 100A CCA test would need thicker cables, better clamps, bigger carbon pile and probably a cooling fan etc.. That is my understanding.
The CCA scale is there so you can easily target it without dividing by 2 in your head. The Ah scale, too.
very good review. tks for sharing
lad you found it interesting. It is a good old pile tester that one.
It looks like you never did that next video?
I think I did. Maybe I didn't upload it - Ill take a look in the Media drive.
can i assume that the cold cranking amps is for starting batteries and the amp hour rating is for deep cycle?
It doesn't state in the manual. If a deep cycle battery is not terribly bad then you need to do an AH discharge tester to check the performance .
@jasonbrown467 This is the question no one answers, but I think you may have nailed it.
@@BrewCityRider apparently i have come a long way with my battery knowledge. as i know that cca is for starting batteries and AH is for deep cycle. i have been playing with batteries for about 4 years now, as i diy'd my pv system, and my 45kwh lead acid bank. about to now move into lifpo like i should have from the beginning, but i really wanted to master lead acid first and have been helping people with lead acid/agm batteries left and right, in fact i just got back from helping a dude test his battery and alternator on the vehicle.
I’ve rebuilt several of those for friends and clients. Some of them just regular old car battery tester‘s but also some HUGE massive units used to test forklift batteries, solar batteries, etc. those forklift battery packs come in to my buddies scrap yard regularly. Sometimes only a year old with all of the electronics still mounted to monitor electrolytes and about 10 other different types of sensors. I snag the electronic sometimes because he just crushes everything anyway.
The Amazon warehouse just writes them off for taxes I guess but they still have 80% of the life left in them it’s disgusting to see them trashed like that. He gets dozens in every few months and they’re the size of a Volkswagen beetle and weigh thousands of pounds. So obviously the load testers have to be pretty big. They just scrap everything he doesn’t really resell or anything like that except parts that I want to buy so he has no need to test them. But at another scrapyard I picked up a huge load tester the size of like a rolling toolbox and it has all types of different resistive loads inside. I’ve even seen some of the big ones that have big coil submerged in oil. I guess the same thing that folks show on TH-cam where they build one with an oven heating coil submerged in a pink can of olive oil to test generators and things like that. I love all test equipment below testers have always been such an interesting topic. From the big dumb ones that are basically just a heating coil to the real fancy computer kikisui models like I use on my workbench. Always fun
Basically if you’ve ever seen those huge resistors… It’s just a ceramic shaft wound with nichrome/nitinol wire. Similar to what you see in a lot of resistive heaters from the 60s and 70s. And you’ll still see them in big industrial HVAC units for drying the air and other weird processes inside those huge rooftop units.
Literally almost the same thing if you’ve ever opened up a huge dissipation/load dump unit like you’ll find on massive magnetic cranes… They have multiple resistors capable of several kilowatt each. Or if you see these huge refrigerator size motor driver and PFC correction units. Used in factories and on huge screw chiller compressors and things like that… They will have some massive dissipation resistors inside. I find more of them than I could ever use and even though I guess there’s some more expensive at the beginning… There’s not much of a secondary market for them unless you find someone who Tinker is like myself.
Those huge motor controller starter units that look like a massive refrigerator… Goes without saying they’re $50,000 to 100,000 each or more when new. They sell them at government auctions around here all the time and sometimes they go for less than scrap price. Got a few beautiful Siemens brand servo drivers out of one last month and after load testing made good on eBay with them. I think it weighed 1200 pounds and I paid about nine cents per pound from what I could figure that half of the stuff inside was aluminum and thick copper. It’s just sickening the stuff like that it’s out there by the truckload full from agencies around here like TVA and others
But those huge resistors are really cool and neatly engineered even though they’re not too expensive.
It’s basically just a big resistive heater . Not sure how that would compare to the carbon piles but I’ve been inside of both kinds, I think maybe the nichrome wire is a bit more resilient in terms of being heated white hot and having all types of dust and residues. But who knows I just think it’s super interesting either way. Thanks for the great video!
That is true. Corporate types never saved anything from the trash. It is seems so lazy but seems to be the norm. I have sen major electronics companies swapping out electronic modules and crushing them before disposal to prevent people like us rescuing and repairing them. They would rather Take, Make and Throw away then Reuse and Restore. Great if you can save them and put them to good use. I just reused an 80kWh Mercedes EV battery from a blown up SUV in Ukraine. It will have a long and useful life..
Would this work well for a reliable indication of storage capacity in a FLA leisure battery?
I like the idea of a quick reading. I subbed and hit the bell, good video. Now I'm off to watch the follow ups, cheers 👍
Ni , not really. The Cranking amps can be related but, unless you have a very bad battery, measuring one wont give you much idea about the other. Leisure batteries are not designed to deliver very high currents so best not stress them in this way.
@@razenby OK, Thank You for that, it makes sense.
Not much to it eh? Makes sense. Mine got warm, but like you mentioned, higher resistance = higher heat... Thanks!
No quite simple but effective.
Great video , thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it
What brand is this
Generic. Unknown.
I got mine at Harbor Freight.
Soo where do i find the carbon discs to build my own?
A specialist material supplier. Just search block graphite.
Excellent
Thanks
graphite = carbon
Well, an allotrope of Carbon...