Large battery charging circuit - individually charges groups of cells at different times using transformer with several secondaries

摘要

The charger comprises a transformer (7) with a number of secondary windings (8, 9, 14, 16). These windings are connected through rectifiers (10, 11, 15, 17) to separate groups of battery cells (1, 2, 3, 4). Switches (6, 13) in the leads are operated so that only two groups of cells are charging at any one time thus reducing the load demand and hence the size of the charger. The switches may be controlled by a timing device which selects each battery group in turn on a cyclic basis to ensure that the whole battery is always at an approximately uniform state of charge.