Desulfate & regenerate lead acid batts: a new DIY guide. Overnight.

[Mosaic]

I'm open sourcing my desulfating, dedendriting, heavy duty pulse engine capable of recovering an automotive battery in a day or so!

Please credit me if you make any mods or spin off projects and republish.

I have the empirical data for the process and I have logged many (hundreds) of battery recoveries.
Tracer studies have been done on batteries placed back into vehicles and around 100 have been returned to service with no issues, about 1% returns.
The full bore system is going commercial but I am sharing the reliable pulse engine for those who'd like to DIY and 'roll your own' control/automation system.
It is effectively the pulse engine that I used to desulfate the batteries 'manually' as proof of concept before doing the extensive controls and failsafes with diagnostics to make a system that requires no thinking, just connect and forget, it does all the thinking (pass/fail/re-rating) and processing for you. With comms. via Iot across the internet it provides bidirectional data for remote control, archiving statistical yields and management reporting.

Here is the ongoing open sourcing of the pulse engine started this month.
https://hackaday.io/project/25741-desulfator-engine-for-climate-change-mitigation

Also my techniques for homebrew PCB manufacture:
https://hackaday.io/project/7938-pcb-smt-maker-lab-home

I'll support any questions or discussions here as well as on the project site.
The pics of the battery cell are before and after the process (1 day), no chemicals required. Note the white sulfate removal!

[Mechatrommer]

how much price for the kit of complete components and pcb and necessary psu?

[Mosaic]

I really don't know. Haven't gotten around to making a kit so it's pure DIY right now.

[Mechatrommer]

I really don't know. Haven't gotten around to making a kit so it's pure DIY right now.

i quick read the link you wrote could provide the kit if any interest... btw looking forward for your detailed documentation/schematics etc. i have more dead batteries here some are many (3-10) years back that i keep as paper weight and braces now. i have another two now recently deteriorate in functioning... thanks for sharing..
edit: sorry i maybe mistaken about your writing of providing the kit with some other people's project... no i was right...

https://hackaday.io/project/25741-desulfator-engine-for-climate-change-mitigation

I will look at offering the PCB or even a PCB and component kit for those who are interested in a simpler or quicker build with out the hassle of sourcing parts. This is probably more useful to those outside North America. However, part substitution is encouraged from a DIY perspective.

[Mosaic]

In terms of what you hope to do, if manual monitoring of battery voltage and temps are ok with you (say every 15 to 30 mins) then the already published schematic & layout will work for you once you can provide the PSU and a pulse signal. Suggested at 500Hz to 1500Hz.

A bit later on I'll try to fit a pulse gen in the free space on the PCB so to make it a more integrated solution which could be ready to accept DIY controls from a dedicated uC or Arduino board

[rsjsouza]

This is a truly great move on your part. Thank you for sharing this!

[NiHaoMike]

A friend of mine (who came up with the idea) and I have had great luck with a simple circuit consisting of a light dimmer set to about halfway, a 10uF or so motor run capacitor, and a bridge rectifier. Do realize that such a circuit connects the battery to one side of the mains.

[Mosaic]

I've seen a few high voltage designs like that. But it is not necessary to risk your safety for the convenience of the 'mains' in this application. 36VDC is well within the human body skin model for voltage tolerance unless you lick the terminals.

[Cerebus]

I'll have to come back and take a proper look at this when I've got a few minutes more than I have just at the moment. I've got the (usual ?) stock of old knackered 12V lead acid batteries that just seem too useful to get rid of, but too knackered to really be any use, that I've been meaning to recondition (when I get a round tuit).

[chickenHeadKnob]

Would this work on sealed gel cell - glass mat types or is a  large volume of hydrogen evolved ?

[Mosaic]

Not an actual gel, but VRLA AGM or SLA types are fine.
You just throttle the voltage & temperature as appropriate for the type.
Temperature being more important. for sealed batts keep the temp no more than 45C

[oldway]

There are a lot of useless projects of desulfators on Internet, that's the first I see that works on the same principles of high energy pulses like industrial desulfators.....

This one works well for sure.....Congratulations ....

Thanks for sharing.

[VK5RC]

I have one of these units - there used to be a kit - I can't find them easily now.   http://archive.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_111476/article.html

[TerraHertz]

Regarding restoring old lead-acid batteries, here's a reminder that there are limits to what can be achieved.
http://everist.org/NobLog/20180430_lead_acid_ruin.htm
Teardown of a ruined lead-acid battery

[smile]

So nobody has built this desulfator to say their opinion on if it works or not ? Why not?

[Gyro]

Why don't you? Then you can report back.

[profdc9]

I am not sure if it would help, but I designed a Arduino controlled constant current / constant voltage charger.

https://github.com/profdc9/FlexibleCharger

I have been mostly using this to maintain LiFePO4 but I have done some desulfating of small SLA batteries with it.  The SMPS can be controlled to pulse the current.

[kermitfrog]

Thanks for sharing. I have a battery charger that has desulphate feature that worked well until it died. I miss it. That gives me a good reason to build one of these :-)