Not sure if it's been mentioned/tried before or if it's even possible. I don't know much about the joule theif circuit other than it lets you squeeze the last little bit of juice out of dead batteries.
With that in mind, can it be scaled up to work with say a bank of deep cycle 12v batteries in the 48-72v range? Will it damage the batteries to the point they can't be recharged?
This could possibly be a HUGE jump in the range of electric vehicles using standard lead acid batteries as long as it doesn't permanently discharge them. Not sure if the other battery technologies have similar drawbacks where they don't fully discharge before being considered dead. If a joule theif can work its magic on all battery types, then lithium battery packs should see a significant increase in performance.
Anyone have an old laptop with a battery that can test? Bascially run it down to the point the laptop shuts off then add a joule theif and see if you can power back up and how long it will last, then recharge and run from joule theif the entire duration and compare the time.
juspot82
As far as I know , no one has made a JT big enough to do what you are talking about.....
Yes a JT could be used on an electric car........ It is said that it takes 20 or 30 charge cycles to condition a lead acid battery......after it is conditioned it will charge faster and have a few % more output.
I do not think that a lithium battery will benefit as much..... I understand the primary cause of lithium battery failure is cracking near the anode, The lithium expands as it charges then cracks as it is discharged......once there are to many cracks the battery is useless.
If I was going to try running a car like you describe I would work on making a BIG JT Ringer..........then adapt it to work as a charger
A good sized ringer on each running battery fed by pulses from an additional battery might extend the range quite a bit.
gary
Edit
the ability of a JT to extract more power from so called dead batterys will not help with electric cars.....in general if you drain a lead acid battery below 10.5V you are damaging it.
Sometimes charging the battery with a JT will recondition it..........but it is probably wise to stay in the safe zone.
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