The Yuasa Battery Due to Popular Request, I've compiled the following information regarding the Yuasa line of gel cell, lead-acid rechargable batteries. The battery can be purchased at Yale Electronics in Los Angeles (213-465-3186) Talk to Kurt, he's the only one who has been alerted to SIG requests. If you wish to use local source, I think any large electronics store should be able to handle a special order to Yuasa. You should also be able to get a list of retail distributors in your local area directly from Yuasa. U.S. corporate offices: Yuasa Battery (America) Inc. 9728 Alburtis Ave. P.O. Box 3748 Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670 800-423-4667 The list of specifications below are applicable to the M100, T102, T200, or any portable that uses a 6 volt supply. If you require 4 or 12 volts, you can call Yuasa directly to get the needed information. Notice that I have starred the NP4-6W. It is the most "user friendly" of the batteries. Instead of bare lugs that are sharp and just waiting to tear up the inside of your briefcase, it has a sealed top with 2 wires leading to a connector. The connector is very handy to allow you to reconfigure the system to handle any number of devices. I use two different cables with the M100 connector on one end and this special connector on the other. One is able to connect to just one device (M100) and the other cable connects to the M100 and the Chipmunk. Eiji Miura built his for UPS operation with 3 branching cables; one each for the M100, Chipmunk, and the recharger, which is online all of the time. If house power fails, the battery takes over. When it comes back on, the recharger will automatically charge up the battery. (Useful for a BBS) The special connector is made by AMP and is available from Yale. Just ask Kurt for the matching connector. They come two to a blister pack for about $1.50. If ordering from anyone else, ask for "AMP General Purpose Connector (20-14 AWG) #618-2" Model Length x Width x Height Weight ins. ins. ins. lbs. NP1-6 2.00 1.67 2.00 .55 NP1.2-6 3.82 .98 1.99 .66 NP2.6-6 5.27 1.33 2.36 1.23 NP3-6 5.27 1.33 2.36 1.54 NP4-6 2.76 1.85 4.03 1.87 NP4-6W* 2.76 1.85 4.03 1.87 NP6-6 5.95 1.33 3.78 2.75 NP8-6 5.95 1.97 3.78 3.96 NP10-6 5.95 1.97 3.78 4.41 (NP1 = 1ah, NP1.2 = 1.2ah, etc.) * = Recommended Battery life is determined by how much of the battery you use before recharging it; unlike nicads, a lead-acid battery likes to be fully charged all the time. In other words, discharging the battery completely will shorten the number of times it can be recharged. At a 30% "Depth Of Discharge", the battery should last for 1200 cycles; at 100% D.O.D. the number drops to 200. See CURENT.100 in DL4 to calculate the length of service between charges. At Yale, the NP4-6W goes for $14.95, and the C.V.C.C. charger unit costs $9.95. Once you have the battery, you'll need some way of recharging it. Unfortunately, Yuasa has not been able to supply a completed charger to the U.S. market yet. It is available in Japan, but they are waiting for U.L. approval here. This is quite unfortunate so if everyone would call Mike, the international marketing rep. at Yuasa, he might see that it would be a good idea to start pushing for approval. Update 11/15/86: While speaking to another rep at Yuasa, I complained about not having their own charger and he replied "Well, there are so many chargers on the market, that we felt it wouldn't be profitable to have our own sold here"! He then went on to give me a long list of suppliers and manufacturers of chargers. For those of you who don't like do-it-yourself projects, I have a volume of info that I'd be glad to pass on. Just let me know. In the meantime, they have a recharger module that requires completion to get it operating. In the schematic below, I've listed all of the possible connections. It is only necessary to connect the 2 input and 2 output wires to get the system running, but it is nice to be able to see what the state of charge is at any time. To complete the charger, you'll need the following: 1. 120VAC to 11-15VAC transformer. 2. AC cord. 3. Terminal strip. 4. At least one LED and mounting. 5. A box to put everything in. 6. Male battery plugs (M100 side) 7. AMP connectors (see above). This list is not intended to be complete, anyone tempted to do this project would most likely have the bits and pieces, that I haven't mentioned, lying around. It took me about a half hour to do everything except cut the battery jack holes. Those two holes took an hour of drilling and filing. (Grr) I used female battery jacks to connect the charger to the battery. They were major hassle to install on the box since they are neither round or square. If you look closely at the jack on the M100, you'll see what I mean. Another method would be to have a wire comming out of the box with an AMP connector on it. That way, you could just disconnect the battery from the M100 "pigtail" and connect it to the charger. The Now Famous Schematic: Charger In (Any 11-15V AC or DC source) ! ! ! ! ! ! white! !white ! ! ----------- blue! !blue ->|----! !----|<- L1! ! C.V.C.C. ! !L2 !yellow ! !green ! -------! !------- ! ! ----------- ! ! !red !black ! ! ! ! !---V---! ! ! ! ! ! ! A2 A1 ! ! ! ! ---B--- B = Battery A1 = Ammeter to measure CHARGING CURRENT. A2 = Ammeter to measure OUTPUT CURRENT of C.V.C.C. V = Voltmeter to measure CHARGING VOLTAGE and OPEN CIRCUIT VOLTAGE (when charger is off) L1 = STATE OF CHARGE led or meter L2 = PILOT LAMP led Notes: 1. Use ammeter with at least 1 Amp scale. 2. Connect led between blue & yellow leads for STATE OF CHARGE. 3. Connect led between green & blue for PILOT LIGHT. (both blues are the same) 4. Use voltmeter with at least 10v scale. 5. An AC step-down transformer rated at a minimum of 1 Amp, 11-13VAC is all that's needed for input on the two white leads. A car cigarette lighter adaptor could also be used. (polarity not important) 6. STATE OF CHARGE led dims as battery charges. If a meter is desired, it would have to have an inverse percentage scale where 100% = minimum current. It would have to be adjustable also. I don't know if such a meter exists without developing a custom circuit for it. Many thanks to Ralph "rowlfe" Getsla for first bringing this battery to my attention. Please let me know if you have any questions as I would be glad to help. Denny Thomas 73126,672 The following are two articles written by one of the technical support people at Yuasa, Rick Dixon, in response to many questions about lead/acid batteries. (Uploaded with permission) CURRENT COMMENTS Vol. 1 No. 1 A Rose by Any Other Name Most engineer, buyers and end users have become very knowledgeable about rechargeable batteries over the past few years. Even so, there still remains some confusion as to specific terms applied to lead acid batteries. Maintenance free, low maintenance, gell cells, starved electrolyte, immobilized electrolyte, sealed lead acid, lead calcium, lead antimony, free electrolyte, solid gel. All these many terms and more are simply types and variations of lead acid batteries! Lead acid batteries are so called because the most prominent chemicals in their make-up are lead and sulfuric acid. Since Alessandro Volta, an Italian physicist, developed the first lead acid battery in the late 1700's, there have been surprisingly few changes in his basic system. Automobile battery manufacturer's added small amounts of antimony to the lead as a hardener. Later, maintenance free designs substituted calcium because of performance benefits. Hence, "lead antimony", "lead calcium", "maintenance free" or "low maintenance" (sometimes called "semi-sealed"). But they are all none the less, lead acid batteries. The sealed lead acid battery was developed for applications where the battery could or would be operated in other than the upright position. This design almost completely reduces venting of gasses developed during recharging, making it safe for working environments as well. A truly sealed lead acid battery immobilizes the electrolyte in one of two basic methods. One requires the addition of a silicate to the water and sulfuric acid solution, which causes it to set-up in a gelatin form (gel cell, gelled electrolyte, etc.). The other utilizes a high porosity glass fiber mat which absorbs and holds the electrolyte in a suspended state (starved, suspended, etc.). Some manufacturers use a combination of both methods. Automotive or maintenance free, gelled or starved, sealed or not, ALL the aforementioned types are LEAD ACID BATTERIES. These added terms serve only to define the type. CURRENT COMMENTS Vol. 1 No. 2 "Gel Cells" or "Starved" - Which is Best? Since we are manufacturers of so-called "starved" (or suspended) electrolyte sealed lead acid batteries, we could be considered somewhat biased. Therefore, we will only offer some of the principal trade off's between the two systems. The end user must then decide, "which is best". As briefly explained in the Vol. 1 No. 1, issue, a "gel cell" utilizes a thixotropic gel which is blended with the water and sulfuric acid electrolyte. This produces a gelling action which causes the electrolyte to solidify, thus preventing leakage or spillage. Because the gelling agent is an impurity to the electrolyte, the internal resistance increases and necessitates a higher charging rate. In addition, during the charge cycle, the gelled electrolyte briefly returns to the liquid state. If the battery is oriented in the axis other than upright, the electrolyte could possibly shift to that plane, leaving voids or "dry spots" on the plate. For these basic reasons, gelled and starved batteries should never be intermixed within a single device. A starved system contains and holds the electrolyte tightly within the high porosity separator materials and has no gel or other added impurities. The electrolyte is always evenly distributed across the entire plate surface. Pehaps the best answer to the title question is the fact that several manufacturers of gelled batteries have now converted to the starved system. The following is a popular sealed lead acid battery manufacturers in the U.S. market. COMPANY TRADE NAMES COMMENTS * Chloride Powerstore/Torque Starter S Eagle-Picher Carefree/Magnum S El Power (Altus) Technacell S (was G) Gates Energy Cyclon S Globe (Johnson Controls) Gel Cell/Dynasty G G.S. Japan Storage Portalac S (was G) Panasonic (Matsushita) LCR S/G Powersonic N/A S/G Sonnenschein Dry Fit G Yuasa N/A S *S-Starved, G-Gelled