Xref: utzoo sci.energy:510 sci.electronics:7459 sci.med:11653
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wasatch!helios.ee.lbl.gov!beva.bev.lbl.gov!wbrown
From: wbrown@beva.bev.lbl.gov (Bill Brown)
Newsgroups: sci.energy,sci.electronics,sci.med
Subject: Re: Electric cars?  Start with wheelchairs.
Message-ID: <3637@helios.ee.lbl.gov>
Date: 18 Aug 89 20:33:55 GMT
References: <3659@internal.Apple.COM> <1526@cbnewsl.ATT.COM>
Sender: usenet@helios.ee.lbl.gov
Reply-To: wbrown@beva.bev.lbl.gov (Bill Brown)
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley
Lines: 33

In article <1526@cbnewsl.ATT.COM> spf@cbnewsl.ATT.COM (Steve Frysinger of Blue Feather Farm) writes:
>From article <3659@internal.Apple.COM>, by ems@Apple.COM (Mike Smith):
>> A friend is in an electric wheelchair.  It is, in all
>> ...
>> It cannot be recharged from her van.
>
>Of course it can!  All she needs is a connector (probably dashboard
>mounted).  The alternator and voltage regulator of the van will do
>the rest.  This is the same principle as jumper cables.  Hooking a
>dead car's battery to a live car's battery allows the live one's
>battery (and alternator) to charge the dead one.  You could probably
>rig up a connector to do this for your friend, and it sounds like
>it would be much appreciated.
>

It probably shouldn't be hooked up direct: maybe one of the "splitter"
boxes used on RV setups would be the way to go.  These gizzies are
esentialy a couple of diodes which allow both batteries to be charged
by the alternator without having the relatively well charged (starting)
battery dump mucho current into the relatively discharged (lighting, etc)
battery, on in this case the wheel-chair battery.

No real "science" here - just looks like an application for existing
stuff just waiting to happen.

(all this assuming a 12-volt system on the wheelchair)

							-bill
							wlbrown@lbl.gov

Disclaimer:  These opinions are my own and have nothing to do with the
    official policy or management of L.B.L, who probably couldn't care 
    less about employees who play with trains.