Thanks Gary for the writeup. I have been thinking of doing the exact
same for a glider I just bought. Can you please add the part number if
you recall them.

I suppose if one really wants to know about the condition of each
individual battery, you could put a voltmeter on a 3-way switch and see
the volatge on the "main" bus, and each of the batteries. This way you
could tell the difference between them.


Gary Emerson wrote:
Nyal Williams wrote:
I'd like to see a full write-up with diagrams, photos,
and names/addresses of places to buy parts. This would
make a good article for Soaring.


Here is a sketch

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/emer...y/e/sketch.JPG

and a pic of my install...

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/emer...y/e/diodes.jpg

There is a aluminum bracket which is lightly mounted to the bulkhead.
The PC board just provides insulation and some support for the wires.

Each diode has a heat sink, but I don't really think it was necessary.

I don't have the part numbers handy, but I'll see if I can't find something.

With 18Amps of forward current capability (each), there isn't really any
"need" for the two diodes in parallel, but for an extra $5 and a few
extra minutes of wiring, if any one diode ever did fail "open" the other
would still provide power. Most likely overkill.