Dont mind at all! And here are my answers...
1. The Positive battery terminal connection should be booted, to prevent inadvertant shorting.
Yes, as stated, i am still working on it. The positive terminal will be completely covered and sealed once i'm done.
2. I believe the YellowTop Optima is a form of gel cell: be sure that your charger is programmed for gel cell voltage set points, which are different (lower for bulk/acceptance and higher for float) from those for flooded cell. If your charger has a temperature compensation feature, wire it to the positive terminal; if not, use values for average room temperature in which the battery is located.
Not really a gel cell, actually it's AGM, similar but not the same. The Optima, according to the manufacturer, can be used in place of a normal flooded cell car battery without any change to the charging system. Which is another reason why i used it instead of a Gel Cell. The IQ4 takes all the guess work out of it, just connect and forget. A lot of RV and boat owners recommended the IQ4 after using it for years without any problems.
3. Be sure that your charger's max bulk output does not exceed 40% of the battery's nominal AH rating.
You got me confused on this one. Optima doesn't warn about this, as a matter of fact they state it can be charged at much higher rates than a standard battery. The product spec sheet states that it can be charged with a max voltage of 15.6v with NO current limit as long as the battery temperature remains below 125 degrees fahrenheit, charging at this rate until the current drops below 1 amp then switching to trickle charge. Which is what the IQ4 takes care of for me. So i assume you mean for gel cell's as the Optima it doesn't cause a problem.
4. By itself, a volt meter will tell you little about battery condition (though it is better than nothing). As a rule, you prefer to get the battery on charge by the time it reaches the 75% of capacity point (i.e., discharged by 25% of its nominal capacity) and you insist on getting it on charge (or at least off load) by the 50% point. A VM won't give you this information. A summing AH meter (e.g., Link 10) will. If all you have is the VM, adopt some rules of thumb and stick by them. For instance: shut down when on load terminal voltage <= 11.5 or recovery voltage (off load and charge for at least one hour) <= 12.0.
Actually i got you again here... I went with what the manufacturer, Optima, suggested. They recommend that when using one of their deep cycle batteries that the cutoff point be 10.5v, now obviously the radios will be unhappy before this point, but if needed to supply power to lower voltage devices that are regulating the battery voltage, or emergency lighting, it would still be useful until that point is reached. Also the voltmeter will be useful for monitor the state of the charge being applied by the IQ4, bulk is 14.76 max, absorption is 14.16, and float is 13.6. These are just roughly calculated from their chart on the web page, number of cells times the voltage per cell, etc.
Seeing how many of these Optimas are in use for high power car stereos, and the local shop tells me how they will drain them flat before starting the vehicle and recharging, i can barely imagine my use being that high of a demand during normal use.
5. Battery capacity calcs go out the window if the instantaneous draw is high. Putting a 40A load on a 85 AH 12V battery reduces the battery's nominal capacity drastically. If you are regularly going to run high power radios, consider wiring a second battery (identical make, model and vintage) in parallel with the first one.
I won't be using them for regular high power use. Eventually i would like to parallel a second battery of the same type if needed. For now i don't have any use for a second battery. This will mainly be to allow monitoring when the power is out, along with brief transmissions, as well as powering a couple lights at the operating position. Also to maintain the radios operating conditions, settings and scan lists, when the AC fails. In a real emergency i wouldn't be using the X9000 anyway, i would make use of a HT with batteries and also battery eliminators which would run a LOT longer off this battery. I plan on adding a power socket to the operating position so i can plug in devices that have a cig plug. Cell phone charger, handhelds, battery chargers, etc.
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