I have sort of a weird question I'm hoping folks here can help with. Have searched other questions but not found a similar-enough one that applies.
I have a large mechanical system which travels over a rail. The rail has a set of powered contact strips. Each strip has a carbon brush positioned directly over it. (the brushes have tension springs in them to maintain contact). As the system travels along this rail, the brushes transfer DC voltage to a battery charger, which charges a 24V battery bank on the system, and between the battery and the charger, the loads pull current as needed. The charger, battery and loads are connected in parallel.
On a recent on-site visit to use the system, the brushes broke contact with the charging strip for a fraction of a second, when contact was re-established, the charger input capacitor and other electronics blew. I think the in-rush current from the high draw + disconnect/reconnect was the cause, as prior to this the system worked well with no issues for a month.
Upon investigation of a replacement, I found that the charger is no longer available. My question now becomes what to replace it with. I am considering a regulated DC power supply, but am curious what others think may be a better solution.
I figure there are 2 problems with this system. The incoming DC current is probably noisy due to the brush pickups and potential for disconnect. Secondly, somehow, the batteries should be charged. I figure I could simply run the input voltages at ~ 28VDC, just as a vehicle electrical bus does, keeping the batteries float charged. The issue I see here is handing the batteries dirty signal may be a bad idea. My second idea was to use something like a mean well DC-DC voltage regulator, and still float-charge the batteries, but basically configure the output of the DC regulator at 2-3V over the battery voltage (say 27V or so), and expect that the converter can absorb the input noise and be nicer to the batteries and downstream loads.
I have investigated using solar chargers, but having discussions with tech reps at companies who distribute such systems leads me to conclude this is not the way to go. Is there a different/better option for something like this?
(Basic Specs)
- Battery bank 2x 12V series wired UPS batteries (SLA)
- Electrical Rail voltage 29V @ 9A Charger or regulator - considering ~28VDC input to 24VDC output @ 10A regulator/supply. -> Considering this one https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/mean-well-usa-inc/DDR-240B-24/9602711?s=N4IgTCBcDaIDoBcAEBGAHANgwWgKz7WwDkAREAXQF8g