BATTERY CHARGER WITH CHARGING LEVEL INDICATOR

Abstract

In this study, charger is designed for 12V sealed lead-acid batteries. The designed
device consists of a circuit which performs charging, a circuit displaying battery
charge level during or resting state of charging. With the lack of centralized power
grids, lead acid batteries have taken the place of one of the main energy sources
available in developing countries. With this in mind, our objective was to design a
cheap, versatile and efficient lead acid car battery charger which will interest and
appeal to the “cost-minded” customer. Lead-acid batteries are finding considerable
use as both primary and backup power sources. For complete battery utilization,
the charger circuit must charge the battery to full capacity, while minimizing over-
charging for extended battery life. In our circuit we have used a voltage regulator
and Zener diode to regulate the voltage supply to the battery for effective charging.
10 LED’s are used to indicate the status of battery charge. This circuit was
simulates using a simulation software called Proteus, a product of National
Instruments.
INTRODUCTION

The aim of project is to design a battery charger and charging level indicator. The
features of devices are as follows. The device is appropriate for 12V sealed lead-
acid batteries, since these batteries are chosen because of usage frequencies.
Besides, the device appropriate for different current values which are 1.2 Ah, 4 Ah,
7Ah and 12Ah. The device has a monitor that is consist of ten led- which shows its
charging level. In this part, information is given about of batteries in order to grasp
better understanding of the designed circuits. A battery charger is a device used to
put energy into a cell or (rechargeable) battery by forcing an electric current
through it. Lead-acid battery chargers typically have two tasks to accomplish. The
first is to restore capacity, often as quickly as practical. The second is to maintain
capacity by compensating for self discharge. In both instances optimum operation
requires accurate sensing of battery voltage. When a typical lead-acid cell is
charged, lead sulphate is converted to lead on the battery’s negative plate and lead
dioxide on the positive plate. Over-charge reactions begin when the majority of
lead sulphate has been converted, typically resulting in the generation of hydrogen
and oxygen gas. At moderate charge rates, most of the hydrogen and oxygen will
recombine in sealed batteries. In unsealed batteries however, dehydration will
occur. The onset of over-charge can be detected by monitoring battery voltage. The
figure on the next page shows battery voltage verses percent of previous discharge
capacity returned at various charge rates. Over charge reactions are indicated by
the sharp rise in cell voltage. The point at which over-charge reactions begin is
dependent on charge rate, and as charge rate is increased, the percentage of
returned capacity at the onset of over-charge diminishes. For overcharge to
coincide with 100% return of capacity, the charge rate must typically be less than
C/100 (1/100 amps of its amp- hour capacity). At high charge rates, controlled
over-charging is typically as quickly as possible. To maintain capacity on a fully
charged battery, a constant voltage is applied. The voltage must be high enough to
compensate for self discharge, yet not too high as to cause excessive over-
charging.

Figure: Over-charge reactions begin earlier (indicated by the sharp rise in cell
voltage) when charge rate is increased.

Battery: is an electrical device which is a combination of several electrochemical

cells, used to convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy or vice versa.
As most of you may have seen, there are some writings such as 12V, 60Ah, 255A
in addition to its trademark.

12V: Battery voltage. (This value gives information on how many cells the battery
contains. Since, a cell is 2 Volt, 12Volt means it contains 6 cells)

60Ah: Signifies battery capacity which means the amount of current the battery
can give in stated voltage for an hour constantly.

255A: It defines maximum current amount which could be safely taken from the
battery.

Battery Types

Batteries can be categorized in several different aspects. We will categorize them

in terms of the materials used to build. In this categorization, there are 4 types;
Sealed Lead Acid Battery(SLA), Nickel-Cadmium(Ni-Cd) Battery, Nickel-Metal
Hydride(Ni-Mh) Battery, Lithium-Ion(Li-Ion) Battery. These four types
differentiate in terms of capacity, cost, and area of usage. We selected sealed lead-
acid battery since it is most commonly used in our country, is inexpensive and is
high capacitated.

Sealed Lead-Acid Battery: A sealed lead acid battery is an electrical storage

device that was a reversible chemical reaction to store energy. Retrieved from
(http://www.vonwentzel.net/Battery/00.Glossary/). It uses a combination of lead
plates on grids and an electrolyte consisting of a diluted sulphuric acid to convert
electrical energy into potential chemical energy and vice versa. As can be
understood from the definition, main property of the sealed lead-acid battery is its
electrodes are lead and uses sulphuric acid as electrolyte. Sealed Lead-Acid
batteries are used in a various places. The most common usage is in emergency
lighting in case of power failure. They are also used to power electric motors in
diesel-electric submarines and nuclear submarines. In most area of usages, 12 Volt
sealed lead-acid batteries is used. That is way we choose them.

Battery Voltage: There is much confusion about “battery voltage” because a

battery has more than one voltage. There are some general voltages ranges for six-
cell (12 Volt) lead batteries.

Open-circuit (quiescent) of full charge: 12.6V to 12.8V

Open-circuit at full discharge: 11.8V to 12.0V

Loaded at full discharge: There is a term called float voltage. Float voltage
which refers to the constant voltage that is applied continuously to cell to maintain
the cell in a fully charged condition. With a 12V sealed lead-acid battery to float
voltage is in the range of 13.5V-13.8V. Another term, nominal voltage is the
voltage value written on the battery. These voltage values vary according to shape,
size and trademark of the battery. Retrieved from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead%E2%80%93acid_battery

Battery Current: Charging current for batteries must be chosen between one over
ten (1/10) and one over twenty (1/20) of the battery capacity, but closer to one over
ten. In introduction part, some information about batteries is given. The aim is to
make you understand why we choosed 12 Volt sealed lead-acid batteries and to
give a brief information on the current and voltage values we will use in circuits.

Advantages of Sealed Lead-Acid Battery: They are low cost, reliable, over 140
years of development, robust, tolerant to abuse, tolerant to overcharging, low
internal impedance, indefinite shelf life if stored without electrolyte, wide range of
sizes and capacities available, the world's most recycled product. They can deliver
very high currents and can be left on trickle or float charge for prolonged periods.
Retrieved from http://www.mpoweruk.com/leadacid.htm
LITERATURE REVIEW

A battery charger is a device used to put energy into a cell or (rechargeable) battery
by forcing an electric current through it.

Before we continue let look at some battery charger that has been in existence
before now and they are as follows:

Unregulated Transformer-Based Charger: These are the absolute cheapest

chargers around. They consist of a wall mount transformer and a diode. The
transformer is designed to deliver 13 to 14 volts over a reasonable current range.
The biggest problem with this approach is that when the current tapers off, the
voltage raises to 15, 16, 17, even 18 volts. At these high voltages electrolysis of the
water in the battery starts in. These must not be left to trickle or float charge a
battery, they must be disconnected when the battery is fully charged. This is not a
problem with flooded batteries as long as you check the water periodically and
refresh it. Sealed lead acid batteries can recycle the generated gasses as long as
they are being overcharged at less than C/3. However, leaving the battery to be
overcharged even at C/10 will corrode the plates if left on for weeks at a time. The
transformer is so designed as to limit the current while the battery is in absorption
mode. As the battery voltage raises the current decreases to top off the battery.
Because the transformer is used to control the current and voltage these chargers
are typically heavy and get hot. Retrieved from

http://www.powerstream.com/SLA.htm

Taper chargers: Another cheap way to charge a sealed lead acid battery is called a
taper charge. Either constant voltage or constant current is applied to the battery
through a combination of transformer, diode, and resistance. The unregulated
chargers mentioned above are taper chargers. A better, and not very expensive,
alternative is a regulated taper charger. These don't let the voltage climb higher
than the trickle charge voltage, so they can be also be used to maintain a battery.
They won't damage the battery if left on charge too long, and they don't change
their charging characteristics if the line voltage should change. Regulated taper
chargers are very useful when you need a 12V or 24V battery backup. A taper
charger in parallel with the battery, in parallel with the load makes an effective
battery back-up. You should take care to ensure that the taper charger is designed
to give continuous current equal to the load plus some left over for battery
charging. It is also important that the current limit of the taper charger is the
voltage-cut-back method, and not the hiccough method or other PWM methods.
There are two ways to make a regulated charger. The first is to use a transformer
and a simple voltage regulation circuit. This has the disadvantages of weight and
heat, but it is still inexpensive. The second uses a modern switching power supply
in a wall mount or desk mount package. These low power high frequency
switchers are surprisingly cheap, efficient, and small. They are rapidly taking over
the overnight charging requirement in consumer equipment. Retrieved from
http://www.powerstream.com/SLA.htm

Constant current chargers: A more sophisticated and not much more expensive
charger uses an electric circuit to control the charging current. This method is
useful for recovering batteries that have suffered from extensive storage without
charging, but is capable of overcharging a battery if there is not some voltage
limiting function, usually from the transformer. For this reason these chargers are
limited to slow charging. Retrieved from http://www.powerstream.com/SLA.htm

Constant Voltage Chargers (Taper plus current limit): A circuit that is set for
the maximum allowable charge voltage, but has a current limit to control the initial
absorption current can produce a very nice charger. This type of charger can both
charge at a reasonable rate and maintain the battery at full charge without damage.
Not all constant voltage chargers are made equal, however, because the maximum
voltage is a function of temperature. A temperature compensated charger is a little
more expensive, and should be used where the temperature varies significantly
from room temperature. Retrieved from http://www.powerstream.com/SLA.htm

CHARGING PROCESS OF BATTERIES

Charging a lead acid battery is a matter of replenishing the depleted supply of

energy that the battery had lost during use. This replenishing process can be
accomplished with several different charger implementations: “constant voltage
charger” , “ constant current charger” or a “ "multistage" constant voltage/current
charger”. Each of these approaches has its advantages and disadvantages that need
to be compared and weighed to see which one would be the most practical and
realistic to fit with our requirements.

Constant Voltage charger:

Constant voltage charging is one of the most common charging methods for lead
acid batteries. The idea behind this approach is to keep a constant voltage across
the terminals of the battery at all times. Initially, a large current will be drawn from
the voltage source, but as the battery charges and increases its internal voltage, the
current will slowly fold and decays exponentially. When the battery is brought up
to a potential full charge, which is usually considered around 13.8V, the charging
voltage is dropped down to a lower value that will provide a trickle charge to
maintain the battery as long as it is plugged into the charger. The best characteristic
of this method is that it provides a way to return a large bulk of the charge into the
battery very fast. The drawback, of course, is that to complete a full charge would
take a much longer time since the current is exponentially decreased as the battery
charges. A prolonged charging time must be considered as one of the issues to this
design. Solar cells are one of our main portable power sources. Inherently, they
provide a constant current which is dependent on light intensity and other
uncontrollable variability in the environment. This characteristic fits well with a
constant voltage charge design, which does not depend on the current provided by
the input source, which in turn eliminates the dependence of the charger on
external variations like the time of day, weather conditions or temperature. The
effects of the changing voltage are also minimized since the voltage is being
regulated.

Constant Current Source:

Constant current charging is another simple yet effective method for charging lead
acid batteries. A current source is used to drive a uniform current through the
battery in a direction opposite of discharge. This can be analogous to pouring water
into a bucket with a constant water flow, no matter how full the bucket is. Constant
current sources are not very hard to implement; therefore, the final solution would
require a very simple design. There is a major drawback to this approach. Since the
battery is always being pushed at a constant rate, when it is close to being fully
charged, the charger would force extra current into the battery, causing overcharge.
The ability to harness this current is the key to a successful charger. By monitoring
the voltage on the battery, the charge level can be determined, and at a certain
point, the current source would need to be folded back to only maintain a trickle
charge and prevent overcharging.
Multi-stage Constant Voltage/Current Charging Solutions:

Both constant voltage and current approaches have their advantages; that is the
reason multistage chargers have been developed which combine the two methods
to achieve maximum charge time, with minimum damage to the charging cell.

Stage 1: Deep Discharge Charging Pulse Mode

The Charger starts charging at 0.5V and give pulse current up to 5V. This has
effect of removing loose sulphation formed during deep discharge state of the
battery.

Stage 2: Constant Current Mode (CC)

The charger changes to constant current 2.5A. When the battery voltage reaches up
to 14.4V, the charging stage changes from (CC) Constant Current to CV (Constant
Voltage) mode.

Stage 3: Constant Voltage Mode (CV)

The charger holds the battery at 14.4V and the current slowly reduces. When the
current reaches at 0.5 C (C= Battery Capacity), this point called the Switching
Point. The Switching Point is one of the great features of this battery charger that it
can adjust the current automatically according to the battery capacity. Other
chargers without microprocessors are not capable to adjust the current.

Stage 4: Standby Voltage Mode

The charger maintains the battery voltage at 13.8V and current slowly reduces to
zero. Charger can be left connected indefinitely without harming the battery.
Recharging:

If the battery voltage drops to 13.8V, the charger changes from any mode to
Constant Current mode and restart charging. The charging cycle will go through
Stage 2 to Stage 4.

As much as multi-stage chargers are enticing in terms of their features, for our
purposes, the complexity and the control logic needed to implement this kind of
solution would make our project unrealistic given the time constraints and that is
while we go for unregulated transformer based charger.
METHODOLOGY

The circuits which we are to designed is discuss in this part using block diagram.
The circuits design is as follows:

Main charger circuit

10led monitor circuit using LM3914

AC REGULATING BATTERY UNDER

INPUT/STEPDOWN STAGE CHARGING
AND RETIFICATION

CHARGING LEVEL
INDICATOR

BLOCK DIAGRAM OF THE BATTERY CHARGER AND CHARGING LEVEL INDICATOR

Explanation of each of the block diagram

Power Supply:

For converting 230V AC to 12V AC, we will make use of a half wave
Transformer . It will steps down the voltage from 230V to 12V AC. after, to
convert 12V AC to 12V DC we will use Bridge Circuit. There are four 1N4007
Diode that is to be use to get 12V DC output. This is the function of Power Supply
to convert AC to DC.
Regulating Stage:

This stage is consist of transistor and LM7812 (2piece) the transistor part of it will
be configure in a way that once the battery gets to the threshold it will stop
charging and the LM7812 will is configured in such a way that we will be getting
12V 3A from it in other to increase the charging speed of the battery.

Charging Level Indicator:

This circuit is to be design to observe battery charge condition. This will monitor
the battery charging always and it will be design for 12V battery. For higher
voltage values, the integrated circuit does not work. There are ten leds on it.
LM3914 integrated circuit will be use in this circuit. LM3914 integrated circuit is a
LED-derived voltmeter.

When looked at the datasheet, the leds are connected to

1,18,17,16,15,14,13,12,11,10 in accordingly. Besides, pin numbers 2 and 8 are
connected to ground, pin number 3 is connected positive voltage. Pins numbers 4
and 6 are connected pot in order to make a minimum adjustment. This pot is also
connected to ground (First pin of pot is connected to pin number 6, second pin of
pot is connected to number 4 and third pin of pot connected to ground). Pin
number 5 is input signal and connected to pot in order to make a maximum
adjustment. The pot also is connected positive voltage (First pin and second pin of
pot is connected to positive voltage and third pin of pot connected to pin number
5). Pin number 7 which is reference output as mentioned in LM3914 datasheet is
connected top in number 6. In LM3914, pin number 9 is used to choose either dot
or bar mode. In order to make this choice, jumper is put between pin number 9 and
+voltage. Monitor is on bar mode, when jumper is connected. When jumper is
removed, that is when pin number 9 is disconnected is a dot mode. The diode is
used to or event reverse polarity. Voltage ratio between comparators is equal.
Minimum acting point is adjusted by P1 (10k). By this process of adjustment led
which is connected number 1 is lit up for minimum voltage value. Maximum
acting point of monitor circuit is adjusted by P2 (50k). In this case led which is
connected top in number 10 is lit up during adjustment process. The minimum and
maximum values which circuit will measure is applied accordingly. The
adjustment is made with P1 and P2. Difference between two measured voltages is
divided into ten equal pieces inside LM

3914. To understand working principle of the circuit it is necessary to look into

pins and inner structure of LM3914. It is chosen 11.44V for minimum value when
it is out of charge and 13.8V for maximum value when it is fully charged during
charging. It is chosen 11.85 V for minimum value when it is out of charge and
12.65 for maximum value when it is fully charged after or before charging (in
resting state).
Circuit Diagram and Principle of Operation

Circuit explanation

The circuit diagram of the battery charger with charging level monitor is show
above. Here the 220v AC that comes from the mains entered the step-down
transformer and will be step-down to 12V AC and 50hz, from the transformer it
moves to the bridge rectifier circuit that converts it to 12VDC, C2 and C1is used to
filter out some AC ripple that was not trapped at rectifying stage, then two
LM7812 was connected in parallel to regulate the voltage and bring out a fixed
voltage of 12VDC/2A. diode D1 will be use as a protective device to protect the
circuit from reveres biasing, Q1,D2 and R3 will be use to stop current from
entering the battery once it gets to 15V max because the open voltage of our
battery is 14.8 on no-load while 12.5 on-load while capacitor C3 is for boosting.
The next unit is battery charging level monitor that build around LM3914 IC, In
the circuit diagram LEDs D1 toD10 displays the level of the battery in either dot or
bargraph mode. Resistor R4 connected between pins 6,7 and ground controls the
brightness of the LEDs. Resistors R1 and POT R2 forms a voltage divider network
and the POT R2 can be used for calibration.
The circuit that be here is designed in order to monitor between 10.5V to 15V DC.
The calibration of the circuit can be done as follows. After setting up the circuit
connects a 12V DC source to the input. Now adjust the 10K POT to get the LED10
glow (in dot mode) or LEDs up to 10 glow (in bar mode). Now decrease the
voltage in steps and at 10.5 volts only LED1 will glow. Switch can be used to
select between dot mode and bar graph mode. When the switch is closed, pin9 of
the IC gets connected to the positive supply and bar graph mode gets enabled.
When switch S1 is open pin9 of the IC gets disconnected to the positive supply and
the display goes to the dot mode.
With little modification the circuit can be used to monitor other voltage ranges. For
this just remove the resistor R3 and connect the upper level voltage to the input.
Now adjust the POT R2 until LED 10 glows (in dot mode). Remove the upper
voltage level and connect the lower level to the input. Now connect a high value
POT (say 500K) in the place of R3 and adjust it until LED1 alone glows. Now
remove the POT, measure the current resistance across it and connect a resistor of
the same value in the place of R3. The level monitor is ready.
Chapter four

Components

1. Transformer
2. Capacitors
3. Resistors
4. Diodes
5. Zener Diode
6. LM3914
7. Led
8. Battery
9. Transistor
10 Lm7812
.

Components Descriptions

Transformer:

In this circuit the transformer used is of step down type which consumes 230 volts
as input (primary side) and produces output of 12volts. This can be termed as
230votls primary, 12v secondary step down transformer.
Zener Diode:
It permits current to flow in the forward direction as normal, but will also allow it
to flow in the reverse direction when the voltage is above a certain value - the
breakdown voltage known as the Zener voltage. The Zener diode specially made to
have a reverse voltage breakdown at a specific voltage. For example, a diode with
a Zener breakdown voltage of 4.2 V exhibits a voltage drop of very nearly 4.2 V
across a wide range of reverse currents.

Capacitor

A capacitor is a two terminal linear passive component that is made from 2

conductive plates with an insulator between them. The main function of a capacitor
is that, it stores voltage once an electrical charge is forced onto its terminals from a
power supply. It maintains the charge even when getting disconnected from the
power supply. In a timing circuit, a capacitor is employed with a resistor and can
also be used as a filter to permit the AC signals and block the DC signals. The
stored electrical charge is Q=CV Where, “C” is the capacitive reactance and ‘V’ is
the applied voltage. Thus, the current flow through a capacitor is I= C dv/dt. When
a DC current is applied across a capacitor, a positive (+) and negative (-) charge
builds on a set of terminals. The charge stays till the capacitor is discharged. Once
an AC current is applied across a capacitor, a positive and negative charge forms
on a set of plates during the part of the cycle when the voltage is positive. When
the voltage goes negative (-) in the second half of the cycle, then the capacitor
releases before charged current, and then charges the opposite way.
Diode:

Diode is a two-terminal electronic component with asymmetric conductance; it

has low (ideally zero) resistance to current in one direction, and high (ideally
infinite) resistance in the other.

Diode/LED (Light Emitting Diode)

A diode is a device, which is made from semiconductor material that allows

current to flow in one direction; it blocks the current that tries to travel against the
flow in a wire. These devices are often used in several electronic circuits that
convert AC to DC. An LED is the alternative of the diode, once a current is applied
to an LED; it emits light at a specific frequency. LEDs are utilized in varied
applications like keyboards, hard disks, TV remote controls, and these devices are
largely helpful as standing indicators in computers also as battery-operated
electronics Transistors.

Rechargeable Battery:

A battery is an electrical device that is employed to convert chemical energy into

voltage through electrochemical discharge reactions. These are composed of one or
more cells where each cell having an anode (+), the cathode (-) and the solution.
The anode and the cathode are preserved to an electric circuit. Batteries are
classified into 2 varieties they are primary or disposable batteries and secondary or
rechargeable batteries, whereby the primary batteries don’t seem to be reversible
whereas the secondary batteries are reversible.

Bridge Circuit:
A bridge circuit is a type of electrical circuit in which two circuit branches (usually
in parallel with each other) are "bridged" by a third branch connected between the
first two branches at some intermediate point along them. In the circuit of
automatic emergency light the bridge circuit is used for convert 12VAC to 12VDC
voltage.

Resistor

A resistor is an electrical component that restricts the flow of a current in a circuit.

The electrical device may also be used to afford a particular voltage to a
semiconductor. Once current flows through the resistor, the resistor absorbs the
voltage and degenerates within the form of heat. Resistors might have variable or
mounted resistances that may be found in thermistors, photo resistors, trimmers,
potentiometers and hamsters. The current flow through a resistor is directly
proportional to the voltage across the resistor terminals. The relationship is
pictured by Ohm’s law. Ohm’s law states that dissipation due to the resistance and
the units of resistance is ohms.

Ohms law V=IR from this equation, we are able to get I=V/R
Where, ‘V’ is that the voltage of the conductor, ‘I’ is the current through the
conductor and ‘R’ is the resistance of the conductor.

Transistor
Transistor, the invention that changed the future of electronic circuits, is a
semiconductor device that can be used to either switch electrical power or amplify
electronic signals.

A Transistor is a 3 terminal device that can either act as a current controlled device
or a voltage controlled device. Transistors are further classified in to Bipolar
Junction Transistors (BJT) and Field Effect Transistors (FET).

A Bipolar Junction Transistor or BJT uses both the charge carriers i.e. electrons
and holes and is often used as a current amplifier. Based on the construction, BJTs
are further divided in to NPN and PNP Transistors.

Field Effect Transistor or FET uses only a single charge carrier. Junction FET
(JFET) and Metal Oxide Semiconductor FET (MOSFET) are the two types of
FETs.  Based on the construction of the FETs, they are divided in to two types: N –
Channel and P – Channel. MOSFETs are commonly used in power supplies, Audio
circuits and other power electronic applications.

The combination of N – Channel MOSFET and P – Channel MOSFET, which is

called Complimentary Metal – oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) is a very common
digital logic in the manufacturing of microprocessors, microcontrollers, Memory
modules and other VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) Integrated Circuits (IC).

Integrated circuit (LM3914)

The LM3914 is basically a 10 stage dot/bar mode LED driver circuit which
provides a sequential 10 step LED display corresponding to the varying voltage
levels set at its signal input pinout#5. This input can be set with any voltage level
right from 1 to 35V for acquiring a correspondingly sequencing readout of the
voltages fed on that pin.

Engineering Bill Of Materials for the Rechargeable Lamp

S/N Description Qty Price per rate N Total price N

1. 1N4007 5 30 150
2. 1K 1 20 20
3. 220ohms 2 20 40
4. LM3914 1 250 250
5. 4.7V Zener 1 30 30
6. Transformer (Half-Wave) 1 1200 1200
7. Led 14 30 420
8. Jumper Wire 2yrds 100 200
9. Vero-board 1 150 150
10. Plastic Casing 1 800 800
11. Gum 1ptn 400 400
12. Soldering Led 3yrds 100 300
13. Soldering Iron 1 850 850
14. Lm7812 2 150 300
Total = 5010
Calibration and Simulation 10led monitor circuit

The circuit was ruined in simulation program (Proteus Isis), the following figures
are taken from this program.

Calibration of Circuit:
Minimum acting point is adjusted by P1 (10k). By this process of adjustment led
which is connected top in number 1 is lit up for minimum voltage value. Maximum
acting point of monitor circuit is adjusted by P2 (50k). In this case led which is
connected top in number 10 is lit up during adjustment process. These adjustments
are done more one time. The minimum and maximum values which circuit will
measure is applied accordingly. The adjustment is made with P1 and P2. Voltage
ratio between comparators is equal. Difference between two measured voltages is
divided into ten equal pieces inside LM3914. To understand working principle of
the circuit it is necessary to look into pins and inner structure of LM3914.

Adjustment of minimum acting point

Adjustment of maximum acting point (in bar mode)

Simulation of Circuit:

Some Examples: For these examples, it is chosen 11.8V for minimum value when
it is out of charge and 13.8V for maximum value when it is fully charged.
Three leds are lit up for 12.3 V

Five leds are lit up for 12.7V

Summary

The features of the circuits designed are as follows:

• Appropriate for 12V sealed-lead acid batteries

• Appropriate for current values 12Ah and below 12Ah

• Voltage or time controlled (it depends on design) o If it is voltage controlled,

Interrupts the current when battery is charged o If it is time controlled, Interrupts
the current when time is up

• Has ten leds which shows charge level during charging or after/before charging
(in resting state)
References

[1] http://www.vonwentzel.net/Battery/00.Glossary/

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead%E2%80%93acid_battery

[3] http://www.mpoweruk.com/leadacid.htm

[4] http://www.powerstream.com/SLA.htm

[7] Datasheet of LM3914

[10] Datasheet of LM78XXX

[11] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relay

[12] http://www.electronicslab.ph
[13] http://shibuvarkala.blogspot.com/2010/02/how-to-control-relay-from-pic.html
[14] http://www.batteryuniversity.com/partone-13.htm

[15] http://wiki.xtronics.com/index.php/Sealed_Lead_Acid_Battery_Applications