Gas Tiller Converted To Battery Power

Gas Tiller Converted To Battery Power Tired of dealing with a hard-to-start gas-powered tiller mixing oil and gas and winterizing it David Arko converted his energy to battery power “A friend gave me an old lead-acid battery-powered lawn mower ” says Arko “The batteries were bad but I figured I could use the motor to power the tiller ” With a new set of lead-acid batteries the conversion went well However the batteries gave him only about 10 min run time and required about 3 hrs to recharge “I was pretty happy with my Stihl weed whacker chainsaw and mower ” says Arko “I thought I might be able to use the Stihl battery instead of the lead-acid batteries ” The first challenge was powering down the 36-volt lithium-ion battery to match the 24-volt motor He installed a voltage regulator/reducer; however it had a current-limiting circuit and a big capacitor When starting the motor drew a high voltage surge which threw a big arc that blew the fuse in the regulator “I decided to hook the lithium-ion battery in parallel with the lead-acid batteries ” says Arko “This way the lead-acid batteries would power the surge and I could use the lithium-ion battery as a big capacitor to power the motor after start-up ” Arko knew that in other applications lithium-ion batteries and voltage inverters require a resistor to bring the voltage up to charge capacitors He recognized that he needed a switch with a resistor “I installed a 3-position switch one position with the charge resistor to bring it up to voltage another to make the connection enabling the charge resistor with a limited amount of current to charge the capacitor and the final one a solid connection bypassing the resistor to avoid the arcing and blowing the fuse In addition I needed a switch at the handlebars that was a starting contact from a starting motor essentially a 24-volt relay to start the entire process ” The tiller worked well with the electronics in place with one exception Arko had jury-rigged the Stihl battery connection to the lead-acid batteries and the contact points would fall out due to tiller vibration “I got a 3D printer for Christmas and using measurements of a Stihl battery holder made a 3D file and printed a holder for the tiller ” says Arko “It works great and if anyone needs a holder like it I’ll share the file ” While the process got more involved than anticipated Arko is satisfied with the conversion “The conversion eliminated my frustrations with the old gas tiller ” he says “The combination of lithium-ion and lead-acid batteries gave the tiller the extra weight needed to reduce bouncing ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup David Arko 6255 County Road 88 Fort Collins Colo 80524 dave arko1@gmail com

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