LBD! Light Bulb Discharger

I had a spare 5 minutes so I put together my brand new Light Bulb Discharger courtesy of YPedal's design. I found it on his website here:

http://ypedal.com/Lbd.htm

I couldn't find the exact same fixture as he used so I just improvised and looked around to see what was at the hardware store.

I saw the overhead light sockets first ($1.50/each):

Then I saw the amazing 300W 120V utility light bulbs next ($3.98/each):

Then I used a spare piece of wood to mount the two sockets. (free!)

After that, I wired it up with a couple of short lengths of red and black wire I had laying around terminated with a couple of Anderson Power Poles (what else!). (free)

I then hooked up my now spare Drain Brain battery analyzer in series between the battery and the LBD.

I first tested a single Bosch Fat Pack battery by itself which barely turned the bulbs on and were only drawing around 58-60W.

Then I put a series pair of Bosch Fat Packs and saw a dramatic increase in light brightness and in the amount of power being drawn from the batteries. The setup was drawing over 300W with the battery's 80V when first plugged in.

I then used a couple of "Y" Power Pole connectors and hooked up my digital voltmeter (DVM) so that I can watch one pack at a time. I cut off the test probes from the DVM and added some APPs on the DVM's test leads just for this purpose. Of course, I kept the test leads and added some APPs to them as well so that I can reconnect them and use it as a conventional probed meter if I needed that. However, I've found very little need for the probes since the change.

This will be a very useful device to diagnose any battery issues I may have.

More later,
Ambrose