Poor Man’s Split the Positive Battery Swapper System by RS Stafford

Let me explain the Split the Positive concept… lf I were to ask someone – even someone with a background in electronics or electricity if a light bulb would light up if it were placed between the positives of the batteries as shown to the left, they would say no.

Let’s say they are 1.5 volt AA batteries. The two in series makes 3 volts and the other single battery is 1.5 volts by itself. Well, 3 volts – 1.5 volts in opposition means there is still a voltage potential difference of 1.5 volts between the positives. A LED bulb for example will indeed light up because potential differences are what are important in electricity and NOT polarity.

Here’s an important thing to understand – while the bulb is lit up, the current from the two batteries in series is charging up battery #3. Therefore, if battery #3 is dead, it will charge up as the bulb is lit. When it is charged, it can move to the position of #1 or #1 batteries and one of the batteries #1 or #2 can be placed into the #3 position and it will get charged up while the bulb is lit. So you can see that by constantly rotating these batteries, you actually wind up with way more load powering capability than you would get if you just ran the bulb on a single battery until it’s dead and do that for the other two batteries.