Mike,
Your suggestion for a FAQ is excellent. It would save a lot
of time now devoted to answering questions by newcomers. Developing
it also would help to sharpen our techniques and our thinking about
what we are doing.
Along the line of keeping things as simple as possible --
Fred suggests installing an LED on the 27-volt battery pack to
indicate that voltage is flowing. I use distilled ozonated water
at room temperature and within 3 to 5 minutes bubbles start coming
off the negative pole. This would seem to me to be sufficient
indication that current is flowing between the poles.
George