Mains Charger Shows Error With Solar Panel

[Alanmh]

Hi all

I havent seen this mentioned before. But I recently fitted a solar panel an wanted to make sure the leisure battery was fully topped up before going off on a trip.

Problem is that the mains charger, doesnt seem to like the strange voltages coming from the panel and stops charging and shows an error light.

Do I have to fit some clever relay or is there another way to fix it?

Alan

 

[Dellmassive]

You could . . . but isnt that just over complicating things?

why not just switch off the solar charger controller when your are charging off EHU ?

OOI:

what kit do you have (solar, mains charger etc etc) & any chance of some pics?

Looks like this question has been asked before . . . . . >
Solar Panel and mains battery charger question

and looks like the answer depends on what mains charger you have?

is it a branded multistage charger suitable for AGM batteries?


Im going to assume you are using a PWM solar controller? These are not the best solor controllers as they just connect the battery to the panel in pulses (PWM) . . . . the net effect is you can have very high voltages (for the battery) - which may be tripping out your charger . . .

SO:

what solar/controller do you have?

and

what EHU battery charger do you have?


possible solutions may be to swap a PWM solar Controller for a MPPT/multi stage solar controller.

 

[Alanmh]

Thanks for the reply, .I have a ctek charger which has the solar and vehicle 12v inputs and a mains charger which I can't remember the make of just now .

Will check out that link and get back to you on the mains charger

 

[Alanmh]

Mains charger is a maypole 8amp

 

[t0mb0]

Multistage chargers (mains/solar/dc-dc) generally work fine in parallel with each other. However, that maypole unit appears to do an explicit voltage-based battery health check before it charges which is likely getting confused by the solar charger. It looks like it’s designed more as a standalone charger than one to use permanently installed in a camper.

Is there a setting on it to disable the initial battery test? It not, you might have to resort to a relay (or manually switch off the solar controller) as you mention in your original post.

 

[Dellmassive]

https://maypoleltd-my.sharepoint.co...ments/7108-7112 Product instructions Rev1.pdf

looks like you might need to try a different mains charger, that may not be so picky?

have a look over here for a few > Battery Chargers - How I Did It -

.

 

[travelvolts]

Or you could just take it that the battery is full and doesn't need charging!

 

[Alanmh]

I will do some more testing. The real concern is that the error might not go away until the mains charger is turned off and on again, so switching over to charging after dark.

With so much charging going on its hard to tell how charged the battery really is.

 

[Dellmassive]

I will do some more testing. The real concern is that the error might not go away until the mains charger is turned off and on again, so switching over to charging after dark.

With so much charging going on its hard to tell how charged the battery really is.

get yourself one of these :
BMV-712 Smart

BMV-712 Smart - Victron Energy


.