Split charger failed?

[drooke]

Hi all,

Noticed my leisure battery charge level was low last night. Turn on the camper electrics control panel and it beeps regularly and shows minimal leisure battery charge.

Today, My MPPT controller shows voltage as 12.26V shortly after a reasonable drive and the control panel does not beep. On starting the engine, the split charger does not kick in as I would expect - no relay click and no red LED. The MPPT is only getting 10W from solar.

Possibly related, my headunit started playing up last weekend. It goes into a continual reboot which gets more frequent as time passes after starting my engine. The headunit can be manually switched to run off the leisure battery.

Do you think the split charger has failed? Any more diagnosis steps I could take? Will it have killed my leisure battery (which is about 4.5 years old)?

Thanks,

Dan

 

[drooke]

Split charger

Fuse for split charger marked 150 32V:

 

[Dellmassive]

the solar MPPT wont have enough sunlight to charge the LB at this time of year. . .

which can be seen by your 3w 0.2A charge rate. . .


your VSR should kick in when the engine is running. . .

but,

the LB voltage might be too low for the VSR to detect it and switch on.


look at connecting a mains charger to the LB for a 24hr period and re-test.

 

[Dellmassive]

look at adding in some monitoring:

• 
  Charging:
• Battery Chargers - How I Did It -
• Battery Charging - Main Battery Earth Point -
• Battery Monitoring -- How I Done It --
• [Guide] Battery Maintainer (for Starter battery) -- How I Done It --
• Which Jump Starter?
• Seat Base Electrics, EHU+Charger+solar+install - How We Done It -
• Noco Genius 10 not working correctly

 

[Dellmassive]

and look at upgrading the VSR for a proper DC_DC charger:

• 
  DC-DC:
• Dc-dc Charger (for Leisure Battery) -- How I Done It --
• Charging Starter and Leisure batteries with same charger - Victron
• DC-DC Charger - AUTO VSR - feature testing
• Stop/start...regen...smart Alternator... Dc-dc Charger For Leisure Battery Or Not?
• Victron 12/12/30 DC-DC Charger
• Renogy DC50S DC-DC charger
• Redarc BCDC1250D DC-DC charger
• Votronic DC-DC standby charger - or not !
• Renogy Bt-2 Monitor
• Renogy 20A DC-DC Charger (no solar)
• CTEK D250SE DC-DC Charger

 

[Dellmassive]

look at getting a 12v SLA battery tester to test your battery's:

https://amzn.to/3HevTBn

 

[Dellmassive]

and the awsome BM2 voltage logger:

https://amzn.to/3FoXLRK

 

[drooke]

the solar MPPT wont have enough sunlight to charge the LB at this time of year. . .

which can be seen by your 3w 0.2A charge rate. . .


your VSR should kick in when the engine is running. . .

but,

the LB voltage might be too low for the VSR to detect it and switch on.


look at connecting a mains charger to the LB for a 24hr period and re-test.

Thanks for the info, lots there!

To charge the LB from the mains, could I use the onboard EHU charger and somehow connect it to a standard wall socket? EHU expects 16A which will be a problem maybe.

If not, I'll have to buy a trickle charger I think. I'm still it be okay to charge in situ or do I need to disconnect everything first?

thanks,

Dan

 

[Deaky]

Thanks for the info, lots there!

To charge the LB from the mains, could I use the onboard EHU charger and somehow connect it to a standard wall socket? EHU expects 16A which will be a problem maybe.

If not, I'll have to buy a trickle charger I think. I'm still it be okay to charge in situ or do I need to disconnect everything first?

thanks,

Dan

Use one of these, no issue with EHU 'expecting' 16a.

 

[drooke]

Use one of these, no issue with EHU 'expecting' 16a.

View attachment 181251

Excellent thanks, I had wondered if something like that existed. Ordered now, hopefully here by the weekend to try and charge the battery to see if that solves it.

 

[oldiebut goodie]

Do what I did - drill through the wall inside a socket on an outside wall and mount a socket in a weather proof box, then there is no need for trailing cables through windows or doors.

 

[drooke]

Adapter arrived so it's on charge now. Hopefully this will sort it.

I'm thinking my headunit issue is a separate problem.

 

[drooke]

So I've the battery on charge from the mains between trips. Yesterday did a 4 hour round trip in the van, checked the splitcharger before turning off the engine and the light wasn't on so I'm thinking it isn't working.

Battery level when coming off the mains charger:


Battery level after 4 hour round trip:


Does it seem like the split charger is broken to others? And does the leisure battery seem okay otherwise?

I'm planning on getting away off grid at Christmas so need to be ordering everything I need now so I can sort it in time. Any help much appreciated!