T6.1 Battery Low Warning Despite the Battery being Charged to 14V

[DMcCook]

Can anyone explain why our T6.1 van is telling me the 12V battery is low, despite it being charged to 14V by a Victron smart charger that I’ve had connected for about 6 hours while I try to get the damned map updates to load??.
Thread 'T6.1 Discover Media MIB 3 USB Map Updates'
T6.1 Discover Media MIB 3 USB Map Updates
Having had the ignition on for most of the day to try and get the maps updated, it’s now telling me it’s going to turn off the infotainment system and I have to take it for a drive to charge the battery!
GAAAH!
Is there another battery for the infotainment system?
Does the “smart system” simply monitor the time I’ve had the ignition turned on without actually monitoring the battery voltage per se?
I think I’ll never try to update my maps again if I ever get this fixed!
I hope someone knows why this is happening!
Thanks.

 

[The Bear78]

Was the charger connected directly to the battery terminals or was the negative on the chassis somewhere?
There is some discussion on this thread about a similar problem., if you haven't already seen it.
Basically, if the shunt doesn't see the charge going in, it won't know that it's being charged.

 

[mmi]

it being charged to 14V by a Victron smart charger that I’ve had connected for about 6 hours

If the battery was initially at low charge it needs up to 20 hours charging to get at decent charge level.

 

[DMcCook]

Was the charger connected directly to the battery terminals or was the negative on the chassis somewhere?
There is some discussion on this thread about a similar problem., if you haven't already seen it.
Basically, if the shunt doesn't see the charge going in, it won't know that it's being charged.

Ah! I wiondered about that. Guilty. It's so hard to find a decent earth in the engine bay that I took the easy approach and connected directly across the battery. Lesson learnt, thank you.
I did actually wonder about that and moved the earth just before I posted my question, but I plainly didn't leave it there long enough. I've taken it for a drive and it seems ok again now.
Many thanks.
I wish I could solve the map update and wifi so easily!
Now to hook it up again and see if the damned database will upload! if only it gave some indication that it was doing something.

 

[DMcCook]

If the battery was initially at low charge it needs up to 20 hours charging to get at decent charge level.

Nope, the battery was fine already. We've driven it a fair bit in the last view days and it's connected to our victron campervan system so it gets trickle charged constantly as well.
Thanks for the suggestion. ;-)

 

[DMcCook]

By the way, is it ok to leave the ignition switched on for hours at a time (assuming the battery is kept charged as above)?
I've never liked leaving car ignition switched on if the engine's not running, but VW in their wisdom have removed the accessory position from the key, so I don't see that I have much choice if I want to update my maps, assuming I don't need to go on a long drive !

 

[Dellmassive]

Take a few pics of the starter battery terminals.

As above, when connecting a charger the NEG needs to be on a metal part of the van and not on the NEG battery post....as per the sign on the battery.

Also a 10A charger will take 10-20hrs to recharge the low battery.

A 5A will take 20-40 hours.

 

[Captain Quick]

By the way, is it ok to leave the ignition switched on for hours at a time (assuming the battery is kept charged as above)?
I've never liked leaving car ignition switched on if the engine's not running, but VW in their wisdom have removed the accessory position from the key, so I don't see that I have much choice if I want to update my maps, assuming I don't need to go on a long drive !

The drain will be high with the ignition switched on for a prolonged period as the electrical system will be fully ‘awake’ with all systems powered up. It sounds like the trickle charge from the habitation system cannot keep pace with the drain on the vehicle battery from the vehicle systems.

 

[Matt-T68]

I updated my maps via USB for this reason. That way it updates as you drive. Stops when you stop and carries on when you start driving again. As I have an hours drive each way to work took 2 days but was easy enough.

 

[DMcCook]

I updated my maps via USB for this reason. That way it updates as you drive. Stops when you stop and carries on when you start driving again. As I have an hours drive each way to work took 2 days but was easy enough.

This is exactly why I am having problems - we have only needed to drive our van twice in the last 8 weeks - we don’t use it around town because we have bikes. So I end up having to leave the van switched on in the garage to get this stupid map update to happen. I’d leave it until we need it next except i really want to see it fixed soon - since the database seems to be missing and we don’t even have wifi now!

 

[DMcCook]

The drain will be high with the ignition switched on for a prolonged period as the electrical system will be fully ‘awake’ with all systems powered up. It sounds like the trickle charge from the habitation system cannot keep pace with the drain on the vehicle battery from the vehicle systems.

I’m using a 30Amp charger today. It is not stuggling to keep up. ;-)
As noted above I had made the mistake of connecting to the battery neg terminal instead of the chassis but I’m not using the chassis (the bolt in the battery support bracket at the base of the battery, to be specific.)
So I believe I’ve solved the battery warning problem now - I just need the damned maps to restore the database from my USB-C drive!

 

[DMcCook]

Take a few pics of the starter battery terminals.

As above, when connecting a charger the NEG needs to be on a metal part of the van and not on the NEG battery post....as per the sign on the battery.

Also a 10A charger will take 10-20hrs to recharge the low battery.

A 5A will take 20-40 hours.

I’m using a Victron 30amp charger. ;-)
The battery is fully charged and being held at 14V & ~6amps now.