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Thanks cuppa. Ran it on mains last night so will see what happens today no charger with me for ark pack so hope today tops her up. No dick smith stove on today.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cuppa
Thinking I might have to somehow add power from car to rear battery. Auto elec said my dual battery solenoid is rooted and not switching so may look at something that will do all three if such a beast exists. At least the solar is a top up.
Thanks
Marty
Hey Rafa,
Good talking to you this morning on the phone. I'll keep an eye on the tread and if you have any further issues feel free to post on here and I'll do my best to provide any help.
For everyones information, E3 codes are usually triggered from insufficient power supply. If it was triggering on 240v, I'd suggest having a look at how it's connected up. It may be that you have a dodgy extension cable that is causing an issue.
Cheers,
Matt
Ironman 4x4
Thanks Matt for the chat and advice.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ironman 4x4
Will keep you posted.
Marty
Battery up to 12.2 at 1 PM, 43.5c at the min so sure getting a work out. Compressor on high setting and holding -14 in freezer side :)
You may want to fill any cavities with wine bags of water, Will help the fridge cycle less to get to temp. even fill Coke bottles. try to keep the whole cavity full of cold stuff
Interested to see how it handles the high humidity as well
to perform at its best all things need to be cold so fill the rest with wine bladders and coke,
as water is one thing you need all the time up there
Battery back at 11.9v must be the battery. Solar cranking out the amps prob plus 50a today. So battery dropping even with panel at 7.9 a/hrsQuote:
Originally Posted by threedogs
next time in town get them to test the battery under load
52.6 a put in from solar panel. Battery got up to 12.2v at 5.30 it's at 11.7. Got hold of a ac charger so will put fridge on mains and give the battery a good charge and see what tomorrow brings. :)
Are there any issues charging 120a deep cycle with this charger? All I can find out where I am?
On the back it says lead acid only? Does it really matter?
Cheers
Marty
Attachment 35193
Sorry mate don't know just yet but I'll try to find out for you now.
Just found the manual and having a look
Ok so the manaul warns that it's only for lead-acid batteries between 10-60amp hours and not to try any other types.
Sorry only info I could find
Cheers mate.Quote:
Originally Posted by Warwick89
Better not then. :(
AGM's are lead acid, they just have the electrolyte suspended in glass mat (Absorbed Glass Mat) instead of in liquid form. That charger would charge the AGM ok, but because it is not a smart charger it would be possible to overcharge the battery, consequently you would ideally need to know the battery's SoC & the output of the charger to know how long to leave them hooked up together. In reality the battery will reduce the amount of charge it will accept as it gets 'fuller' so overcharging is probably only a possibility if left hooked up for long periods. Leaving it on charge for a few hours should be fine. Best to leave it on for two or three hours, disconnect & let the battery sit for half an hour. Connect a small load to the battery (e.g., a 5 watt globe or similar) for 5 minutes, disconnect it & let the battery sit for another 15 minutes or so, & then check the voltage across it's terminals. This should then give you an idea of it's state of charge & you can decide whether to repeat the charging process. If after checking like this you get a reading of 12.7v+ you can consider the battery well charged.
Cuppa
EDIT. If the charger is intended for batteries of 10 to 60 amp hours capacity, it will still charge a 120 amp hour battery but will take longer. In the unlikely event that the charger were a smart charger, it would still be wise to disconnect & check as I have suggested as it is possible for an undersized smart charger to overcharge a battery bigger than it is intended to be used for.
I did end up trying it for a couple hours and it did nothing. Just kept clicking in and out of charge mode every min or so.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cuppa
I'm staying in the same place for 3 days so will let the solar run into the battery with no draw. I have the fridge on mains at the moment and am parked up while working.
Battery up to 12.4v now so well see what happens through the day.
ArkPak sell a dc to dc smart charger so may look at one of those down the track or something similar.
Was hoping to keep this battery isolated from the two under the bonnet. I think also my dual battery solenoid is stuffed so may be a good time to sort it all out.
Thanks mate.
Marty
Solar panel has it at 12.6v by 1:00pm with no draw. Getting there! :)
A bit more looking revealed that that particular Arlec charger, whilst not being a smart charger, also only has a max output of 2.5amps. If it were working properly it could take anything up to 48 hours continuous to charge your battery! The fact that it kept cutting in & out is most likely because the charger itself is faulty or it's simply struggling in a really hot place. It has a built in thermal overload causing it to switch off if it gets too hot. I don't think it likely that your battery is at fault.
Will get it checked when I get back to Darwin.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cuppa
What do you recommend to replace the old dual solenoid? Is there some thing that could do all three batteries even if the deep cycle is in the back pod?
Cheers
Marty
To an extent it depends on what you wish to use your 2nd under bonnet battery for. If it were me I'd use a voltage sensitive relay (solenoid) between crank bat & 2nd under bonnet bat, & a Redarc BCDC1240 between crank bat & pod bat. The BCDC will provide up to 40 amps to the pod battery whilst driving, although much of the time the battery in a reasonable state of charge will not accept all of this. (Some folk also wire in a bypass to allow the full amperage from the alternator to fast charge batteries in emergency situations but this is largely pointless with a single 120ah battery). Importantly what the BCDC will so is fully charge the pod battery, something a solenoid (ie. alternator)will never do. (It could, but might involve the need to drive around Australia without stopping!). This will give a significant increased effective capacity. The BCDC also boosts voltage supplied to it if required to ensure optimal charging, Thus it can compensate for any voltage drop between crank battery & pod battery provided the BCDC is mounted in the pod as close to the battery as possible. The BCDC also functions as a crank battery 'protector' as a solenoid does, and is an MPPT solar regulator. All in one small box. The alternative is the CTek Dual, but I have no experience with it. Be careful about buying any other dc to dc chargers. Many have too small output to be useful, & as ,oils ain't oils' not all dc to dc units are the same. I learned of one just a couple of days ago being marketed by Jaycar. It sounds like a great deal & will likely appeal to many folk, who will subsequently be disappointed as although it has high specs (120amps I output I think it was) it is a dc to dc charge controller not a charger. It does not, like Redarc & the Ctek, boost voltage, so in the case of thin wires or low alternator voltage, it would be effectively useless.
Others may comment on what dc to dc chargers they have which suit them.
I'm sold. What great info. Cheers mate. So in a nut shell. Instal the redarc next to arcpak. Then run decent wires back to main under bonnet battery and then when driving it will charge pod battery. When not the solar will top up the arkpak and not draw from crank battery?Quote:
Originally Posted by Cuppa
Cheers heaps mate.
Marty
Does $429 with free shipping sound ok?
Cheers
If it is from this ebay seller then yes. They are authorised redarc resellers (unlike most on ebay) which means you get a proper return to Redarc warranty.Quote:
Originally Posted by rafa
Cuppa
Correct, but just to be clear..... you would connect the BCDC directly to the battery, NOT via the arkpak's charger (which become superfluous).Quote:
Originally Posted by rafa
Got it. It has terminals so that's easy. It was from that seller. Will order tonight. Thanks again.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cuppa
Marty
Here's a weird thing. Well my battery got to 12.7v today by solar and nothing drawing on it. Fridge on mains and dc plug removed from fridge)
Just checked it then and battery is back at 12.4v.
The only thing connected to it is a solar panel?
Maybe my problem lays here some how?
Marty.
Still at 12.4v in morning.
12.4v 'rested' is only 50% capacity. (If your reading of 12.4v was taken with the panel picking up any light the situation is worse). Regardless of the beliefs that continue to be held strongly by some, deep cycle batteries are NOT intended to be used until 'flat' & then recharged. If they are to last then 12.3v to 12.4v (rested) is about as low as you would want to go. I'm guessing that your battery was so flat that even with a day's worth of solar input it has only brought it up to half full. Hopefully you will see a higher rested voltage tonight. Was the 12.7v with the sun shining? If so that also indicates just how depleted the battery was. When the battery is reasonably full you should expect to see a charging voltage of around 14.4v & when it's full a float voltage of 13.2 to 13.8v (depending upon the make of regulator). The figures you see with the sun shining however are pretty meaningless in terms of knowing the battery's State of Charge (SoC). . To get a sense of how full the battery is, it needs to be disconnected from all loads, & with no solar input (night time or blanket over the panel) & taken after sitting for at least half an hour without either charge or load. Expect to see anything up to 13.1v - this will be a 'surface charge' (as I suspect your 12.7v was). Place a small load on the battery & that voltage should drop quickly back to between 12.7v to 12.9v.
It is possible significant damage has already been done to the battery, but fingers crossed that that is not the case. They can be more 'forgiving' when new. There is no doubt however that if you continue to discharge your battery into the 11's that you will kill it quite quickly. It's capacity will gradually reduce until you reach a point where it will appear to not be holding it's charge, whereas in fact it's more likely that it will no longer be taking a full charge to hold.
Cuppa
Well back in Darwin and went to battery world. They swapped the battery no questions asked. Going to test the old one this week and let me know. New one has say 13.9 all day and panel on float charge. Let's see what happens overnight and see if it charges up again tomorrow. Be interesting to see what this one drops to overnight.
Marty.