Alaskan Camper Wiring Check

[CGSwimmer]

I just got back to Alaska after picking up a new Alaskan Camper from Washington and had issues with my battery monitor on the trip home.

I have two 162AH Expion 360 lithium batteries with two solar panels, DC to DC charger and a Redarc charger. My Expion 360 battery monitor would decrease from 100% to zero without ever coming back up. The solar controller would show 100% and I know the unit has power but the battery monitor never increases. For example, we'll start the day off with the monitor reading 89%. After driving 15 hours with the DC to DC connected in full sunlight we park for the night and it's reading 72%. It will eventually decrease and stay at 0%. I reset it back to 100% a few times and it still only shows draw, no charge.

The only change I've noticed is when I got home and plugged it into the house on shore power. It brought it up from 0% to 80% overnight.

I talked to the E360 tech rep and their first take was that the system isn’t wired correctly but they’re sending out a new monitor to test first. Alaskan hasn’t been any help at all, telling me it’s wired right. But the E360 tech rep did tell me they’ve had to reach out to Alaskan in the past about other wiring issues Alaskan has not done properly.I’ve attached a few photos if anyone could provide some input. Much appreciated

Steve

 

[Vic Harder]

Have you got the red arc MPPT and DCDC and battery manuals? Would be good to check the settings. wiring job is ok, not great. Ideally the batteries would be linked by much heavier wires, and all the grounds would be on one, and all the +ve loads attached to the other battery, so that all current would have to go through both batts. Need more info to tell much more.

 

[CGSwimmer]

Have you got the red arc MPPT and DCDC and battery manuals? Would be good to check the settings. wiring job is ok, not great. Ideally the batteries would be linked by much heavier wires, and all the grounds would be on one, and all the +ve loads attached to the other battery, so that all current would have to go through both batts. Need more info to tell much more.

I’ve gone thru all the manuals I have, but honestly only understand maybe half of it. For the Redarc, I did confirm that the red light on the unit illuminates when the truck is on, so DC to DC power is apparently working. Here’s some photos of what my Zamp controller, E360 monitor and the E360 App are reading. Someone on another forum mentioned something I do kinda of understand and seems off. These batteries should be full at 14.4v and currently everything is reading full at 13.7v.

 

[Vic Harder]

In that fist pic, I think I see the Expion battery readout at 62% and 201AH. Was that pic taken at the same time as the others that show 100%? RESTING voltage should be about 13.3; and I set my float charge at 13.4V Charging voltage should be around 14.4. Which Redarc model do you have? I could look up the manual online and see what's going on.

 

[CGSwimmer]

In that fist pic, I think I see the Expion battery readout at 62% and 201AH. Was that pic taken at the same time as the others that show 100%? RESTING voltage should be about 13.3; and I set my float charge at 13.4V Charging voltage should be around 14.4. Which Redarc model do you have? I could look up the manual online and see what's going on.

Correct, all those pictures were taken at the same time. I reset the E360 monitor on Sunday or Monday back to 100%, and at this point it’s made it way down to the 62% it’s showing now. Eventually it’ll get down to 0% and stay that way even though the batteries are charged.

The RedArc model is BCDC1212T. Thanks for the help Vic

 

[Vic Harder]

OK, that's your DCDC charger. Pretty whimpy 11A max current flow. It will take many hours to charge your 324 AH batter bank. like 324/11 = 29+ hours of driving. I would have sized a bigger DCDC for your batteries. Never mind that though, are the idiot lights showing that you are on the Li profile? And this is section regarding the lights:

STAGE LEDThe Stage LED indicates the charge profile stage. With any profile selected the Charger will output a 3-Stage charging profile consisting of Boost, Absorption and Float Stages.Table 2 outlines the LED sequences which indicate these stages. See Figure 1 (page 8) for information on the BCDC1212T charging process. Table 2: Stage LED SequenceLED Sequence Profile Stage (Lithium)Continuous OFF/ No OutputContinuous Boost (Constant Current)2 Seconds Absorption (Constant Voltage)2 Seconds Float

Does that make sense to you? Is it in fact charging when driving?

Next set of questions will be about your solar controller: Are you using a ZAMP solar charge controller? Which model?

 

[CGSwimmer]

OK, that's your DCDC charger. Pretty whimpy 11A max current flow. It will take many hours to charge your 324 AH batter bank. like 324/11 = 29+ hours of driving. I would have sized a bigger DCDC for your batteries. Never mind that though, are the idiot lights showing that you are on the Li profile? And this is section regarding the lights:

STAGE LEDThe Stage LED indicates the charge profile stage. With any profile selected the Charger will output a 3-Stage charging profile consisting of Boost, Absorption and Float Stages.Table 2 outlines the LED sequences which indicate these stages. See Figure 1 (page 8) for information on the BCDC1212T charging process. Table 2: Stage LED SequenceLED Sequence Profile Stage (Lithium)Continuous OFF/ No OutputContinuous Boost (Constant Current)2 Seconds Absorption (Constant Voltage)2 Seconds Float

Does that make sense to you? Is it in fact charging when driving?

Next set of questions will be about your solar controller: Are you using a ZAMP solar charge controller? Which model?

Yep, the light blinking on the RedArc is the Li light, and when the truck is on the vehicle light is illuminated, which leads me to believe it’s charging when driving. Beyond that, I really have no idea.

The camper does have a Zamp charge controller, 40amp 12/24 volt model SCC 1011. After some digging behind the fuse panel I also found an IOTA DLS 45A Series M converter/ charger.

 

[Vic Harder]

So that section of the manual with the lights, the one that is either blinking or constantly on is what tells you the charge stage. Is it blinking or on all the time?

The iota is your shore power charger. No settings on that one.

 

[CGSwimmer]

So that section of the manual with the lights, the one that is either blinking or constantly on is what tells you the charge stage. Is it blinking or on all the time?

The iota is your shore power charger. No settings on that one.

Every time I look at it it’s been blinking. And it’s always the light above Li that’s blinking.

 

[Vic Harder]

The manual for the ZAMP is online too. Have you read through it? It has info on what the lights mean, how to set your battery type, etc.

 

[CGSwimmer]

I have, and based on my very low understanding of all things electrical, it seems to be configured properly as well.

I get the new battery monitor from E360 on Monday to swap out so hopefully that solves the issue. But based on what the tech rep told me on the phone and the way she ended the call, I don’t think she feels it’s going to solve the issue.

I’m also confused about this E360 app. I’ve been so focused on it showing the batteries at 100% I missed the fact it doesn’t show anything on the input or output lines. Every time I check the app it always shows the batteries at 100% and those input/output values are blank. You’d think it would show something on those?

 

[Vic Harder]

I would think seriously about adding a Victron smart shunt to the mix…

 

[CGSwimmer]

I would think seriously about adding a Victron smart shunt to the mix…

I’ve actually considered that. It’s definitely on the table after I try out the new monitor Expion360 has in transit to me.

 

[bajarick]

I'm not familiar with our equipment but from my home (completely off-grid) the BMS in the liPo batteries doesn't stay accurate for state of charge. Drove me nuts until I got a smart shunt. Best money I've spent! My house batteries are probably reading 10% percent right now on the BMS readout. I haven't looked at that for over a year.

 

[PaulT]

On photo 7726, there looks to be a wire connected directly to the negative battery post bypassing the shunt. What is that wire & why isn’t it connected to the input side of the shunt?
Whatever current passes thru that wire would not be included in the battery monitor calculations and display.

Paul

 

[Vic Harder]

good catch Paul. BUT, he says the Shunt based SOC is more accurate than the inbuilt one... a stray wire would make the Shunt worse, not better than the inbuilt one, i would think?

 

[CGSwimmer]

On photo 7726, there looks to be a wire connected directly to the negative battery post bypassing the shunt. What is that wire & why isn’t it connected to the input side of the shunt?
Whatever current passes thru that wire would not be included in the battery monitor calculations and display.

Paul

That wire is going to the negative terminal of the other lithium battery I have. While troubleshooting with Expion360 they told me it was fine setup like that.

As an update to my issue, I received a new battery monitor and shunt from Expion360 and that appears to have fixed the problem. Seems either the original monitor or shunt that was installed by Alaskan was faulty and once I put the new ones in and turned it on everything works as it should. Fingers crossed it stays that way haha.

 

[Vic Harder]

good to hear. Keep us posted!