Electrical problem

[travelingdan]

Hello all:

I'm having an electrical/battery problem. On a recent trip my battery didn't seem to be holding a charge. It would charge up fine, but then when I turned something on like an inside light it would go from full charge to weak in a matter of minutes. Since the battery was five years old I just replaced it with a Sears Diehard Marine Battery, Platinum PM-2 - Group Size 34M. The newbattery seems to be charging up okay with my solar panel but I'm having the same problem as before: turn on a light and it goes from full charge to weak in minutes. Any help would be appreciated.

Dan

 

[HERR42]

i hope you have a digital voltmeter.

leave the light out, allow it to charge.....whats the voltage at the battery terminals? should be at 12.8 or higher if the sun is up.

 

[travelingdan]

I will go out and get a voltmeter right now and check it out.

 

[travelingdan]

Into the controller it reads 20, from the controller to the battery it reads 14 and at the battery it reads 14.

 

[pods8]

Into the controller it reads 20, from the controller to the batter it reads 14 and at the battery it reads 14.


Sounds like its getting good voltage from the controller so you should be charging. Now you need to determine at the end of the day how far it actually got charged. Use your new meter to monitor the voltage rather than "good" and "weak" and see where things go. Depending on the battery type when its fully charged (ie you aren't actively charging it and its resting now) it'll be between 12.8-13.1V. Hit us with some numbers then and how the voltage falls off with usage (also might want to monitor it without anything turned on that you know of to see if there is a draw some where you aren't intending).

 

[travelingdan]

Okay, you're talking to a guy who knows how to plug in a lamp and that's about the extent of my electrical knowledge. How do I monitor the voltage to see how much the battery got charged?

 

[MakersTeleMark]

See here a bit past halfway down the page regarding a voltmeter:

Voltmeter

 

[pods8]

Read that link and/or give us voltage readings. You obviously figured out how to work the meter to give us those readings you already provided. Now at the end of the day when the charger is no longer providing voltage to the batteries, then take a battery voltage reading. As I said above if its fully charged, depending on the exact battery type, it'll be between 12.8V-13.1V. If its less you didn't get it fully charged.

Once its verified that its fully charged then you can start seeing how quickly its loosing its charge under load and not under load (that you know of anyways). This is again by taking a voltage reading. The lower it goes the more juice that has left your battery. Report back and we'll see what we can figure out.

 

[travelingdan]

Everything comes up lucky 13: into the controller, out of the controller and at the battery posts. The in-camper battery monitor reads "weak".

 

[pods8]

Everything comes up lucky 13: into the controller, out of the controller and at the battery posts. The in-camper battery monitor reads "weak".


Check the connections for anything loose.

 

[travelingdan]

I played around with the connections to the in-camper battery monitor and I got it to read "good" at one point and now it sits on "fair". The battery voltage meter reads about 12.6 after I ran the lights and the stereo for a while. Now, does the voltage meter give me a better judge of how much juice I have in the battery compared to the in-camper battery monitor (if the monitor is working correctly)?

 

[HERR42]

well it should, but its not. for now use the new meter to get truthful readings and then we can focus on why the monitor panel is goofed up.

that monitor panel is not too complicated. it does have a connector on it that could have degraded connections.

you have a main on/off switch in the camper.
turn the main switch off.
pop off the cover to the monitor panel.
look it over....its a circuit board with a connector plug.

"exercise" the connector by removing and reseating a few times....10 times....to wipe away oxidation....

then

reassemble.....turn on the safety swith and see what it reads. and take a reading with the dvm as well.

 

[travelingdan]

I had already popped off the in-camper battery monitor cover and played with the wires with no success. So I plugged then unplugged the circuit board connector about ten times (per your instructions) and the monitor still read "fair". However, I turned the water pump on briefly and that got the meter to read "good". So it looks like the monitor is iffy. Leaving well enough alone, I put it all back together. I'll have to keep my eye on it, but now I have a voltage meter that I will take along with me so I can get an accurate reading if thein-camper battery monitor is working properly.

Thanks everyone for your help.

 

[pods8]

Yeah just rely on that meter for now and keep an eye on battery performance/charging. Sounding more like your battery is fine and the panel is just the issue.

 

[Yukon]

Based on what you just said about everything being 13 volts on your hand-held meter, and the camper meter saying "weak", I would be suspecting that there could be a problem with your camper meter. That thing might be out of calibration. Just an idea.

 

[travelingdan]

Well, I'm out on a trip and the water pump button is only working sporadically. So, I've ordered a new battery monitor/water pump panel and will replace the old one today when the new one arrives. Hopefully, that will fix the problem. On another note, the new battery is working really well. So far it has been on full charge the entire trip, even when I've run my computer for a couple of hours.

 

[pods8]

Glad its a "superficial" problem and the main system is working and keeping you camping!