Fogstar drift down to 0% (1 Viewer)

[PaulC70]

So not used the van for a month and yeah i know that the solar we get this time of year is naff, but planning a couple of nights near addenbrookes Monday / Tuesday and just tidying up today and checking stuff.

Fogstar drift 300 is on zero showing 0% battery at 11.2v :-/

Start the van up and the alternator is definitly charging it so guess it's just depleted over time, but here's the question, should the toggle be off or on if leaving for a while with crappy sun? ie if I toggle discharge to off, I'm assuming that it will simply keep charging until full, then when I need the battery to power the lights etc switch to on?

 

[TrudeandDall]

You must have a significant drain to loose 300 amps over one month. We have 280w of solar and our AGM batteries have been at 100% all of March, just from the solar.

 

[PaulC70]

nah it was on less than 50% already to be fair

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[Lenny HB]

I think you need both charge & discharge on for it to charge.

 

[headlight]

You must have a significant drain to loose 300 amps over one month. We have 280w of solar and our AGM batteries have been at 100% all of March, just from the solar.

Agreed. I have 200 watt of solar and a 230AH Fogstar.
I have charge turned off, discharge turned on when the van isn't being used.
I only drain a few amps a week out of the battery and that is being taken by the battery master.
If you parked up at roughly 50% SOC that's about 150 amps.
That's a drain of nearly 40 amps a week when not being used which would seem excessive to me.
Unless of course when you parked up your battery wasn't really 50% SOC.
Bear in mind the battery BMS cannot detect drains of around 1 amp or less so the SOC shown on the app can be way off.
You need to use a shunt to accurately determine SOC and amps.

 

[RogerIvy]

Unless you need to trickle charge the starter battery through a Battery Master (or similar) why not simply isolate the battery if not required?

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[PaulC70]

There is a battery master. :-/

 

[headlight]

There is a battery master. :-/

Battery Master doesn't take much, well not on my van it doesn't, a few amps a week.
Have you checked what your parasitic drain is as on some vans it can be quite a bit ?
Do you have a shunt ?
My BMS can read way off compared to my shunt, the shunt being the true reading.
I've had my BMS say my battery was at 98 % SOC but my shunt said it was 78%.

 

[PaulC70]

No shunt and not checked any parasitic drain either.

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[EuroTrotters]

No shunt and not checked any parasitic drain either.

is it charged now ?

 

[PaulC70]

Been a crap 2 days at work and Nope it's worse :-( And Im going to the campsite tomorrow :-(

 

[PaulC70]

LIttle update, so after the hours drive to Cambridge CCC site the battery is up to 7% and we're up to 14% after EHU of 4 hrs.

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[PaulC70]

So another update, after 3 days on EHU fogstar is back to 100% (this is a week ago now) so exactly a week later after being parked up and not used it's dropped to 90% so something must be drawing that.
The only things on are the seattle control panel but master is off, but the panel still has power.
Then theres a light on the victron solar controller showing it's operation and of course the vans alarm which im assuming draws from the cab not hab battery but of course theres a battery master which is likely allowing a draw from the hab to cab.

So would this be normal drainage or how would i check for a parasitic drain?

On the control panel - as I say its still got power, in my previous MH I could switch it off completely but it doesn't appear possible on this one?

 

[MichaelT]

So another update, after 3 days on EHU fogstar is back to 100% (this is a week ago now) so exactly a week later after being parked up and not used it's dropped to 90% so something must be drawing that.
The only things on are the seattle control panel but master is off, but the panel still has power.
Then theres a light on the victron solar controller showing it's operation and of course the vans alarm which im assuming draws from the cab not hab battery but of course theres a battery master which is likely allowing a draw from the hab to cab.

So would this be normal drainage or how would i check for a parasitic drain?

On the control panel - as I say its still got power, in my previous MH I could switch it off completely but it doesn't appear possible on this one?

Do you have a pioneer radio they draw a lot but if you have solar then it should keep it topped up.

 

[Lenny HB]

So with no charge for 7 days you would have used 30ah if we say we are getting a very modest amount of solar say 5ah a day (it's probably more) that would mean you have used 65ah or 9.3ah per day.
That would be a constant draw of 380ma, I would say that is fairly normal if you have an alarm & tracker connected to the starter battery with the BM topping it up.

Without knowing how much your solar yield you can't get an accurate figure for the current drain unless you disconnect the solar.

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[Raul]

Been a crap 2 days at work and Nope it's worse :-( And Im going to the campsite tomorrow :-(

View attachment 881482

That, is dangerously low, at 10v and perfect balance you reached the absolute lowest allowed 2.5v per cell x 4 = 10v. Allow for a bit of imbalance, and 10.4v would be the lowest of the low you should go.
Remember, lithium when it goes, its done. It will never come back. You been very lucky at 9.8v .
Goes to show how well that bms is set, NOT.

 

[PaulC70]

Standard radio not a pioneer.
I do have a vanbitz alarm and tracker so sounds ok then?
BMS wise I dunno how well its setup to be honest.

 

[AdrianChen]

How old is the cab battery?

The one thing I worry about is that with the BM type trickle chargers you don't get many hints that the cab battery is getting tired.

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[PaulC70]

How old is the cab battery?

The one thing I worry about is that with the BM type trickle chargers you don't get many hints that the cab battery is getting tired.

im assuming its the original and if so 4 years old?

 

[G1969]

So with no charge for 7 days you would have used 30ah if we say we are getting a very modest amount of solar say 5ah a day (it's probably more) that would mean you have used 65ah or 9.3ah per day.
That would be a constant draw of 380ma, I would say that is fairly normal if you have an alarm & tracker connected to the starter battery with the BM topping it up.

Without knowing how much your solar yield you can't get an accurate figure for the current drain unless you disconnect the solar.

Mine is currently drawing 8w, this is with alarm, tracker and WiFi on, everything else off including solar at the moment until it drops to 80 or so then I will switch it back on.