Alternator charging light staying on. Renogy DCC50S (2 Viewers)

[SeanF1]

Morning all,
Anyone have any experience of the Renogy combined DC to DC and MPPT?
I have fitted this and am trying to test at the moment.
The issue I'm having is that the alternator charging light (red one on the left) comes on when I plug in to EHU and then stays on even after hook up is dropped. Should only come on 15 secs after the engine is started. When I start the engine it goes out for 15 seconds then comes on again and stays on when the engine is switched off. As far as I can see the unit is charging as it should but this is annoying me.
Many thanks
Sean

 

[SeanF1]

Sorry forgot the pic

 

[Lenny HB]

Is your starter battery voltage higher than your leisure battery and its turning on the B2B?

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[jp11]

My understanding is that the red light on the left indicates that the leisure battery is fully charged and the solar panel is now charging the vehicle battery.

 

[SeanF1]

Is your starter battery voltage higher than your leisure battery and its turning on the B2B?

I will check but this us a good suggestion. I didn't think it would allow power through in that direction without the engine running but I guess its just based on the voltages detected?

 

[SeanF1]

My understanding is that the red light on the left indicates that the leisure battery is fully charged and the solar panel is now charging the vehicle battery.

Thanks, that scenario is indicated by the red light flashing, solid red is supposed to indicate that the alternator is charging the leisure battery

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[Lenny HB]

I will check but this us a good suggestion. I didn't think it would allow power through in that direction without the engine running but I guess its just based on the voltages detected?

Depends on how it's wired I'm not familiar with that one, does it have a connection for the D+, if so it should only work when the alternator is running.

 

[Lee Fryer]

See Will Prowse on you tube he has tested this DC to DC charge, and he rates this quite well.

 

[jp11]

Thanks, that scenario is indicated by the red light flashing, solid red is supposed to indicate that the alternator is charging the leisure battery

You are correct.

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[Lenny HB]

Get yourself one of these, a DC clamp meter makes it easy to see what is going on.

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[SeanF1]

Depends on how it's wired I'm not familiar with that one, does it have a connection for the D+, if so it should only work when the alternator is running.

Thanks Lenny. It is supposed to automatically detect alternator(starter battery) voltage and come on accordingly. It also has a sensor which is supposed to be used if you have a smart alternator which I have also piggy backed to a fuse that only becomes live when the engine is switched on. I don't have a smart alternator but have connected this anyway as I have seen this suggested.

 

[SeanF1]

See Will Prowse on you tube he has tested this DC to DC charge, and he rates this quite well.

Thanks Lee, it was his review and praise that decided me to buy it. Didn't have this problem in his review though and he charged the starter battery while the unit was connected

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[Lenny HB]

Thanks Lenny. It is supposed to automatically detect alternator(starter battery) voltage and come on accordingly. It also has a sensor which is supposed to be used if you have a smart alternator which I have also piggy backed to a fuse that only becomes live when the engine is switched on. I don't have a smart alternator but have connected this anyway as I have seen this suggested.

The problem with that is that when the starter battery rises from the solar charge it will turn on and feed a charge to the leisure battery then turn off when the starter battery falls then the cycle will start again, the same will happen when on EHU.

 

[SeanF1]

Thanks all. It appears that even 8 or so hours after unhooking from the mains, my starter battery was still sitting above 13.2 volts which made the unit think it needed to charge the leisure battery. Clearly no charging was taking place or it wouldn't still be sitting above 13.2v?
I played the radio for half an hour and the voltage dropped and the light went out.

 

[SeanF1]

Following my various posts and questions here, I have now installed the Renogy DC to DC with MPPT, two 110ah AGM batteries in parallel, Aili battery monitor and 2kwh inverter in my little Sunlight T60.
All that's left to do now is add two 100w panels to the existing one, but need the weather to warm up a bit to do that job. Space is very limited on the T60 so all the kit had to go in the space under the seats which was a challenge. The inverter is in the wardrobe which is about 2 ft from the batteries.
I have added a few pics below and would welcome any comments/criticisms/suggestions you may have.
Seems to be working as it should and was trickle charging the starter battery from solar for a little while this afternoon. With the battery at 12.7v yesterday the dcdc was giving out 35 amps briefly.

One more question if I may, I want to add a master isolating switch on the main positive lead from the leisure batteries. Is a 200 amp isolator sufficient or should I go higher?

Many thanks for all the help here. It's a great forum

Sean

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[SeanF1]

One more

 

[GMLS]

Depending on your overall set up (guess 300w of solar), this should help?

RV Solar Power Blue Prints

Building a vehicle mounted solar power system? Let me help.

www.mobile-solarpower.com

 

[SeanF1]

Depending on your overall set up (guess 300w of solar), this should help?

RV Solar Power Blue Prints

Building a vehicle mounted solar power system? Let me help.

www.mobile-solarpower.com

Thanks. I have this and used it to spec mine

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