Battery reading 0 V’s

lorger

lorger

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Dumfries
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Knaus Sun 650MEG
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2007
As I had my solar fitted last week I thought I’d have a wee look at what voltage I had, when I checked the screen both batteries were reading 0 which I know isn’t correct as everything is working. i’ll give the dealer a call on Monday but just thought I’d ask here Incase it’s operator error again.
photo of panel read out
BF678A4D-5DAC-4D8E-8291-E144BDFE34C0.jpeg
 
Should read what you wrote before posting :)
 
Bit late in the day now but try disconnecting the solar PANEL from the controller momentarily, you only need remove one wire... Live or earth.
The controller may need to 'see' the battery voltage to calibrate.
If it was connected panel first the controller won't know what voltage to provide.
 
pappajohn said:
And me, nothing amiss that I can see.
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I’m not good at remembering if it’s volts, Watts or Amps so thought I might have mentioned the wrong one.
 
pappajohn said:
Bit late in the day now but try disconnecting the solar PANEL from the controller momentarily.
The controller may need to 'see' the battery voltage to calibrate.
If it was connected panel first the controller won't know what voltage to provide.
Click to expand...
Thanks Pappajohn I just had the solar fitted at VanBitz and have emailed them for advice but thought I’d ask on here.
 
lorger said:
Thanks Pappajohn I just had the solar fitted at VanBitz and have emailed them for advice but thought I’d ask on here.
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Vanbitz will have installed correctly but thought I'd mention it.

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Zero volts, Suggests (no more than that) that the display is receiving a voltage (needed to display) but there is a break in the supply?. Is there a fuse in the supply feed?.

Another, possibility is that you are on (or have been) on EHU, the batteries are fully charged, and therefore the solar controller will not be charging?.

I have a Voltage/amps meter which measures the output (V & A) from the solar panels IF the batteries are full it shows no amps (0A). But if I take it off EHU and put some load on I get a reading. at the same time the actual controller still shows only the battery voltage.
 
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PeteH said:
Zero volts, Suggests (no more than that) that the display is receiving a voltage (needed to display) but there is a break in the supply?. Is there a fuse in the supply feed?.

Another, possibility is that you are on (or have been) on EHU, the batteries are fully charged, and therefore the solar controller will not be charging?.

I have a Voltage/amps meter which measures the output (V & A) from the solar panels IF the batteries are full it shows no amps (0A). But if I take it off EHU and put some load on I get a reading. at the same time the actual controller still shows only the battery voltage.
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I think I get what you mean 😂 I haven’t been on hookup since Thursday morning but there again I haven’t used the tv or lights until tonight, I have tried putting all the lights and tv on your see if that made a difference but it didn’t. Everything else on panel works.
 
pappajohn said:
Vanbitz will have installed correctly but thought I'd mention it.
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I have no doubt about that as I had no issues with my last van they did, I just thought I’d email to ask Incase it’s something they do different now.

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There is probably a fuse from the solar to the control panel that's gone but there still should be a battery reading.
 
My solar (Self installed) displays an error if it doesn’t detect a battery. If both disconnected (Cab and Habitation) and the panel is generating electricity the display still displays. (I know it’s not good to leave it like this but proving a point). It looks like to me your panel is providing electricity to the display but no batteries are connected. Check it at night and you may not have a display of no batteries are connected. As mentioned by others there should be an inline fuse somewhere. I’d look for that issue or a meter on the output of the solar regulator and work your way to the batteries to prove it out. Mine is wired into the consumer unit with a manufacture bought loom but some get wired direct to the batteries so it could be anywhere. Hope this helps. Good luck getting it sorted.
 
lorger said:
As I had my solar fitted last week I thought I’d have a wee look at what voltage I had, when I checked the screen both batteries were reading 0 which I know isn’t correct as everything is working. i’ll give the dealer a call on Monday but just thought I’d ask here Incase it’s operator error again.
photo of panel read outView attachment 410085
Click to expand...
You could first check the actual readings at the battery terminals with a multimeter, then you could check the cables from the batteries to the solar controller for an inline fuse and also from the controller to the solar panel there may be another inline fuse check both fuses are good.
 
lorger said:
I think I get what you mean 😂 I haven’t been on hookup since Thursday morning but there again I haven’t used the tv or lights until tonight, I have tried putting all the lights and tv on your see if that made a difference but it didn’t. Everything else on panel works.
Click to expand...
I took mine off EHU, then Loaded the system, T-V, SAT, Inverter. and a load of lighting. after a while I started to see an Amperage in the readout from the Solar Panels. Which I take to be the Solar Charger then putting a charge back in the batteries. You will have to wait until the battery voltage drops sufficiently to allow the Solar Charge unit to start, its not instant as the batteries act as a "lag".

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Even when the batteries are fully charged I would have thought there would be a reading as the solar controller should be in float mode at around 13.6v at least mine does.
 
Plugged it in to the mains last night when home and still reading 0, everything else on the panel works and I've switched the main 12V switch off and on to see if that does anything. Will investigate more this week.
 
Depends on controller mine has a display for battery volts and another for charging amps and a display for solar amps often the charging amps is 0 but as said put tv on for a few minutes and the charging amps rises But the battery voltage shown when charging is the voltage the solar is putting in
 
pappajohn said:
Or you could just wait until Vanbitz get back to you.... They fitted it.
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spoke to VanBitz today and although they weren’t in the panel they’ve gave me a couple of suggestions so will try when I have time, I’ll update when solved.

Thanks for the replies

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Finally got round to doing some checks today, the leisure battery is reading 13.75v. It’s only been charged via solar for the last 10days.
The thing that’s confusing me is both batteries are reading 0 surely they would both have individual wiring and fuses, or do they both go to a central part then it’s only the read out it sends back via one wire.
A control technician from work is going to pop round and have a look as that’s my knowledge exhausted 😂😂
 
That's confusing. You say the leisure battery is reading 13.7v yet in the next sentence you say both batteries are reading 0v.
 
pappajohn said:
That's confusing. You say the leisure battery is reading 13.7v yet in the next sentence you say both batteries are reading 0v.
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Sorry John it’s reading 13.75 on the meter I used to check it but still shows 0 on the Motorhome display
 
I do not know if it is any help but somebody on another forum had a similar problem ,but on a different system, and it has turned out to be one of the fuses at the battery positive terminal was faulty / blown.
 
Not sure if this is any help but I had a similar problem with display showing 0v but it was due to inadvertently pressing the red button when withdrawing the ignition key. This feature shuts down the (starter) battery to conserve power. It seems unlikely this would affect both starter and leisure batteries unless there was a quirk in the way the display was wired - assuming you have this feature of course. Mine is on a Peugeot Boxer.

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