Electrical Mystery! (1 Viewer)

[Nik]

Hi.
I have just replaced my leisure batteries with two brand new and fully charged
115AH batteries from Halfords.

I then checked my readings on the control panel, see pic, and the AH reading is still in the RED at 5%.

Please, any ideas as to what is going on.
I'm sure that both new batteries can't be duff. In fairness they did take a while to come to full charge on my home charger when I topped them up but both showed in the 'green' when I bought them.
Could the reading be wrong, and the panel re-set...if so how.

Off to France next week so need to get this sorted.
I am an electrical noddy so please don't baffle me with queries about amps, volts and multi meters and yes I have connected the wires up the right way....lol
Thanks in advance for any help.
regards
Nik

 

[Abacist]

The voltage reading is 14.4 so that shows that your batteries are fully charged.

The Amp Hour capacity bar graph will gradually populate as you use the batteries and charge them up either from solar or from EHU. If its anything like mine this does not take all that long but you have to put some load for a while and then charge up again and it measures what goes in and comes out of the batteries with the variation in voltage to establish how full the batteries are with amp hours. I am assuming that it already knows the capacity of the batteries as they are just replacements.

That's my best guess as my Sargent unit is older than yours and i don't have the amp hour graph but have it on a stand alone amp hour graph meter that I installed myself.

 

[pappajohn]

Looking at the screen your battery is fully charged at 14.4v, the solar panel is producing 1.8amps and as your battery is charged is only taking 1.2amps of the solar charge to keep the battery topped up.
The AH capacity, as already said, will eventually show a proper reading as you use more power.
At the moment its showing you are using 5% of its total capacity.

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[knokinonabit]

With the Sargent control panel you have to manually set the Ah graph.
You will have to go into the advanced settings to do it.
Scroll until the vehicle logo screen is showing, then press and hold the up and down arrows at the same time until the advanced settings shows.
You can then scroll through until you find the Ah setting.
Set it at 100% if this is what you believe your batteries are at.
Then scroll until you find the exit advanced settings and you can then go back to your normal screen.

The instructions can be downloaded from the Sargent web site.

Hope that helps.

 

[tonyidle]

AH meter watches power being put into the battery and power being taken out. If you sneak power into the battery by some means unknown to the AH meter it will take a while to work out what's happened. You will help it do so by using the van.

Edit:.......... or see above .

 

[Cliffdale]

I had similar on my boat. In the settings menu, I had to enter the amp hour of the batteries on board. Inorder to keep the graph reasonably accurate, i used to reduce the amp hour by 10% each year.

May be different on motorhomes but it would be good advice on a boat!

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[knokinonabit]

Just had a thought.
While you are in advanced settings you should make sure that where it says battery size, it is set at 230Ah, as this is your two batteries added together.

 

[Nik]

Thanks all for your help and suggestions.
@knokinonabit, spot on my friend, did the trick and working good now. Thanks
regards to all.
Nik