Leisure battery location (1 Viewer)

[lukebolger]

I've been having trouble with my power. My 400w inverter to charge my laptop (60w) has not been getting enough power to charge for very long.

I got a new leasure battery today (Exide er650) and have driven four hours - so I assume it will have charged up.
But with two lights on, the inverter - if I switch one more light on the inverter goes throws up a red light.

I am now begining to wonder if it's the cold.

On my Laika the leisure battery is outside underneath the vehicle in a locked cabinet.

Would it be possible to insulate it or should I bring it inside and put it under the underseat storage?

Cheers

Luke

 

[Richard n Ann]

More likely to be voltage drop. What's the voltage at the inverter?

 

[Lenny HB]

The capacity of a battery will reduce with temperature by approx 1° for every degree below 25°, it is worse the higher the load.

The ER600 is not the most popular battery so could have been in stock a while so in a low state of charge. If so if will take more that a few hours driving to fully charge it.

Your load is quite low inverter with that load should only be drawing about 6 amps.
What size cable is the inverter connect with & the length as like Richard says sounds like it's dropping out due to low voltage.

I would fully charge the battery via the vans mains charger for 24 hours so it gets a full charge with an absorbtion phase.

 

[lukebolger]

The capacity of a battery will reduce with temperature by approx 1° for every degree below 25°, it is worse the higher the load.

The ER600 is not the most popular battery so could have been in stock a while so in a low state of charge. If so if will take more that a few hours driving to fully charge it.

Your load is quite low inverter with that load should only be drawing about 6 amps.
What size cable is the inverter connect with & the length as like Richard says sounds like it's dropping out due to low voltage.

I would fully charge the battery via the vans mains charger for 24 hours so it gets a full charge with an absorbtion phase.

Thanks guys. Booked into a campsite tomorrow so I'll stick her on charge!

It's a 1.5 foot cable connected from the inverter to the TV socket (12v lighter socket)

It looks like it's going to be cold this winter, so is there a way I can insulate the battery? Maybe some sort of fabric around it to stop the temperature drop?

Thanks !

 

[Lenny HB]

If its mounted outside insulation won't help much all it will do is slow down the rate of cooling.

With the inverter plugged into a socket in the van there will be a few meters of fairly thin cable back to the battery giving a volt drop.

With a laptop more efficient to use a 12v charger.

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[lukebolger]

What do you mean by a 12v charger? Thanks!

 

[Lenny HB]

What do you mean by a 12v charger? Thanks!

You can buy laptop chargers that work from 12v.

 

[lukebolger]

Thanks

 

[headlight]

lukebolger better to wire the inverter direct to the leisure battery with suitable size cables than connect it to a 12v TV outlet.
My dedicated 12v TV socket is only rated at 4amps max.

 

[lukebolger]

Hello everyone! Another electrical related question...

Since I've plugged into the hookup, all of the sockets are working fine

But! Now the 12v lights are dimmer (the led one I installed is very dim!). I'm not sure what is going on really.

The control panel is set to charge the leasure battery,band it's showing fully charged when I press the button.

The control panel shows a din red on the 240v hookup light, and a red light on the battery icon.

Should it be green? Does that indicate a fault?

Many thanks!

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[Lenny HB]

If anything they should be brighter.
Running on battery the voltage will be around 12.3 to 12.7v, when on EHU it will be 13.6 to 14.4v

 

[lukebolger]

Hmmm.... Something is amiss!

 

[lukebolger]

Okay! I have had a look on an italian forum using google translate. Many articles on there about changing the battery charger, as it's apparently complete garbage and inccapable of properly charfging a aux battery!

I have found a guide to swap over the old charger for a newer one that does a much better job!

I just wanted to check that it hasn't already been done, before I buy the new one.

Can anyone tell me where the charger is located and how I might gain access to it?

Thanks!

The guide is here

GUIDA (BY NORDELETTRONICA) SOSTITUZIONE CARICABATTERIE ECOVIP

E' da tempo che trovo sul web consigli, guide, indicazioni su come sostituire il caricabatterie dei nostri ecovip. Ho trovato molte informazioni a riguardo, frutto dell'estperienza personale degli...

www-ecovippari-com.translate.goog

new charger is here

NORDELETTRONICA NE287 Battery Charger - 1601.287.02 | eBay

NE143 P NE143 MH NE143-21 NE143-17 NE186 and more.

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[autorouter]

Unfortunately when you are investigating possible faults with the battery, fuses, wiring and panel electronics you really need to take some voltage readings with a multimeter at strategic points. Without those readings you are simply guessing and hoping. A cheap multimeter for a tenner or so from a DIY store is fine for this kind of measurement. It's quite easy and safe to take voltage readings in a 12V system. Are you OK with using a multimeter, have you used one before?

 

[autorouter]

That lower right switch doesn't look right to me. The one that switches between the auxiliary battery and the engine battery. Is it possible that it's a bit broken and not switching properly?

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[lukebolger]

Unfortunately when you are investigating possible faults with the battery, fuses, wiring and panel electronics you really need to take some voltage readings with a multimeter at strategic points. Without those readings you are simply guessing and hoping. A cheap multimeter for a tenner or so from a DIY store is fine for this kind of measurement. It's quite easy and safe to take voltage readings in a 12V system. Are you OK with using a multimeter, have you used one before?

Yes I will buy one today

 

[lukebolger]

Weirdly, just switched the extractor fan on for my oven and the led lights have gone back to their usual brigtlhtness

 

[autorouter]

Everything in the vehicle is connected together on the negative side. If there's some problem with the negative connections, that can cause all kinds of 'weird' interactions. There's other possibilities, but that's the most likely.

 

[lukebolger]

Got a voltmeter. Battery is on 11.92v. Goes up to 12.98v with the engine running. I havent managed to take a reading while on hookup, as I only got the voltmeter today, and we left hookup yesterday. But having barely used the appliances I assume (as I have read online) the charger in these Laika's is rubbish, hence it not being very charged only one day out from hookup.

So I have purchased a new charger to replace the old one. But I cannot locate the old one!

The Laika manual says it is located 'inside of kitchen wall cabinet". Other forum posts online say it may be under the step or behind the step.

Does anyone happen to know where these are located? As the kitchen wall cabinet doesn't come apart, I am going to have to start cutting randomly if I am to find it and that doesnt seem wise!

 

[Lenny HB]

Under the double floor or under one of the cab seats.
Do you k ow what charger unit it has?

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[lukebolger]

Under the double floor or under one of the cab seats.
Do you k ow what charger unit it has?

It's a NORDELETTRONICA

 

[1967bowesj]

Got a voltmeter. Battery is on 11.92v. Goes up to 12.98v with the engine running. I havent managed to take a reading while on hookup, as I only got the voltmeter today, and we left hookup yesterday. But having barely used the appliances I assume (as I have read online) the charger in these Laika's is rubbish, hence it not being very charged only one day out from hookup.

So I have purchased a new charger to replace the old one. But I cannot locate the old one!

The Laika manual says it is located 'inside of kitchen wall cabinet". Other forum posts online say it may be under the step or behind the step.

Does anyone happen to know where these are located? As the kitchen wall cabinet doesn't come apart, I am going to have to start cutting randomly if I am to find it and that doesnt seem wise!

With only 12.9v when engine running there would appear to be more wrong than just the charger.
can you measure cab battery with engine running?

 

[Lenny HB]

With only 12.9v when engine running there would appear to be more wrong than just the charger.
can you measure cab battery with engine running?

The battery was low so the voltage won't rise that fast until it has taken on a fair bit of charge and the internal resistance has risen

 

[lukebolger]

With only 12.9v when engine running there would appear to be more wrong than just the charger.
can you measure cab battery with engine running?

I will do in the morning

I should say that the readings I got were from the wire connectors for my inverter when it was plugged into the 12v tv socket.

In the morning I shall take a reading directly off the battery

 

[lukebolger]

Something tells me I'm going to have an intimate knowledge of 1990's Italian electrical engineering before this Laika is finished with me

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[autorouter]

If it's a big problem, you don't actually need to find the mains charger. I'm sure that 15A fuse in the lowest slot on the panel will be for the charger output, so you can remove it to disconnect the mains charger from the battery. Then you can connect the new charger direct to the battery. That will get the battery back up to full charge again. What new charger did you get? Is is a smart charger?

 

[mitzimad]

testing from the tv socket isnt the best wayas that is already suspect
test at the batteries

 

[lukebolger]

If it's a big problem, you don't actually need to find the mains charger. I'm sure that 15A fuse in the lowest slot on the panel will be for the charger output, so you can remove it to disconnect the mains charger from the battery. Then you can connect the new charger direct to the battery. That will get the battery back up to full charge again. What new charger did you get? Is is a smart charger?

It's a NORDELETTRONICA NE287

It's the upgraded one they've built to replace the garbage ones they sold everyone in the 90's. But apparently the new one is very good. 5 phase smart charger

 

[GeoffnDee]

Depending on which model Nordellectronica fuse board you have fitted you may find that the original battery charger is intergrated within it.

 

[lukebolger]

That's the board.

The manual says it's in the kitchen cabinet wall. I guess if I take the control panel off I might be able to trade the charger wire back to the direction of the charger