We have an Ace Siena on a Fiat Ducato chassis. Solar panel feeding the chassis battery and the (100Ah) leisure battery through an EPSolar Duo Battery Solar Charger. The control panel is the good old NordElectric 183.
I'm planning on replacing the leisure battery with a 110Ah version but there are some strange goings on that perhaps a funster or two could explain. Everything had been working hunky dory and then the leisure battery stopped charging on the solar. With the battery depleted to nearly 7 volts (on the multi-meter) the control panel wouldn't turn on. Multi-meter on the solar controller showed 11 volts going to the chassis battery (it was a 10/10 cloudy day) but only 7.5 to the leisure battery and only the chassis battery LED was showing charge.
On went the EHU and the control panel came back to life and both batteries started receiving a good 13+ volts. When I turned the EHU off, both batteries were charging from the solar. Overnight the leisure battery lost its voltage and next day we had the same issue only this time I tired running the engine with pretty much the same result - both batteries charging and when the engine was switched off, both continued charging on solar.
The question is, if the leisure battery drops below a reasonable voltage, at least low enough for the control panel to decide to ignore it, is there some mechanism by which it stops the solar panel from charging the battery or is the the solar controller itself deciding that there isn't a battery there to be charged, which is what it appears to be saying?
I'm planning on replacing the leisure battery with a 110Ah version but there are some strange goings on that perhaps a funster or two could explain. Everything had been working hunky dory and then the leisure battery stopped charging on the solar. With the battery depleted to nearly 7 volts (on the multi-meter) the control panel wouldn't turn on. Multi-meter on the solar controller showed 11 volts going to the chassis battery (it was a 10/10 cloudy day) but only 7.5 to the leisure battery and only the chassis battery LED was showing charge.
On went the EHU and the control panel came back to life and both batteries started receiving a good 13+ volts. When I turned the EHU off, both batteries were charging from the solar. Overnight the leisure battery lost its voltage and next day we had the same issue only this time I tired running the engine with pretty much the same result - both batteries charging and when the engine was switched off, both continued charging on solar.
The question is, if the leisure battery drops below a reasonable voltage, at least low enough for the control panel to decide to ignore it, is there some mechanism by which it stops the solar panel from charging the battery or is the the solar controller itself deciding that there isn't a battery there to be charged, which is what it appears to be saying?
