Solar charger Controller stopped working

[AstonHill]

What do the settings say? Assuming you have 2 batteries in series how does it know to use 24v settings? Have you tried with one battery? It seems you can adjust the float voltage, can this be set higher to reflect they are 24v batteries? Maybe try the batts in parallel

Dont know what the setting are as they dont seam to do a lot anyway. It adjusts from 12 to 24 or 12 to 12 volt batterys automaticly
Yes have tried one 12V battery but since I have 2 batterys I like to keep the spare one topped up or i did when it was working

At the moment when you switch it to 1 battery/12V it dose not read anything, completelly dead!

 

[ericmark]

OK a lot of questions, first lead acid batteries can be divided into diffrent types, the traction battery often has a devider which will not allow active material to fall off the plates, but also will not allow heavy current.

The vehicle starting battery needs high current so the devider is more flimsy and deep cycling can cause active material to drop off the plates, often there is a reservoir to catch the active material out of harms way.

The leasure battery is half way between the two.

The absorbed glass mat, or valve regulated lead acid is yet another version, where the water can't be replaced so chargers need to be designed so they can't over charge.

The batteries which had been left discharged were VRLA, and I used a Lidi smart charger plugged into an energy monitor which allowed me to see charge rate on a chart.

The battery voltage was too low for the Lidi charger, so I put it in parrellel with a good battery to trick it into charging. I will admit I did not expect the results, I thought the chance of recovery was slim, but after 12 days it was as if a switch had been flicked, and they seemed to preform OK but did not measure Ah.

After this I did same with flooded lead acid, and again they seemed to recover fully, but old batteries so not full Ah rating.

The stage charger was designed for flooded batteries, so they need topping up with water, the voltage can be a bit on the high side with traction batteries. But this is not the case with vehicle start batteries.

 

[AstonHill]

OK a lot of questions, first lead acid batteries can be divided into diffrent types, the traction battery often has a devider which will not allow active material to fall off the plates, but also will not allow heavy current.

So that is what we want for a leisure battery right?

 

[ericmark]

Best is traction battery, then leisure battery, as to AGM depends on charging system as they must not be over charged, my mobility scooter has 2 x 35 AH AGM batteries, first set lasted around 12 years, but around once every two months the batteries need charging with a smart charger for full 24 hours. The AGM can be left longer discharged to a flooded, and don't need topping up, and if not upright it does not matter, two in stair lift were on their sides.

 

[cdbe]

Personally I'd say you have killed one or both of your batteries, I run a 12v system in my caravan and aim for less than 25% discharge to prolong battery life. If you're only charging when your lights go dim they've probably been excessive discharged - I believe you can buy a low voltage cut out circuit to further protect your batteries. I run a 12v solar system but have two batteries - I have considered connecting in parallel (to keep both charged and increase usable capacity) but they're different brands and it's generally considered a no no. The second battery just acts a a spare which isn't ideal as I wanted a maintenance (as in swapping between the two) free system - but it does mean (as I have a B to B charger in my car) I can take one for a drive in an emergency.

When charging from your generator you would be better plugging a high capacity smart charger into the mains output - find the maximum safe charging rate of your batteries, and check your generator capacity. I'm not great at physics and the watts/amps business makes my head hurt but there are plenty of online calculators.

I presume you've already done your power audit to determine your needs - I've given up on caravan forums - full of idiots telling people what set up they need based on what they themselves have. One twit telling people they need a £6,000 lipo set up (like his) to run a 12v TV, a water pump and charge a few phones for a weekends caravanning, another claiming a 75ah battery can run a 12v fridge for a week.

I don't know what you're running off battery but If you're living off grid I would have thought you would need a substantial set up for reliability and longevity. Cheap lead acid batteries are the budget option and can provide good service for years if looked after.

If I were you I'd be trying to figure out how to safely connect together to make a high capacity "bank" that can be charged and discharged as one.

 

[SpecialK]

Dont know what the setting are as they dont seam to do a lot anyway. It adjusts from 12 to 24 or 12 to 12 volt batterys automaticly
Yes have tried one 12V battery but since I have 2 batterys I like to keep the spare one topped up or i did when it was working

At the moment when you switch it to 1 battery/12V it dose not read anything, completelly dead!

Have you tried charging the battery with a charger?

Expensive but the best option would be a victron MPPT and a LifePO4 battery pack...

 

[AstonHill]

Personally I'd say you have killed one or both of your batteries, I run a 12v system in my caravan and aim for less than 25% discharge to prolong battery life. If you're only charging when your lights go dim they've probably been excessive discharged -

Once the solfur is off of the plates are the batterys then not good as?

I believe you can buy a low voltage cut out circuit to further protect your batteries.

Do you know where you can buy one from please?

 

[AstonHill]

I presume you've already done your power audit to determine your needs - I've given up on caravan forums - full of idiots telling people what set up they need based on what they themselves have. One twit telling people they need a £6,000 lipo set up (like his) to run a 12v TV, a water pump and charge a few phones for a weekends caravanning, another claiming a 75ah battery can run a 12v fridge for a week.

A certain top of the google search engine caravan forum had a cannal boater on there (snootiest bunch at best!). Anyway this particular butter would not melt goody little pop **** took great offence to me drawing water out of the cannal for my sink and toilet use like I had stolen the bag of coal off of the roof of his boat. He was such an obedient slave to his masters regarding what he was and was not allowed to do that he kind of advocated that fascist tranical laws to harm me where in place to protect every one ells even though I am guilty until proven inocent (in the name of lock down he advocated, we are hurting you for your own good!). I finaly told him what he should do and that was to **** off and die from the fake vaccine and that was the end of that one!

Infact A few years ago now with said forum I remember having a barmy with the site owner about what a little hitler he was (in another reencarnated username that was) and he should burn in hell! (this is before the roll out of the fake vaccine of course). Anyway that account was suspended and good riddens to such scum and back round in circles we go

 

[ericmark]

I have two Lidi smart chargers, one 3.8 amp the other 5 amp, very similar other wise, however the 3.8 amp will only alternate 0.1 to 0.8 amp once the 14.4 volt has been reached once, the other will return to 3 amp, so actually the 5 amp version is faster recharging a battery, so recharge times do change charger to charger. However in both cases the 3.8/5 amp charge rate does not run for long, once it hits 12.8 volts maximum charge rate is 3 amp.

So 110 Ah / 3 amp = 35 hours, that's a long time. Even a charger like this at over £250 still takes time to charge a battery, it may start charging at 42 amp but for such a short time, it only knocks the charge time down to around 24 hours and no one is likely to run a generator for that long.

So you need to find some one who will let you put the battery on charge for a couple of days at least to have any chance of getting it working again, more likely it will take a week or more, and the problem is only way to actually know if fully charged is with a hydrometer. Volt meters tell you very little once it has been allowed to get so sulphated. The longer the sulphur is left on the plate the harder it gets and the longer it takes to remove it.

As an auto electrician I would simply say the battery is useless and you need a new one. I could not afford the time trying to nurse it back into life, it may recover 75% of the time if it was good to start with, but so many were not that good in the first place, for an unknown history with a battery maybe 10% will recover, so not worth trying.

 

[AstonHill]

So 110 Ah / 3 amp = 35 hours, that's a long time. Even a charger like this View attachment 320159at over £250 still takes time to charge a battery, it may start charging at 42 amp but for such a short time, it only knocks the charge time down to around 24 hours and no one is likely to run a generator for that long.

But with out trickle charging it to the fine end, how long should a charger like that take to charge up a 110amp/hr battery to something like 13V?
I did think of buying an old lawnmover engine and a used car alternator and mounting the two together but i was advised not to do so

I tried again today with my solar charger controller and it has put no charge into my main battery what so ever! will try it on its own 12v and not 24v 2 batterys tommorow to see what happens. But it was something someone bough me off of ebay and commonly made cheep in China. I have zero faith that anything on ebay and or from China will work long. But i did not know what i was doing and I am unsure of where I can buy a quality controller unit that will connect between my 31V solar pannel and my 12V battery and regulate voltage and current and everything

 

[AstonHill]

and the problem is only way to actually know if fully charged is with a hydrometer.

What is this? it sound like something used on water

 

[ericmark]

What is this? it sound like something used on water

It measures the pacific gravity of the electrolyte which tells one how much acid is in it, 1.26 is normal around fully charged this does vary depending on how hot the country is but assuming measured when battery new and fully charged one then has an idea of how much charge is in the battery. As we started to get sealed batteries the use of the hydrometer reduced as you could not draw the acid into it, and we started to rely on volts instead. But where the sulphur has hardened on the plates over time voltage can give a false reading. It was common to have a chart which was used to show state of charge, and also by comparing cells one could see when an equalising charge was required, in the days of the dynamo over time some cell would become high and others low, so once every few months the battery would be over charged with a very low charge rate normally around 1.5 amp called the trickle charger to equalise the cells. But when the alternator arrived on the scene the battery was only really discharged when starting the car, and the need to put a car on trickle charge over night went away. Also the ability to top up the electrolyte also went, however with forklifts with traction batteries this is still done today.

 

[AstonHill]

As we started to get sealed batteries the use of the hydrometer reduced as you could not draw the acid into it,

The battery I have is not sealed, you can unscrew the inspection things and see the water inside
What do you do then buy a hydrometer stick it inside of each cell and it tells you haw much percentage of water there is to acid to tell you how much solfur is on the plates and hence how charged it is?

Where can I buy one of these things from?

 

[ericmark]

Durite also known as Gordon Equipment use to make them, I suspect any good auto electricians or even Halfords.

 

[AstonHill]

Durite also known as Gordon Equipment use to make them, I suspect any good auto electricians or even Halfords.

I found this from the best shop I can find for auto bits

Top Tech Battery Hydrometer Tester | Euro Car Parts

Top Tech Battery Hydrometer Tester at the lowest UK prices from Euro Car Parts UK’s No.1 for Car Accessories, Car Styling & Car Care. Buy today Online, In store or by Phone + Branches Nationwide – Next Day UK Free Delivery.

www.eurocarparts.com

Should it do the job? only 2 quid!

What about a solar charger controller; do you know anything about these?

ProPlus Solar trickle charger 12V 1,5W | Euro Car Parts

ProPlus Solar trickle charger 12V 1,5W at the lowest UK prices from Euro Car Parts UK’s No.1 for Car Accessories, Car Styling & Car Care. Buy today Online, In store or by Phone + Branches Nationwide – Next Day UK Free Delivery.

www.eurocarparts.com

Streetwize Solar Battery Charger 1.5 Watt | Euro Car Parts

Streetwize Solar Battery Charger 1.5 Watt at the lowest UK prices from Euro Car Parts UK’s No.1 for Car Accessories, Car Styling & Car Care. Buy today Online, In store or by Phone + Branches Nationwide – Next Day UK Free Delivery.

www.eurocarparts.com

Do you think they will act as a regulator from my solar pannel to my battery?
Pointless asking the staff at ECPs. if you gave them a screw driver they would not know weather to scratch there asses with it or not. like when I asked for some 3/16" flue pipe I was asked for the reg and no such thing so there for he said there is no such thing as 3/16" fuel hose full stop! Oh what the hell is that then between the injector pump and the injector then (Idiot!). but I guess they have a GCSE/ O level in maths and science and a whoppy do CV so they are the ideal educated idiot for the global agenda