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Old 05-28-2020, 02:34 PM   #1
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Interrupted charger output

I have mentioned this in passing in some other posts but until today I had not been able to speak to all of the tech people involved to try to determine the source of the problem.

I have a 2018 Winnebago Fuse and have replaced my OEM batteries with 2 Battle Born Lithium batteries and had a Renogy 40 amp DC-DC charger installed between the alternator and the batteries to limit the current to the batteries. I also had a Victron 712 battery monitor installed so I could actually see what was going on.

The history display on the Victron smartphone app shows that there are brief interruptions of output to the batteries. That is, output to the batteries is steady at about 40 amps (varying a bit as the compressor fridge turns on and off and as the solar panels vary their output) until suddenly the current to the batteries drops to 0. It stays there for only a couple of seconds and then returns to its previous output of about 40 amps. Since I do have not a long term history display I can not tell if the sudden drops occur at regular intervals or are irregular in nature but they continue to happen while we are driving. The drops to 0 are for a short time compared to the normal 40 amp output but I have no specific figures because I have no long term Victron display.

I tried to solve this problem by calling all of the manufacturers of the individual components to see if they could explain it. I first called Battle Born who said that their BMS would not be causing this, then called Renogy who told me that this is not a design function of the charger. I finally spoke with Ford today who said that they never heard of this kind of issue but would not go into any detail because they said that the system was not designed to operate with such added components. Thus I am no further in solving this than before all of these calls.

I have begun to think that the only way for me to address this question is to replace the DC-DC charger and see if the problem disappears. If so, then presumably it is the charger. If not, then presumably it is not the charger. If I do this I will probably do what I should have done before and replace the Renogy charger with one from Victron and then I will be able to view the output from the charger itself, but before I go to this trouble I thought I would ask if anyone know any other way to find the issue.

As an aside, Renogy is willing to test the charger but tell me if they don't find any issue they will charge me for shipping both ways and that they will need the device for at least 2 weeks. Given the shipping time that really means about 4 weeks and I don't want to be without the use of our RV for that long.
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Old 05-28-2020, 03:04 PM   #2
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Lots of variables and little to document what is happening so some guessing in order?
Electronics have a habit of protecting themselves by shutting down when they begin to overheat. Not possible to see any pattern of length of time before shutting down? Anything that would indicate it happens on warmer days? That sort of thing might give some backup to my theory that something is overheating.
But moving on to other ideas, one might look at adding some form of volt meter along the line for temporary use. I'm getting some off E-bay, shipped from the states at under $2, which would let a person add several. Easy two wire connection to any point you want to know about:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-Blue-D...72.m2749.l2648
CORRECTION:
Price has now gone from $.170 to 2.95!
Perhaps a way to see that the engine alternator is constantly pushing the voltage, then, at the same time watch what the next item in line is passing?
The idea is to compare the input and output of each piece and perhaps you could catch one that is stopping?
Funky idea and not as good as watching the amps at each point but somewhat simple?
For a few thousand more, there is some great equipment but not really practical for our use! Used it but never been in my personal budget.
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Old 05-28-2020, 03:31 PM   #3
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Is there any way you can (quickly/simply?) bypass the Renogy DC/DC charger? Connect alternator cable in to charger cable out? That's the component I would suspect first. If it stops the brief current interruptions, and, your charging amps don't exceed 40-45 coming straight from the alternator to the batteries, you could just leave it that way until the situation changes again.

Or, maybe the BB's BMS is stopping the charging current from overcharging them, if they're more or less full after a few (minutes/hours) of driving? We're not talking huge amounts of recharging current to replenish whatever you've used before you started to drive, are we?

This is an interesting quote from the BB website about converting to LiFePO4 technology.
"You’ve reached it: the pinnacle of deep cycle, lithium ion battery technology.
Weighing in at a sleek 31 lbs, the 100 amp hour, 12 volt Battle Born Battery dances circles around the competition. The Battle Born Battery also requires no new hardware to run in your boat, RV, trailer, or golf cart. Just pull out that grungy old lead acid battery (use two hands, those suckers are heavy), drop in this elegant upgrade, and get yourself out there.
All Battle Born Batteries are designed and assembled in the USA. "

I found it interesting because you've said they also recommended adding some sort of protection for your alternator, even though it's probably a "smart" alternator with some built in protections, as well.
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Old 05-28-2020, 03:50 PM   #4
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Originally Posted by Winterbagoal View Post
Is there any way you can (quickly/simply?) bypass the Renogy DC/DC charger? Connect alternator cable in to charger cable out? That's the component I would suspect first. If it stops the brief current interruptions, and, your charging amps don't exceed 40-45 coming straight from the alternator to the batteries, you could just leave it that way until the situation changes again.
The "bridge" connection that allows you to connect the starter battery to the house batteries does that and when I briefly activated it when driving the charging amps went up to well over 100. Without the DC-DC charger between the alternator and the house batteries I don't know how I would limit the current.

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Originally Posted by Winterbagoal View Post
Or, maybe the BB's BMS is stopping the charging current from overcharging them, if they're more or less full after a few (minutes/hours) of driving? We're not talking huge amounts of recharging current to replenish whatever you've used before you started to drive, are we?
This is happening when the batteries are down in the 70-90% range so they are not near full. Our batteries have generally been down in the 70-75% range when I start driving and it takes perhaps an hour to fully charge them again. Much faster than I would have expected.

Battle Born told me that this did not sound like something their batteries would be doing.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Winterbagoal View Post
The Battle Born Battery also requires no new hardware to run in your boat, RV, trailer, or golf cart. Just pull out that grungy old lead acid battery (use two hands, those suckers are heavy), drop in this elegant upgrade, and get yourself out there.

I found it interesting because you've said they also recommended adding some sort of protection for your alternator, even though it's probably a "smart" alternator with some built in protections, as well.
I have the feeling that this may well be something the alternator is doing on its own, but Ford won't give me the time of day about it because they say I have changed the equipment and they would not be willing to even address the question.

If I drop in the Victron DC-DC charger and it does the same thing I will feel foolish for spending the money but I do worry about what might be happening with the electronics and I would not want to blow something up. Somehow I don't see either Ford or Winnebago saying "Oh, that's OK. Well just fix it under warranty". So I assume unless something turns up that explains all of this I will probably just go ahead and install the Victron charger and see what happens. The economy needs a boost anyway, right?
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Old 05-28-2020, 04:03 PM   #5
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Lots of variables and little to document what is happening so some guessing in order?
Electronics have a habit of protecting themselves by shutting down when they begin to overheat. Not possible to see any pattern of length of time before shutting down? Anything that would indicate it happens on warmer days? That sort of thing might give some backup to my theory that something is overheating.
The charger is installed under the bench seat inside the RV. That means there are two things I need to consider. First, it is already hot enough here in southern Arizona and that means we have the AC on when we drive so the interior is relatively cool. But the charger is inside a closed area and perhaps it does not have enough air. I raised this question with the installer but he said that there was plenty of air under the seat to cool the unit. I don't know the truth of the matter but I think it might be wise to remove the top of the bench seat to that the charger is open to the air and then see if this problem still occurs. We are planning a trip next week to the mountains so it will not be too long before I can check this out.

I had not thought about heat so thank you for the idea.

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Originally Posted by Morich View Post
But moving on to other ideas, one might look at adding some form of volt meter along the line for temporary use. I'm getting some off E-bay, shipped from the states at under $2, which would let a person add several. Easy two wire connection to any point you want to know about:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-Blue-D...72.m2749.l2648
CORRECTION:
Price has now gone from $.170 to 2.95!
Perhaps a way to see that the engine alternator is constantly pushing the voltage, then, at the same time watch what the next item in line is passing?
The idea is to compare the input and output of each piece and perhaps you could catch one that is stopping?
Funky idea and not as good as watching the amps at each point but somewhat simple?
For a few thousand more, there is some great equipment but not really practical for our use! Used it but never been in my personal budget.
The problem is how would I watch all of this while driving. And I don't really know how long it takes before this shows up so I can't count on watching it while idling the engine.

Renogy asked me to make a video of the output of the Victron 712 so they could see how it dropped to 0 and then back up to 40 amps and I told them I did not know how they expected me to do that. I offered to take a screen shot of the history screen on the Victron smartphone app to show them what was happening but they want the video. Same problem. I can't be making a video while driving and my wife is not going to want to be standing up during the trip holding a phone to take a video of the Victron display.
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Old 05-28-2020, 04:05 PM   #6
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Originally Posted by AJMike View Post
The "bridge" connection that allows you to connect the starter battery to the house batteries does that and when I briefly activated it when driving the charging amps went up to well over 100. Without the DC-DC charger between the alternator and the house batteries I don't know how I would limit the current.



This is happening when the batteries are down in the 70-90% range so they are not near full. Our batteries have generally been down in the 70-75% range when I start driving and it takes perhaps an hour to fully charge them again. Much faster than I would have expected.

Battle Born told me that this did not sound like something their batteries would be doing.



I have the feeling that this may well be something the alternator is doing on its own, but Ford won't give me the time of day about it because they say I have changed the equipment and they would not be willing to even address the question.

If I drop in the Victron DC-DC charger and it does the same thing I will feel foolish for spending the money but I do worry about what might be happening with the electronics and I would not want to blow something up. Somehow I don't see either Ford or Winnebago saying "Oh, that's OK. Well just fix it under warranty". So I assume unless something turns up that explains all of this I will probably just go ahead and install the Victron charger and see what happens. The economy needs a boost anyway, right?
re: "bridge" connection - is that completely bypassing the Renogy unit? Or is it using the DC/DC charger to connect the chassis and coach batteries? I'm talking remove the Renogy equipment from the connection between the alternator out put and the solenoid or isolator that connects it to the coach and chassis batteries. It might save you some dough.
Also, how long did you leave it in "bridge" mode to see if the charging amp spike was also short-lived?

BB also told you to add something that their own website suggests wasn't necessary.

As for "blowing something up" neither Ford or Winnebago will be repairing anything, as you've already blown that fuse by adding non-OEM hardware to the mix.

Try the Victron thing.
Good luck.
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Old 05-28-2020, 05:21 PM   #7
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Originally Posted by Winterbagoal View Post
re: "bridge" connection - is that completely bypassing the Renogy unit? Or is it using the DC/DC charger to connect the chassis and coach batteries? I'm talking remove the Renogy equipment from the connection between the alternator out put and the solenoid or isolator that connects it to the coach and chassis batteries. It might save you some dough.
Also, how long did you leave it in "bridge" mode to see if the charging amp spike was also short-lived?
Yes. The "bridge" connection completely bypasses the Renogy DC-DC charger. I checked it make sure that it was still working and that the charger was completely out of the circuit. At the time I checked the fuse was out of the charger circuit so I know the charger was not part of the electric path.

However the charge was so high that I did not leave it in the "bridge" position for more than a few seconds.

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BB also told you to add something that their own website suggests wasn't necessary.
Yes. I noticed that as well.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Winterbagoal View Post
As for "blowing something up" neither Ford or Winnebago will be repairing anything, as you've already blown that fuse by adding non-OEM hardware to the mix.
Yes. I have been wondering about that as well. I suppose they could refuse to repair anything that had anything to do with the electrical system by claiming that it might be related to the batteries. Things like the slide motor or the microwave, but I would think they might have a more difficult argument to make if it were something completely unrelated like a leaking roof or some plumbing problem.

I ended up with one of those add-on warranty packages and I should check with them about that. If they tell me that they will not cover anything I should cancel it and get the refund.
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Old 05-28-2020, 05:43 PM   #8
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Lets explore some things that have not been considered yet.

Keep in mind that you have 2 separate current sources.
-- The alternator/DC-DC charger is one source
-- The solar panels.
If you loose either the amps from the DC-DC or the solar panels you should still see the amps from the other source.

Based on this I would tend to rule out the DC-DC or the alternator.

I believe this problem only exists when you are driving. This could point to a loose connection some where or a wire shorting to ground.

Lets take a look at the Victron monitor:
-- The monitor starts with a shunt which should be located as the first thing coming off of the negative posts of the batteries. Every negative wire going to the batteries must go to the shunt and then to the battery by a single heavy cable. There could be a post located near the shunt that several wires attach to and then a single heavy cable to the shunt. If anything is loose at the shunt then you will see the zero amp reading.
-- Attached to the shunt are 2 very small wires (going to the monitor), one on each side of the shunt. If either side has a loose connection then you could see the zero amps. The shunt is just a precision very high current resistor. There are 2 wires going to the monitor from each end of the shunt. These 2 wires read the very small difference between the 2 ends of the shunt and then calculates the amps from that difference reading.
-- I am not sure what would happen if either of those two wires short to the frame (wire rubbing against the frame somewhere). It could be the monitor would read zero amps
-- There is also a wire from the monitor connected to 12V. If there is any loose connection causing the loss of 12V to the monitor then perhaps the monitor would report zero amps. Possibly a loose fuse inside the fuse holder which should be close to where the installer wired to 12V. I would expect this connection to be right near the positive post of the battery.

All three of the above wire need to be checked for loose connections at the monitor as well.

What is the battery voltage showing on the Victron monitor (app on the phone) at the time of the failure. If the app shows voltage and amps at the same time that would be great. I understand that if you can't see both voltage & amps you won't be sure you had a failure if the volt reading never changes. Can someone ride with you and watch the monitor for one reading and also watch the app for the other?

If the voltage jumps up high to something like 14.8V to 15.x volts then maybe the Battle Born BMS is shutting down both batteries.

Something to consider when trouble shooting. I can't tell you exactly how to use this info in trouble shooting. It is far easier to use the info when at the RV, not writing in a forum. It is info to consider when you see a failure.
-- Will the Zamp continue to put out 12V on the battery side, if the battery voltage is lost? There would still be voltage coming from the panels. I ask because my MorningStar MPPT controller powers off if disconnected from the battery even though there is plenty of volts/amps available from the panels
-- Will the DC-DC charger put out voltage and amps if the house battery is disconnected?
-- If the Battle Born BMS was shutting down the batteries wouldn't the Victron monitor turn off?

What about paying the installer of the DC-DC charger to come back and ride with you and have him do some trouble shooting? If it is something he left loose then the service call should be free.

I hope some of this helps.
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Old 05-28-2020, 06:27 PM   #9
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Lets explore some things that have not been considered yet.

Keep in mind that you have 2 separate current sources.
-- The alternator/DC-DC charger is one source
-- The solar panels.
If you loose either the amps from the DC-DC or the solar panels you should still see the amps from the other source.

Based on this I would tend to rule out the DC-DC or the alternator.

I believe this problem only exists when you are driving. This could point to a loose connection some where or a wire shorting to ground.

Lets take a look at the Victron monitor:
-- The monitor starts with a shunt which should be located as the first thing coming off of the negative posts of the batteries. Every negative wire going to the batteries must go to the shunt and then to the battery by a single heavy cable. There could be a post located near the shunt that several wires attach to and then a single heavy cable to the shunt. If anything is loose at the shunt then you will see the zero amp reading.
-- Attached to the shunt are 2 very small wires (going to the monitor), one on each side of the shunt. If either side has a loose connection then you could see the zero amps. The shunt is just a precision very high current resistor. There are 2 wires going to the monitor from each end of the shunt. These 2 wires read the very small difference between the 2 ends of the shunt and then calculates the amps from that difference reading.
-- I am not sure what would happen if either of those two wires short to the frame (wire rubbing against the frame somewhere). It could be the monitor would read zero amps
-- There is also a wire from the monitor connected to 12V. If there is any loose connection causing the loss of 12V to the monitor then perhaps the monitor would report zero amps. Possibly a loose fuse inside the fuse holder which should be close to where the installer wired to 12V. I would expect this connection to be right near the positive post of the battery.

All three of the above wire need to be checked for loose connections at the monitor as well.

What is the battery voltage showing on the Victron monitor (app on the phone) at the time of the failure. If the app shows voltage and amps at the same time that would be great. I understand that if you can't see both voltage & amps you won't be sure you had a failure if the volt reading never changes. Can someone ride with you and watch the monitor for one reading and also watch the app for the other?

If the voltage jumps up high to something like 14.8V to 15.x volts then maybe the Battle Born BMS is shutting down both batteries.

Something to consider when trouble shooting. I can't tell you exactly how to use this info in trouble shooting. It is far easier to use the info when at the RV, not writing in a forum. It is info to consider when you see a failure.
-- Will the Zamp continue to put out 12V on the battery side, if the battery voltage is lost? There would still be voltage coming from the panels. I ask because my MorningStar MPPT controller powers off if disconnected from the battery even though there is plenty of volts/amps available from the panels
-- Will the DC-DC charger put out voltage and amps if the house battery is disconnected?
-- If the Battle Born BMS was shutting down the batteries wouldn't the Victron monitor turn off?

What about paying the installer of the DC-DC charger to come back and ride with you and have him do some trouble shooting? If it is something he left loose then the service call should be free.

I hope some of this helps.
I had not thought about the solar panels. I live in Arizona and there should be some input from the solar panels regardless of whether or not the alternator is outputting power. I guess there are some things for me to check:

- does the Victron show the solar input when the engine is off, and if not, why not?

- are the wires all properly seated?

- are the wires connected to the proper places?

All of your comments make perfect sense but there are some things going on that I think make it a little less cut-and-dried. The refrigerator is running when we are traveling and that means that some of the power is consumed by it. Even if power is showing up from the solar panels it might be consumed by the refrigerator and thus not showing up on the Victron monitor. Similarly there are general electronic running that are also using power.

Given that the display shows 0 (not just the history but sometimes I have actually seen the output figure at 0 when the current drops) it does seem unreasonable to assume that the power being used by the fridge and other electronics is exactly what the solar is putting out, giving me a 0 reading. I should see either a small positive or small negative value. I need to look at this more closely.

Thanks for this.
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Old 05-28-2020, 07:26 PM   #10
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Yes. I have been wondering about that as well. I suppose they could refuse to repair anything that had anything to do with the electrical system by claiming that it might be related to the batteries. Things like the slide motor or the microwave, but I would think they might have a more difficult argument to make if it were something completely unrelated like a leaking roof or some plumbing problem.

I ended up with one of those add-on warranty packages and I should check with them about that. If they tell me that they will not cover anything I should cancel it and get the refund.
Sorry, I meant anything to do with the Ford alternator and charging system, beyond what they allowed Winnebago to modify as an upfitter.
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Old 05-29-2020, 06:57 AM   #11
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Sorry, I meant anything to do with the Ford alternator and charging system, beyond what they allowed Winnebago to modify as an upfitter.
I suspect they might well try to be more creative and suggest that anything that has anything to do with the electrical system would no longer be under warranty due to the added equipment. And there is not much in the RV that is not somehow connected to the electrical system.

But then perhaps I am a bit of a pessimist.
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Old 05-29-2020, 01:01 PM   #12
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As I understand it, you see the charge current drop to zero on your smart phone while driving. I assume the smart phone connects to the Victron battery monitor by bluetooth. Is it possible that there is some type of irregular radio frequency interference that briefly interrupts the signal to the smartphone? Perhaps the interference is too short to cause the app to indicate a lost connection but long enough to corrupt the data on the display and maybe your charge current isn't really dropping to zero.
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Old 05-29-2020, 02:07 PM   #13
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As I understand it, you see the charge current drop to zero on your smart phone while driving. I assume the smart phone connects to the Victron battery monitor by bluetooth. Is it possible that there is some type of irregular radio frequency interference that briefly interrupts the signal to the smartphone? Perhaps the interference is too short to cause the app to indicate a lost connection but long enough to corrupt the data on the display and maybe your charge current isn't really dropping to zero.
That is an interesting idea but I don't know of anything that could have been interfering with the BT operation. We were driving out in the open countryside so there should not have been anything nearby to cause interference. Still it is something to keep in mind.

We are going on another trip next week and will be driving on open road not near any towns so I will keep an eye on the charger output and see if it still happens. And I need to check for shorts to see if that might be the cause.
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Old 05-29-2020, 03:08 PM   #14
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That is an interesting idea but I don't know of anything that could have been interfering with the BT operation. We were driving out in the open countryside so there should not have been anything nearby to cause interference. Still it is something to keep in mind.

We are going on another trip next week and will be driving on open road not near any towns so I will keep an eye on the charger output and see if it still happens. And I need to check for shorts to see if that might be the cause.
Lots of things can cause interference. It could be something in a vehicle passing you or you passing another vehicle. Could be something inside your vehicle. An airplane flies over and randomly hits you with energy from their radio altimeter or weather radar unit! Could also be something with your phone as you are driving and it switches cell phone towers or a bug in the app. I'm not trying to say that you don't have a problem but you need some other way to monitor a drop-out of 40 amps besides your phone.
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Old 05-29-2020, 04:54 PM   #15
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I'm not trying to say that you don't have a problem but you need some other way to monitor a drop-out of 40 amps besides your phone.
Renogy wanted a video of the Victron display. Not the smartphone display but the actual Victron 712 LCD display. Perhaps they were thinking the same thing you are mentioning.

I wonder if I can set up a dash cam to capture the Victron monitor and see if it goes to 0 when the smartphone display does.
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Old 06-04-2020, 11:34 AM   #16
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This time with pictures

We are on a trip to the Arizona mountains to get out of the heat in the Phoenix area (where it is well over 100 F). Today I checked to see if there were any bare wires that might be causing shorts, but could find nothing, but I was able to take some screen shots of the Victron smartphone displays and it seems from the Trends display that this is far too regular to be caused some random events like wires touching.

The Trends display of the Renogy DC-DC charger shows regular drops from 40 amp charge to basically 0 charge, although the actual charge value is not 0 because the compressor refrigerator is drawing current and the solar panels are adding current.

Here is the Trends display:



In case the link does not work here it is in text:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kj25dlluux...splay.jpg?dl=0

You can see that the drop is regular and repeatable.

Here is the output display (although I don't know that this adds anything to the Trends display):



And here is this link in text:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/uh65z1jge2...splay.jpg?dl=0

So, no bare wires and no shorts. This was early in the morning in the mountains so it was not hot (and the charger is mounted inside the RV anyway).

I have sent these to Renogy but I get the impression that they are not really all that interested. Responses from them typically take 3-4 days and just say that they need more information.

Any suggestions?
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Old 06-04-2020, 12:22 PM   #17
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Looks like that pretty well rules out most interference, intermit wiring and those items as it is too regular and evenly spaced.
If you are moving and it would fit, I might still go with trying to remove a question of heat in the unit itself as being in a compartment and inside, the temperature "might" be even enough for you to be seeing an overheat situation with a cooling space and be close enough in times to not notice.
Kind of stretching but perhaps it would be possible to rule that out without too much extra expense or effort, if it is in a compartment which could be opened to free inside air while traveling???
Still leaves lots of options but bug hunts can begin with ruling out who is NOT at fault.
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Old 06-04-2020, 01:48 PM   #18
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Mike... dropbox is not a photohost. It's a cloud storage website. So, embedding files in Dropbox will not yield anything. It's not a failing of this site - it's a configuration at dropbox to keep from having images accessed from all over the internet via embedding.

Just download the images from dropbox (or your phone) and instead of embedding them from the web, attach them directly to your post. Let me know if you have any questions on how to do that.

Have you checked with Renergy to see if this is a feature of the charger? Because it should either be that, OR it's a feature of the Sprinter alternator/regulator. I can't imagine it could be much else other than one of those two things.

As you know Battleborn sells a battery isolator that did pretty much this exact same thing. So, perhaps that kind of thing is built into one of these two devices.
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Old 06-04-2020, 02:01 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Morich View Post
Looks like that pretty well rules out most interference, intermit wiring and those items as it is too regular and evenly spaced.
If you are moving and it would fit, I might still go with trying to remove a question of heat in the unit itself as being in a compartment and inside, the temperature "might" be even enough for you to be seeing an overheat situation with a cooling space and be close enough in times to not notice.
Kind of stretching but perhaps it would be possible to rule that out without too much extra expense or effort, if it is in a compartment which could be opened to free inside air while traveling???
Still leaves lots of options but bug hunts can begin with ruling out who is NOT at fault.
The charger is installed in a compartment under the seat for the dinette table. When the installer put it here I commented that I thought it was too small a space and too closed and might not provide enough entilation but the installer said that the unit was rated to operate up to 50 C or 122 F and since the inside of the RV is kept cool I did not worry about that too much.

This morning I thought we were going home since it is hot up in the mountains as well, and planned to remove the seat cushion and plywood seat to allow the charger access to air, but we decided to stay another night and only drove about 20 minutes so I put that off until we actually make the trip home. That should be tomorrow morning.

I will remove the seat and cushion and see if that makes any difference. If so I will either have him move the charger to a more open location or I will add a vent hole and fan to move air under the seat, but it was pretty cool this morning (about 60 F) and it does not seem likely to me that the compartment would heat up that much in 20 minutes. Still, I will check with the cover off tomorrow.
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Old 06-04-2020, 02:12 PM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by creativepart View Post
Mike... dropbox is not a photohost. It's a cloud storage website. So, embedding files in Dropbox will not yield anything. It's not a failing of this site - it's a configuration at dropbox to keep from having images accessed from all over the internet via embedding.

Just download the images from dropbox (or your phone) and instead of embedding them from the web, attach them directly to your post. Let me know if you have any questions on how to do that.

Have you checked with Renergy to see if this is a feature of the charger? Because it should either be that, OR it's a feature of the Sprinter alternator/regulator. I can't imagine it could be much else other than one of those two things.

As you know Battleborn sells a battery isolator that did pretty much this exact same thing. So, perhaps that kind of thing is built into one of these two devices.
OK. Did not know that about Dropbox. I thought any url would work, so that is something I learned today.

As for Renogy, yes, I have checked with them. They have not exactly been forthcoming with information and it often takes 3 or 4 days to get a response from them. Even when I get a response it is not generally helpful (Please send more information, etc, etc).

I sent them both of these screen shots and will see if it turns up anything but I am not too hopeful. The fact that both the plateau before the drop and the bottom of the drop are so regular makes me think that this is a design feature. Renogy said they did not do that and Ford would not even talk to me about it when they discovered that I had the charger installed so I am at a bit of an impasse and only see 2 possibilities.

First, it could be the charger and the support guy at Renogy might not even know enough about the product to answer my question. If so perhaps the screen shots will prompt him to show the images to the development people and try to get an answer but since it is not a US product I am not very hopeful about that. Second, it could be the alternator being “smart”, but I don’t know how I can go about checking that. What I need, of course, is some way to test the input to the charger and the output from the charger at the same time so I can see if they both drop, but have no way to do that.

One thing I thought about doing was swapping the Renogy charger for a Victron charger. Then I could monitor both the input and output to see where the drop is coming from. That, of course, means buying a new charger so I will see.

The upside would seen to be that since the interruptions are so regular it might mean that it is a design feature and that I don’t need to worry about it. Maybe.

Still, on the positive side, we are Boondocking and I am no longer worrying about running out of battery power so this is all good.
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