Fraron engine battery charging...

[bxl_lad]

Decided to hook up the engine battery to the second port on the Fraron.
But if I plug in the hook up and look at the voltage of the engine battery that's now charging, it's climbing. It got to 15.8 before I chickened out. Is that normal?
The battery was brand new last year (truth be known it might not need to be hooked up.
With the hook-up unplugged it's back down to 14.1
So question is, is this normal. Will i be able to sleep at night?
Cheers

 

[VW Guru]

Hi 15.8 volts is far to high for a 12volt battery 14.8 is about the maximum you ever want to see

 

[ArcticMatt]

There's another thread with the same issue but using two leisure batteries from the single output. What type are the batteries?

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[bxl_lad]

The engine battery is a Varta H3 (https://www.batterymegastore.co.uk/varta-h3.html), "sealed calcium"?
The leisure battery is the original Westfalia badged large format....
Does this help anyone to decipher my problem?
Cheers

 

[ArcticMatt]

What are the charger switches set to?

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[bxl_lad]

On the fraron:
Gel and 13.5 float.

 

[bxl_lad]

Incidentally, on the Fraron i connected the second terminal bank to the relay (red off course) and the negative back to body connection towards the back under the fridge. So two negative connections into the fraron (one for each battery) and the positives going one to each battery.
The negative and positive connections for the leisure battery are direct to the battery from the Fraron... hope this is clear...

 

[bxl_lad]

'back' to the relay... (Is what that should read above)

 

[bxl_lad]

... maybe that's the issue as effectively the negative is both connected directly to the negative on the leisure battery and the body terminal...
Could this cause an issue? (Vehicle electrics not my strong point!)

 

[bxl_lad]

Have written to Fraron in the meantime, but if anyone has any thoughts on my previous comments, would be interested
Cheers

 

[only t4s]

Most electronic chargers stops charging at 15.8-16.1v may even go higher in winter mode . It should be safe for the battery up to 16.5v as long as it doesn't get warm and current stays in the region of 1A. I don't know what voltage t4 Ecu can take .

 

[bxl_lad]

This is how its configured, anyone who's added the starter battery to charge has it different?

 

[bxl_lad]

This is the leisure battery, the original Westfalia offering:
'Sonnenschein SL 135 dryfit GL Sportline'

...there is seemingly no issue with this charging, either before I added the feed to the starter, or after.

 

[ArcticMatt]

Maybe for now just switch the float voltage setting down to 13.2v (the lowest setting) and wait to see what fraron say about it.

Interestingly from the german translation on the manual, the setting for AGM1 says:
"AGM 1: Switch position for charging AGM batteries, which has a charge end voltage
require from 14.6V to 14.8V."

I know yours isnt set to that but try and toggle the switches and see if that helps?

 

[bxl_lad]

Maybe for now just switch the float voltage setting down to 13.2v (the lowest setting) and wait to see what fraron say about it.

Interestingly from the german translation on the manual, the setting for AGM1 says:
"AGM 1: Switch position for charging AGM batteries, which has a charge end voltage
require from 14.6V to 14.8V."

I know yours isnt set to that but try and toggle the switches and see if that helps?

Maybe for now just switch the float voltage setting down to 13.2v (the lowest setting) and wait to see what fraron say about it.

Interestingly from the german translation on the manual, the setting for AGM1 says:
"AGM 1: Switch position for charging AGM batteries, which has a charge end voltage
require from 14.6V to 14.8V."

I know yours isnt set to that but try and toggle the switches and see if that helps?

Thanks Matt, how does your setup differ (if at all) from mine?

Cheers

 

[ArcticMatt]

Mine is pretty much identical. I had the float voltage set to 13.2v and the second output tied into the relay at the same point. Still got the original leisure battery and the starter battery is just a standard battery.

I've got a voltmeter attached to the leisure battery and I've never seen it go higher than what you've seen. It had been on hook-up for a few months too over winter. Keep us posted as see what FraRon say.

 

[bxl_lad]

Mine is pretty much identical. I had the float voltage set to 13.2v and the second output tied into the relay at the same point. Still got the original leisure battery and the starter battery is just a standard battery.

I've got a voltmeter attached to the leisure battery and I've never seen it go higher than what you've seen. It had been on hook-up for a few months too over winter. Keep us posted as see what FraRon say.

...and the negative? do you run two feeds from the neg port on the Fraron or just one - and to where for it or both? I'm wondering if these two lines are the cause...
Thanks

 

[bxl_lad]

regarding the body earth is there a right/wrong side of this terminal to use?

 

[ArcticMatt]

regarding the body earth is there a right/wrong side of this terminal to use?

View attachment 45187

Actually thats the shunt resistor that the westy controller uses to determine the voltage (and inversely the current draw). I wonder if this is affecting the voltage figures you are seeing on the controller. Maybe worth using another earthing point away from the shunt and see if it keeps happening.

 

[bxl_lad]

Ok, so have changed the config. Removed the connection to the Shunt resistor so now only one negative connection from the charger to the leisure battery (which of course has ultimately connections back to the vehicle's body). See the diagram for the updated config.

Now when I plug in the hook-up the leisure battery shows a charging voltage of 14.1 and the starter battery rises to 15.5 and doesn't appear to rise further now. The charger also steps into the 'Absorption' mode (from 'Bulk') and so seems to level out.
Upon removing the hook-up, the batteries report 13.6 and 14.6 respectively.

Does this sound more like acceptable behaviour now?

 

[bxl_lad]

@ArcticMatt just out of interest what voltage does your starter battery show when charging this way?

 

[ArcticMatt]

Ok, so have changed the config. Removed the connection to the Shunt resistor so now only one negative connection from the charger to the leisure battery (which of course has ultimately connections back to the vehicle's body). See the diagram for the updated config.

Now when I plug in the hook-up the leisure battery shows a charging voltage of 14.1 and the starter battery rises to 15.5 and doesn't appear to rise further now. The charger also steps into the 'Absorption' mode (from 'Bulk') and so seems to level out.
Upon removing the hook-up, the batteries report 13.6 and 14.6 respectively.

Does this sound more like acceptable behaviour now?

View attachment 45241

View attachment 45242

View attachment 45243

Your meter is set to voltage AC not DC there. Check it again on DC and see what it reads.

 

[ArcticMatt]

@ArcticMatt just out of interest what voltage does your starter battery show when charging this way?

I've just gone back to work for 2 weeks so cant check it just now. After your post and another person having the same issue I was going to double check. I'd never noticed it going upward of 15 before but this was autumn last year when I did mine.

 

[bxl_lad]

And here now my homer Simpson moment...
Doh!
(In my defence I did say I know nowt of auto electronics...

I guess the meter is now set correctly?

 

[ArcticMatt]

It's easy done. It's good you persisted with the fault. Others would have given up. It's good both are set up to charge now.

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