Help! Can’t charge leisure a battery

[Morsels]

Hi, we are in a situation - have Roger’s solar panels fitted on our 6.1 Ocean and the VictronConnect controller says both leisure batteries are fine. But VW control panel thinks they are empty. It tells us to “charge now!” and nothing powered by the batteries is working (fridge, lights). On 240v hookup which we just tried, we couldn’t shift the “charge now!”. So 30 mins or so later we switched to running the engine with the “max charge” button pressed on the touchscreen, but after 45 minutes it still says “0 hours”, still goes to “battery flat, charge now” when we turn off the engine or try again on outlet power.

It is showing voltage as 12.7V but amps going up and down wildly from -18A to +32A over a few seconds, back and forth. I am a bit out of my depth and would love and advice.

How long should we run the engine for to see if the batteries take charge? Or for the control panel decides they have charge?

there a way to “reset” the control panel?

We are on holiday so need to find a fix.

(We have temporarily disconnected the solar to rule out rogue possibilities, but I am at a loss as to what else to try.) Thanks in advance!

 

[Loz]

You can pull the 4 fuses (5,6,7,8) that supply the control panel.

 

[Morsels]

Thanks! I have done that as per your previous post but those fuses only seems to affect the roof function? Anyway it hasn’t helped unfortunately!

 

[Loz]

Okay try pullin fuse SH12

 

[yossarian]

If your IBS sensors have become confused by your solar setup you may be able to reset them by disconnecting and reconnecting a two pin plug on the sensor. Each leasure battery should have a sensor on its negative post.

The docs I've read suggest this could take around 4 hours for sensors to recalibrate.

The good news is that if your batteries are 12.7v at rest they are close to full.

Edit: the rear sensor is more likely to be the culprit than the front.

 

[Morsels]

It worked! Disconnecting and reconnecting the read IBS sensor immediately showed full battery, 60+ hours on the panel. We have full control again and can continue our holiday worry free. THANK YOU!

 

[Bumble The Van]

If your IBS sensors have become confused by your solar setup you may be able to reset them by disconnecting and reconnecting a two pin plug on the sensor. Each leasure battery should have a sensor on its negative post.

The docs I've read suggest this could take around 4 hours for sensors to recalibrate.

The good news is that if your batteries are 12.7v at rest they are close to full.

Edit: the rear sensor is more likely to be the culprit than the front.

well done that person thats cracking !!!

 

[yossarian]

It worked! Disconnecting and reconnecting the read IBS sensor immediately showed full battery, 60+ hours on the panel. We have full control again and can continue our holiday worry free. THANK YOU!

Just to add you probably need to move the negative lead of your solar charge controller from the battery to the chassis ground.

Anywhere downstream of the sensor. It's well documented on here although the sensor arrangement has changed.

 

[Morsels]

Yes - thank you. Figured it out. Without this forum and specifically @yosssarian we’d have been up the creek! Thanks again

 

[subthree]

I had exactly the same issue with errors last night after installing my solar, not reading the instructions, and connecting the cable to the negative battery post rather than directly to earth.

Anyway this morning I disconnected the IBS cable and all the errors on the camper control panel have cleared. Very grateful for the info here.

 

[Vwcaliforniajapan]

If your IBS sensors have become confused by your solar setup you may be able to reset them by disconnecting and reconnecting a two pin plug on the sensor. Each leasure battery should have a sensor on its negative post.

The docs I've read suggest this could take around 4 hours for sensors to recalibrate.

The good news is that if your batteries are 12.7v at rest they are close to full.

Edit: the rear sensor is more likely to be the culprit than the front.

Thanks, I went to a garage to get help, they tested both batteries, OK , unplugged the sensors , but the same issue with : low battery and red triangle in the top panel.
Drove home waited 24hrs but still the same problem.
Solar is connected the right way, and worked for 1.5 year......
Next day we tried to change the battery under the seat, but again same message......hmmm
In other links someone suggested to keep the sensors unplugged from the batteries for 4-5 hrs.......so I guess that will be the next project , any other suggestions out there ???
Cheers

 

[Vwcaliforniajapan]

I had exactly the same issue with errors last night after installing my solar, not reading the instructions, and connecting the cable to the negative battery post rather than directly to earth.

Anyway this morning I disconnected the IBS cable and all the errors on the camper control panel have cleared. Very grateful for the info here.

Did you disconnect the IBS cable on both batteries at the same time ? Did you also disconnect the the batteries or only the IBS ?

 

[yossarian]

Thanks, I went to a garage to get help, they tested both batteries, OK , unplugged the sensors , but the same issue with : low battery and red triangle in the top panel.
Drove home waited 24hrs but still the same problem.
Solar is connected the right way, and worked for 1.5 year......
Next day we tried to change the battery under the seat, but again same message......hmmm
In other links someone suggested to keep the sensors unplugged from the batteries for 4-5 hrs.......so I guess that will be the next project , any other suggestions out there ???
Cheers

Did you see the IBS disconnected or just hear about it? Post some good quality photos of your batteries and their connections.

 

[Vwcaliforniajapan]

Well, they said they did……..I only have two shots from the battery in the trunk do you know if I should disconnect the batteries and the IBS or should I only disconnect IBS? Should it be both batteries at the same time ?

 

[yossarian]

do you know if I should disconnect the batteries and the IBS

Just the IBS. You can just see the connector in one of your photos. The two pin plug has a press to release lock. The result should be pretty much instant.

 

[Vwcaliforniajapan]

Just the IBS. You can just see the connecter in one of your photos. The two pin plug has a press to release lock. The result should be pretty much instant.

Great thank you, do I need to disconnect on both batteries? If yes, on the same time ?
I really appreciate your help and time

 

[yossarian]

Great thank you, do I need to disconnect on both batteries? If yes, on the same time ?
I really appreciate your help and time

As far as we can tell, one at a time is fine.

 

[Vwcaliforniajapan]

As far as we can tell, one at a time is fine.

Sad news, first we unplugged the rear battery IBS for 5 minutes with no luck, then we unplugged the IBS under the seat , with the same result and again did we try to unplug both at the same time but no luck
Now we unplugged both batteries and we will wait for 5 hours to se what will happen
The mechanic started to talk about replacing an expensive microchip in the panel as the next step………..hmmm the SOS warning also came up this morning when I started up after 48hrs charge from the main on YouTube it shows just to call SOS and then cut off, then it’s all reset, however I can’t call/connect because it only works in Europe or at least it doesn’t work in Japan………so more gray hair will soon appear
I’ll keep you updated

 

[Vwcaliforniajapan]

No luck with disconnecting both leisure batteries for 5hrs , the shop are now talking about changing the IBS cables which could be an expensive job an no guarantee it will solve the problem.
I charged the leisure batteries for 48hrs and now on the way back it shows 10min and -13A , with max charge 22A and after I turned off -1A it’s totally confused and both me and the shop are out of ideas

 

[yossarian]

No luck with disconnecting both leisure batteries for 5hrs , the shop are now talking about changing the IBS cables which could be an expensive job an no guarantee it will solve the problem.
I charged the leisure batteries for 48hrs and now on the way back it shows 10min and -13A , with max charge 22A and after I turned off -1A it’s totally confused and both me and the shop are out of ideas

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Suggestions:

You should see the Linbus master termination resistor if you put an ohmmeter between the two pins of the IBS connector. You should see around 1k Ohm.

A momentary short between the pins will not damage anything.

It is possible to obtain live data from unit 3D on the obd bus. Battery voltage, current, state of health, internal resistance etc would all be of interest.

 

[yossarian]

Additional check: the red wire on the two pin Lin bus connector should be 12V.

 

[Vwcaliforniajapan]

Hi there,
Sorry for my late reply, but been very busy. So we did finally solve the problem. We disconnected the battery under the wardrobe, then disconnected to 2 thick red cables from the battery under the seat and finally the IBS cable.........phewww , but I really like to thank you for all the inputs , it really guided me in the right direction , cheers !!

 

[supergrover]

If your IBS sensors have become confused by your solar setup you may be able to reset them by disconnecting and reconnecting a two pin plug on the sensor. Each leasure battery should have a sensor on its negative post.

The docs I've read suggest this could take around 4 hours for sensors to recalibrate.

The good news is that if your batteries are 12.7v at rest they are close to full.

Edit: the rear sensor is more likely to be the culprit than the front.

Thanks so much! This worked perfect and fast! Back battery was problem for us!