Useful Digital Voltmeter + Alarm + USB

[SimonB]

I rang the dealership to ask how they should be wired and they checked the wiring diagram, which apparently doesn't show the wiring right to the sockets. But confirmed that they were always told that the ones infront of the A pillar were from the engine battery, and the ones behind were from the Leisure battery.
When the vans are converted the van in front of the pillar is largely untouched and the conversion takes place behind that. He was quite amazed and went to check a T6 they had in the showroom. That was wired up conventionally.
Would be interesting to hear how many others have the kitchen unit socket wired to the engine battery.
It is the obvious place to charge your tech as there is a flat surface to lay it out on.

 

[methley]

A simple way to test this would be to disconnect your starter battery. It will quickly become obvious which sockets are connected to which battery!

 

[SimonB]

I tried starting the engine to see if only the sockets attached to the engine battery would be affected, but the voltage of all the sockets changed. The ones previously on 13.4v went down to 12.4v the same as the first two.
I will try disconnecting the starter motor battery tomorrow. How long do you have before the radio needs to be recoded? Mine is just the standard VW radio and CD player.

 

[WelshGas]

I tried starting the engine to see if only the sockets attached to the engine battery would be affected, but the voltage of all the sockets changed. The ones previously on 13.4v went down to 12.4v the same as the first two.
I will try disconnecting the starter motor battery tomorrow. How long do you have before the radio needs to be recoded? Mine is just the standard VW radio and CD player.

That is the split charge relay. The alternator will charge all the batteries.
However the Solar panel only charges the leisure batteries. So by day there will be a difference in voltage between 12v sockets served by the engine or leisure batteries.

 

[SimonB]

Today I disconnected the engine battery to see which of the 12v sockets were affected. The one in the cup holder went off, plus the one on the back of the kitchen unit. The one on top of the dash that had previously read 13.4v was not affected.
The proof seems incontrovertible, the socket on the kitchen unit comes from the engine battery as does the one in the cup holder. All the others are from the leisure battery.

 

[WelshGas]

Today I disconnected the engine battery to see which of the 12v sockets were affected. The one in the cup holder went off, plus the one on the back of the kitchen unit. The one on top of the dash that had previously read 13.4v was not affected.
The proof seems incontrovertible, the socket on the kitchen unit comes from the engine battery as does the one in the cup holder. All the others are from the leisure battery.

That's not as it should be. It could be problematic if you use the Kitchen 12v socket as I do. Something, maybe, to be attended to at the next service.

 

[MattBW]

True they may not be totally accurate but I was more interested in the Alarm function when used on the Starter Battery 12v socket. Mine equates with the Control Panel readout so is acceptable.

Yeah one of mine is correct thankfully and useful. Sadly the other one will trigger way too late to prevent any harm to the battery. Raised it with the eBay seller


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SimonB]

I have been using the unit one as the overnight charging point for phones & tablets. I also use it for the power to the iPod dock I use to play music to avoid having to use the Cali sound system.
I shall have to rethink this now.

 

[andyinluton]

I was under the impression that all sockets in the cab were fed from the engine battery.

Having checked mine the dash top one does show a different voltage to the cup holder outlet, which would suggest the top one is fed from the leisure battery.

If that is the case can anyone explain why if the dash top tray 12v socket is fed from the leisure battery it is switched via the ignition? As far as I know there is nothing else on the leisure battery circuit that is switched in this way & it makes absolutely no logical sense.
I can only think that the dash top socket is fed from the starter battery but is on a voltage regulated circuit of some description.

 

[Loz]

I was under the impression that all sockets in the cab were fed from the engine battery.

Having checked mine the dash top one does show a different voltage to the cup holder outlet, which would suggest the top one is fed from the leisure battery.

If that is the case can anyone explain why if the dash top tray 12v socket is fed from the leisure battery it is switched via the ignition? As far as I know there is nothing else on the leisure battery circuit that is switched in this way & it makes absolutely no logical sense.
I can only think that the dash top socket is fed from the starter battery but is on a voltage regulated circuit of some description.

Disconnect the leisure battery and test again to be sure..

 

[SimonB]

When I checked my 12v sockets the one on the dash, the one under the seat by the sliding door and the one in the very back were fed by the leisure batteries. The one in the cup holder and the one behind the left hand seat on the end of the kitchen unit were fed from the engine battery.
We check another 15 plate T5 this weekend, and that was wired up in the same way. It is not what either of us were told in the handover. Would be interested to know if it is the normal system or just a few. The socket on the unit is almost directly over the invertor and nearest to the leisure batteries.
After some helpful advice from Loz I disconnected the engine battery to check as I was surprised. Speaking to the Cali salesman afterwards, they had been misinformed as well.

 

[motacyclist]

If that is the case can anyone explain why if the dash top tray 12v socket is fed from the leisure battery it is switched via the ignition?

Mine is not switched via the ignition. I wish it was, it would save me having to unplug stuff ...

 

[SimonB]

Mine is not switched via the ignition. I wish it was, it would save me having to unplug stuff ...

Mine isn't switched either. I use that as the main charging point for phones, etc as they are out of the way and there is a flat area to put things.

 

[andyinluton]

Mine is switched, I leave the satnav plugged in there & it shuts down everytime the ignition is turned off. The socket in the cupholder is permanently live.

 

[CYCLOPATH]

When I checked my 12v sockets the one on the dash, the one under the seat by the sliding door and the one in the very back were fed by the leisure batteries. The one in the cup holder and the one behind the left hand seat on the end of the kitchen unit were fed from the engine battery.
We check another 15 plate T5 this weekend, and that was wired up in the same way. It is not what either of us were told in the handover. Would be interested to know if it is the normal system or just a few. The socket on the unit is almost directly over the invertor and nearest to the leisure batteries.
After some helpful advice from Loz I disconnected the engine battery to check as I was surprised. Speaking to the Cali salesman afterwards, they had been misinformed as well.

My 15 plate is the same as yours...I double checked. I to was misinformed.
I don't mind, as long as I know.

 

[SimonB]

My 15 plate is the same as yours...I double checked. I to was misinformed.
I don't mind, as long as I know.

There seem to be quite a few like this. Like you I was pleased to find out as I used to charge everything off the 12v socket at the end of the kitchen unit. I thought it was not going to affect the engine battery at all.
I think it is strange that the salesmen seem to think that everything in-front of the A pillar is from the engine battery and everything behind it from the leisure battery.
Mine even went out to check the T6 they had on the stand, and that was correct.

 

[acer]

I wonder if anyone else has gone through the same steps as others have over the past months?

 

[SimonB]

I will have the Voltmeter with me at Brean if anyone wants to test out how their van is wired up. We did the same exercise at the Weymouth meet last year and there didn't seem to be any consistency at all.
Some were wired up as ours is and some how the salesman tells you it is.

Simon

 

[TwoDogs]

So has anyone who's van is wired "wrong" like mine asked VW to fix it?!

 

[Shadrack]

Crikey Moses girls/guys,

I thought I was going bats (no pun intended) when I read this thread with all its different views on how the batteries are connected and what is hanging on to what battery.
So I have just checked mine. Now I don't want to throw any more confusion into this topic. Hopefully to help to clear matters up.

My findings were as per the handbook. And using one of those little plugin voltage readouts. (Just as effective as dvm for this exercise)

I have not had hookup on for a week.

Front cab socket....= 12.4v
All rear sockets behind fron seats... 12.7v

Put fridge and heater on full, all rear sockets came down slowly by about 0.3v
Cab socket stayed at 12.4v (no change)

Switched fridge and heater off.. All rear sockets slowly returned to 12.7v

Plugged in hookup.
All rear sockets slowly rose to above 14v
Front cab socket rose at a much much slower rate than rear sockets. (I put this down to loading on the engine battery circuit.

Rear sockets are always live too, front goes off.

So I am pleased that on a hookup all batteries get a trickle. I will let you summarise what is connected to what. There may have been changes to how the electrics work over the years.
My ocean is a 2016.

Now I was looking for some help before stumbling across this thread.

I have purchased a folding 120w solar. It has a regulater.

I know it's useless to plug into front socket to trickle up the engine battery, for this I wire a socket directly connected to engine battery via an inline fuse or use the croc clips directly on to the battery.

But for the leisure I was hoping to plug into any socket in the rear. I know it's been discussed. But for the life of me I can't understand why manual says don't.

My thinking is now just to be on the side of caution is to add a connector directly wired to leisure batteries.

Cheers..

 

[WelshGas]

T

Crikey Moses girls/guys,

I thought I was going bats (no pun intended) when I read this thread with all its different views on how the batteries are connected and what is hanging on to what battery.
So I have just checked mine. Now I don't want to throw any more confusion into this topic. Hopefully to help to clear matters up.

My findings were as per the handbook. And using one of those little plugin voltage readouts. (Just as effective as dvm for this exercise)

I have not had hookup on for a week.

Front cab socket....= 12.4v
All rear sockets behind fron seats... 12.7v

Put fridge and heater on full, all rear sockets came down slowly by about 0.3v
Cab socket stayed at 12.4v (no change)

Switched fridge and heater off.. All rear sockets slowly returned to 12.7v

Plugged in hookup.
All rear sockets slowly rose to above 14v
Front cab socket rose at a much much slower rate than rear sockets. (I put this down to loading on the engine battery circuit.

Rear sockets are always live too, front goes off.

So I am pleased that on a hookup all batteries get a trickle. I will let you summarise what is connected to what. There may have been changes to how the electrics work over the years.
My ocean is a 2016.

Now I was looking for some help before stumbling across this thread.

I have purchased a folding 120w solar. It has a regulater.

I know it's useless to plug into front socket to trickle up the engine battery, for this I wire a socket directly connected to engine battery via an inline fuse or use the croc clips directly on to the battery.

But for the leisure I was hoping to plug into any socket in the rear. I know it's been discussed. But for the life of me I can't understand why manual says don't.

My thinking is now just to be on the side of caution is to add a connector directly wired to leisure batteries.

Cheers..

This is where confusion can arise. On later T5.1's there are 2 x 12v sockets on the Dash. 1 on top, always live and powered from Leisure Battery and 1 in the bottle holder tra Leisure y that is powered by the Engine Battery whiche in a separate socket to the is ignition controlled.
If I wanted to wire a portable solar panel in I would wire a dedicated socket onto the rear Leisure Battery. Lots of sensitive electronics in the vehicle.

 

[Shadrack]

Hi All,

In just re-reading my earlier post on this thread I'm afraid I made a small typo, my apologies to all.

For my 2016 ocean:

I stated that all rear 12v sockets are Live and the front (Cab)are off.
This was wrong...

It's should have been:-
All 12v sockets (Front and Rear) are LIVE. When parked up and no key inserted in my Cali.

This seems to apply if on hookup or not.

my apologies again.

So to put a small trickle into the engine compartment battery, with the above in mind. I will use a small (10w) mono crystal panel which will at best only chuck out about 400ma. This I will plug into the front 12v socket located in the front dash mobile shelf.
(These panels are commercially available in many places and come complete with correct plug, fused and protection diodes. Cost around £20-£25. Mine from auction site)
As it's a black panel and less than A4 in size, it can just sit on the dash when not driving.

Thanks for info Welsh gas.
It does confirm my thoughts that there are a few differences over the model changes.

I appreciate your thoughts and agree the camper is full of sensitive electronics.