DC-DC Charger Mystery

[bstreep]

Watching with interest... Ours is almost exactly like yours, except that we charge the start battery and the Orion charges the BB Lithiums... My concern would be damaging the alternator.

[hjohnson]

I’m running a very similar setup to yours (alternator charging LFP, orion maintaining start battery). They only difference is that I’m using the 18A orion. Anyhow, I’m my case I wound up turning off all the engine detection stuff and just left it permanently on. Maintaining the starter battery in float takes very little power.

That said, I did connect the on/off jumper to a relay control on the cerbo gx, so i can turn things off remotely if I have to, but after 5 months that has never come up.

Try turning off all the engine detection stuff. The charge curve is so flat that it probably can’t detect it anyhow.

[Poeme]

Thanks for these responses...
I have a Balmar APM-12 (Alternator Protection Device) wired directly on the alternator. I understand it will absorb and protect the alternator from spikes at my rates of current if a disconnect occurs ("highly unlikely" I'm told, knock on wood).
Also, I will soon give the Orion another try. A responder above mentioned even making sure my PIN # is accurate. (In fact I gave the Orion a PIN different from my Victron solar controllers...but I have full BT access to all these units...why would this be an issue long as I can program everything? But my Orion won't turn on last I tried...I'm open to ANY and ALL advice or random thoughts!

[AllenRbrts]

Originally Posted by Poeme

Thanks for these responses...
I have a Balmar APM-12 (Alternator Protection Device) wired directly on the alternator. I understand it will absorb and protect the alternator from spikes at my rates of current if a disconnect occurs ("highly unlikely" I'm told, knock on wood).
Also, I will soon give the Orion another try. A responder above mentioned even making sure my PIN # is accurate. (In fact I gave the Orion a PIN different from my Victron solar controllers...but I have full BT access to all these units...why would this be an issue long as I can program everything? But my Orion won't turn on last I tried...I'm open to ANY and ALL advice or random thoughts!

I think you have been given lots of good information by many on this thread.
Items to check (most previously mentioned).
1. Use an ohmmeter to check the resistance of the jumper connection. It should be near zero, if not that is your problem.
2. Be sure the engine detect is OFF.
3. Check your lock our voltages. My are 12.8V and 13.2, so if the source (house battery) is below 12.8, it turns off and doesn't turn on again until 13.2V
4. Be sure the unit is connected with the output to the start battery and the input being the house battery.
If you have have checked all these, then perhaps your unit has a problem.

[Poeme]

Thank you AllenRbrts I will do precisely as you suggest.

[Poeme]

AllenRbrts I've checked off your list, all is correct. Before I start the engine to test again I should mention that the standing message on BT has always been "Charge disabled due to: Remote input Inactive". That should give a hint to my problem, but what precisely does that phrase mean? Anyone?

[smac999]

Originally Posted by Poeme

AllenRbrts I've checked off your list, all is correct. Before I start the engine to test again I should mention that the standing message on BT has always been "Charge disabled due to: Remote input Inactive". That should give a hint to my problem, but what precisely does that phrase mean? Anyone?

The jumper is a remote switch bypass. You can remove it and add a remote switch. The warning is telling you the remote switch is off. So either the jumper is bad. Or the unit is bad.

I’m pretty sure one post gives off 12v and the jumper sends 12v to the 2nd post. I would measure voltage at each pin of the jumper. To ground.

[Poeme]

TO SMAC999 AND ALL OTHERS WHO HAVE KINDLY RESPONDED TO MY ORION DC-DC CHARGER MYSTERY, I WANT TO OFFER A SINCERE APOLOGY. A few days ago, with humiliation and embarrassment (but also tremendous relief) I found my problem getting the Orion to turn on. Ready for this? I had been plugging the jumper in BACKWARDS. Or at least trying to, as it never felt right going in and wasn't completing the circuit. Although there's good airflow where I located the Orion, the clearance underneath is minimal and really requires a mirror to check the plug polarity. A mirror gives a reverse image and my brain mis-interpreted it...yet I was so sure. I owe you all an apology for taking up your time and need to express how truly sorry I am for this.
The charger works like a charm at the dock but will be taking the boat on a shake-down cruise for a few days to test my entire lithium installation. I'm optimistic that it's bulletproof, thanks to the many of you that responded to my questions along the way.
If I appeal to the forum in the future, just remember I'm that guy, the bonehead. I could've looked at the photo on the box for god's sake.

[RickG]

POEME, these things happen. That's why cruisers help cruisers, we all get to learn.

Cheers, RickG

[shelbybob]

Could it be as simple as the charger turns off or drastically reduces charge when the starter batt is full? That happens with my dc-dc charger

[MVDarlin]

Yikes. I plan to change my house bank to lithium batts in a couple of months. It will ONLY be charged by solar. Can I add a dc to dc charger to too up the AGM start bank? I will otherwise only connect start bank to the alternators.

[Poeme]

shelbybob...for the Victron Orion, a blue LED comes on blinking showing there's power to the unit. When the jumper is in (correctly!) a second LED, green, at the lower right corner of the unit comes on and blinks indicating it's activated and ready for charging action. When the start batt is full and on float, it goes to solid green.

[shelbybob]

Originally Posted by MVDarlin

Yikes. I plan to change my house bank to lithium batts in a couple of months. It will ONLY be charged by solar. Can I add a dc to dc charger to too up the AGM start bank? I will otherwise only connect start bank to the alternators.

By all indications (what I read in the manual sent with the dcdc charger) the dcdc charger was designed to seperate the lifepo4 bank from the charging alternator for charging system protection. That is the path I took to add the dcdc charger to my system but seeing comments here, there is a box to think out of and reverse the process but why? If you have a charging alternator for the starting batt what added benefit would there be to also discharge the house batts into the start batts? Maby a quick jump if the start batterie(s) discharge to low to start the engine?

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by shelbybob

By all indications (what I read in the manual sent with the dcdc charger) the dcdc charger was designed to seperate the lifepo4 bank from the charging alternator for charging system protection. That is the path I took to add the dcdc charger to my system but seeing comments here, there is a box to think out of and reverse the process but why? If you have a charging alternator for the starting batt what added benefit would there be to also discharge the house batts into the start batts? Maby a quick jump if the start batterie(s) discharge to low to start the engine?

In my view charge sources should be connected to the battery that needs them most. That’s almost inevitably the domestic bank which is in this case Li.

Therefore as part of any upgrade the need to make the alternator compatible with Li charging as you do for every other charge source. Big DC DC converters are not a great solution as they are very expensive

[CharlieJ]

@gbn #29:
+1