The
Balmar literature and terminology are FUBAR like nothing else I've seen in the industry. Here are a few key points that I've figured out through reverse engineering/observation, and struggling to get proper
charging, which I finally got.
1) The "bulk" stage in Balmar's lingo actually covers what in industry standard terms is BOTH Bulk and Absorb. The "Absorb" stage in
Balmar lingo is pretty much a useless stage that attempts to charge a little longer and less than the bulk voltage, with the same
current cutoff as bulk, i.e. it will end after the minimum time. Set Bu correctly for the bulk voltage.
2) FbA is NOT the Bulk to Acceptance
current per industry terms. There really is no such thing in industry norms. FbA is ACTUALLY the Absorb to Float transition current. Set FbA to the final desired acceptance current. Note it's entered as a percentage of the alternators rated current output. And be sure to compensate for house loads. So if you want a final acceptance current of 10A, have typical house loads of 15A, that's 25A, or 25% for a 100A rated
alternator. You need to do some math. If you want a minimum bulk time, set that in b1c, but keep in mind that it is the time for both Bulk and Absorb (using industry terminology).
3) FFl is also NOT the Absorb to Float transition current. It's actually the current at which the
charger, once in float, will re-enter Absorb. This is really important because if you set it too low, you will find your
alternator switching back to absorb every time you run a heavy load on your
boat. Turn on the kettle while underway, and you alternator gives your
batteries another absorb cycle, effectively over
charging them during extended motoring. I have found it best to set FFl to it's max possible value to prevent this.
4) Balmar's description of how their time values are entered just makes it more confusing, at least to me. It's actually very simple. The displayed time value, say "1.8" is simply the number of hours. So 1.8 hrs. Introducing all the "6 minutes" crap just confuses things, even though that is how the math works out.
I'll bet that 95% of the Balmar regulators are incorrectly programmed, thanks to Balmar's instruction. In fact, I'm not even sure Balmar understands how the
regulator works.