Mastervolt secondary charger

[undercutter]

So I went ahead and installed a new Ultra 3000 charger inverter when my old 4000 quit this year. I liked the idea of having the solar controller built right in to the unit. This charger also has a secondary charging unit which I understood to be able to work independently of the main charger. In addition to replacing the old inverter I had to upgrade the controller as well a replace the existing shunt even though I had been told by the dealer that this new inverter would work with my old MICC controller and shunt.



So after setting up the new system including the Masterbus network it turns out that I cannot make the secondary charger work as a 3 step charger independent of the main charger. With the dip switch settings in the default position (follow main) there is no window to change the settings for the secondary charger only the ability to change to constant voltage and with the dip switch settings in the 3 step 12 v position the options remain the same. I understood that this secondary charger could be configured to any battery style and charging parameters independent of the main charger so maybe someone can steer me in the right direction. Talking to BLA in Brisbane they do not seem to be able to figure it out either and they are the Mastervolt reps her.


This is important to me as I have dry spirals for the bow thruster that I wish to charge with the secondary charger and the house bank are flooded traction batteries. The charging voltages seem to be quite specific for each.

[Dsanduril]

Have you cycled the AC power to the unit after changing the DIP switches? Many (most?) systems only read DIP switch settings at power up.

With the switches for the secondary charger in the 3+ position you should be able to select any of the battery types they support (and make adjustments).

[Edit] While not specified in the manual, many systems prefer DIP switch changes to made with the system powered down, this then automatically takes care of the power cycle required for the update.[/edit]

[undercutter]

Originally Posted by Dsanduril

Have you cycled the AC power to the unit after changing the DIP switches? Many (most?) systems only read DIP switch settings at power up.

With the switches for the secondary charger in the 3+ position you should be able to select any of the battery types they support (and make adjustments).

[Edit] While not specified in the manual, many systems prefer DIP switch changes to made with the system powered down, this then automatically takes care of the power cycle required for the update.[/edit]

I will try this tomorrow in the daylight. Never thought about a reboot.

[undercutter]

Well it seems that there is no ability to set the charging specifications for the secondary charger except to either follow the main charger or produce a constant voltage. In the 2nd case the voltage cannot be higher than that being produced by the main charger. I changed the A-6 switch position to 1 and the programming options were replaced with 'events only' which is the main charging on or off status.



The inverter/charger sees the changes in the dipswitch settings immediately and there is no need to depower the unit to make changes to programming. The changes are also immediately seen by the masterbus program when it is open on the laptop and plugged in.



In any event I tracked down the charging settings for the dry spiral starting batteries used for the thruster and the requirements are fairly loose with a wide tolerance for voltage settings so the settings for the flooded traction batteries look ok. The secondary charger has a 10 amp maximum current so 2.5 amps per battery in the set. Hard to do any damage at that rate of charge unless they were left on float for a long time.

[smac999]

I have never seen a charger that you can set 2 different output settings on...