Has changing From Sargent to Victron effected charging my engine battery on solar.

[TrevandJenny]

Spring last year I fitted a Victron 75-15 controller bypassing the Sargent unit as advised on here. All working well.
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I noticed yesterday that the vehicle battery was only showing 11.7v, strange it normally only goes down to high 12 low 13volts when not used for a while, The leisure batteries were showing at 14v, so solar system must be working, MH last used in November it’s been in storage since nearly three months.
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In the past MH has sometimes not been used for around five months and vehicle battery fine after that time, hence solar charging leisure and vehicle batteries ok.
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I checked to see if I have left anything on , I did not seem to have. All switches same throughout as usual when left stored.
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Could be battery now passed its sell by date! It’s been on charge overnight and showing 14.7v at present but still charging, I have a Ring 8amp charger maintainer., When fully charged I will get it load tested.
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Here’s the question, When I changed the solar panel cables from Sargent to Victron did/have I inadvertently stopped the system from charging the vehicle battery via the B2B if that’s the correct terminology. I understood that by changing the charger to Victron it would not alter the charge to vehicle battery.

Any help appreciated.
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[trevskoda]

Dont understand why folk want thes sys in vans, better to use a votronic regulator by its self.

 

[wildebus]

What Sargent unit do you have?
Some sargent units have Auto or Smart charging as a setting on the control panel. it is only the fairly recent ones that have that feature.
There is a handy guide here to help determine what you had and whether it would charge the vehicle battery or not .... https://sargent.zohodesk.eu/portal/en/kb/articles/can-i-charge-the-vehicle-battery-from-my-system

The above will tell you when using the Sargent Solar within the unit, if it would have charged the vehicle battery or not.


Now you have the Victron, and at a guess connected the Battery terminals on it to the Leisure battery directly, it is totally outside of the Sargent system and doesn't matter what Sargent unit it is, the Solar will not do anything for the Vehicle battery - but you DO have a much better solar controller!
if you want to be able to maintain the Vehicle Battery, there are a few options. You can get a cable to connect the two together when in storage (Witzend will be here shortly with his Clive Mott hyperlink!); you can put the charger on occasionally like you are doing; or you can buy a device to take care of this automatically as a "fit and forget" solution.
The last one is the most convenient IMO and what I would (and have myself) gone for.
There is a Vanbitz Battery Master, popular but basic, old and expensive for what you get;
There is a Votronic trickler which is cheaper but incredibly pricey for a resister and a diode in a plastic box;
There is the Ablemail AMT12-2, which is a touch cheaper than the Battery Master but is the best product of its type on the market I think. More info here - https://ablemail.co.uk/products/amt...sure-battery-with-solar-charger-mains-hookup/

 

[TrevandJenny]

What Sargent unit do you have?
Some sargent units have Auto or Smart charging as a setting on the control panel. it is only the fairly recent ones that have that feature.
There is a handy guide here to help determine what you had and whether it would charge the vehicle battery or not .... https://sargent.zohodesk.eu/portal/en/kb/articles/can-i-charge-the-vehicle-battery-from-my-system

The above will tell you when using the Sargent Solar within the unit, if it would have charged the vehicle battery or not.


Now you have the Victron, and at a guess connected the Battery terminals on it to the Leisure battery directly, it is totally outside of the Sargent system and doesn't matter what Sargent unit it is, the Solar will not do anything for the Vehicle battery - but you DO have a much better solar controller!
if you want to be able to maintain the Vehicle Battery, there are a few options. You can get a cable to connect the two together when in storage (Witzend will be here shortly with his Clive Mott hyperlink!); you can put the charger on occasionally like you are doing; or you can buy a device to take care of this automatically as a "fit and forget" solution.
The last one is the most convenient IMO and what I would (and have myself) gone for.
There is a Vanbitz Battery Master, popular but basic, old and expensive for what you get;
There is a Votronic trickler which is cheaper but incredibly pricey for a resister and a diode in a plastic box;
There is the Ablemail AMT12-2, which is a touch cheaper than the Battery Master but is the best product of its type on the market I think. More info here - https://ablemail.co.uk/products/amt...sure-battery-with-solar-charger-mains-hookup/

Thanks for your input, We have a EC328, I connected Victron output to leisure batteries, ref vehicle battery charging I must have read your advice last year incorrectly. Hence inadvertently stopped vehicle battery from charging.
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If I fit a feed into the Sargent solar panel input, would that allow the 328 to still charge the vehicle battery through the original system?

If not could I use the original vehicle charging wiring from leisure batteries. To fit a device as above,
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Or could I route switched positive and negative cables from leisure to vehicle battery’s switching live when in storage so as using solar to charge vehicle battery as well?

 

[TrevandJenny]

Dont understand why folk want thes sys in vans, better to use a votronic regulator by its self.View attachment 71369

I didn’t realise when you suggested this unit last year that it charged both, L & V.,

 

[nabsim]

I didn’t realise when you suggested this unit last year that it charged both, L & V.,

The Votronic sends up to 1amp to the starter battery si trickle feed rather than charger. It still depends on how much solar you get so you could have full hab battery and nothing going to starter. I have one and it has helped me a lot but if I am stood a few days with no solar the parasitic load still means I could have a flat starter battery.

 

[TrevandJenny]

Thank you for the thought, Could you fit a diode inline to stop the drain?
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[nabsim]

Thank you for the thought, Could you fit a diode inline to stop the drain?
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I just accept I need to do something about it in winter. The maintainers/battery master stuff wouldn’t make much difference to me as I am in the van using power. I have to get charge into my hab bank every couple of days which also tops up starter

 

[trevskoda]

Just put a switch and heavy relay 200amp and thick battery cable fromles to starter like this, handy if you require a bost for jump starting, or a battery isolator switch linking all the batteries up.

 

[wildebus]

The Votronic is a pretty poor Vehicle Battery trickle charger with its very low 1A MAXIMUM feed. And bear in mind it is only active when you have solar and in storage in Winter that could be as little as 4 or 5 hours. So that is 1A for say 4 hours and nothing for the other 20 hours of the day. But the residual charge does not stop when the sun goes in. It is there 24/7 and the votronic is doing nothing for you for 5/6ths of the time, and not a lot for the remaing 1/6th. (can you tell I am not a big fan )

For a litle more than the cost of the Votronic you can buy a Victron of the same rating AND a battery maintainer which will provide far more flexibility.

If I fit a feed into the Sargent solar panel input, would that allow the 328 to still charge the vehicle battery through the original system?

I guess you could use a switch to select to feed the solar into the EC328 instead of the Victron? It's a reasonable option and would be simple to implement.

If not could I use the original vehicle charging wiring from leisure batteries. To fit a device as above,

To fit a battery maintainer, you need three things ...
1) Permanent +ve Feed from Leisure Battery
2) Permenent +ve Feed from Starter Battery
3) Ground.
You can find all of those on the sargent wiring going into the unit. If you can see a Brown Cable with Blue Stripe, a Brown Cable with Green Stripe and a White Cable with Orange Stripe, you have all the connections needed.

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Or could I route switched positive and negative cables from leisure to vehicle battery’s switching live when in storage so as using solar to charge vehicle battery as well?

Not sure what you mean.
In a similar way to switching the solar inputs from the Victron to the Sargents Solar Controller, you could instead have a switch on the output (i.e. the Battery connections) so you change from the Victron charging the Leisure to the Victron charging the Vehicle.
By doing this, you are loosing the Lesiure Battery Charging.


Another option if you want to get creative is connect the Load Output of the Victron 75/15 to the Starter Battery? Assuming it is the Smart Solar, you can program the Load Output to work in various ways and work in essence as a trickle charger. This can give you upto 15A into the starter battery and depending how you set it up, be only active when Solar active, or all the time, or if the Leisure Battery is charging (from Solar OR EHU).
There are a couple of gotchas, such as you cannot control the current and if the 15A is exceeded, the controller resets (it is not damaged, but you loose the output) so you have to watch out if the Starter Battery is very low.

 

[nabsim]

I am a fan of the Votronic but wanted to point out its shortcomings lol I got a noticeable difference after fitting mine but as said it relies on sunshine which we don’t get all the time in the U.K. probably if someone has a very low residual loss it may be the answer but it can’t keep mine up for long.

As an mppt controller I rate it above my Victron 100/20 but that is a different discussion

 

[trevskoda]

The link switch works for me as i can bypass the 1ah to the full monty with votronic in the few weeks the sun is low and dark days.

 

[HurricaneSmith]

..............
There is a Vanbitz Battery Master, popular but basic, old and expensive for what you get;
..........

I'm basic and old too.

My Vanbitz Battery Master cost less than £70, gives me absolute peace of mind, all three batteries remain fully topped up, and it's tiny.

I visited the van yesterday, and as always, everything is tickety-boo.

 

[TrevandJenny]

I'm basic and old too.

My Vanbitz Battery Master cost less than £70, gives me absolute peace of mind, all three batteries remain fully topped up, and it's tiny.

I visited the van yesterday, and as always, everything is tickety-boo.

Do you get any engine B to leisure B current flow if off grid for a while, or does this unit have a built in diode to stop parasitic flow?.

 

[HurricaneSmith]

The Battery Master is linked to the leisure battery, and is a one-way trickle charge onwards to the engine battery. It doesn't allow any charge to flow the other way (ie from the EB to my LBs).

I no longer need to regularly visit the storage compound to check whether any parasitic devices have discharged the VB, and all my batteries are always ready to go. I live in East Sussex where there's shedloads of sunshine.

I'm nothing to do with the company, but they have a (simple to find) website that explains everything. I'd add a link, but I'm not certain whether it might offend our owner, and I don't wish to do that.

Other excellent devices are available, and they may be less expensive than about £70, and possibly even younger.

 

[Mr and Mrs Tupcox]

After bye passing my sargent system I fitted a small panel and regulator just to keep lb topped up

 

[wildebus]

The Battery Master is linked to the leisure battery, and is a one-way trickle charge onwards to the engine battery. It doesn't allow any charge to flow the other way (ie from the EB to my LBs).

I no longer need to regularly visit the storage compound to check whether any parasitic devices have discharged the VB, and all my batteries are always ready to go. I live in East Sussex where there's shedloads of sunshine.

I'm nothing to do with the company, but they have a (simple to find) website that explains everything. I'd add a link, but I'm not certain whether it might offend our owner, and I don't wish to do that.

Other excellent devices are available, and they may be less expensive than about £70, and possibly even younger.

Think the Battery Master was designed to work on the Raleigh Standard bone-shaker dynamo - but only the one with the solid brake rods

 

[TrevandJenny]

After bye passing my sargent system I fitted a small panel and regulator just to keep lb topped up

How small a panel did you fit to retain full V battery?

 

[cheyenne]

this is what happens when you start messing with the sargent system i wouldn't they do sell a mppt regulator i have & charges my 2 hab batteries & engine battery auto & we keep our on storage plus you should have the app to check everything in your m/h every day

 

[trevskoda]

After bye passing my sargent system I fitted a small panel and regulator just to keep lb topped up

What about the starter battery.