terryW Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 In the recent bad weather my battery went so low the controllers screen went totally blank. I changed the battery to a charged one and discovered the display was only showing 50% charge despite also showing 13.5V battery output. I reset the unit to factory settings then disconnected and reconnected the unit in the sequence specified in the installation instruction. This should have allowed it choose 12 or 24v. The battery is a known good one and has now been on charge via EHU overnight. Still only 52% SOC is showing despite a battery voltage indicating a fully charged battery. My thought is that the unit has decided that I have a 24v battery fitted but the re-installation should have allowed it to select the correct voltage. Anyone seen this problem before? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandncaravan Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 If the Solar Regulator was not charging properly, but the battery was good, the battery should have stayed charged for a couple of months, shouldn't it? The fact that the battery went flat in such a short time (assumed as the bad weather has been a recent phenomenon round here) would indicate a battery problem, hence the display showing a poor battery. Battery voltage is only a guide to it's condition, and only then when it has been allowed to stabilise for a few days. You can charge a poor battery, take it off charge, and get some good test results. But leave it a few days and it can die away quite quickly. We had a battery in the workshop that would sit for weeks at 12.8v, but the minute you placed a load of 5 amps on it, the voltage would drop below 9v in less than 10 minutes. Let it stand for an hour and the voltage would be back up to 12.8v. Several batteries of less than 10v yet had bright green 'battery perfect' indicators. Solar Power can mask how bad a battery has become because the almost continuous charging doesn't allow it to show it's true colours. The Steca doesn't suit all Solar Installations but it is reliable. I would suggest the regulator is good but the battery isn't? Take the battery off charge, leave it 2 weeks and recheck it's voltage, I would guess you won't see more than 12.2v when it should be up near 12.8v? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spospe Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 I am a little unsure as to exactly how your Steca regulator is wired. I had a Steca PR1010 in a previous Auto Sleeper Duetto and it worked well after I had ensured two things were correct. 1) The battery must be connected before the solar panel; this is to ensure the regulator is switched to 12 volt and not 24. 2) That the regulator is wired directly to the leisure battery terminals and not via any intermediate connection point (originally mine went via a switched intermediate point, with the result that every time the engine started, the regulator changed to 24 volt working and eventually destroyed the battery). Another point is that from your original post, it sounds like the regulator is wired so that the entire 12 volt system of your van is connected to its output? In this scenario all three sets of terminals on the regulator are wired thus: 1) directly to the solar panel 2) directly to the battery and 3) directly to the load (all the 12 volt wiring of your 'van). If you have wiring to the battery and the solar panel only, then you have the regulator set-up incorrectly, as under these conditions the percentage display of "State of Charge" is invalid and you must change the display of the regulator to show "Voltage Control". When set to "Voltage Control", you only see the system voltage, you do not see the "State of Charge", i.e. the curved display showing the battery capacity is missing. http://docs-europe.electrocomponents.com/webdocs/13aa/0900766b813aad08.pdf shows the installation of a PR1010 How is your system wired? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandncaravan Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 If I understand you correctly you are suggesting that the entire 12v wiring of the habitation area is 'unhooked' from the battery where it normally is, then moved across and wired into the Solar regulator 'Load' terminals so that all the Habitation load goes through the PR1010? You write : "In this scenario all three sets of terminals on the regulator are wired thus: 1) directly to the solar panel 2) directly to the battery and 3) directly to the load (all the 12 volt wiring of your 'van)". It is just that I thought the PR1010 had a load limit of only 10amps? Won't the majority of Motorhomes have consumers that exceed that? I must have misunderstood, because it would take a lot of work to break out the multiple current paths that use just a few battery connected cables. For example the mains charging and Alternator charging will be sharing the main habitation battery cables? If you just moved the cables as is from the battery to the Steca 'Load' terminals, it would be possible for 20amps of mains 240v charging and 20amps + Alternator charging to go through the 10A Steca in the opposite direction. Would that be o.k? Some Motorhomes will have a 'Voltage sense' wire that goes direct to the battery. These are usually individual cables designed to signal an accurate voltage to the power Distribution box, unaffected by the load and voltage drop on the main power cables. If these were also moved across to the Steca 'Load' terminals, the readings the Controller box gets will be inaccurate, potentially wildly inaccurate causing the Power Controller to shut down? I am sure I must have misunderstood, but you also write, "If you have wiring to the battery and the solar panel only, then you have the regulator set-up incorrectly". I am having trouble visualising all this, please can you describe how this is achieved in practice on a PR1010? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spospe Posted November 24, 2015 Share Posted November 24, 2015 aandncaravan - 2015-11-23 10:45 PM It is just that I thought the PR1010 had a load limit of only 10amps? Won't the majority of Motorhomes have consumers that exceed that? The PR1010 does indeed have a maximum rating of 10 amps and this is why most users have their regulators set up to only connect to the solar panel and the regulator. In this case the regulator cannot meaningfully show "State of Charge" and must be set to "Voltage Control" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terryW Posted November 24, 2015 Author Share Posted November 24, 2015 Thanks to everyone for their time. Just to clarify a couple of the points raised. The first thing I did was change the battery to a known good one though I was confident the one fitted was probably ok. The reason for it going flat was a combination of the weather (@ midday the solar panel is only giving 0-0.2 A and the van control systems draw a min of 0.4 A. So a flat battery was inevitable. The regulator connection is a simple solar panel and battery connection only. This morning I re-installed it again (in the correct sequence and the SOC now shows 60%) and that is probably correct because 24 hrs ago I fully charged it and since then it has not only been subjected to a constant drain of 0.4A but also ran a a heater blower for a few hours at the same time. So in short looks as if the a second re-install has done the trick. Its now on EHU charge and I will see what happens.Once again many thanks for your thoughts and time. If I still have doubts then I will change it as we have 3 months in Spain coming up end of Jan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spospe Posted November 24, 2015 Share Posted November 24, 2015 terryW - 2015-11-24 12:37 PM This morning I re-installed it again (in the correct sequence and the SOC now shows 60%) If you have only the solar panel and the battery connected (and that is indeed the normal arrangement for the 10 amp PR1010), then you should not be using the regulator set to show SOC. This is not because of the risk of any damage, it is because it is meaningless. State of Charge only works correctly when the regulator has all three connections (solar panel, battery and system load). If you set the regulator to show SOC without wiring it as I have described, then the SOC reading is almost meaningless as the regulator cannot measure how much current is being consumed (because the load is not connected). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terryW Posted November 24, 2015 Author Share Posted November 24, 2015 spospe - 2015-11-24 2:19 PM terryW - 2015-11-24 12:37 PM This morning I re-installed it again (in the correct sequence and the SOC now shows 60%) If you have only the solar panel and the battery connected (and that is indeed the normal arrangement for the 10 amp PR1010), then you should not be using the regulator set to show SOC. This is not because of the risk of any damage, it is because it is meaningless. State of Charge only works correctly when the regulator has all three connections (solar panel, battery and system load). If you set the regulator to show SOC without wiring it as I have described, then the SOC reading is almost meaningless as the regulator cannot measure how much current is being consumed (because the load is not connected). A light has come on! That makes perfect sense, since installation by a dealer the SOC has always been displayed but in the past I have suspected that at best it was optimistic as it never dropped far below 100% SOC. It also explains the statement in the handbook that SOC is determined by two parameters, not just voltage. Many thanks spospe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spospe Posted November 24, 2015 Share Posted November 24, 2015 Terry It took me quite a few angry hours to work it all out, as I had accepted the way that the dealer had installed the regulator as being correct. Eventually the light dawned and I learned to question the wisdom of the supplier of our motorhome. For your use "Voltage Control" in the display is the way to go. This is a bit sad, as the full 'arc' of the "State of Charge" is much more impressive to look at. We had our PR1010 for 6 years and apart from the way it was originally set up (showing "State of Charge" instead of "Voltage Control"), had no problems at all in its use. Regards ..... Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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