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Jump converter to house battery?


RaderNed

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I'm currently dry camping on the west coast of Mexico. I don't have solar but have been using a generator for a couple hours daily to charge up the single deep cycle house battery. This worked fine for many months, here and elsewhere, combined with a few hours of charging off the alternator while driving once a week or so. Now, however, it seems the battery charging aspect of the power converter, an old B-W 6325, has ceased working. This appears to be the case because while the generator is running, the power to the 12v circuits in the coach is at around 13.2v but the power at the lug connected to the house battery remains at whatever voltage to battery was at before firing up the generator. Correct me if I am misdiagnosing this or testing incorrectly. I'll install a replacement converter when we get back up north, but in the meantime I'm nowhere near anywhere for another month or two. 

My question for someone who knows more in this area than me: since the converter is putting out 13.2v to the house circuits, for lights, pump, etc, would it be possible to put a jump wire in from one of these house circuits on the DC fuse board to the house battery lug? I could easily disconnect the lead that is going to this lug from the converter, just to prevent any weird loops or feedback, but is there some other aspect of the power to the house circuits which might damage the house battery? Perhaps too much amperage? (I don't have an amp meter with me so no way to test what that is.)

The only other solution I can think of is running the engine, which works fine to charge to house battery but burns a lot of fuel. 

Thanks in advance for any assistance or  suggestions. 

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Does your generator have a 12v charge outlet??

Maybe a cheap local made 20 amp auto battery charger?

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Short answer no. There are two different system in the stock charger one to charge the battery the other to light the lights. There is a relay inside that separates them. You probably would kill the battery in short order jumpering the wiring, trash the inverter or both. Don't know where you are exactly but a simple plug in battery charge connected to the battery would be you best bet

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Thanks for the answers and ideas. I will be heading into a reasonably large town next week and will see if there's somewhere I can pick up a cheap battery charger. 

Regarding the relay that Maineah mentions, is this something that might have malfunctioned so that the battery charging side is not working and, if  its just a simple relay, might I be able to fix it? 

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The standard test for a bad relay is to give it a wack and see if things start working. This is a temp fix and you really need a more modern converter ASAP

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The relay disconnects the battery from the coach wiring only when the converter is on the other part of the system then charges the battery bottom line it sounds like the charger part is toes up. Go with the cheap charger method if you can just plug it into one of the outlets when you run the generator.

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Curiosity got the best of me and so I took the converter out and apart to look it over. The ceramic resistor which is mounted to the back of the converter box had broken loose and one of its wires had snapped at a connector lug. Fortunately, the body of the resistor was fine and I was able to remount it with a bit of gel superglue and some tape. I don't have a soldering iron with me but was able to crimp on a short jumper wire and reestablish the connection. The battery charging function is working fine again now. 

A new question: while the thing was disassembled, I also found the variable resistor which controls the voltage to the house battery charging function. It was only feeding 11.7v. What is the proper voltage for charging a partially discharged battery (as opposed to the maintenance level voltage)?. I have it set to about 13.1v right now. 

I've got a slide in replacement converter on order, but won't be able to get it until I reach a friend's house in Phoenix at the end of March. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Don't get too carried away with the voltage those chargers will over charge the battery if left on, 13.2 will charge it and be less likely to boil the water out. They do not maintain the battery what ever you set the voltage is what you get they do not change charger rate and are not current limiting you are on the right track with a new modern charger. A fully charged battery is at 12.7 volts you do need to get the voltage up beyond that point to charge it due to the battery's internal resistance but once it is charged the old chargers just keep trying to charge it even though it did not need to be charged. 

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On 2/27/2017 at 8:09 AM, Maineah said:

Don't get too carried away with the voltage those chargers will over charge the battery if left on, 13.2 will charge it and be less likely to boil the water out. They do not maintain the battery what ever you set the voltage is what you get they do not change charger rate and are not current limiting you are on the right track with a new modern charger. A fully charged battery is at 12.7 volts you do need to get the voltage up beyond that point to charge it due to the battery's internal resistance but once it is charged the old chargers just keep trying to charge it even though it did not need to be charged. 

Thanks for the additional info. The info on the inside of the converter cover says this one (B-W 6325, circa 1985) has both a charging rate and maintenance rate. I take it, though, that history has proven that's not the case? 

IMG_5447.JPG

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Do not leave it plugged in long term or you will find an empty battery. By modern standards they were very crude.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Does anybody know how to disconnect the built in battery charger on my 1988 Sea Breeze? I added a 3 stage modern battery charger for maintaining/charging the battery. But I would like to disconnect the old system so it doesn't ruin the battery at some point. I have a Series 6300A Model 6325 CNGJ power converter.

Edited by diskwizard
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21 hours ago, diskwizard said:

Does anybody know how to disconnect the built in battery charger on my 1988 Sea Breeze? I added a 3 stage modern battery charger for maintaining/charging the battery. But I would like to disconnect the old system so it doesn't ruin the battery at some point. I have a Series 6300A Model 6325 CNGJ power converter.

That's a hard one how is the new charger installed? There are a few things that might need to be done.

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4 hours ago, Maineah said:

That's a hard one how is the new charger installed? There are a few things that might need to be done.

On my rig the battery box and the area for the refrigerator controls are next to each other and both are accessible through hatches on the outside, so I mounted the battery charger in the refrigerator area, and drilled a hole through the adjoining wall, and ran the battery charger wires directly to the coach battery. I normally run a outdoor extension cord from the battery charger to a outlet. I do not normally have shore power hooked up since the battery has plenty of juice for what I use in the Sea Breeze now, but that will change in a few months when I want to run the air conditioner. There is a 120V AC receptacle in the refrigerator area for powering the refrigerator when I am plugged into shore power and I could plug the battery charger into it, but I don't because I don't know how having two such dissimilar chargers hooked to the coach battery would affect the battery.  I would like to disconnect the battery charger built into the 6300 power center so I can plug the modern battery charger into the refrigerator receptacle when I am plugged into shore power and charge the coach battery rather than take the chance that the old battery charger would boil the battery dry. I have a Series 6300A Model 6325 CNGJ power converter.

Just so you folks know I am a electronics technician and work with both AC and DC circuits and equipment all the time. If you can just point me to the general area I can probably figure it out. The schematics that I have leave a lot to be desired. :)

Edited by diskwizard
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The old converter is the charger. Just remove the whole thing. Plug your new charger in to 110 v out and leave it there. When your plugged into shore power your charging.

Wire the battery directly to the power panel. Also make sure your truck charging isolator functions and is also hooked to the house battery

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Just now, Maineah said:

What is the product number on the old converter?

Sorry I missed it. Open the converter cut and cap the black power lead to the xformer. Join the blue and red relay leads together (#8 wires). Of course there is 120 inside (to the relay also) so be sure it's unpluged.

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16 hours ago, Maineah said:

Sorry I missed it. Open the converter cut and cap the black power lead to the xformer. Join the blue and red relay leads together (#8 wires). Of course there is 120 inside (to the relay also) so be sure it's unpluged.

Thank guys that is just what I needed.   :)  

Edited by diskwizard
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