We had one of these on our new bailey caravan had nothing but trouble with it the LED's on the front did'nt show what was in the battery the 85% battery charge never lit up changed it for a mppt charger off ebey and works fine so i know the panel is working fine i also like to see the voltage of the battery on the display which you cant on the truma modelThe far right LED has the wording "Batt Full" If that's not lit then I woukd assume it isnt fully charged.
Do you get any LED's lighting up when it's daylight? If not clearly something is wrong.
First thing I checked battery showing 12.75 volts fully charged, checked in line fuse that's ok checked fuse on controller that's OK. Checked panel feed 21.5volts. Checked feed too battery 3.45 volts.The far right LED has the wording "Batt Full" If that's not lit then I woukd assume it isnt fully charged.
Do you get any LED's lighting up when it's daylight? If not clearly something is wrong.
12.7 volts and above. Is fully charged. you are quoteing charging rates and floating charge rates.
Have I missed something?
I'll go and have another look , you don't happen to know the number. I did look.Apologies if i've missed who the manufacturer of your caravan is.
But Swifts have an additional 10A fuse for the solar inside the Sargent PSU
I have an old battery I've been threatening to take down to the tip think it might still be around 12.2 f I'll hook it up.The only one I think would help is that you have not ensured the battery was not somewhat discharged to be able for it to be recharged.
However, you are right to expect that even with a full battery most controllers will drop to circa 13.4 volts and a miniscule current, into a caretaker sort of role.
But some controllers do stop even sending a tiny current, in fact just draw the same that they use to monitor the battery till they detect the battery is into discharge, where they "wake up" and start recharging.
So, to be sure your system is working it is best to actually make it need to work, by giving it a battery known to be able to be topped up a little bit.
Then if you see into the upper 13 volts you will know it is working, as such volts can't come from a battery, say one drained to exhibit 12.6> 12.5 volts in your case.
As said earlier, a current tester would give you the real performance value, the actual current the system is stuffing into the battery. Way better to check what charging is actually doing, rather than what various volts could imply.
I'll go and have another look , you don't happen to know the number. I did look.
Van make is in my signature.
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One current tester on order. Free postage, then they charge handling charge ?????The 12.7 volts whilst could indicate a nearly full lead acid "12volt" battery, it does not necessarily indicate it is being charged, in fact the balance of odds is it probably is not being charged if you see 12.7 volts.
If being charged and showing just 12.7 volts, it would mean it's close to fully discharged.
A battery nearing fully charged should show a lot higher voltage; actual values vary with both battery detail technology and controller characteristics but typically will be approaching 14.3>14.5 volts. Note "whilst being charged", not off charge.
A quite telling easy check is put a load on the battery so it is definitely not fully charged. After removing that load, and with the panel exposed to the sunshine, if you don't see its voltage at least into the upper 13 volts, then the solar system is not charging it.
Using "volts" is at best only "indicative" of what could be happening, these to be of more use requires possession of the maker battery characteristic curves or tables, not things readily available to retail buyers.
Measuring the current going to or from the battery and solar controller is the really telling characteristic, after all that is what charging really is, stuffing current into the battery.
THESE little cheap current testers are ideal for our solar systems; they insert into a blade fuse holder in the positive wire between the controller and battery, with the fuse replaced into the probe.
Set up as so the system works unaffected; when you want to check the current flowing you simply switch it "on", and the value is displayed. Be that going the right or wrong way!
If left switched "on" then ultimately the tester's battery (replaceable) will run down, hence why it is best to switch it off over periods where you are not wanting reading. IMO a great tool to have in your DIY tool bag for many other tasks.
One current tester on order. Free postage, then they charge handling charge ?????
In the past I have been advised that a good battery should read a minimum of 12.8v to be healthy. I have just checked the status of our battery which is connected to a Truma controller and the average read over the past 4 days has been over 14v. Prior to that it was average of 12.9v. I can see my peak voltages as far back as the 7th March.
Van only 4 months old I'll resist the temptation to look.Sorry, i probably should have seen that!
You have to remove the 4 screws and pull the PSU out of its box. Up inside near the myriad of connectors is a single 10A fuse sat all by itself, I believe its even marked as Solar on the PCB.
I was in there a few weeks ago while i was adding an additional 100W solar panel
Van only 4 months old I'll resist the temptation to look.
You Have an Elite. Did you bye from Grantham's how have you found them for service??
I'm a newish customer with them I'll leave it to them. to fix.
Have you a link please.From Granthams yes, this one came from their Retford site where the two before that were bought from the Grantham site. Prefer Retford as its a lot closer to me !
No issues with their service on this or the previous caravan (so far!)
And yeah, if it doesn't work, let them sort it. Interestingly mine came with a Sargent solar controller rather than the Truma one you have (not that i use it, i use a Victron MPPT controller now as the Sargent one was garbage).
Have you a link please.