As anyone got a projecta in house 240 volt battery charger?Have just replaced my 2 120ah in house batteries two weeks ago,today had solar panels on for a while,put battery charger on.For the two hours the two blue lights have been flashing and the screen has had 3 lines scrolling up the screen.Is this something to be worried about. The victron 702 says that there is a constant 14 volts are going in the batter,this seems to happen after we have been on solar then go onto 240 . The solar has a RedArc BCDC 40 Amp regulator. I am just worried that something is not right . The Vitron is telling me when we are on solar that everything is ok . According to the Projecta book it says it's a reconditio mode because the batteries have been discharged below what they should be . Any info will be greatly appreciated. Thanks Trevor
Ring the Projector importer in Victoria (Brown and Watson for memory but could be wrong) I had a similar problem last October and rang them. Somehow I had managed to press the voltage button unknowingly. A simple reset was the solution. You will find the technical guys very helpful.
Its the Reconditioning mode, leave it be, all will be OK
I have an IC 5000 (on recomendation from a certain Mannum based Guru) and am very pleased with it. The speed at which it adjusts its output compared to the loads/charges hitting the system are very impressive.
Beware if you are shortening the leads they contain tiny sensor lines within.
As Bagmaker says, if you shortened or cut the charging cables you need to dig inside the cable and find the small red wire in the positive and black wire in the negative. Bare these back and ensure they come into contact with the new lugs because the charger is smart enough to look at the voltage at the end of the cables and not where it comes out of the charger, this gives a far more accurate battery voltage sensing and much faster charging. Next thing to check, as you have a Victron 702 you myst connect the charger negative to the load side of the shunt, not the battery side or directly to the battery. The reason is the Victron BMV 702 uses the shunt to detect every thing going into or out of the battery, if it doesn't pass through the shunt the Victron BMV doesn't know it happened and this will upset the charging/discharging readings and the SOC readings. Also keep in mind the Victron BMV only reads what is happening at the battery, if some is used by loads also connected on the load side of the shunt the Victron BMV will not register that bit of charging current as it didn't actually go to the battery. Once you understand that bit the reading from any charger including solar or mains not matching the Victron BMV reading indicates how much is being used directly by the loads.
These are probably the best charger on the market at the moment, actually the whole Projecta IC range, certainly not the cheapest but brilliant chargers that just keep on going no matter how hard they are asked to work. We recommend and use these with our lithium conversion if the owner is looking for a new charger as they are easy to link into our battery control system to become part of the integrated package.
T1 Terry
-- Edited by T1 Terry on Friday 29th of December 2017 02:02:02 PM
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When I got the new batteries ,the wiring to them was an absolute mess ,so in my wisdom I thought I would tidy them up .So I bought a bus bar for all the negatives shorten some of them connected them to the bus bar bought a single post for all the positives connected the positives to the post and then notic d there was no fuse near the post for the battery charger so connected a 60 amp fuse and fuse holder to theonpositive wire and connected it to the post . I did not notice any small wires in the cables could this be the problem I am having now. This is our second battery charger as we had it replaced when we got the solar put on as our original one was not big enough so not sure if when they replaced the charger wether the small wires are in the cable or not. This mob did not wire the solar or the batteries correctly hence why we stuffed 2 batteries and this is why we have had to replace them now. The shunt as be wired up as per the instructions pamphlet I got with the 702 . Which I think is different to what you have explained . We rang Projecta this morning and it turns out a 50 amp fuse was beside the charger I had but another fuse near the batteries but it was only a 30 amp so the guy said this could be why the charger is going into reconditioned mode so replace both fuse with 60 amp which I have done today, and the charger is reconditioning now he said it could take up to 12 hours .Terry any help I can get is greatly appreciated. I have just realized I have connected the shunt to the battery . So when the charger is not on i.e. when we have no 240 the shunt will still read correctly on the Vitron if I connect it as you said Is that correct. It's so confusing . Thanks again
I have just taken the battery charger out of the small cupboard under the cooker and when they retro fitted the new charger they have just cut the charger cables and connected the original core cables through the wall too the batteries.They connected the negative cable to the temp sensor with a nut and bolt and then to the original single core cable and down to the battery so they have never been connected to the sensor wires,as the picture shows .So is there any way to connect the senser cables to the batteries or do they go to the positive post and negative bus bar that I have fitted.Do I have to remove the nut and bolt and connect the charger neg to the shunt load and then to the battery neg bus bar
the sensor wires are WITHIN the main wire, chop the ends off and locate it in there. Strip back the plastic covering to ensure it touches the main wiring (right at the cut bit) and re-crimp the lugs.
The positive wire on your picture looks as though it may have a join?? under the shrink tube.
If thats the case I would be tempted to take the cover off the charger and check the continuity of the sense wires after you have crimped, just to make sure
-- Edited by Bagmaker on Friday 29th of December 2017 11:03:17 PM
Does the battery voltage go up on both the Victron BMV 702 and the Projecta charger when the charger is switched on? If the charger can not properly sense the voltage at the small sense wires it will not actually charge the battery, if it sees nothing it will throw an error code but if it is a very poor connection it will try to function but the poor information it is receiving through the small sense wires will simply confuse it and this is probably why it is trying to recondition your batteries.
As far as the Victron BMV702 shunt, can you post a photo of how you have it wired at the moment? I need to see the circuit board side as well as a top view if that is possible please.
T1 Terry
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Thanks Terry for replying,what I have done is cut off the wires and found the small sensor wires pos and neg stripped wires back put two new terminals on pos and neg.Attached neg and temp sensor to load side of shunt,reconnected pos to pos wire coming through the wall,the voltage goes up and down on 702 as the charger is on .When I switched charger on it came on absorption and then after about 60 sec when on to reconditioning mode with 14.2 volts on 702 .Been doing this for about 30 mins now ,but yesterday when talking to Projecta tech he said it would do this every time you change something and it could take up to 12hours to do a cycle.
Looks correct, as long as the lead to the battery side of the shunt is the only lead going to the battery negative ...... well accept for a lead that goes to a second battery in parallel of course.
I've never used the battery temp sensor so maybe that is what causes it to go into recon mode as it is looking for the batter to heat up. Try unplugging the temp sensor from the charger and then turn it back on, if this stops it going into recon mode then bolt the temp sensor back onto the battery negative .... but no idea if it should be the first or second battery in the parallel group if you have more than one battery.
Just as a side note, if you do have 2 batteries in parallel, the positive goes to one battery and the negative to the other battery and the cables linking them need to be a decent size, absolute minimum 6 B&S cable but 0 gauge cable would be better, minimising the voltage drop beteen the two battery is essential to avoid one battery doing all the work.
T1 Terry
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Thanks again Terry and Bagmaker,what I am doing today is run the solar all day and see what happens in the morning when I turn the charger on hopefully in will maybe go into absorption mode go to 14.4 and then fully charged mode .The temp sensor if it does go in to reconditioning mode I may connect it to the spare neg wire that was the original wire from the first battery charger ,we'll see what happens in the morning I will keep you informed.Thanks again for your time and have a happy and safe new year.
The temp sensor has a temperature sensitive resistor inside the alters the voltage sent down one wire before it heads back up the other wire and these wires are inside the temp sensor grey cable. The idea was to sense a rise in internal battery temp through one of the battery terminals and the negative terminal was the least likely to cause a problem if something inside the sensor failed.
If you just unplug it from the main unit it will sense there is no longer a temp sensor connected and operate without inputs from the temp sensor.
T1 Terry
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You can lead a head to knowledge but you can't make it think. One day I'll know it all, but till then, I'll keep learning.
Any links to any sites or products is not an endorsement by me or do I gain any financial reward for such links
