Westy Battery Charging

Post by **Westy.Club.Joker** » 31 Mar 2007, 09:37

Well done with that Dave, you ARE the man.

Will be taking a look-see at doing that when I get back from sunny Oz in a few weeks

Does the charger automatically start up when you hook-up, or do you throw the switch manually?

Post by **irish.david** » 31 Mar 2007, 09:56

If you leave the switch in the on position the charger starts up fine when the 240v is connected.

Dave

Post by **johncelliot** » 01 Apr 2007, 11:16

Thanks for taking the time to do such a detailed description of your work! When this setup is running, is there any danger in overloading the charger by running 12V accessories (lights, stereo, pump, etc.). The charger is designed to charge batteries and perhaps does not have the current output capabilities?

JCE

Post by **irish.david** » 01 Apr 2007, 18:11

The charger has a current limit of 18A so you'd be hard pressed to get enough stuff running on 12v to put it over that. Even if you did get to 18A the batteries would supply anything over that as soon as the voltage dropped off without any damage to the charger.

Dave

Post by **Westy.Club.Joker** » 09 Apr 2007, 10:32

Am about to order one of the Muvonics 3 stage chargers Dave, just to check before I do. The fan isn`t insanely noisy or anything is it

Not likely to keep you awake at night or anything silly

I`m a light sleeper

Post by **madmyk** » 09 Apr 2007, 20:31

This sure looks like a good project, anyone got costs/suppliers of the items required please?

Thanks,

Myk.

Post by **irish.david** » 10 Apr 2007, 04:35

The fan only cuts in when necessary ie. when it's been running on the max output for a while. As far as i've noticed so far the fan hasn't even come on yet, but so far i've only been using it to keep my batteries topped up. I guess it would only be needed if it was charging some pretty flat batteries or there was a high drain being used on the 12v system for a while.

Dave

Post by **Westy.Club.Joker** » 10 Apr 2007, 12:35

Cheers Dave. Will order the offending item asap.

Madmyk - charger is 100 quid from a conversion parts supplier on Ebay, search for "motorhome charger" and its like the one in Irish Daves posting with the fotos. Also available from various dealers round the country, Google search for "muvonics charger" and the manufacturers have a website with dealer network on it.

Not sure on 240V relay cost from Maplin as yet, gotta get me one of them as well when I`m back in the country on Friday, posting from sunny Oz at the moment

FOUND IT

Relay is about 6 quid from Maplin, make sure you get the 240V 30A one as Dave says. Probably worth having a spare in case one blows, not easy to find a 240V 30A relay when camping in Little Snoring and you have no charger on a Friday nite

Post by **Westy.Club.Joker** » 13 Apr 2007, 19:58

Back from sunny Oz this morning, all my charger bits waiting for me

Done the installation this afternoon, looks identical to Irish Daves picture. Been charging for about 3 hrs now, the fan cut in pretty quickly and the charger is pretty warm, so looks like the batts are a bit flat from being stood for 6 weeks, and giving the charger a good work-out.

Just checked with the meter and they are up to 13.9V. Will check again in the morning, should be stabilsed and on float charge by then.

Post by **irish.david** » 13 Apr 2007, 20:18

A good way to check if the wiring is correct is to compare the voltages on both batteries on and off load with the charger running and then with the charger off.

I used the following method (engine must not be running).

With the charger off, measure the voltages on both batteries. They both should be similar (about 12.5v to 13.5v).
Then run the heater blower motor on full speed and measure the voltages again. The voltage on the main battery should be significantly less (probably under 12v) and the aux battery should be unchanged.
Stop the blower motor and start the charger, then measure the voltage on both batteries again. They both should be very similar (above 13.5v).
Run the blower motor with the charger on and measure the voltage on both batteries. They should both be very similar (over 12v).

If all this works out it means the circuit's working as it should.

Dave

Post by **Westy.Club.Joker** » 18 Jun 2007, 20:16

Post by **irishkeet** » 07 Jan 2008, 20:18

hi irish.david

can you confirm if the charger you bought was MV3/180C
also can you tell me which wire goes to which terminals on the relay

sorry bit of a leccy novice and i dont want to get it wrong

all the best

keet

Post by **Westy.Club.Joker** » 07 Jan 2008, 23:17

http://www.rainbowconversions.co.uk/Spe ... ecials.htm

This is the charger Keith, and it`s on special, now £85

Will check back about the relay wiring

Post by **irishkeet** » 08 Jan 2008, 08:57

Westy.Club.Joker wrote:http://www.rainbowconversions.co.uk/Spe ... ecials.htm

This is the charger Keith, and it`s on special, now £85

Will check back about the relay wiring

many thanks W.C.J Ive ordered the charger
its time I upgraded the BBB
do you know if this is the correct relay - maplin code: N24AW, link here

Post by **Westy.Club.Joker** » 08 Jan 2008, 14:31

Yes, that`s the relay (I`m looking at one now, I bought a spare "just in case")

Looking at the base of the relay, with the printed top face at the top:

6 terminals labelled:
1
3
4
6
7
9
A
B
(7 + 9 slots have no terminals in them)

term 1 and 3 are not used

term 4 - wire from inline fuse / red/yellow out (OE westy wire crimped into terminal with the fuse wire, thats the doubled wire into a connector you can see in the foto)
term 6 - wire red/black (OE westy wire)
term A - new wire from charger DAVE USED WHITE IN HIS FOTO (the new one you soldered in)
term B - new wire from charger DAVE USED WHITE IN HIS FOTO (the new one you soldered in)

Don`t think it matters which way the WHITE wires are connected, to A or B, it`s just energising the coil so it should work either way.

All sounds a bit complicated but it`s straight forward really. Draw yourself a diagram of what color wire to connect to what terminal before you start and it`s a piece of cake.