Club 80-90 Forums

tell us a bit more about your stirling set up?

I intend to fit one in the next 6 months or so and francly am not looking foward to it!

Standby.

Need a free evening. and Thursdays looking good.

Nearly 5 years later Sterling still A1.

There must be anoriginal thread on this now in the Tech Archive, surely?

Look what arrived on my door step this morning



jed

jed the spread wrote:Look what arrived on my door step this morning



jed

what is it???

THIS DEVICE IS THE LATEST FORM OF 'BATTERY MANAGEMENT', IN THAT IT ENSURES FULL CHARGE OF AUXILIARY BATTERIES WITHOUT USING TRADITIONAL BATTERY MANAGEMENT DEVICES (OFTEN CALLED ALTERNATOR CONTROLLERS) WHICH REQUIRE INVASIVE ENTRY INTO AN ALTERNATOR.

NOTE THIS DEVICE IS NOT A MAINS BATTERY CHARGER, BUT WORKS ENTIRELY ON THE 12v SIDE OF THE SYSTEM.

THE OUTPUT FROM A SINGLE, OR 2 ALTERNATORS, CAN BE CONNECTED INTO THE DEVICE, AND 2 OUTPUTS ARE PROVIDED.

THE FIRST OUTPUT GIVES STANDARD VOLTAGE AND CHARGE WHICH IS SENT TO THE STARTER BATTERY TO KEEP THAT TOPPED UP.

THE SECOND OUTPUT IS AMPLIFIED, AND ELECTRONICALY CONTROLLED TO PRODUCE AN OUTPUT SIMILAR TO THAT OF A SOPHISTICATED MARINE BATTERY CHARGER. THE VOLTAGE IS TAKEN TO A HIGHER THAN NORMAL LEVEL TO ACHIEVE FAST AND FULL CHARGING, THEN THE VOLTAGE IS REDUCED TO A SAFE FLOAT LEVEL FOR MAINTENANCE OF CHARGE.

IN SIMPLE TERMS THE DEVICE IS FITTED 'IN SERIES' WITH THE ALTERNATOR CHARGING LEAD, AND THAT'S IT! NO ALTERNATOR WARRANTY PROBLEMS AS THE ALTERNATOR IS NOT TOUCHED. THE DEVICE ALSO PERFORMS 'SPLIT CHARGING' AS THE 2 OUTPUTS ARE ISOLATED FROM EACH OTHER. IMAGINE A 'BLOCKING DIODE' IN WHICH THE OUTPUT FROM ONE LEG IS AMPLIFIED TO PRODUCE ENHANCED CHARGING, AND THATS THIS DEVICE!

Jed

Can't wait to fit mine

ahhhh......so should we all have them?....don't cost much do they

KINGPRAWN wrote:ahhhh......so should we all have them?

Nah.... not really. Its just for people who want to be a self contained unit while camping in remote areas. To charge a leisure battery from your alternator takes a good few hours or more and even if you hook it up to the mains it takes a whole day to fully charge at a guess. This charging system charges your leisure battery in a fraction of the time as a standard set up, so if like me you have a compressor fridge, or wild camp in the winter months and have an ebber going most of that time you can rest knowing your batteries can be fully charged after the engine running for only a short while. I also have a winch and that can use quite alot of power that will need replacing fast if I want to run my heater and fridge for long periods etc.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sterling-Alte ... 1265wt_907" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

jed

got it....makes sence if you're the "grizzly adams" type

Here are a couple of pictures of the Sterling alternator managers control panel (optional accessory)
1. This is the system working.

It's a bad phone photo, but taken last week. It shows on the bottom line ALT. This is a very acurate measure of the output of the alternator. It is showing 99 amps at 12.9 volts. This is with the system on. The top line is whats going into the leisure batteries. This shows 93 amps at 14.7 volts. This higher voltage stops the internals of the battery sulphating as the plates fizz enough on the higher voltage to stop this happening. This charges the batteries quick, so if you are going for only a short half hour drive for the day the batteries will get a significant charge.
2. With the control panel you can switch the Sterling off so that it becomes a 160 amp split charge system. Mine has real fat cables and so there is no voltage drop, so even this works quite well.


You can now see that the alt is putting out 37 amps at 13.8 volts 31 amps going to the leisure batts. The rest goes to the starter battery.

With a standard small relay split charge system you would not get close to the second output of 31 amps. Nothing as far as I know can charge your batteries at 100 amps.

I fitted my Sterling in 2007, and bought 2 very cheap lead acid batteries at the same time. All still going well. The alternator now has 150,000km on it and is just beginning to get tired. The control panel is very useful as you can see how flat your batteries are by how many amps the Sterling is asking the alternator to put in them.

The only problem I have encountered is that the alternator gets too hot when putting out 100 amps if you are driving slowly. The Sterling monitors the alternator temp, and when it gets above 100 deg C it switches it'self off. I now just switch it off until I am driving over 30mph, which means out of town.

The Bosch 90amp alternator will push out 70 amps at tick over!! It gets hot though.

The system works like a phone charger on a massive scale. It takes whatever the voltage is and amplifies it to what it needs.

More to follow.

These photos were taken during the build.
This is my electronics shelf. The Sterling Alt Manager is nearest, then the 800 watt inverter, then the Sterling 30 amp mains charger.

The inverter and charger

The fuse board, mains inlet, and the change-over switch that gives the mains sockets either juice from the inverter or from the hook up, or off.

These are the shunts that measure the alternator output, and the charge going to the starter battery. (The Sterling always protects the starter battery first)

25mm cable.

Battery install below seat.

The back of the alternator showing the temp probe.

150 amp inline fuse and connection to alternator.

Temp of batteries and alternator.

Alternator putting out 113 amps!!!!!

The back of the dub.

Plugs and sockets everywhere.

Close up of the unit.


Sorry its a bit rushed.

Do you still use hook up? As i got mine so i don't have to fit mains in the van. By that i mean for recharging batteries, not for using hair dryers ect

Fantasitc both, jed, looking forward to updates re your instal?

Scimon, i wish i lived nearer you, you seem to have a flare for the electrical side, where as i would rather stick forks in my eyes. Still will have to bit the bullet befor my next trip!

Cheers, they are actually very simple to wire up.

I almost never use a hook up, except where the hook up is included in the price of the pitch (most european). then we take the electric kettle and toaster which is a luxury.