Renogy DC-DC Chargers support a variety . SW5 switch is the selection switch for switching between lead-acid batteries and lithium batteries. The idea is, the alternator on the your tow vehicle (or in the case of a van, or drivable RV) creates extra surplus power that can be used charge the house batteries of the camper. here is a closeup of the anderson connector on the tail of the Truck (source) and the trailer side (load) the garden hose connector. What type of alternator is this on-board battery charger compatible with? If you have any questions regarding this product, pleasesubmit a case. What types of battery does the charger support? 3. I appreciate Eddie explaining ( a few times ) , the exact steps Id need to do to finish this one on my own. We dont anticipate using this very often (since our Solar is always on), so we wanted to have a way to connect and charge as needed. 2. Renogy DC-DC On-Board Battery Charger is designed to charge service batteries from a starting battery linked to an alternator or by utilizing solar panels connected directly to the unit, offering multiple charging options and ensuring your battery stay fully charged. Pass the two #4 wires through the floor of the camper into the battery compartment. I ordered some more #4 welding cable, some more ring connectors, bought a good linemans cutters from Home Depot (to make a clean cut in the #4 cable), as well as ordered a manual hammer crimp tool to connect the ring connectors to the #4 wire. This Renogy DC-DC On-Board Battery Charger with MPPT is compatible with both traditional and smart alternators. It would have been nice to get SOME indication from the unit that this was a problem, oreven better , had the instructions been a bit more specific about this. If you get that working let me know so I can post an update. We are currently on a different sort of adventure, converting a Ford Transit cargo van into our new full-time home on wheels in hopes of exploring North America and conquering more mountains - and hopefully even the Arctic Ocean!Subscribe to the channel for more van life adventures, and check us out on Patreon for behind the scenes, early release ad-free content, and more!__________________Inquires: richandkirsten7@gmail.com Its possible that setup would work, but in our case the 7-pin isnt connected to our trailer battery. How to choose a suitable battery charger? 1. The DC-DC battery charger adopts the design of the DIP switch and it provides 6 charging voltage settings through five gears. Option: Monitoring Screen for DC-DC MPPT Battery Charger Series. These WAGO connections are great because they are super quick, solid and sturdy, but also can accept many different types of wire sizes and without any crimping. The DC-DC Battery Chargers are the most effective way to charge your house batteries from the starter battery. . I verified that, even IF the DC Charger has its red DC ON wire connected to power, the unit will NOT turn on, unless it has incoming DC power. hi Steve, thanks for reading my post. We thought, how about a section of hose ? Depending on the specifications, the DC-DC may power limit or power increase to output the correct voltage. This implies that various levels are employed while the battery charges. If there's a setting to change how it works then I'd be grateful to know about it. See photo 1.2. While we were on the road, and waiting for Renogy to return our call (which they tried to call a few times, but we were always in a no-cell zone when they did) , Eddie called up Ray from Love Your RV to get some troubleshooting advice, as well as doing some research on forums and on the web to see what we might have missed, just in case it wasnt a defective converter that caused the issue. 18-16AWG copper cable recommended. Haven't observed any overheating issues, but may add a 12v computer fan to help shift some air across the rear just in case. This design method can well prevent the starting battery from being over-discharged during the charging process. Considering this when calculating cable sizes will avoid voltage drop and overheating complications. Step 3 : gather the parts and gear needed for the install. See owners manual for more details. I randomly stumbled upon this and I'm glad I did. What is its purpose? I see no need for an additional large ground cable. Opened up the hood of the truck and flipped the breaker to ON which means we were sending power from the truck battery to the DC Charger. The DC-DC will not power on or operate until the D+ ignition cable is connected. Brian, this is exactly what I am trying to do. Starts out fine when I run engine and turn on lights. Below is a proud Eddie, and his new Load side Anderson connector. We checked that we had good current coming in to the input side of the unit, that was working properly. But in the UK, PV output isn't great. When connecting the charger and the battery, make sure the battery poles are clean when connecting the terminals, select a sufficient cross-section for the connection cable, tighten the nuts and bolts with proper torque as loose connections may cause overheating. I then bought a wirthco battery doctor, but then found out that is not really designed for deep cycle batteries. This Renogy DC-DC battery charger is compatible with traditional and smart alternators. These six charging voltages meet the requirements of lithium batteries and lead-acid batteries in order to provide more charging options. Connecting to the A2 upfitter lug - This is where you can source up to 250 amps of power and is left open for upfitters, this is where i connected my 4 awg wire. 3-phase MPPT Charging Technology What I did was back out that bolt holding all 4 wires to the shunt to see if there might be enough room in the bolt to add just one more connection. The general quiet and tranquility of being out camping is part of the magic. What will happen if the service battery is fully charged? I put the question out to Matt of the awesome adventurousway.com, why do you need a fuse on battery and a circuit breaker both? The LC wire can automatically adjust the charging current to prevent excessive charging current from damaging the house battery. These six charging voltages meet the requirements of lithium batteries and lead-acid batteries in order to provide more charging options. 3. I used some WAGO connectors for both the positive and negative side of this marker light, because I had multiple things I wanted to connect to this marker light power, now that I had it available. Disconnect the main battery - This wasn't so easy, there is a small (5\" x 5\") plastic cover to the right of the accelerator pedal, pull it from the top and then pull up hard, its not easy bu t it comes off. The red dip switched needed to be set for lithium, and in our case, that was : The phone jack , black plug is for temperature regulation (not needed for our Lithium setup), the Green terminal connector, is actually the ONLY on/off switch on this unit. I'll post a video of this on my Youtube channel, just google youtube vangonow, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqYGzyL-IjKkQRi2IDnbGIw. The new ground wire was working as expected, and the red dc wire was turning on the DC unit. The DC-DC will not power on or operate until the D+ ignition cable is connected. update 6/12/2020 : sure wish I had found this guys blog sooner ! If the Alt. Luckily Eddie had a fancy pneumatic ring crimper, perfect for this #4 wire size. step 14 : Well, our travel plans were such that we had to get on the road, even though this install wasnt done. Eddie suggested the Anderson connectors (and boot covers), pictured below, for the connection between the Truck and the Trailer. At this point, the Truck prep and wiring was complete. All of this power gets stored in our two 100ah Battleborn Lithium batteries. This will give maximum battery cell life. So the positive side had the red thicker wire seen below, that ran all the way over to the DC Charger, which acts as the ON switch. The DC-DC battery charger isolates the input and output to prevent voltage transmission errors and interfere with house battery charging. Hey guys, so I've been meaning to figure out how to properly have my alternator charge my house batteries. : The theory was, wed use one long run of the #4 welding cable to run from the Trucks battery, all the way to the tail of the truck. Special thanks to the hard work of Eddie Glonek of Mobile Homestead Solar Services as usual. Pretty good in theory, but it was much much harder to accomplish the cable pull through the hose. The DC-DC battery charger adopts the design of the DIP switch and it provides 6 charging voltage settings through five gears. I have dealt with Renogy Customer Service in the past, and they were very responsive. Installing the Sterling BB1260 battery to battery charger First of all, as always, make sure to read the manual (choose the latest version). Protect Your Starter Battery With RJ45 communication port featured, you can unlock monitoring features exclusively using the BT-2 Bluetooth Moduleand Renogy DC Home App, control and monitor the device remotely through your phone in real time. High-quality DC-DC chargers are three-stage chargers. Is it necessary? I have a 2018 Winnebago View in which I recently installed lithium house batteries, an inverter charger, MPPT solar controller supporting 4, 100watt panels, xantrex monitor and a dc-to-do charger. Might be similar to. If Renogy added this already, or adjusted the charging algorithm to accommodate such scenario (low PV power) it would be perfect. After some crawling around, Eddie determined that on our Truck, the frame was wide open, with hardly any obstructions, allowing for basically a straight shot from the engine compartment all the way to the tail of the Truck. With this in mind, the NLDC-40 features a 600W MPPT solar regulator, unlike the NLDC-25's 375W MPPT. The D+ is going to my running lights on my TT after the 7-pin connector. The charger is overheating in Scotland in Mid winter and where the charger sits its about 15c and it has plenty of air. Compatible with a multitude of alternator types, the DC-DC battery charger offers correct charging for AGM, Flooded, Gel, and even Lithium deep cycle batteries! This battery charger is compatible with both traditional and smart alternators. The key components of a solar van installation are: Solar panels: Solar panels come in two main types: monocrystalline and polycrystalline. Eddie suggested giving the cables a good lube with dishwashing soap, so the fat rubber cables would slip nicely through the hose. 5. See photo 3.4. I also test out using an old Bogart SC2030 solar charge controller I have laying around for alternator charging. This guy Matt at Adventurousway.com has some great info ok on with the show ! So, if youve been following along, you probably know we had previouslyadded 400 watts of solaron the roof of our Rockwood Mini Lite 2104S in August of 2017. Make sure that the entire system is a 12V system, 2. I picked the 40 amp model . One note is that you will need to run a wire from the charger to your vehicle's ignition circuit. Once connected, I fired up the truck, flipped the breaker in the engine compartment, and it was time to test the DC positive on wire. Renogy you need to have active cooling like a small inbuilt fan to fix the overheating? Renogy DC-DC On-Board Battery Charger has multiple intelligent protections includes battery isolation, over-voltage protection, battery temperature protection, over-current protection, overheat protection, reverse current protection, solar panel and alternator reverse polarity protection, guaranteeing charging safety and protecting your batteries. Thanks. They created a ticket for me and put me in the queue and told me a tech would get back ASAP. I went for a photon universe 200w solar panel since Renogy didnt have a comparable device available. I was able to return the original DC unit to Amazon, now that I had a second unit directly from Renogy (now that we knew the original unit was not defective). If the battery charger is connected to the starting battery and solar panels at the same time, the maximum input current will be 15A for each; if the battery charger only connects one of the two DC inputs, the maximum input current will be 30A. This multi-stage, multi-input battery charger can charge a service battery from a starting battery linked to an alternator or by utilizing solar panels connected directly to the unit. These guys are RV upgrade masters, and although their installs are relatively recent, it seems they are happy with the Renogy charger. 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