Battery Charging Schematic & Table

[hamguy]

I have made a jpg of the schematic for the basic charging system used on my '02 Itasca. I suspect most of the Winne Gas powered rigs are the same or similar in that time range.

I show a schematic cut from the Winne page and imposed a voltage table under varying charging methods. These include Shore Power, No Power, and Engine Charging conditions with both battery disconn energized and not and at various points in the solenoid system.

It can be seen at Battery Charge Info

Point A is the line to the Engine Battery.
Point B is the line to the House Batteries.
Point C is Output of the Battery Disconnect line.
Point D is the power to the Isolator Solenoid.

I hope this will provide some clarification and information.

[hamguy]

On review I am confused about the "0" volt reading at the "B" point while on shore power. Of course, the Isolator solenoid is not active keeping the coach and engine batteries separate. But, the schematic does show that point is tied directly to the house battery and should show that house voltage at all times.

The Panel meter does show the house battery is running at the converter output what ever the stage is at the time.

Therefore, is there a cutoff to disconnect the battery charcing system when on shore power? I have not seen it.

Help!

[Clay L]

On mine point B connects to the house batteries and always has voltage on it.

[hamguy]

I just went out and remeasured mine. It too, reads Converter charging voltage (13.59). My bad. I will correct the diagram.

Thanks for setting me straight.

BTW, note the No Power/X Off raw battery reading of 12.28. Shows my house batts are bad.

[MrTransistor]

Hello Dean,

A reading of 12.28 on the house batteries when not charging does not necessarily mean that they are bad. It depends a great deal on where the measurement is taken and what the loads are at the time of measurement. If you are measuring at the tie contactor and there are 10 or 20 Amps. of load then 12.28 Volts isn’t that low. Try taking your reading right at the house batteries after the surface charge has been removed and with the battery disconnect active to remove all loads. This should give you a fairly accurate indication of the health of the batteries. It won’t tell you what the current Amp./Hour capacity of the bank is, just the current state of charge.

I use a Fluke meter for all of my measurements and have run measurement wires direct from the battery banks to the One Place so I can get an accurate readings without going outside. The One Place meter is tied in somewhere down line and is all over the place as loads change.

[Clay L]

Mark you are more ambitious than I am.
I took the easy way out.
My batteries are under the steps so I installed a panel meter and a two position momentary toggle switch on the cabinet wall by the steps and ran wires right down to the two sets of batteries.
It reads the house batteries/converter voltage in one position and the engine battery in the other.

I used a momentary switch because the panel meter I had required an isolated power supply and I used a nine volt battery for that. The nine volt battery would run down pretty fast if left connected so I used one set of contacts to switch the nine volts in only when reading.

[MrTransistor]

Hi Clay,

Yours sounds more ambitious to me, all I did was run the wires and mount female banana jacks to plug in the Fluke meter. The wires do perform double duty since they are the remote inputs to the Onan EC30 AGS.

[hamguy]

"A reading of 12.28 on the house batteries when not charging does not necessarily mean that they are bad. It depends a great deal on where the measurement is taken and what the loads are at the time of measurement. If you are measuring at the tie contactor and there are 10 or 20 Amps. of load then 12.28 Volts isn’t that low. Try taking your reading right at the house batteries after the surface charge has been removed and with the battery disconnect active to remove all loads. "

Hi Mr...

Ya, the 12.3-12.4 is immediately after charging and then applying a small load (ceiling lights for 5-10 Min.). Then removing the load to get batt condx. That is about as high as they will get.

[hamguy]

Since we are planning a long weekend of dry camping this weekend, I went ahead and installed 2 new 6V U2200 batteries. I also installed a cutoff to the isolation solenoid so the house batts will not charge from the engine alternator.