Xantrex Control Panel Settings

In another thread you will see I am working on a battery charging problem.

A side issue is trying to figure out if any of my settings are wrong on the control panel in the front of the coach.

I would greatly appreciate if a knowledgeable person would tell me if each of the advanced settings are correct.  Also interested in what other KSDP3910 year 2005 owners might compare to mine.

Fuel Gauge cutoff 10.8 VDC )%SOC (what is SOC?

External Shunt = None

30 watts for Search Sense (this goes from defeat to 40 watts)

Auto LCBO is on  (what is LCBO?)

Battery Capacity ranges from 125 to 1000 amp hours, currently set for 375.  Why shouldn't I set it to auto and forget about it?

Charge rate currently set at 90%, ranges from 5% to 100%

Shore power set to 30 amp.  I'd set it to 50 except 30 is the top setting.

RC7 is setup to last key

LCD contrast is at 37%

*****

Can anyone help me understand better these settings?  Are they the correct ones for my coach which has 2 12 volt chassis batteries and 4 6 volt house batteries.

Smoky,

The only thing I can help you with is:

SOC = State of Charge

Question: Fuel Gauge cutoff 10.8 VDC )%SOC (what is SOC?
  Answer: As someone said, State of Charge  10.8 volt is way too low but for an inverter might not be a bad setting.

External Shunt = None
Xantrex often uses  An external shunt is used to measure current  This is a very low value resistor and as current passes through it a very low voltage is generated.. Since this is a piece of hardware, if you don't have one leave it set to NONE

30 watts for Search Sense (this goes from defeat to 40 watts)
  Xantrex inverters have a power saving mode. This puts them in to a lower power standby if there is nothing drawing power,  If you have problems with, for example, a lamp "Blinking" lower the sense setting, 

Auto LCBO is on  (what is LCBO?) 

  I have no idea what that is Hold on and I'll see if I have it  That term does not appear in my manual.  IF you post the model of your XANTREX panel I will look it up for you unless someone else beats me to it

Battery Capacity ranges from 125 to 1000 amp hours, currently set for 375.  Why shouldn't I set it to auto and forget about it?

Set it to the actual 20 hour capacity of your batteries.. Example if you have one pair of U-2200's (Interstate) or US-2200's (US Battery) or Trojan T-105  That's 232 Amp hours, set it for 230 (easier)

Charge rate currently set at 90%, ranges from 5% to 100%

For flooded wet cells, AGM, Maintenance Free, 30%  For Gel cells 20%

Shore power set to 30 amp.  I'd set it to 50 except 30 is the top setting.

If there is a circuit breaker feeding the unit.. Set to size of breaker,  My unit is fed by 30 amp breaker, one of 3 in this rig

RC7 is setup to last key 
I have no idea  See  LCBO

LCD contrast is at 37%
  Adjust for best viewing of the display  This is your display contrast setting.

LCBO is probably a typo, and should read LBCO, or low battery cutoff. In the inverter on our coach, it's a binary setting, i.e. either on or off. If set to ON, the inverter shuts off at a preset (low) battery voltage.

I assume that LBCO differs from fuel gauge cutoff in that the latter is based on the charge (amp hours) remaining in the batteries.

Yes, it should be LBCO - Low Battery Cut Off, as Tom described. If LBCO is disabled, the inverter will run the batteries down to around 8.5v, far below the safe lower limit and too low to produce a usable 110-120v output.

"Last Key" refers to what will be displayed on the RC7 display when you exit set-up. "Last Key" means it will continuously display whatever was selected by the last key that was pushed. The other choices are a rolling display (SOC, time to run and time left to charge) or Power Saver, which shuts the display off after 5 minutes.  It's a matter or personal preference which you chose. Last Key is the default.

The Shore Power setting should be equal to the circuit breaker feeding the inverter, normally 30A since the inverter internal transfer switch is 30A on the Xantrex that use an RC7.

You can use AUTO for battery capacity, but the Xantrex will "guess"  the capacity based on what it sees and may not be all that accurate.  If there is a fixed setting that is close to your real amp hour capacity, use it. As near as I can tell, it only affects the estimated times that are display (time-to-run and time-to-charge).

Thanks for the input!

I have changed search sense to defeat and am increasing the fuel gauge cutoff. I am still working on the battery capacity.  On the Newmar forum I was told that 440 was the capacity of my 4 6 volt batteries.  Now I am trying to decide to use the 375 setting or the 500 setting since I don't have a 440 setting.

I was also advised to set the charge rate at 100% instead of 90%.

Everything else so far is unchanged.

I begin my project on Monday when we get clear, warm , and sunny weather.

Smoky,

440Ah is correct for the capacity of four 6V golf cart style batteries wired for 12V.

It doesn't really matter whether you use the 375AH or 500AH setting as long as you remember what you set it to. You don't want to discharge the batteries more than 50% (i.e. 220AH) very often, so you won't normally use more than that before recharging. The fuel gauge merely calculates the product of amps and time as you use the batteries, then subtracts it from the starting value to provide a "remaining charge" or "charge used" number, depending on make/model of inverter.