DonTom
Well-known member
You mean the Charge Wizard thingy? I had one on my old RV, B4 I changed to lith. See this thread.
IMO, it's rather useless anyway, and is not compatible with lith converters.
-Don- Auburn, CA
Charging Lithium Batteries with Alternator
- Thread starter Debra17
- Start date
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IMO, it's rather useless anyway, and is not compatible with lith converters.
-Don- Auburn, CA
John From Detroit
Well-known member
On a progressive Dynamics look for what appears to be a telephone cable. Follow it to the pendent.
Or you will find a black plastic plug held in place with a single screw that's the socket the pendent plugs into, if it's not there. (I had to swap out a 9180 and I re-used the same pendent)
Install if you have to buy one is simple. Remove screw, Remove plug Plug in pendant, Replace screw, DONE.
Or you will find a black plastic plug held in place with a single screw that's the socket the pendent plugs into, if it's not there. (I had to swap out a 9180 and I re-used the same pendent)
Install if you have to buy one is simple. Remove screw, Remove plug Plug in pendant, Replace screw, DONE.
Lou Schneider
Site Team
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The 9200 series converters have the Charge Wizard logic built in. The pendant only serves to indicate which mode it's in and to let you manually switch between the different modes. The converter functions the same (except for manual control) with or without the pendant, switching between 14.4 volts, 13.6 volts and 13.2 volts for long term storage.
In the 9100 series, the Charge Wizard logic is inside the pendant itself. Without it, the converter stays at a single voltage. 13.6 volts for lead acid converters, 14.6 volts for the lithium models. With the Charge Control pendant the converter switches modes the same as the 9200 series.
In the 9100 series, the Charge Wizard logic is inside the pendant itself. Without it, the converter stays at a single voltage. 13.6 volts for lead acid converters, 14.6 volts for the lithium models. With the Charge Control pendant the converter switches modes the same as the 9200 series.
jkane
Member
They have a plethora of DC-DC converters, some fixed voltage and some variable.
1st part of the answer is that the adjustible 12V - 12V converters can be boost converters, ie adjusted to a higher voltage than input. You can set them up for say 14.6V and be quite happy charging from your alternator. And they limit the current drawn from the alternator too, so both the batteries and alternator are happy with an appropriate current level.
1st part of the answer is that the adjustible 12V - 12V converters can be boost converters, ie adjusted to a higher voltage than input. You can set them up for say 14.6V and be quite happy charging from your alternator. And they limit the current drawn from the alternator too, so both the batteries and alternator are happy with an appropriate current level.
Old_Crow
Well-known member
Yeah, I replaced a burnt out 9145 with a 9245 and had to change out the pendant, also. Good thing I was the one who installed the pendant in the first place, so I knew how the wire was routed.
You're right, I don't use it to change modes often, but it's nice to know which mode the converter is operating in.
DonTom
Well-known member
How does it know how much to limit the current draw for different alternators with different loads?
-Don- Auburn, CA
Lou Schneider
Site Team
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You buy a DC converter with an appropriate current rating for the alternator. Like any other current regulated power supply the voltage will drop as needed to keep the output current (and the input draw) at the maximum rating.
creativepart
Well-known member
When Lead Acid batteries are being charged by an alternator they are "self-regulating" because as they get more and more fully charged the internal resistance inside the battery increases substantially. This resistance is great enough that it limits the amps coming from the alternator that charge the battery bank.
Lithium batteries do not increase internal resistance as they charge. So, they can demand higher amperages from the alternator 100% of the time and over tax the alternator's internals and cooling.
The DC to DC charger is between the alternator and the batteries. It does two jobs. First it protects the alternator by regulating the amperage draw that the alternator outputs. And, second it provides the proper lithium specific charging profile to better fully charge the batteries and better maintain their health.
Lithium batteries do not increase internal resistance as they charge. So, they can demand higher amperages from the alternator 100% of the time and over tax the alternator's internals and cooling.
The DC to DC charger is between the alternator and the batteries. It does two jobs. First it protects the alternator by regulating the amperage draw that the alternator outputs. And, second it provides the proper lithium specific charging profile to better fully charge the batteries and better maintain their health.
DonTom
Well-known member
I can't see that as being an issue as long as the lith battery has higher voltage than the charging voltage. Then there should be no current draw at all from the alternator.
I guess the issue is when the lith battery is already very discharged, below 13 volts or so.
-Don- Auburn, CA
DonTom
Well-known member
But how could the DC2DCC know how much load it already has on the alternator? I don't even know myself. In fact, I don't even know its rating in my new RV.
Anyway, I just ordered this. 30 amps.
The plan is to use it on my stock house L-A battery of my new RV to charge my added 300AH lith battery as I drive. The battery it will be charging from my L-A batts will be a larger more capacity Lith battery. Would you expect any issues doing such?
Or would I be better off to run its input from the engine battery?
And am I supposed to guess on where to program it or what?
And should I consider two of them for the same new RV?
-Don- Auburn, CA
creativepart
Well-known member
On a Victron sellers website that DC2DC charger contains the following NOTE in a big colored box:
DonTom
Well-known member
Did you notice the one I ordered said:
"
- Victron Energy Orion-Tr Smart 12/12-Volt 30 amp 360-Watt DC-DC charger Isolated is a professional DC to DC adaptive 3-stage charger with built-in Bluetooth
- Is suitable for both lead acid and lithium batteries, Unlimited multiple units can be connected in parallel to increase output power
- Bluetooth Smart enabled: The unit can be monitored and programmed via Bluetooth and can be remotely controlled via a remote on/off switch" ?
creativepart
Well-known member
Sorry, no. I picked up the model number and did a search away from Amazon. Sorry for the confusion.
Isaac-1
Well-known member
I have also been looking at doing something similar, and am trying to figure out how to trick my PD9245 to staying in 14.4V equalizing mode. Since it supports it and is controlable from an external pendent, it should not be too hard, I have bought a spare pendent to dissect to see if there is any logic in it or if it is just a switch. If it is a momentary switch, it should be simple enough to build a voltage detector circuiut that sends a pulse if voltage is below 14.4V.
Frank B
Well-known member
Indeed. Leave the solar running (as we do) and it is charging while you are driving down the highway. Why bother with trying to make the alternator do it?
Frank B
Well-known member
I was so spoiled with the over sized system I had on my little trailer - I would go for days without looking at the battery monitor! I can't see myself religiously keeping an eye on how it was charging from the alternator
And that is what we did as well. If you have the room on the roof, extra panels don't add a lot to the total cost of a solar installation. And I didn't bother with a battery monitor either. Our system has enough panels that even when depleted to 50% (we use golf cart batteries), they are fully charged again by early afternoon the next day. If you have enough solar, you don't need to worry much about charging from any other source.
UTTransplant
Well-known member
We installed lithium batteries a few months ago, and we are still accumulating experience with them. Ours charge from the alternator by default, just like the lead acid batteries did. It was handy recently when we traveled in the rain basically all day. The solar panels were putting out power, but only a few amps. The alternator was putting the majority of the power in the batteries. Since we travel quite a bit (compared to staying in one place for a while), having the alternator is a nice alternative (see what I did there?). While the alternator in our rig is a big one, Kevin installed a DC to DC charge protection so it only puts 30 amps in. That helps, but in 6-7 hours of driving it doesn’t replace the entire power we need after an overnight.
Ptnewell
New member
Lot of know-how in this thread, would invite opinions on a related issue I have. I seemed to have managed to fry my vehicle alternator or voltage regulator attempting to charge my 100AH lithium battery from the alternator. As of Friday, I got the battery warning dashboard light, checked the starting battery while running to discover it was no longer charging at all from the alternator. Not sure what exactly is wrong yet. History of what I did: Dropped in a 100AH lifepo4 RV house battery to replace the same size AGM I had before. This is wired to the starter battery with a standard cheap isolator that cuts in at 13.3v and out at 12.8. Seemed to work fine, but got nervous I might be drawing too many amps at idle for my alternator after watching the Victron video in the original post. So I installed a Victron 18amp isolated DC to DC converter « downstream » of the isolator. It has a remote switch function, so I put a switch in the cab, intending to only turn it on when needed to augment solar, thinking that it was fine if I forgot to turn it off, because the standard isolator wouldn’t let the starter battery discharge below 12.8v. So this setup also worked fine for a couple weeks, until Friday when I lost alternator charging to the starter battery altogether. Did I fry the alternator before I got the DC to DC, and it took time to die? Did the DC to DC charger cause the problem? Is my problem unrelated? I will take the truck to the mechanic tomorrow to diagnose the charging problem, but he will not be well-versed in auxiliary battery systems, and I don’t want to fix only to have it happen again. 2000 Ford E350 with the 7.3L.
