twelve volt converter question

[SnoKing]

No is the second phase voltage is held high while current is limited. I did that on my smart phone. Will try to edit it on tablet.

Reread stage two. That difference greatly effects battery life. Snoking

 

[AH64ID]

No is the second phase voltage is held high while current is limited. I did that on my smart phone. Will try to edit it on tablet.

Reread stage two. That difference greatly effects battery life. Snoking

I'm not reading anything my charger doesn't do, and it's evident in the graph I showed you. Maybe your misreading the graph?

The stage 1 and stage 2 of your charger is just stage 1 on my charger. That's a difference in the two, but only in labeling.

I held full voltage for ~230 minutes before dropping. By the time it dropped the amperage was down to 6AH and the batteries where above 90%. It does everything your charger does, except goes to an intermediate voltage before the float voltage. I get a 50-90% in less than 4 hours on a 300AH bank with 55A charger at 14.4V.

The heart manual says it has 2 voltages, 14.5 bulk and 13.5 float. The heart goes from 2 to 3 at 10Ah or 1 hour wet/3hr gel cell whichever occurs first.

The PD4655 has 3 charge voltages. 14.4. 13.6, and 13.2 float. The PD goes from bulk to absorption somewhere less than 15Ah or after 4 hours in bulk.

They charge almost the same, if the amperages where the same, with different names for each stage.

The only other big difference is the heart float voltage is a little higher than many batteries call for.

 

[SnoKing]

Tell me at what percent of charge you believe your current taper starts? Snoking

 

[AH64ID]

Tell me at what percent of charge you believe your current taper starts? Snoking

Probably around 70%.

 

[SnoKing]

Probably around 70%.

That is close to what I thought also (70-75%). Yes my battery vendor (Dyno) in Seattle thinks Heart could have had a lower float voltage. But my last set went 9.5 years and I changed them because I did not want a problem in Canada. This set has been in service 8 years. Never equalized as Dyno said the way I use and charge them keeps them stirred up good. Snoking

 

[AH64ID]

That is close to what I thought also (70-75%). Yes my battery vendor (Dyno) in Seattle thinks Heart could have had a lower float voltage. But my last set went 9.5 years and I changed them because I did not want a problem in Canada. This set has been in service 8 years. Never equalized as Dyno said the way I use and charge them keeps them stirred up good. Snoking

I like Dyno batteries and have been around many of them. They are who my dad installs for his customers if they want wet cell batteries. If I had gone wet cell on the camper I would have used Dyno, but I wanted AGM so I chose Lifeline.

In order to pull a higher SOC when the amperage starts to taper I would either have to decrease my charge rate or increase my bank size, neither of which are practical. A 45A charger would probably get me close to 80% SOC and a 35A charger closer to 88%, whereas a 75A charger may only get me to 60% before it tapered. In the end it's not the amperage at each sample, but the total amperage over time so a 75A charger that tapers at 60% would still get me to 100% sooner, inversely a 35A charger that tapers at 88% would take longer to 100%.

The only thing I don't like about my PD is the wire size between the converter and the distro panel is small and I get quite the voltage drop in that 10" of OEM wire. As you can see by this chart. I have thought about increasing the wire size but I am not sure I could fit any larger wire into the connection on the circuit board. It seems to me that 1 or 2 sizes larger would benefit the unit, thou I do see the full 55A into the batteries.

The SOC goes above 100% because it was a linear calculation based on the ammeter, so there is no loss to heat/etc. I have read this is also why amp hour meters get iffy on accuracy the last 20% of the charge.

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[surfbeetle]

Update: I started this thread from my smart phone while out camping because of converter issues and then the truck started having issues so the thread kind of took a minor detour. (My apologies) I replaced the crank position sensor from Cummins $82.00 out the door and all seems good.

Now, I will get thread back on track. I'm going to go back and re-read everything that was posted because several of you posted a bunch of great info. Cost is of course an issue, but I don't want to cheap out and replace the converter with the same crappy one I have. I like the idea of upgrading but don't want to do a major rewire just to install. Doing an install with a few minor changes is what appeals to me regarding the Power Dynamics converter. I'm going to do some research based on what you have all posted. I'll report back once I figure out what I'm doing.

 

[AH64ID]

I'm happy to hear the truck was the cheap fix!

 

[surfbeetle]

Okay, I haven't gotten the converter replaced yet but we're going out this week. I have my battery charger and wanted to flip the AC breaker on the converter but when I do that some of the 110 AC lights go off and the fridge has no AC power. I'm thinking that the fridge and lights are on the same circuit as the converter. Does this sound correct? I would have thought the converter to be on its own circuit. I'm not worried for this trip, we are dry camping and I went ahead and permanently mounted my four solar panels on the roof and wired up the charge controller. Also I have a Boliy Inverter Generator so it will charge 12 volts directly.

 

[K5IP]

Sure sounds like the engine speed sensor to me, but also check the connector just above the sensor. It often gets exposed to moisture and just opening it up and checking/cleaning contacts can fix it. The device is actually a hall effect sensor and the magnets inside do get weaker with age. the spacing between it and the balancer is important. It should be about the width of a plastic credit card.
Rog

 

[jelag]

AH64ID has hit the nail on the head... I had the WFCO unit and always had trouble because the computer in the unit has an automatic fall back setting after 15 or 20 min of operation so you can't boil out the batteries.... mine was 55 amps and I'd have to shut it down and turn it back on to get the batteries charged...

I put in another brand that will go to 75 amps... I have 2 sets of 6vdc deep cycle batteries so a 75 amp charge is not a problem for me... and the unit has a wizard that allows me to change the setting from float... it light charge to full charge... remember that 75 amps @ 12vdc (14.8 V) is only about 10 amps at 120vac input....

I now can run the gen set or plug into shore power and have the trailer batteries topped off in a few hours... I've also run a 8 gauge charge wire and ground from the batteries to the trailer plug on the truck and than changed the wires on the trailer so that as we drive down the road we can keep our batteries charged...

Often the wife will turn on the inverter.... plug in the crock pot... park it in a cardboard box in the shower and cook dinner as we wonder down the road.... she uses one of those cooking bags in the crock pot... and we put a bungee cord around the pot and lid...

 

[surfbeetle]

The only update I have right now is that I from the factory, the converter and the interior outlets were all on the same breaker. I separated them to separate breakers so I can shut off the breaker and use a battery charger until I get the new converter.

As for the truck, runs fine after the new crank sensor.