Problems with Boondocker 60 amp converter

NinerBikes wrote:


Copy the url of the picture, usually a .jpg file , inside the brackets, as none of us are Heartland members of that club, so we can't get in. So you have to bring the url out, and post it as I showed you above, between all the brackets and slashes. single slash on the far right, not two of them.

does that work? had to put on different server. i dont have a dropbox or equivalent place to dump photos.

the heartland site obscures the reference through php and wouldnt provide a direct link

NinerBikes wrote:
Pull the link from the Heartland thread for the photo, then place it between [img]photohere.jpg [//img] with one slash, not two for the ending. Should work.

i thought that is what i did. i see the picture. is it not showing up for others?
(the reference is to other site. i dont see a way to upload pictures directly to this site)

Copy the url of the picture, usually a .jpg file , inside the brackets, as none of us are Heartland members of that club, so we can't get in. So you have to bring the url out, and post it as I showed you above, between all the brackets and slashes. single slash on the far right, not two of them.

NinerBikes wrote:
Pull the link from the Heartland thread for the photo, then place it between [img]photohere.jpg [//img] with one slash, not two for the ending. Should work.

i thought that is what i did. i see the picture. is it not showing up for others?
(the reference is to other site. i dont see a way to upload pictures directly to this site)

Pull the link from the Heartland thread for the photo, then place it between [img]photohere.jpg [//img] with one slash, not two for the ending. Should work.

windviewer wrote:

I've set my Megawatt (S-400-12) to 14.82; I'll forgo the adjustable POT for now and use it solely for the generator charging segment with the intermatic (when I find one)

I am running 4GA wire (6' of battery booster cables purchased on sale) from my charging 'center' to the dual DC24 batteries. Hmmm, may have to boost the megawatt a bit since the voltage drop for 12/30AMP on 6 feet is
Voltage drop: 0.089
Voltage drop percentage: 0.60
Voltage at the end: 14.731

Also connected will be a solar charge controller (trimetric SC-2030 (w/o monitor)). Haven't found the solar panel yet.

Everything monitored with a Victron 700 AH counter in the trailer.

Finally, a 300W PS inverter (SAMLEX - older one found in clearance sale - with 16.5 input limits) supplying a 20 feet AC (14AWG - 120 volt drop < 3 per cent) wire to a special outlet in the trailer for powering the entertainment system at night.

Still gathering parts (from everywhere; ebay, amazon, electric supply, web sites).

Using 8 AWG T-90 wire for most of the interconnect on the charging center.

Finally completed the project, ready to install. Hope this picture reference works.
Even have mex's timer :)



before wiring

Sheesh, the Rolls Royce Phantom, of power supplies (Lambda) relegated to battery maintenance duty. That is one power supply when mated properly and not overloaded that can go forty-years day & night (Well at least the old models can).

More excitement but on the "tender" side, am experimenting with power supplies I have on hand for battery storage.



The Vista is a regulated supply, 15.67V unloaded, 13,68 V on the battery, good for a semi-short term storage charge. I'll keep an eye on it for voltage rise over the next day.
The Lambda is also a good candidate, a regulated supply that's adjustable and should do tender duty well.
The wall wart on top is my go to tender for these auto batteries. It takes about 4 days for the voltage to rise to 14V and that is a good stopping point for me.

On a side note and trying to figure out the relationship between batteries and vehicle electronics, here's my story:
I have in the fleet, a 2003 Chevy Impala. It had a history of being unable to start. The battery was good and the starter worked but I narrowed down the cause to a faulty Body Control Module or the key switch which has sensors built on.
On recommendation, I spliced a resistor into the wiring to the BCM. This was to present a fixed voltage to the module, let it learn the level, and pass on a usable signal to the ECM, starter relay, and hence, start the car. It did work for a week and then, no starting.

I left the car parked and had my son in the car while I pushed it to it's Winter resting spot. What I didn't know is that he left the key on. It sat for three months with the key on draining the battery to nothing. Here comes the voodoo--After I charged the battery, for grins, I tried the ignition key-bam, started and ran like a champ.

The only thing I can think of is that the module had some capacitance that was drained over Winter and the lack of any power "cleaned it's slate", so to speak and allowed the BCM to learn the new voltage level.

If anyone has a clue to this, I'd sure like to learn. These GM early 2000 cars are plagued by electrical problems and am thinking about going back to imports.

Just a battery charger!!??!?!!!

YOu need action shots man.

Here I grabbed my Meanwell rsp 500 15 from my RV and carried it to a friends to top charge his sitting AGMs at 55f.



Enthrallingly exciting isn't it? Ha

He actually has a 100 amp adjustable voltage powermax which could top charge too, but it is easier for me to get my meanwell and hook it up rather than his powermax, and i get an idea of the Watt hours/ amp hours required to refill the batteries after sitting for X amount of time and get a sense of their rate of self discharge.

More enlightenment, and data points.

BTW, with my RV's new dash mounted adjustable voltage regualtor for the alternator, I have been lowering voltage to 12.8 before shutting engine off. Next morning when battery could max out alternator on a cold start at ~70 amps total, it makes much much less to seek only 12.8v.

When She's a little bit warmer I crank dial upto 14.4v and can hear the v8 engine note change a bit with the additional ~60 amps of load on the alternator.

Fun stuff, this being in full control business. If only everything else could be handled so.

No contempt...just having fun...

Ooooooooooo I love it when someone tries to use a smart converter with an undersized generator.

BWAHHHHHHHHHHHH All's I gots to do is waits for the generator to warm-up, then throws this switch and...

BWAHHHHHHurp...

I connected the Borg, ran the voltage back to 12.25 volts and fired up a 2-cycle Harbor Fright 750 watt generator. Waited a couple of minutes, then flipped a switch. No charge, no engine noise difference.

Slowly tweaking the dial (pot) incrementally the generator started to load. More and more tweakzies. The engine loaded down enough for me to stop. 33-amperes. High altitude? Different generator? No problemo.

Now a dual RSVP 400-watt Meanwells setup would outperform the Megawatts. To say otherwise would be foolish. Power Factor correction is power factor correction.

But normally the Borg is connected to a generator the size of a 3-bedroom 2-bath stucco rancher. The Kubota can handle it. And last but not least my social insecurity got drained bad enough as it was.

I recommend a power supply to do what a converter on a generator cannot do in a reasonable amount of run time. A three-day outing is NOT BOONDOCKING. Being off grid for at least two weeks is boondocking. Given enough pedestal hookup time, even a smart charger might eventually overcome its boondocking sins and bring specific gravity back to near reality full charge.

When I perched on a beach down here, three to six MONTHS of off-grid really brought out the cantankerous nature of house batteries. Then there were no boondocker converters, powerful power supplies, merely consumer and industrial stuff. I remember paying more than 200-dollars for a hand carried made-in-USA manual charger that peaked out around 46-amps on a good day. When BW Magnatek brought out their 952 switch type power supply battery charger to replace the venerable 775-2 ferroresonant they were ecstatic. FASTER! they cried. Single stage charging. I had modified three 775-2 chargers by substituting Shottkey rectifiers for silicon rectifiers. The fourth remained silicon for park hookup.

Today, it's a veritable Alice in Wonderland with power supplies and converters.

But the THIRTY YEAR OLD TRACE 2500 SB inverter charger remains top o the heap when it comes to doing a thorough job recharging a battery. Yep, it's better than the BORG. 120-amps recharge rate, adjustable everything from a front dial. Even scalable temperature compensation. But it wasn't ever intended to be carried and it weighed a lot.

Mere images of the BORG would be sorta boring, wouldn't ya think? After all, it's just a battery charger...