camper solar and Ctek charger
I had one of my Technicians come up with this in his spare time. Looks well thought out, comments...
Forum Discussion
I just zoomed in using the browser - held down ctrl and scrolled the scroll wheel on the mouse to make everything bigger.
So I see you have a starting battery for the truck, then a pair of AGM auxiliary batteries also on the truck, plus a battery in the camper. Is that something you are configuring so you have plenty of auxiliary battery power to run stuff in the truck when the camper isn't loaded?
You would have a much simpler configuration with no switches (easy to forget and leave them switched the wrong way and find you haven't charged the battery you needed to charge) with a regular set-up of a bank of batteries in the camper and a starting battery in the truck - hence I ask because I assume you have a specific requirement that means not doing it this way.
One of the nice features of the D250S is that if you have a regular layout of just 2 sets of batteries (1: starting battery in truck, 2: camper battery / batteries) then you can lose the relay and have a single D250S in the camper that does that job for you, but as a nice addition if the truck is connected to the camper and the camper battery is fully charged the D250S will notice this and divert solar power to charge the truck battery (and do so using its multi-stage MPPT charger, so giving your battery a good quality charge). It will do this automatically without you having to remember to set the correct switch.
Hence I would be keen to keep that feature since it means if you leave the camper on the truck for a couple of months and don't use it you know both camper and truck battery will be fully charged when you next come to use them via your solar panels.
Another option - might not apply here, but worth checking out, is that CTEK do a "Smart Pass" module which is designed specifically to be wired in parallel with the D250S to allow higher currents to flow between the truck battery and the camper battery at the point the charger decides it needs it. I haven't looked into that unit in detail because I don't need it, but may be worth checking out its specification in case it is of any use to you.
I also noticed that CTEK show a layout with a 110v to 12v charger in parallel with the output to the D250S (into the camper battery). I have therefore bought a CTEK mains to 12v charger and wired it like this so that whenever I do have hook-up it is topping up my camper battery. So this is another option to consider adding.
Steve.
So I see you have a starting battery for the truck, then a pair of AGM auxiliary batteries also on the truck, plus a battery in the camper. Is that something you are configuring so you have plenty of auxiliary battery power to run stuff in the truck when the camper isn't loaded?
You would have a much simpler configuration with no switches (easy to forget and leave them switched the wrong way and find you haven't charged the battery you needed to charge) with a regular set-up of a bank of batteries in the camper and a starting battery in the truck - hence I ask because I assume you have a specific requirement that means not doing it this way.
One of the nice features of the D250S is that if you have a regular layout of just 2 sets of batteries (1: starting battery in truck, 2: camper battery / batteries) then you can lose the relay and have a single D250S in the camper that does that job for you, but as a nice addition if the truck is connected to the camper and the camper battery is fully charged the D250S will notice this and divert solar power to charge the truck battery (and do so using its multi-stage MPPT charger, so giving your battery a good quality charge). It will do this automatically without you having to remember to set the correct switch.
Hence I would be keen to keep that feature since it means if you leave the camper on the truck for a couple of months and don't use it you know both camper and truck battery will be fully charged when you next come to use them via your solar panels.
Another option - might not apply here, but worth checking out, is that CTEK do a "Smart Pass" module which is designed specifically to be wired in parallel with the D250S to allow higher currents to flow between the truck battery and the camper battery at the point the charger decides it needs it. I haven't looked into that unit in detail because I don't need it, but may be worth checking out its specification in case it is of any use to you.
I also noticed that CTEK show a layout with a 110v to 12v charger in parallel with the output to the D250S (into the camper battery). I have therefore bought a CTEK mains to 12v charger and wired it like this so that whenever I do have hook-up it is topping up my camper battery. So this is another option to consider adding.
Steve.
