Has anyone mentioned the speaker amplifiers which have give various car makers sore heads resulting in the cars being called in for reprogramming. Parasitic drain of course.
Technical 2002 Ducato Campervan battery draining
- Thread starter Russellz
- Start date
Currently reading:
Technical 2002 Ducato Campervan battery draining
I just removed each fuse in turn and used a multimeter on the current range in place of the fuse. One of the fuses in the cab was passing 10 mA which was probably the radio and shouldn't be a problem.
Russell Hi russell said:
Hi John
Yes I agree that your method of checking the currents is quicker, however none of the fuses in my vehicle have the holes to enable probing.
My system is a bit more complicated than no. 2. I've put a copy of the simplified schematic on Dropbox:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/iup15vrmupojs66/schema.jpg?dl=0
The part labelled "PC-100" is the control panel. The charger is separate and, apart from the batteries and their 50 A fuses the rest is in the Distribution box.
The "separateur electronique" is intended to close the 70 A relay when the engine is running and the alternator voltage is >13.3 V. It disconnects it again if the voltage drops below 12 V.
When the mains powered battery charger is running the signal "S" from the battery charger is fed to the distribution box where it enables the R/PTC/Diode network to connect the engine battery (B1) for charging. I guess the lack of charging of the engine battery is due to one of the components in that network. I'll have to disconnect everything and remove the pcb to check them.
Regards
Russell
Crossingkeeper
Established member
Hi Russell,
From your posts you are obviously highly competent to sort out electrical issues so this one must be well outside the box.
I'm reminded of a fault many years ago on a car whereby the battery would drain overnight. After some head scratching I noted that the alternator was permanently connected to the battery and changed this as a measure of last resort (this was before the era of £10 multimeters and I didn't posses an Avo!)
This cured the fault so I guess that the regulator had developed some sort of short.
From your posts you are obviously highly competent to sort out electrical issues so this one must be well outside the box.
I'm reminded of a fault many years ago on a car whereby the battery would drain overnight. After some head scratching I noted that the alternator was permanently connected to the battery and changed this as a measure of last resort (this was before the era of £10 multimeters and I didn't posses an Avo!)
This cured the fault so I guess that the regulator had developed some sort of short.
Hi Russell,
As a matter of interest does the control unit (PC 100) notify you when the engine
battery loses voltage due to your amp draw. Does it blink a warning light or a sound
buzzer alert?
Do have other devices such as an inverter (which may still be turned on enough it
not being used)
An electric step which might not have closed properly resulting in current draw.
Reversing camera. I'm not too sure if any of these devices are covered by the
control unit.
I unfortunately do not have a system like yours. Mines a 92 Ducato Weinsberg
Imperiale 7 meters long. Like one in this link
https://picturepush.com/public/7950952
Back then electonic components were just coming to the fore.
John.
As a matter of interest does the control unit (PC 100) notify you when the engine
battery loses voltage due to your amp draw. Does it blink a warning light or a sound
buzzer alert?
Do have other devices such as an inverter (which may still be turned on enough it
not being used)
An electric step which might not have closed properly resulting in current draw.
Reversing camera. I'm not too sure if any of these devices are covered by the
control unit.
I unfortunately do not have a system like yours. Mines a 92 Ducato Weinsberg
Imperiale 7 meters long. Like one in this link
https://picturepush.com/public/7950952
Back then electonic components were just coming to the fore.
John.
Unfortunately not. It has a push button to check the voltage but only with a three level bar-graph display. I'll have to see about fitting an alarm.
No electric step although there is provision for connecting one in the distribution box for the domestic side of things.
Nice looking Campervan John. Is that a Dutch registration?
A bit of an update:
I have removed the pcb from the distribution box for testing. What is shown on the circuit diagram as a resistor/PTC/diode network for charging the engine battery is just PTC/diode. I have tested the PTC and the diode and they seem to be OK. Diode forward drop 0.75 V at between 0.5 and 2 A. The PTC has more or less constant resistance of 0.5 ohm at up to 1.5 A rising sharply to limit the current to 1.8 A.
The design leaves something to be desired as the current drain of 400 mA from the engine battery will result in it only being charged to a level 1 V below that of the domestic battery. Not good for the battery.
Perhaps I should parallel up an additional float charger to the engine battery? Perhaps an old laptop power supply followed by a dc-dc buck converter? Not sure I would trust any of the cheap Chinese battery chargers to do the job properly.
Now I just need to chase that 400 mA current drain
. I think it might be a good idea to fit a battery isolator switch as well.Russell
Last edited:
Well, I'm a retired electronics development engineer but still learning about modern vehicle electrics.
Thanks, that's something to look out for. Yes, I much prefer the Avo 8 but have to make do with Chinese test equipment now.
Russell
Get a flexible 100 watt solar panel and glue it to the roof with a small pwm charge controller. Sever the link to the vehicle or put a manual switch in to use if needed. The panel will keep your leasure battery good all the time with led lights and other incidentals. With a 100 amp hour battery we can keep a nominal 60w fridge going too.
I replaced the old 75 W panel a couple of years ago after it detached itself and disappeared on the motorway! I now have a 150 W panel which, as you say keeps the leisure battery topped up sufficiently, particularly here in in France near the Spanish border. It is connected, via the controller, to the leisure battery so doesn't charge the engine battery.
The electrical system in my campervan doesn't allow the fridge to operate on 12 V unless the engine is running so it's normally run on gas.
Russell.
Hi Russell,
Does your on board battery charger have an internal fan? I've seen in some cases
that it remains running even though its suppose to turn OFF when not in use.
Fitting an isolator switch would probably do the job, I'm assuming that's reconfirming
the drain source is originating from the leisure battery side.
John.
Does your on board battery charger have an internal fan? I've seen in some cases
that it remains running even though its suppose to turn OFF when not in use.
Fitting an isolator switch would probably do the job, I'm assuming that's reconfirming
the drain source is originating from the leisure battery side.
John.
Crossingkeeper
Established member
I've had one of these* for some years thus enabling any surplus solar power to charge the vehicle battery. Consequently I haven't ever needed to charge the vehicle battery separately even during the winter months (but then of course I've only got the 'normal' parasitic drain!)
* http://www.cbe.it/en/csb2/
Those are fairly cheap from cak tanks: http://leisurelines.net/battery-charge-manager-leisure--main-battery-3334-p.asp
Although if you have the typical motorhome electroblock systems I would fit one of these with some heavy cable and benefit from an order of magnitude higher alternator charge to your leisure battery when its low. http://www.cactusnav.com/merlin-smartbank-200a-battery-gauge-p-11875.html
Hi John
Russell
No.
What I meant was fitting an isolator switch something like this to the engine battery so that I can easily disconnect it when parked up for a few days without mains power. It is at the engine battery that the current drain is being measured.
Russell
Hi Crossingkeeper
My system was made by the same people. It's the one shown in the third picture on this page. But their installation looks much neater than mine and much more accessible!
Russell
Yes, that looks as if it might do the job. Any idea what voltage drop it gives?
My system was made by the same people. It's the one shown in the third picture on this page. But their installation looks much neater than mine and much more accessible!
Russell
