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Subject Topic: Battery query
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Personles + june
27/12/2015 at 6:55pm
 Location: rugby
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A friend of mine has a new Lunar Clubman SB it came with a fitted solar panel. He is getting calls from phantom saying that his battery is flat. He has tested the battery and it show that it is fully charged.
The obvious question is what could be causing this.


Les

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The worst day fishing is better than the best day working


Personnavver
27/12/2015 at 7:34pm
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Has he tested the caravan battery or the one in the tracker.


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Personles + june
27/12/2015 at 7:36pm
 Location: rugby
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I am not sure, but knowing him, it will only be his caravan one. I will email him.


Les

-------------
The worst day fishing is better than the best day working


Personissym
27/12/2015 at 7:53pm
 Location: Cambridgeshire
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I wasn't aware of a battery in the tracker, ours is run from the caravan battery. How is he checking the battery? If he is connected to the mains when he checks the battery it will show as charged when it may actually be flat, not sure if the solar panel can cause the same reading. OH is aircraft avionics engineer so can only give suggestions related to this knowledge.
He suggests check the battery itself, don't use the caravan panel.

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Started with a motorbike and tent.......my gallery, my life.


PersonJacko4747
27/12/2015 at 8:09pm
 Location: Wirral
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Hi its my problem that Les is talking about, the battery goes from 10 amp (at night) to 13 amp after a days sunshine, my query is, is this normal or is something drawing power from the battery when the Solar panel is not charging,??


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Personissym
27/12/2015 at 8:20pm
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My OH thinks your 13 volts is the reading coming from the solar panel, not the battery charge. He thinks your panel probably isn't big enough to actually charge from winter sunshine. You may need to charge your battery at home and then the panel may prolong it. Our battery lasts about 6 weeks from fully charged.
Also is your master switch in the van turned off? If not you could be using power, such as the heating without realising it. We flattened our battery within a couple of days in storage by accidentally leaving the master switch on.
Hope you get it sorted, we got a 4am call last Sunday as we'd forgotten to change the battery which we normally do every 6 weeks in winter. Wasn't going to check in the middle of the night and even though we were told there was no movement from the van the adrenaline rush from the phone ringing at 4am kept us both awake for the rest of the night!!!!!

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Started with a motorbike and tent.......my gallery, my life.


PersonJTQU
28/12/2015 at 7:11am
 Location: Hampshire
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One has to query how was it tested to say it was fully charged?
A knackered battery, one no longer able to hold any real amount of charge could well be showing full after a few hours on a solar cell, but in the night lose that modicum of charge to alert the tracker.
Or the testing was flawed, as when on the solar cell it could read voltages well above the 12.7 of a fully charged battery. That is simply it being charged but not it being charged right up.
In the winter with a solar panel then without a massive size panel a flat 100 odd Ah battery will take many days to be fully charged.
Say it was a 40 Watt panel, then typically in winter you will be lucky to get 1 Amp for 6 hours, so 6 Ahs a day, if lucky. So that's 17 days assuming good weather and no parasitic drains are on the battery during that time which is not here the case as the tracker at least is taking some power..
Solar panels are good pieces of kit but in winter with our typical weather and if laid flat they give only a very small amount of their rated power. At best they can keep a fully charged battery up, but that is not always the case unless adequately sized.

I suspect the OP's friend has depleted their battery and it is now well on its way to being totally knackered by being left flat.


PersonJacko4747
28/12/2015 at 8:25am
 Location: Wirral
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The battery was never depleted, unless it happened when it was in for repair for two months, it was taken off the caravan and put onto a charger at my home, and was showing full charge, put it back onto Caravan and the charge only lasts 1 day, the tracker website shows the battery as +12 volts during the day and -11 volts at night is this normal ???


-------------
Colin


PersonJTQU
28/12/2015 at 9:23am
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Yes, that's normal for a totally knackered battery. It has next to nothing of its original storage capactity left.

Think of batteries like buckets. They can be topped up to the brim. As they degrade think of it as bricks being put into the bucket. A sick battery is like a bucket nearly full of bricks, it holds little of the water it once did and you can fill it dead easy; full but not much there.


The tracker indicating +12 volts is simply seeing the solar panel trying to charge the battery; not the battery's off charge voltage.



Post last edited on 28/12/2015 09:36:34


Personles + june
28/12/2015 at 2:47pm
 Location: rugby
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Jacko
Looks like you'll have to spend some of your fortune on a new battery.



   Les

-------------
The worst day fishing is better than the best day working


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PersonJacko4747
28/12/2015 at 3:27pm
 Location: Wirral
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Its only 3 years old, I will never sleep at night


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Colin


Personles + june
28/12/2015 at 4:14pm
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I can't believe that.



Les



-------------
The worst day fishing is better than the best day working


PersonJTQU
29/12/2015 at 6:39am
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Are you sure as you stated earlier you fully charged it? Rather than it was "showing fully charged" whatever that indication you are quoting might have been.
Before investing leave it on a decent charger for 48 > 72 hours; you just might get a bit more life out of it.

However,being left as it clearly is for some period at a very low level of charge is very damaging. Ideally lead acid batteries ought to be kept fully charged at all times or if used not taken too low [sub 50%]and recharged to 100% promptly [not fast charged though].

Edit: "decent charger" = a "smart charger", one that automatically protects the battery from gassing. Or if it is a "dumb charger" you will need to constantly check that the battery is not gassing off.

Post last edited on 29/12/2015 07:03:37


PersonJacko4747
29/12/2015 at 11:43pm
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JTQU - many thanks for all the info.


-------------
Colin


Personjoe blog
31/12/2015 at 7:16pm
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Tracker has its own power source so it should not drain battery.


PersonJTQU
31/12/2015 at 7:31pm
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Quote:
Originally posted by joe blog on 31/12/2015Tracker has its own power source so it should not drain battery.



The OP's "tracker" was as stated a Phantom not a Tracker™. Are these also totally independent of external battery power? If so, then mine that is now just starting its ninth year is holding up well. I have to notify them if I intend disconnecting the battery from the van's controller.



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