question

alexlbk avatar image
alexlbk asked

DC-DC charge with charge separator

Hello everyone,

I have updated my alternator charging system by adding a charge controller, which pulls values off of the house bank and builds the charge profile based on house bank values. I have 3 additional battery banks: 2 for thrusters and one for engine. With a house profile running these batteries were being over charged, so I installed an Orion DC-DC charger that feeds off the alternator through a charge separator and is in turn connected to another charge separator that feeds thruster/engine batteries. It's working fine, however it always stays in float profile. That would be correct for the engine battery, but thrusters are periodically used quite a bit since I have a single under-powered screw and going through locks and waiting at bridges requires lots of thruster use. I presume that charge separator (it's a quick ECS https://www.quickitaly.com/en/products/energy-range/charge-separator/ecs/) is interfering with DC-DC charger's ability to determine charge state, but before I start rewiring everything once more and spending money on two more DC-DC chargers I want to make sure that this is the case.


orion dc-dc
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3 Answers
kevgermany avatar image
kevgermany answered ·

You should be able to check the reason for the Orion staying in float by checking voltages it sees on the output side. Try disconnecting battery banks when you have full/low batteries. This should confirm your suspicions about the ECS behaviour.

Have you tried adjusting the Orion's settings? Lowering the rebulk voltage offset under may do the trick. Also make sure the float and absorption are correct.

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karen5465 avatar image
karen5465 answered ·

Also encountering this issue. Any update on a solution?


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alexlbk avatar image
alexlbk answered ·

I don't want to disconnect the engine battery - if it dies and I can't start the diesel it would suck. That said it's entirely possible that fully charged engine battery is scewing the voltage and not allowing thruster batteries to charge. So what I have done for now is to order one more DC-DC charger and I will move the engine battery to its own DC-DC charger and leave the thrusters where they were. I will then exercise them a bit to see if we go to bulk/absorbtion. The thruster batteries are usually used together, stern more than bow, but still a very similar usage pattern.

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