Battery, is it dead?

[Scalf77]

So generally propane and carbon monoxide detectors have a low voltage alarm. This way you will know it can't work properly. This is generally around 10.0 to 10.5 volts. The fact that you have two other devices telling you are at 12.7 volts, leads me to believe you might have a connection problem. So measuring the voltage at the incoming fuse panel would be great, and also at the out put of the three amp fuse. If you are not seeing a consistent drop there, I would measure at the sensors (the fact both sensor have triggered would make you think that it was before the sensors) I imagine these are hard wired, so it would be difficult to check. The other possible problem could be the ground connection. make sure the ground wire is also connected good. For this I usually disconnect from unit and ohm out from wire end to ground, loose connections will read a higher resistance.

hope this helps

-greg

[nyyankees588]

Ditto on checking all connections - a while back I thought that I was having major electrical issues. Turned out a couple of the nuts on the terminals had wiggled themselves loose and the ground had done the same. It may not be the answer, but it's always good to check the basics before driving yourself crazy chasing non-existent issues.

I'm in a similar place with my wet lead-cell house batteries. Believe not keeping them on a trickle charger for the past 2 overcast PNW winters may have done them in. I'll be going to a local battery store to have them fully tested. They charge $15/battery to charge them, then put them on a measured draw-down to see what capacity they have remaining. My cheapo battery tester (sucks water out of batteries, has a float that's supposed to measure their remaining life) says they are fine.

[ctb]

2nd Update...Last three nights stayed at local camping area before our trip...took out 3 amp fuse to silence Propane & carbon monoxide alarms/sensors. Last night, both solar and inverter panels (finally, what I am used to seeing with old AGM's) started showing the 'usual' 13.3 amps (plugged into shore power) up from 12.8/12.9...
Packed up and drove home and went over my electric panel, grounds, inverter etc...jiggling wires to see if I had any loose connections...found none loose...

put 3 amp fuse back in, alarms started to beep, reset, they have been silent now...going on trip and have a few days w/o power and will see how batteries fair...could this be one of my sensor/alarms needing to be replaced? Anyway, I'll keep you posted if anything changes, but thank you all (again) for having a place to relieve the stress/panic of not knowing what to do or where to start! And the satisfaction of learning and fixing! You folks rock!

[carringb]

Yes, the CO/Propane detectors have a finite life. I thought 10 years, but this article says 5-7. Some units are definitely shorter-lived than others in my experience.

https://www.motorhome.com/tech/safety-alarms/

[ctb]

Thanks CB, that is what I thought too, but I just went out to load up freezer and noticed that charge level was back down to 12.6-12.7! I have gone over everything and realized (saw sitting behind drivers seat) our 'other' shore power cord (yes forgot the one Sporty came with one trip and wa-la, 'travel' shore cord...I digress) realized that is really the only other difference and location...

At the campsite I use our travel cord, I am now plugged into my 'home' cord...As a last resort, I checked the connection at the van to make sure I screwed the cord in fully and found I hadn't but thought I had? Yes, turns out the round piece to tighten onto plug is cracked. So when we got home, plugged Sporty in probably went tight, and ended up bumping it or something so it wasn't really tightened at all...and MAYBE this is what has happened all along...?!? Almost immediately, voltage went back up to 13.3...probably that then?

Yes the storm and power outage started it, so now maybe this will end it...lol.ANd time to get a new ring if possible or duct tape or some thing...

[eddyturn]

Just a thought... when you say you get the "usual" 13.3 volts when plugged in, I think that should be 13.8 for the float charge. If you never get up to bulk charge something may not be right. My shore keeps me at 13.8 but since I have it all hooked up to the solar charger, it can be as high as 14.5 now for the bulk charging. Before doing my solar I never got over 13.8 and the batteries did not last long. I am not an electrical know it all and only get opinions from crap I read on the inner tube.

[ctb]

ETurn...interesting to say the least, and I feel cheated in some way (lol)...I wonder if that is a residual/best my old batteries could do b/c on our maiden voyage in Aug/Sep '14, a novice-idiot on SMB's given the usual idiot I can be...went to AK. Night on Dalton HWY, Coooold night, not turning furnace on, we blew/froze our water heater and our house batteries couldn't run anything until we ran Sporty for awhile and heated things up...I have always wondered if I had damaged them then...anyway, these are new batteries and will be keeping my eye on your tip...thx!

[Scalf77]

It sounds like you have the magnum inverter/charger, and probably using one of their standard AGM settings. Hopefully you also have temperature feedback, at least on the Magnum side. I'm sure the Zamp controller also has a AGM setting, might have temperture feedback, maybe not. In your spare time you can look through the documentation and see what those vales are.

The magnum has two AGM setting AGM1 -Concord (lifeline Series) and AGM2 - east Penn, Deka, Discover, and Trojan batteries.



The standard charge cycle would look like this.



When you plugin the charger on a depleted battery you will find it going to max current (this is a value that is programmed into the system and is based on the size of your battery bank. It might go right away to the Absorption value which for AGM2 is 14.5 volts. This value is at 77 C so if there is a temperature sensor on the battery it may be lower (higher than 77 C) or higher (lower than 77 C), eventually it will meet the Absorption voltage and go into the absorption phase. Here you will see the voltage hold and the current will start to drop. Eventually the current will reach a certain point and the charger will drop into float. The magnum has a couple of ways you can configure for it to go into float, but in general it is based a current value based on the size of the battery bank, if you have the BMK it could be set to SOC. In any event, it will than transition to float. So it is good to get used to seeing the charge cycle for your battery, if you are plugged in all the time you most likely will be seeing the float voltage. Your Magnum display will tell you what stage you are in so you should be able to match it all up.

The Solar controller will also try to do it's own thing, usually they wake up in the morning and try to go into a full cycle (The seem to always assume they are the only charge device. The solar charger will try to do the same thing, and depending on available sun, solar panels, battery bank size it may be able to meet those requirements. Lack of available current will make it fall out of absorption, because the current is what is being controlled

While this sounds complicated, you don't need to really understand the details, just become familiar with how it works. It is great get a understanding of the cycle on your working rig, so that you are comfortable when something goes wrong.

I have thread that covers three areas of charging on my old rig, that may be good for reference. https://www.sportsmobileforum.com/fo...ing-23438.html

Feel free to PM me if you have questions on tracking this issue down.

-greg

[Stewbie]

Originally Posted by carringb

What's your total amp hour capacity of your battery bank, and your charger output? They maybe just never recharged fully.

CaringB. Some people ask the right questions all the time. You're one of the good guys contributing knowledge and telling (by default) people how to think about their systems.
For all of us, Keep it up. Thanks

[porschedpm]

I can’t speak towards the propane detector chirping. But in regards to the Carbon Monoxide detector, back in May my CO detector (Safe-T-Alert 65-542-P) started chirping for no apparent reason. I would hit the reset button and that would quiet it for 3 days. After resetting the detector 4 times I finally read the instructions. The instructions said the chirp I was hearing, a beep every 25 seconds, was an End of Life signal meaning my detector had reached 5yrs of age and needed replacement. My detector was pushing 6yrs. The LEDs would also flash RED RED GREEN GREEN every 25 seconds. The instructions also said after 30 days, hitting the reset button would no longer quiet the detector. So I found a direct replacement on Amazon and fixed the problem. If I had to guess I’d say this may be one of your issues. The other issues being your batteries and their charging parameters.