Trace Inverter problem

[Rick]

Hopefully someone can help me here. I have a vintage (97) Trace 2500W inverter/charger that I use for my house bank. It consists of four 6V wired in series/parallel.

So I have a lucky biz overnight and go to check on the boat. I look at digital readout panel for inverter and the error light is on. Also, the shore power present light is NOT lit like normal. Batteries are flagged only showing 6.5 volts. I run fridge full time so this explains the draw.

Things I did, which I had limited time.

All done with voltmeter.

Checked shore power at box and at plugin to boat. The receptacle actually didnt look so good to went and got a new one. Replaced.

Go to inverter which is first stop after shore power receptacle. 110 going into inverter. Status panel on inverter shows red light. It is hard to tell but the panel has overtemp, undervolt, surge, low battery.

I disconnect all power and shut down boat completely.

I disconnect AC into inverter and also unplug lead out of inverter which runs to status panel. Wait a few then hook back up.

No luck. Error light still on with same symptoms.

I then shut down again and disconnect AC out to panel hoping maybe transfer switch is stuck. But still no luck.

Did the inverter die? Could it possible be protecting itself because of low state of house bank charge?

Thoughts? Time for a new inverter? Its on the right in the pic.

My workaround because I had to leave boat was to disconnect AC to and from inverter and hook together so I can take it out of the loop running power straight to panel so I can use the guest charger and my engine bank to power bildge systems etc. At least she is in the slip safe.

 

[Maine Sail]

It sounds like your battery voltage is too low to allow the charger to turn on. This is a built in safety feature to prevent charging into a shorted battery.

You need to get an old school "dumb" charger on-board to bring bank voltage to 10.5V + before the inverter will charge. That said at 6.5V you bank is pretty much toast if it was there for any period of time..

Charge, equalize for at least 8 hours and then do a capacity test on one set of them using a 20 hour constant load at: Ah capacity divided by 20..

If you have a 225Ah battery then you will need an 11.25A constant DC load and it should run for at least 18+ hours before the voltage falls to 10.5V.

 

[Benny17441]

Yep, you need to get the batteries charged before you can test the unit. At 10.5V batteries are considered fully depleted at 6.5V they could be toast. The reason for an old dumb charger is that it will put some juice into them batteries where a smart charger will not likely turn on at that low voltage.

 

[Rick]

Unfortunately we had some storms that could have tripped the breaker and the batteries were about a month on their own!

Thanks I will have to try that but that begs the next question.

I do have a dumb charger, autozone variety, that I keep just in case battery in marina car dies. So... how do I hook up the dumb charger to a group configured like mine?

Do I need to charge them individually? Or two for four of them at once? Can I just disconnect the positive and negative leads from back of inverter and hook the charger up there to the whole bank there? Any worries about boiling?

Or I thought about this. What if I used my 100amp alternator on the boat, with a cocktail in hand on a long motor cruise around the bay? Does that present any problems or thoughts?

Thanks again.

 

[Ron20324]

Solar is a good way to go. I have not needed shore power in my slip except when I want the water heater on.

 

[Rick]

Solar is a good way to go. I have not needed shore power in my slip except when I want the water heater on.

Haha thanks for the help Ron. Unfortunately solar in San Diego is a very seasonal thing. And I fly into BWI about six times a month. I must just catch it on the bad days.


Solar would be nice though but impractical for me unless I was at sea.

 

[kloudie1]

Think I'd defer to Maine's suggestion.. Dumb charger .. OK to hook to the charger output from the Trace.. plan on it taking a couple of days for batt to start looking kinda right.. Try Guest charger after the voltage at the batts starts looking like 12 ish with the dumb one hooked up.
I am not at all familiar with that inverter.. any fuses under the cover ? sounds like you've done all the "reboot" things correctly, but with low volts, it probably won't turn on..

 

[All U Get]

I had a breaker pop on my Trace, like Kloude said check to see if one popped out. Mine interrupted the AC circuit on my panel. Took two weeks to figure it out but I'm a little slow.

All U Get

 

[Rick]

Well all turned out to be ok. TY to Maine and Kloudie for insight. I chased the problem further with a test on the batteries and then decided to go out on about a THREE HOUR CRUISE! No sitting at dock on my oh so dear to my heart boat time. No dumb charger. Did so and came back in the docks with my trusty 100 amp alternator on them from the iron jenny. But I did my test from there because of Maine's thinking the bank was toast. I let them sit overnight with 11.9 on them and the next morning with no load, they were holding.

From there I rewired to standard. Error light was out! They accepted a charge. Let them go overnight and in the morning they were sitting at 13.2 bulk. Everything seems and seemed ok.

So with that, the Admiral and I went out and ordered the finished LED replacement lights for the cabin, and the Lumatec Blaze 2 underwater blue and white lights, cuz she is in need of bottom paint and a cutlass bearing.

Boat buck plus 2 hunered.

Cant wait to draw in the fishies with the bottom lights.

If anyone reads all the way through this useless drivel..lol, got any pointers for sealing and mounting the underwater lights? I have done my homework but... always interested in another opinion.

Cheers

 

[kloudie1]

Good Stuff, Rick.. Ya prolly shortened the bank life a bit but ya have a temporary reprieve.. Carry On !