Victron questions

[Roger Long]

I just got the Victron battery monitor installed.

I didn't realize that I now have one parasitic load on the boat. Not a big problem living aboard but might be for a seldom used boat.

Do you know if the setup memory is volatile? If I remove the fuse or disconnect the red power/sense wire when I want a fully dead ship, will I have to go through all the settings again?

You mentioned that it would show some amps even with everything off because of noise. However, I’m showing 1.8 amps with the battery master off. There is no AC on the boat, the yard is dead in the rain, the power plant next door is not running. My only directly connected loads (bilge pumps) are out of the circuit at the moment. Does this seem reasonable?

 

[Ron20324]

Maybe a stereo with a constant-on memory 12v supply?

 

[Roger Long]

Maybe a stereo with a constant-on memory 12v supply?

Stereo! On my boat?

No TV either.

I just traced out and prepared a complete schematic. I'm pretty sure there is nothing hiding in there that I don't know about.

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

Can't really speak to the volatile memory in your battery monitor but a 1.8 A draw is definitely a load.

Have you tried disconnecting the leads at the battery to be sure you don't have a 1.8 A error in your monitor ? If it truly is a load, perhaps you might try removing the cables from the batteries and scouting around with an ohm-meter to see where the continuity is.

Best of luck with it.

 

[Jalepeno]

IF you have the battery monitor properly installed with the shunt ibetween the battery common (negative) line and the motor, you should be able to monitor ALL loads. Do you see a draw even when your main battery switch of OFF? Maybe there is a corroded connection that is allowing a small load to weep between the positive and negative wires.

Don't know about the Victron battery monitor, but my “Link-Lite” reports a draws of zero (i.e.. less than 0.1 amp for memory maintenance continuously) and 0.1 amp when the backlight LED in on. The backlight comes on for a user-defined time whenever a button is pushed. Maybe you are seeing the backlight?

 

[Maine Sail]

Roger,

Are you sure it's not 0.18A??? 1.8A is a fairly large draw. Our stereo, powering 4 speakers plus an iPod, is about 1.6A - 1.8A at a fairly loud listening volume.

I am assuming this is with all devices switched off and the battery switch off? Try disconnecting your charger from the batteries I have seen them go bad and suck power in reverse like a solar panel can do.. Don't know what the internal failure mode is when this happens but I have seen it happen before.

 

[Roger Long]

Try disconnecting your charger from the batteries ..

I was coming to that conclusion by process of elimination. With a brand new battery switch and negative bus and the starter removed, there just isn't any other place the current could be going. The voltage on the little battery was also going down pretty fast.

This is the entire active system at this point:

Doesn't leave much room for doubt, does it? I wonder how long this has been going on.

Damn, I bet I'll be adding a new battery charger to my list of upgrades. It was a bitch bolting that thing to the bulkhead.

What would you recommend for a new charger if disconnecting this one tomorrow verifies the problem?

 

[JoeWhite]

There is one other test. Since the Amp Draw is small 1.8A - use an amp meter. Disconnect the feed from the battery to all the connections on the circuit panel and place the amp meter in series with this path. It should show you relatively low ( 100mA). If it is 1.8A then you can be a detective and follow all circuits out from the circuit breaker panel.

 

[Mike B]

The Victron has a "zero" reset function. If you're certain there is no load then just do a zero reset. I have the BMV600 and had to do it to get rid of what appeared to be a minor draw. I isolated everything by turning off the battery switch and still had the phantom draw. Convinced I was fine I did the zero reset and forgot about it.

 

[Roger Long]

The Victron has a "zero" reset function.

Ah, I hope you're right. I'll look that up and let you know tomorrow.

 

[Don12364]

Roger,
1.8 amps is one hell of a big drain with everything off. It also represents over 20 watts of heat dissipation - so something somewhere would be getting hot, or at least warm.

From the Victron web site their battery monitors draw less than 4 or 5 mA when quiescent so this is no worry at all.
If the wiring is actually as you say (even the most meticulous of us can miss an extra wire) then you need to suspect the Battery Monitor itself - and its shunt.
Try disconnecting the battery at the lug and re connecting to see if something was 'latched on'.
If the drain still registers then Joe's check will be proof positive. i.e. Use another ammeter in series with the BM's shunt and read exactly how much drain there is.

 

[Roger Long]

Mike B gets the Tee shirt. It was the zero setting. I disconnected everything, verified with ohm's check, and still had 1.83 amps. Put the battery charger back in the circuit and no change. Did the zero calibration on the Victron and everything is right, almost.

Here's where it gets weird and frustrating: After I got everything hooked back up, checking the amps as I reconnected each item to be sure there was no increase, I turned on the cabin light circuit so I could turn on the light in the engine room. The Victron went off and the cabin lights didn't come on. Checked with a meter at the battery and I have a 10 v voltage drop when the cabin lights are turned on. They worked fine yesterday. Somewhere overnight they have developed a large draw but the fuse isn't blowing.

 

[Kettlewell]

Is your ground hooked up? I had a similar problem the other night after doing electrical system work before I realized that everything was hooked up except for the ground line from the batteries back to the engine.

 

[Roger Long]

Is your ground hooked up?

Yup. But, damn, I hate this kind of situation. I had a huge voltage sink in my cabin light circuit. I started taking fixtures down and apart trying to isolate the problem. The big voltage drop disappeared but the lights started going off on their own except showing no increase in amp draw. I renewed some connections and put everything back together.

Everything seems fine now and the lights stay on. I don't know if I fixed the problem or if it just decided to hide until an inconvenient time. Nothing I wiggle recreates the problem.

Haunted?

 

[Ed A]

how bout this. shut off the monitor, take a terminal off the battery and check for load there. If there is real drainon the system with it all shut off maybe something is connected directly to the battery that your not aware off. You could unplug the engine pannel to isolate that too. Are the lights on the engine pannel.

completly disconnet the bilge pump switch in the bilge. eliminate leaking voltage on thpump auto swith. [Not enough to run the pump but just enough to be a problem? even when the float switch is off.]

 

[Roger Long]

how bout this.

Thanks, did all that.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Roger. lighting circuits on boats of our "vintage" were and still are notorious because at least Catalina used 14 gauge wiring and looped the circuits from the port midships electrical panel all the way to the bow of the boat and back down the starboard side. Turn two lights on and the second one dims the first. Wire was undersized, big time. In addition, the wire connections, behind the panel, splices for the parallels to each light fixture, wire runs pinched at the hull to deck joint (!), and buried under fiberglass, and the connections at the lights themselves were horrible and sloppy. Many of us have done major re-dos of the lighting wiring. If your Victron works with th lighting circuit disconnected, you may be on track for finding the gremlin.