Quote:
Originally Posted by Casey Freswick
So here is a summary of events. Related to my TM electrical problems on this trip.
I have a 150 AMP lithium battery. I have tested it and it is really a 100 AMP battery but I bought it from china, not here on the forum. I have several days to try to fix a problem here in MT before I head back to MI.
1. I had 2 30 amp fuses on my 12 volt board burn out.
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The TM 12v fuse board (if WFCO) has two "left side" surface mount connectors, normally equipped 40A fuses. On the right side, a number of "downstream" fuses for various appliances are (IIRC) ALL smaller than that size. Are you speaking of a WFCO Board? Did the blown fuses occur on undersized "left" connectors, or oversized "right" connectors?
In the case of an older Parallax Board from earlier years, each of the two "main" connectors handled only half of the downstream fuses as a individual bus. For power through one of the "main connectors" to reach donstream loads and fuses which the board wired to the
OTHER main connector, current must traverse a very "weak" internal interconnect between the two halves. An older Parallax Board should probably be replaced if internally weak "main wiring" is leading to problems.
Which Board are you talking about?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Casey Freswick
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Those are PD-4655VL internal fuses (on the converter main board), and not fuses on the TM's own 12v fuse board. I am not familiar with the PD Converter, although I own a somewhat similar 'WildKat'.
Those fuses are intended to provide protection against reverse wiring. A very special kind of 'reverse wiring' can occur in a 120-VAC "hot skin" situation, as follows: 120-VAC is present on the TM Skin, cycling at 60hz between about +170 volts and -170 volts.
Battery "-" is always provided with an excellent connection to the frame. So is the plug-in 120-VAC Safety Ground wire bus (the green and bare wires), but if the green wire connectors aren't draining EVERYTHING leaked as "120-VAC hot skin" to house/grid safety ground, the the 12v grounding voltage flies around, and the PD Converter may be properly protecting itself.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Casey Freswick
2. I blow my brothers 110 GFI in his garage outlets each time I have all 120 volt circuits on. When I have main, microwave and airconditioner circuits on there seems to be no problem.
3. I bypass a GFI outlet and turn on all 110 circuits and there is no problem with the 110 circuits on my TM panel blowing.
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What about WH+Fridge circuit?
That is a critical question.
Tripping of 120-VAC GFCI circuits occurs when the "hot" and "current carrying neural" wires contain unequal amounts of current. That ALWAYS happens when power on either leg is being "lost" and drained away by the bare and green-wire safety grounding connections.
The TM should generally never trip a GFCI breaker, unless then Converter is running and creating small amounts of 'out-of-phase' current differential, being detected by by a house GFCI.
IMO, it would be more "friendly" if water heater 120-VAC was wired through another dedicated GFCI, rather than connected to a dumb 20A circuit (It's a purely resistive load, very compatible with GFCI circuits). We'd get immediate indications for 120-VAC WH heater elements leaking power into the water (and enclosure), ultimately leaking through a "hot-skin" frame and being drained away by the safety grounding wire.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Casey Freswick
4. I turned the 80 AMP breaker off, disconnecting the battery to the converter, converter works: it is putting out 14.5 volts to my 12 volt panel. All 12 volt lights, fans, etc work. There is 14.5 volts going to both the 12 volt system and the battery. With 80 circuit breaker to the battery off/disconnected the converter continues to work.
5. I turned the 80 amp breaker (which is in between the positive wire between the battery and converter). BMS system on battery registers charging, Battery monitoring system you recommended recognizes charging. I switched to 13.2 volt output on my converter and it was putting out 57 AMPS (my charger as you can see is a 55 AM charger).
6. After about 90 seconds the 80 AMP fuse blew. (This is what was happening. This is now a consistent problem.
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It might be the case that "hot skin" is affecting current more quickly than the monitors will register, they are designed to display DC only. 57 amps from a PD "55A" or WildKat is a normal situation, which it should be able to support indefinitely.
Or the "beaker" (or is it a fuse???) is tripping too early, it might be defective.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Casey Freswick
7. I put a regular charger at 10 Amps to charge my lithium batter for a short time. Neither the battery BMS or my installed Battery monitoring system are registering a charge.
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If your "regular charger" is a semi-smart charger which reduces voltage and/or maximum when it thinks that a car's lead-acid battery has reached nearly full charge, it might think that a Lithium battery pack @ more than 12.8 volts is alreasdy "fully charged". You could use an el-cheapo DVM, capable of reading 10A current, to see whether the "regular charger" has made that determination.
It might also be trying to charge at too high a voltage, invoking BMS over-voltage disconnect. If it has a "bulk mode" switch, try flicking that switch and checking both voltage and maximum current.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Casey Freswick
Is my breaker bad?
Is my batter bad? (It holds a charge and I used it without a full charge before the BMS shut it down.)
Is my converter bad?
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Breaker = maybe.
Battery = no problem.
BMS = maybe causing problems.
Converter = probably good.
'HOT SKIN' 120-VAC leakage effecting 12v electronics including Converter and BMS? A very likely problem.