ken nugent Posted March 5, 2010 Share Posted March 5, 2010 Hi My question is - is it ok to use my hook up to charge my leisure battery whilst my main vehicle/engine battery has been removed. the leads from the engine battery are isolated and out of danger from contacting the body. By removing one of the batteries have I broken the charging circuit or will i over load the charging unit Thanks Ken :-S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brambles Posted March 5, 2010 Share Posted March 5, 2010 Absolutely fine. If you have a control panel switch for enabling charging of engine battery as well, just make sure it is deselected as a precaution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken nugent Posted March 7, 2010 Author Share Posted March 7, 2010 Hi Jon Thanks for the reply and info, I dont think it will make any odds but the control panel in my challenger which is the same as the Chausson in the UK is a PC100 we think made by CBE. I dont think it has a facility for diverting charging to one or the other batteries it just has 2 selection buttons, one for the leisure battery and one for the vehicle battery and when pressed a series of lights come on indicating the amount of power remaining. Thanks again ken N Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brambles Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 Your right, the control panel just shows the state of charge of both batteries (toggles between them). The 12 volts connection from the engine battery is purely a signal or reference input so it can display the battery status, as well as feeding the split charge relay which will only close if you start the engine. Although I have a feeling, and not sure on this one but fairly certain, but I think if your leisure battery is very low on charge, say below 8 volts, it will not allow the split charge relay to be energised. This is to prevent a heavy load being placed on the alternator and engine battery and blowing a fuse. Also the mains charger/power supply unit from same company will not enable charging. So if you ever completely flatten the leisure battery you need to use an external charger to bring it up to over 10 volts and then you can charge as normal from on board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted March 8, 2010 Share Posted March 8, 2010 ken nugent - 2010-03-07 8:14 PM Hi Jon Thanks for the reply and info, I dont think it will make any odds but the control panel in my challenger which is the same as the Chausson in the UK is a PC100 we think made by CBE. I dont think it has a facility for diverting charging to one or the other batteries it just has 2 selection buttons, one for the leisure battery and one for the vehicle battery and when pressed a series of lights come on indicating the amount of power remaining. Thanks again ken N I believe you'll find that the CBE-made PC-100 modular charging system does charge your motorhome's engine-battery as well as its leisure-battery. As you (and Jon) say, when the relevant buttons on the system's control-panel are pressed they just provide a visual clue to each battery's charge-state. (I use the word "clue" deliberately as, if the PC-100 system fitted to my Hobby is representative of the breed, the charge-state lights tend to be worryingly optimistic.) Pressing the buttons does not affect how the on-board battery-charger functions. When the motorhome's battery-charger is operating, priority is given to charging the leisure-battery, but a low amperage (2A maximum) charge is also sent AUTOMATICALLY to the engine-battery. However, as you've ensured that the cables that normally connect to your engine-battery are properly isolated/insulated, the fact that the system will still be 'trying' to trickle-charge a missing engine-battery should present no risk. There's no UK-norm split-charge relay as such with a PC-100 system, instead there's a Continental-norm "coupler/separator". This parallel-couples the leisure-battery with the engine-battery when the vehicle alternator's voltage is above 13.3V and separates the two batteries when the engine's ignition is off or the voltage is below 12V. Jon's final paragraph advice may well be correct, though I can find no reference to it in CBE's PC-100 Instruction Manual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 Ken A brief follow-up... I vaguely remembered commenting about Chausson battery charging before and managed to find the following thread: http://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10179&posts=4 With the benefit of hindsight I'm now wary of the accuracy of the UK Chausson dealer's statement. The CBE PC-100 system in my 2005 Hobby certainly has the inherent capability to charge the vehicle's engine-battery (albeit slowly) and, presumably, that should mean all PC-100 systems can do the same. Of course, it is possible that, when I sought advice from RDH Motorhome Centre in 2008, Chausson were fitting a different system and/or had deliberately chosen to exclude the engine-battery from the system, but I somehow doubt this would have been so. In your case, the only way to be sure would be to reconnect the engine-battery, operate the on-board battery-charger, and check for a voltage rise at the engine-battery's terminals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brambles Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 Derek, there is certainly nothing in the CBE documentation to indicate the charing of a engine battery. However there is a network signal specifies as 12 volts 50 Amps. Presumably this is for say an indiator lamp to show unit is connected. I wonder if it has been used in past to connect to to the engine battery to provide a trickle charge. A detailed wiring diagram for motorhomes concerned might show what the story is. What I have not found is any detailed info on the PC100 control panels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 Our Van has CBE equipment. What has been installed is a kit comprising an oval control panel, 12V distribution box, battery charger, water tank level probe, and waste tank level sensor and heater. The kit is designated PC-100HB T.The description of operation says: "Car battery charging (B1). When the battery charger is charging, an electronic device allows a recharging (max 2A) of the car (sic) battery (B1), the system gives priority to the leisure battery."An alternative version of the installation is listed as PC-100HB, with a rectangular control panel, which substitutes control of an awning light for the waste tank heater on the PC-100HB T. A third version, PC-200HB, has similar functions but a digital LCD read out screen.I'd guess that how the particular Chausson system performs will depend on how much of CBE's standard kit has been installed by Trigano, no doubt influenced by how far up their model range the particular motorhome is placed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brambles Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 Seems then to be lots of different sytems offered by CBE and not all details listed on their website, or not easy to find. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken nugent Posted March 9, 2010 Author Share Posted March 9, 2010 Hi Jon, Derek U & Brain K just a bit of follow up, The reason why I asked initally about charing with the eninge battery removed was because it had totally collapsed it was useless and as the MH is laid up in storage, I wasnt going to get a new battery and waste the 3 or 4 months of its warranty, so this is why its not on the vehicle. I have today been to the MH and hooked it up all appears to be ok hopefully it wont have gone up in smoke by the morning. The PC 100 system on my 2003 Challenger (LHD) does trickle charge the engine battery when hooked up. The PC100 control panel has 3 buttons to the left on an oval panel, top one, vehicle battery indicator, second one down, leisure battery, third one, fresh water capacity. On right hand side of screen top row left, exterior light, top row right, power on/off. Second row down pump. Jon mentioned about wiring diagrams I have a full TRIGANO wiring diagram relating to all the wiring on my model, if this is of any use to you I can scan it and forward it to you as an attachment if you give me your email address. Thanks a lot Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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