Solar panel and battery disconnect

[Coheeba]

My boat (March thru Sept.) is in a dry storage marina and I have never/cant put it on charge during this time. I haven't had any problems, yet, as the alternator/ solar panels are keeping the batteries charged. During the winter it is stored in a garage and I connect the batteries to a single bank Odyssey Smart charger. I have thought about a dual bank charger, maybe this winter.

 

[Nauticajetter]

Does anybody else's lights flicker once ina while when you leave the battery switches on? Sfter the lake tonight I was gonna leave the switches on but my courtesy lights would flicker once ina while. I think I heard about this a while back as a possible reminder that the battery switches were left on. ( or possibly some great wiring gremlins from the factory? Ha ha) So I can have solar panels trickle charging but I will always have my lights flashing and bilge running? Or risk turning it of ha ha. Ugh.

 

[Bill D]

That's wonky. It should be pretty easy to move the solar panel leads over to the other side of the battery switch. Then you can still charge the batteries and not have all this other weirdness going on. Do the solar panels have a built in controller?

 

[Coheeba]

That's wonky. It should be pretty easy to move the solar panel leads over to the other side of the battery switch. Then you can still charge the batteries and not have all this other weirdness going on. Do the solar panels have a built in controller?

I was thinking about that also (solar panel controller). I assume it has to have a controller but cant find any documentation.

 

[Coheeba]

Here is the wiring diagram from the service manual.

 

[Bill D]

There you go! There's no controller in the schematic, so I figure it's built into the panel. I'd just move those leads from the panel over to the other side of the battery switch.

 

[Coheeba]

I was thinking of taking lead off the switch and splitting it and putting one on each positive battery terminal. Sound right??

 

[Coheeba]

If you put it on the other side of switch the DVSR still controls the charging.

 

[seadude]

According to the service manual the solar panels are wired to the start battery and I ass-u-me that the DVSR takes over and controls the charging. So, it would charge the start battery until it reaches the 13.4 threshold and then joins the two banks. The switches would have to be on for it to charge. I am looking in to wiring (solar panels) directly to the batteries and bypass the switch. I also am going to hardwire an additional bilge pump with a float switch.

If I'm following that diagram correctly the solar panels are connected directly to the Start battery. If that switch is off, nothing feeds the DVSR so no charge to the House battery. However, turning the Parallel switch on should connect (and charge) both batteries. This looks like a good out-of-water solution when leaving the House battery off. In-water leaving the House on (for the bilge pump) with Parallel on would run the risk of discharging both batteries.

 

[Coheeba]

DVSR Operation Explained - Charging: The DVSR is connected
between two battery banks. When the DVSR senses a charging
voltage (13.4VDC or 26.8VDC) on either of the banks, it automatically
activates and joins the two battery banks after a short delay (5
seconds), so they are charged as one battery bank.

 

[Coheeba]

 

[Coheeba]

When the DVSR senses a charge voltage 13.4v it in effect parallels the batteries. The problem is if your house battery is down 12.ov and the start is 12.8 when the DVSR parallels them the start wants to charge the house at a high current. This is not optimal and will shorten the life of the battery. IMO if you hook up solar panels directly (fused) to each battery you remove the DVSR from the equation and the panel trickle charges both whenever the solar panel is activated. I am not a rocket surgeon so if so of the more electrically inclined @Mainah @David Analog could weigh in and give an opinion it would be helpful.

 

[0627Devildog]

So what are the differences between a DVSR and ACR?

 

[Coheeba]

I don't know what the ACR is, but DVSR is Digital Voltage Sensitive Relay it touts "dual battery charging made easy" and it does what it says it will do but has some faults.

 

[Coheeba]

After some more reading of different threads I am not sure the solar panels aren't charging the batteries even when switches are off. The DVSR should sense charge voltage from the panels and parallel and charge the batteries even with the switches off. I think...
It should be easy to check; with the switches off and the boat in full sun, if the red light on the DVSR is on it is charging.

 

[Nauticajetter]

@Coheeba , that might be the best news yet! I went and checked my boat which is in direct sun currently and has been out of water with the switches off for 3 days and my DVSR red light was on.

 

[Mainah]

@Coheeba I think you are onto something. If the panels have two sets of leads then yes I would connect one to each hot side if the battery switch and then perform the DVSR red loop fix.

If only one set of leads I would connect the solar panels to the hot side of the house battery and then perform the DVSR red loop fix. The start battery should have far fewer total amps being drawn from it each outing and the stators should be recharging it fully is where my head is at on that.

In both cases the hot side of the switches allows the battery switches to remain off.

 

[seadude]

So, just to recap that DVSR diagram which contradicts the service manual diagram, the solar panels should work just like the engine generators via the DVSR, charging the Start battery first and then both Start and House together. The engine does this when the switches are on of course, and the solar panel does it with switches on or off. Still need the House battery on and the bilge in Auto mode when in the water.
Sounds like a well thought out system - if only we could be sure which diagram is right!

 

[Coheeba]

Based on the DVSR manual which I think contradicts itself, I am not sure when the parallel actually happens. One paragraph says when it receives a charge voltage =>13.4 another paragraph says when the start battery reaches 13.4v. Doesn't matter which one it is I just need to know. I am going to call BEP on Monday.

 

[Coheeba]

I called BEP and they were very responsive (262)293-0600. The tech said that whenever 13.4v is sensed by the DVSR it will parallel (join) the two banks. So when the alternator is charging the batteries it will see 13.4v, when a shore charger is hooked up it will see 13.4v, if the solar panels are active it will see 13.4v. When the red LED is lit the banks are joined.