Battery charging

[maxi_77]

Thanks for the replies.
Battery is new, came with the van, fresh import in May but it's some noname unknown thing. Not sure how good it is either as I've just checked it with the hydrometer and the SG is well down. I'll leave it on the beefy charger for few hours and see if it's any better. If it's still low I'll chuck it and get a new good one. I had a new leisure battery as well but that was duff and got it replaced under warranty so battery age doesn't necessarily mean it's OK.
The bulb does stay on all time on mine, or did. I know where the ignition switch is by now.

Simon, I agree about the Zig being crude. Yes, the Touring setting does seem to switch them into parallel as I well know after stupidly leaving it set like that in France and having both batteries go flat. That's really why I've got the Willinton kit and then I will disconnect the starter battery from the Zig and just leave the Zig set for hookup.
I have thought about getting into the Zig and rewiring it so that it charges the starter battery as well on hookup. Should be fairly easy to do and put a big diode in to ensure that the starter battery can't feed back into the Zig.
The Waeco twin charger sounds a good idea as well . Might go that way and dump the Zig and make another cupboard there. Space always handy in the Bongo.

Tony, yes our fridge is also wired direct in to to the LB. I've put a switch with an LED in the cicuit now so that we can make sure it's off properly

Dandeman, does the Cytek unit still need to have a button pressed to operate it? Can't tell from the website if it does or not.

Brian

First if you have been flattening your battery regularly it may well be past it's best, very few lead acid types can take discharges below 50% on a regular basis. Second have you actually checked for the drain rate on the starter battery, I found a dodgy relay which had a permanent partial earth on it which did for a brand new battery in afew weeks.

Before anything else you need to both check the battery to see if it is really servicable and check for battery drain. 1/2 an amp drain will take your battery down to a dangerously low level in a few days

[PixieAndTheMoon]

We have a suitcase like solar panel connected to the cigarette lighter sitting on the dash when our Bongo is sat up for a while. We can and have left her for months sometimes and she starts up every time. We did get two new batteries for her over a year ago though.

We also use Tony's idea of a battery disconnect switch, I use it when I am not on hook up that way I cannot flatten the starter battery using lights if I forget to switch it over on the console. I have to leave my hood unclosed so I don't forget that I have de-activated it lol

Both of these devices work fine for us.

Jo

[briwy]

Finally sussed out how to charge the starter battery as well as the leisure battery when on hook up.

The Zig unit has a 240v output on the back that is normally used to power a fridge. This output is controlled by the Mains on/off switch on the Zig which also turns the 12v charger on/off.



I have taken a feed from this 240v output to a relay with normally open contacts. When the Mains switch is turned on the relay contacts close and connect the starter battery to the 12v leisure battery terminal on the Zig. In effect the two batteries are then connected in parallel and will both charge from the Zig unit. As soon as the Mains is turned off or unplugged the contacts open disconnecting the starter battery so there is no chance of running things from the starter battery and flattening it.



I have also added a 30amp diode into the circuit so that current will only flow from the Zig to the starter battery.



Charging of the leisure battery while the engine is running is now taken care of by the Willinton kit so the Site/Charger switch on the Zig can now be left permanently on on Site.

Total cost of the bits from Maplins about a tenner. Just need to tidy up the rats nest of wiring now that everything seems to work.

[wicksie]

Very new to the Bongo world but I think I need a battery charger. Mine has a fairly new leisure battery but isn't holding charge.
The previous owners hadn't used the vehicle since November and we have only driven it for 2 hours, so I guess this isn't long enough to charge the leisure battery from flat.
I'm thinking 24hours on a battery charger could do the trick.
Does anyone have one I could borrow in South London per chance? I'm happy to leave a deposit.

Very excited about my impending Bongoing.

Thanks very much all.

[francophile1947]

I need a battery charger.

Get to Lidl on Thursday - they've got their intelligent chargers in again - only £12.99

[wicksie]

Oo excellent. 2 on my commute home so will check them out!

Thanks very much for the heads up.

[g8dhe]

But allow at least 48Hours to fully charge a flat battery of either type, you will get about 80% in to the battery in the first few hours but to get it fully charged then it needs a lot longer, once charged then a drive of a few hours will charge both batteries fine.

[wicksie]

Ah great, I never knew that, thank you. I'll charge it 2 days before my next outing then.
Thanks very much.

Just wondered also why lidl on a Thursday specifically?

[francophile1947]

Just wondered also why lidl on a Thursday specifically?

That's when they get their specials in. Both Lidl and Aldi have special items twice a week.

[Simon Jones]

Bear in mind that the Lidl / Aldi chargers will not work on a heavily discharged battery, so if you've got a really flat one, an old fashioned transformer jobbie will be required.

[francophile1947]

Bear in mind that the Lidl / Aldi chargers will not work on a heavily discharged battery, so if you've got a really flat one, an old fashioned transformer jobbie will be required.

Mine does - takes a heck of a time to fully charge, at 3.8 amps, though

[Simon Jones]

I've found that the LED would not come on when the battery was low. Unfortunately, I didn't note what the voltage was at the time, but it was pretty flat.

[Dodgey]

That should work well. I use one half the size for a sports car I have that would otherwise die after 10 days of being parked up. One thing to watch is the cigar plugs are very low quality and can often read zero volts unless fiddled with. My mate had a huge panel on his Bongo dash and when I metered it it was reading zero. I pushed the end pin in and out a few times and then it read 17volts.

So most of the time he was getting nothing from it :-p

Regarding the Zig - relay - mod - nice work - So many things you can do with relays.

I'd moing my Bongo at the moment and I'm using a £15 pc ATX power supply to run my fridge and 12v sockets when parked up and plugged into the mains. I'll have a relay in place that redirects my 12v load from my batteries to the PC power supply as soon as the power supply is turned on. Will also use an optimate or similar to top up my batteries though with a large solar install I shouldn't need it. The Zig units are a lot of money for what are essentially designed for caravans with 240v 3 way fridges. Even then, you can do everything they do with a cheap charger , a relay or two, and a couple of switches. But then I guess you have to be happy with electronics to a basic degree.

Found a possible solution. I know solar panels have been discussed before but these are on offer at Maplins at the moment for £12.99 which seems a good price. 12v 2.4w with good sunlight.





I'll see how it performs before wiring it in properly.

Incidentally, I tried checking the output with my all singing dancing digital meter and got nothing. Thought the panel was faulty but hen tried again with my old non digital meter and all working fine.

[briwy]

Good idea the PC power supply dodgey. Never thought about that, should give a nice stable supply.

I agree about the Zig unit. I'm not impressed with it for what they cost but it came with the conversion, wouldn't have paid that much if I'd done it myself.

[Simon Jones]

I've previously used an ATX PSU to run a coolbox while on site. You'll need to switch it on by connecting pin 14 to common (15,16,17 etc). See here for diagram:
http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/other/22