Elektroblock-Style Units from Various Manufacturers (1 Viewer)

[Montezuma]

My vehicle is equipped with a Nordelettronica unit, I believe similar Schaudt units were fitted to a lot of German motorhomes, there are probably other similar units on the market, but I have no experience of them.

I am curious as to the effect of not selecting the correct position for the little, well-hidden, switch that is located on the base of the unit, . . . . at least it is on the Nordelettronica NE237.

This is an old, and probably obsolete, unit now but when I first took delivery of the vehicle, I read some of the bumff in the accompanying manufacture's manual, and saw a diagram identifying this particular switch.

This switch is related to what type of leisure battery is installed, flooded or gel

On delivery this switch was in the wrong position, and I am curious as to what, if any, effect this may have had, if I had left it where it was?

Also I am one of those electrical-ignorami who though that Gel and AGM batteries were pretty much the same, . . . . . . seemingly they are different.

So, do more recent units compensate for differing battery types, or is everything geared to Lithium-Ion now ?

Are such units as I describe now no longer used by motorhome manufacturers ?

As I mentioned in another post, 'Electrics is a Black Art', and sometimes "In my search for knowledge, I am often ridiculed".

 

[DerryW]

I have a Nordelettronica NE237 on our 2019 Adria. I think the little switch you refer to is actually on the back of the unit. you slide it one way for GEL and the other for Lead Acid.

Unfortunately, here is no option for Lithium, however, I've heard that you can charge Lithium with a Nordelettronica NE237. Maybe someone who knows may like to confirm or otherwise.

 

[eddie]

Are such units as I describe now no longer used by motorhome manufacturers ?

Sadly yes, these Jack of all trade units are still widely used.

Remember we are not their customers the motorhome converter is, so ease of installation iand price is more important that efficaciousness

You don’t see them at shows displaying their products to us the public, rather at trade shows selling to their customers, the converters.

Many years ago before digital media we all had tower stack systems, separates, you pick and choose your turn table, your amp, your cassette deck and your radio tuner and graphic equaliser. Each component picked to do a certain job, and often differing manufacturers

If like me you were young and skint in the Eighties you’d buy a Technics unit from Dixon’s which looked amazing, sounded OK if you didn’t really listen too hard and was for the size of it, remarkably light!

This of course was because there was bugger all inside it, as it wasn’t individual units, just one unit with fancy controls, ergo all sharing basic electrical components, whereas the more expensive ‘separates’ each had they’re own power supply, purpose and control systems.

Remember motorhome converters are not manufacturers, they buy a chassis and a load of components (in the main) and and fit it all to together so to be told “easy to fit! Screw it down and run everything to it, hook up! electric step! fridge, A/C everything, an idiot can fit it (and often sadly do) “There’s even a battery selection switch so you can fit them in anything” It’s easy!

Take Hymer, cheap end you’ll get a much lauded (by some) Schaudt unit, possibly with a couple of parasitical additional plug in’s (Bigger batter? No problem we’ll plug in top up better charger Sir )

Go up in the Hyper Group range and you get ‘separates’ Individually designed and manufactured to optimise performance for an individual function, Victron equipment yes, all interfaced, but each component picked for a job

Many of you will be driving around with Solar Panels plugged into Sargent units, some smugly in the knowledge that all you had to be was plugged the panel into the ‘solar port’ on your unit trouble is, when you take the unit out, the solar regulator was the cheapest regulator we’d ever seen, floating around, plugged onto the main board with the thinnest wires imaginable.

We kept one in the shop so we could show people, to prove why we refused to install a solar panel and plug it is to the their existing unit, insisting it had to be a decent purpose manufactured MPPT regulator, not something that if cost a fiver I’m being generous, hidden in a posh box!

To finish going back to my Music analogy I’d saved up my pocket money and asked my Mum to by me Slade’s new album when she went to Woolies. She came home with change and an LP “Slades greatest Hits: By Various Artists

She couldn’t understand the difference and why I sulked for a week!

 

[Montezuma]

Right.

So, I am now clued up to the fact that these are cheap, and not necessarily cheerful units, and that converters continue to use them simply because of cost and ease of installation. For the converters, that makes financial sense.

I suppose that the notion that the switch is on the back, rather than the bottom, of the unit is a moot point.

I guess it depends which surface one considers to be the top ?

To me, as the unit in my old Adria is installed, the top is the bit that I look down upon, and has umpteen fuses and connections located on it, and the bottom is the opposing face, which is, er, . . . . . . . underneath and completely invisible to the onlooker.

There may be variations on this theme, and some NE237 units may indeed have this switch in a more visible location. However, unless one reads the manual, then this switch is an unknown.

The point I was making, or rather the question I was asking was; what happens if this switch is not spotted by the owner of a van fitted with such a unit, and is in the wrong position ?

Does disaster loom, or will it not make a lot of difference in the greater scheme of things.

As an aside; I still have a Technics SC-HD51, which I purchased last century, and which still sounds OK to my failing hearing.

It looks a bit like this:

 

[DerryW]

No the way you describe your installation (wires and fuses facing you from the top) the little slide switch for GEL or Lead Acid settings would indeed be at the bottom.

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[autorouter]

The point I was making, or rather the question I was asking was; what happens if this switch is not spotted by the owner of a van fitted with such a unit, and is in the wrong position ?

In other words, if the charging profile of the charger is not correct for the type of battery fitted. The theory is that the person fitting the battery knows that the profile needs to be matched to the battery type. If you fit a battery yourself they expect you to know that, it's probably in the manual somewhere, in very small print.

The charger will be a 3-stage smart charger, with different setting profiles. The first stage (bulk) is the same for all battery types. The full output amps is pushed into the battery, until the voltage rises to the 'absorption voltage'. Then it flips to the absorption stage, keeping the voltage constant at the absorption voltage setting.

Flooded and gel batteries have about the same absorption voltage, but AGMs need a higher absorption voltage. With the wrong voltage, flooded and gel batteries will be overcharged, and AGMs will be undercharged. This often leads to very disappointing lifetimes for AGM batteries.

Gel and AGM batteries need an extended timed absorption stage, to allow the small amount of gases produced in the bulk stage to 'recombine' back into water. If they don't get that, their lifetime will be reduced.

So basically you probably won't notice much until the batteries become useless after a year or two, when it is too late. The latest chargers have more profile options, not less, including two types of AGM, and lithium.

 

[Montezuma]

So basically you probably won't notice much until the batteries become useless after a year or two, when it is too late.

As I may have mentioned elsehwere, I have had this motorhome from new.

So, fundamentally, the bloke at Adria, who installed the electrics, Adria's QA chappie who passed-off the installation, and the fellow who carried out the pre-sale inspection (chortle-chortle) at the local dealership, all missed the fact that this switch was incorrectly set.

Similarly, and quite happily, the fact that I did notice this issue, after reading the small print in the user manual, has probably helped me to get the 11 years life out of the original Exide Gel battery, . . . . . . . which I have just replaced.