New leisure battery problem

[Chod Jacqui]

I have a 2011 Le Voyageur LVX 855 on a Mercedes chassis, it is fitted with a Schaudt Electroblock EBL 220-2 and a Schaudt Control and Switch Panel DT 220 B. We have owned this motorhome for eleven years.
Seven years ago whilst in the Lake District the 200 Ah battery suddenly failed and we had to return home as we could not source one there. We purchased a Varta 230LFD battery from Battery Megastore, we fitted this ourselves and all was ok. This battery has been faultless but obviously now seven years old so prior to our eight week trip abroad we thought it would be wise to replace it. A Varta LED240 battery was purchased and fitted – that’s when our problems started!
The Schaudt control started flashing, the symbol of the motorhome with “Chargee!” underneath it and “5 AH” to the right.
The next screen shows “0.8 A” probably the solar panel as not hoked to mains.
The third screen shows 13.2v
The new battery was fully charged.
Normally the first screen shows a motorhome symbol with the leisure battery highlighted, the voltage (normally 12.8 or so volts) shown and the % of capacity of the battery available (normally 90 to 100%)
We have checked all the fuses and all seem ok, can any suggest how we can fix the problem or suggest a mobile motorhome electrician close to us (Stourbridge, West Midlands) We had always used Hayes Leisure who we had dealt with for fifteen years but sadly they are now closed.

 

[Jev88]

I don't know that system but have seen people having to reset the electric or it won't 'see' a fully charged new battery.

 

[Reevsie]

I have the same on my Frankia. If I ever disconnect the leisure battery and re-connect it my Alarm flashes and it states charge of 0% Even though the battery could be fully charged. Takes a day or two of driving and charging the battery up for the control panel to sync and show the correct settings.

 

[Chod Jacqui]

I have the same on my Frankia. If I ever disconnect the leisure battery and re-connect it my Alarm flashes and it states charge of 0% Even though the battery could be fully charged. Takes a day or two of driving and charging the battery up for the control panel to sync and show the correct settings.

 

[Chod Jacqui]

Hello Reevsie
Will give that a try, we have just had new disks and pads on the front and we need to drive a hundred or so miles and then have wheel bolts torqued up again. Fingers crossed that works.
Thank you.

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[Chod Jacqui]

Hello Reevsie
Will give that a try, we have just had new disks and pads on the front and we need to drive a hundred or so miles and then have wheel bolts torqued up again. Fingers crossed that works.
Thank you.

It has been suggested that I disconnect the battery, close down the Electroblock, reconnect the battery and restart the Electroblock and restart it.
How do I close down the Electroblock?

 

[StillGoing]

Did you follow the steps on page 10 of the EBL manual when you changed the battery?

 

[autorouter]

I don't think it's a problem with connections or resetting, it just needs some menu items checking, and a few charge/discharge cycles.

The EBL can measure things like voltage and amps easily, but things like the Ah charge capacity of the battery, and the amount of charge (Ah) left in the battery at any time, is a bit more complex.

The control panel needs to know the size of the battery in amp-hours (Ah). Also it needs to be told the initial state of charge. Once it knows those two numbers, it can use the inbuilt ammeter and its timing clock to register the amps going into and out of the battery, to keep track of the state of charge.

There should be some way to tell it the size of the battery in Ah. On my panel there is a menu button, and two items, 'Ah nom' and 'Ah max'.

Ah nom is the nominal size of the battery in Ah, in your case that is 240Ah.

Ah max is the maximum Ah you want to take from the battery. Typically it is 80% of the nominal capacity, so that would be 240 x 80 / 100 = 192Ah.

Once those figures are entered, the panel will report the remaining capacity as a percentage of Ah max. So at 100% you have 192Ah available, and at 10% you have 19Ah available.

This is designed so that when it reads 0%, the battery has no more Ah available, but there is still 20% remaining in the battery to avoid it getting so low that it might be damaged.

Finally the panel needs to know what the actual state of the battery is initially. It probably gets that when it goes through a charging cycle and sees that the battery is full and won't take any more charge. So as Reevsie says, maybe use some charge out of the battery and let it charge up again. If mains hookup is available that would be ideal. Otherwise solar, or by driving a long distance.

 

[Chod Jacqui]

Still not sure how you turn off the Electroblock that it says to do in the manual?

 

[autorouter]

Do you have the manual for both the EBL 220-2 and the DT 220 B Control Panel?

https://res.cloudinary.com/lci-cloudinary/image/upload/v1694803226/lippert-eu/support/power-on-board/pdf/anleitungen/911/9110582/911582_20080306_EBL220-2_BA_EN.pdf

https://res.cloudinary.com/lci-cloudinary/image/upload/v1694803226/lippert-eu/support/power-on-board/pdf/anleitungen/930/9300588/930588_20060630_DT220B_BA_EN.pdf

The main on/off relays inside the EBL are controlled by the DT220B. There is a procedure for switching them on and off, and a procedure for setting things up after any changes, such as a new leisure battery. See pages 11 to 13 of the DT220B manual. I think the nominal battery capacity defaults to 130Ah, which is about average for most batteries, but is way off for your 240Ah battery. So you definitely need to enter this setting to get sensible Ah readings

It asks for the 'K100' capacity, but the capacity of 240Ah is most likely the 'K20' capacity. The K20 capacity is also called the '20 hour rate'. It is the capacity if the drain on the battery makes it empty in 20 hours. So for example 12 amps for 20 hours would be 240 amp-hours. You may think that at 2.4amps it would last 100 hours according to that calculation, but actually it turns out to be longer. The '240Ah' battery probably has a capacity of 270Ah at the 100 hour rate (K100). It may be on the label, they commonly give the K5, K20 and K100 capacities. Or in the battery specifications. If not, then just multiply the K20 capacity (240Ah) by 1.125, as it says in the manual, to give 270Ah, which won't be far out.

Once you have that set up, the available Ah capacity is calculated. It doesn't know the actual state of charge until it has fully charged it at least once, and until then the Ah display has a '?' after it.

On some systems (eg Victron BMV) there is a way to tell the system that the battery is full, and a button to 'synchronise' the Ah reading. But this system I think is totally automatic, and you just have to wait for it to synchronise after fully charging at least once, as Reevsie said already.

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[PhilandMena]

autorouter Your definitly the top man on this forum when it comes to charging systems and fault diagnosis. Well done you and what a helpful soul you are. Go to the top of the class me ole fruit pastel.

 

[pappajohn]

The solar panel may need disconnecting from the solar controller then reconnecting so the controller knows if it's working with a 12v or 24v battery.
Otherwise Input from the panel will confuse the controller

 

[Chod Jacqui]

Thank you all for help. We have now reset the Ahr to 270 and will leave it on hook up and see how it goes.

 

[Adamski90]

Autorouter
I have sent you a pm

 

[Chod Jacqui]

Once again thank you all. Battery now showing 100% and all good.

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[Lenny HB]

nStill not sure how you turn off the Electroblock that it says to do in the manual?

I know you are sorted.
There is a small slide switch on the front of the EBL that turns it off but do not use this switch if the EBL is a few years which yours is they are famous for not turning back oN.