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DN50 altanator with external regulator
My 12v DN50 alternator all it does is 12v house batteries, charges from inverters or engine ,I just pulled off the Bosch #0332002150 relay and cleaned all connections and pulled off the wires on the Transpo external voltage regulator cleaned all connections, I ordered a spare Bosch for back up. So the Bosch relay all it does when the ignition switch it on it connects the positive side of the DN50 to Positive on the External voltage regulator, the field F1 on DN50 goes to field side of the regulator. How does the alternator regulate the voltage to the house batteries, does the regulator shut off volts when it gets up to set voltage???
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16 Replies
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Art, if this is related to your new Li Time batteries, my suggestion is to install a DC to DC charger in between the alternator and Battery Bank. they are relatively cheap, configurable, and will give you isolation so your alternator won’t try and over produce.
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Mike, relative to the DN50 and Li battery bank, I had a big issue with installing a DC-DC charger. The DN50 regulator would not output power as it did not see a 12v “sink”. The charger essentially hides the Li bank from the regulator. I was told I would need some sort of battery connected to the alternator side of the charger (like chassis batteries in a 12v motorhome)
I called Victron in Germany and Lithionics and both confirmed the issue. Apparently the devices that would work were not yet updated to handle Li batteries. That was 2 years ago.
Would love to hear if a product now exists.
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Mike Yes! Now the DN 50 12v is set to 13.8v for the old Lifelines Don left his alone won’t charge Lifepo4 up to 100 percent, Jonthan Fine set his to 14.2 and doesn’t seem to be a issue, What does the DC to DC charger do different, and does it connect to 4/0 cable or between regulator and DN50?? If it is like this charger how would it wire up??
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Art, first off it is not recommended to keep your Batteries always in a Bulk or absorption state. I understand always wanting to see 100% on your SOC meter, but that is not the whole story. The Victron DC to DC charger I have is configurable based on what you want to do with your system.
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Sounds like Liam tried this, Liam how is the DM50 with stock regulator working with the LifePO4? And what voltage are you set at?
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Liam, there must be a bus bar somewhere you can connect the DC to DC to. Keep in mind you don’t want your Lithium batteries to try and equalize with your Coach batteries.
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My 24v 50DN chassis only alternator has nothing to do with my 12v house system.My 12v Lifepo4 house batteries are charged with either my Magnum inverter/chargers or the 12v house only alternator with its built-in regulator.
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My 50DN is 12V for house. Lithionics cautioned me that because of the low internal resistance of Li, they can draw an enormous amount of current and overheat cables and alternators. New RVs use temperature-sensing regulation to mitigate this. Also didn’t want to feed the bank with a raw charge and no Li-compatible regulation.
As a result, my 50DN is not attached. I can only charge my house bank with Shore/Gen through my inverter. It’s a PITA, but I assumed Victron would eventually catch up.
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sorry I can’t seem to reply to the original thread, instead when I try to reply all I am allowed to do is to post to a new topic.
If your current house battery bank is 12vdc, to solve the issue, leave one La battery in a house bank that connects ONLY to the alternator output and nothing else. This will fool the alternator and regulator into thinking it is still charging a La battery. Attach the input lead for a BtoB charger to this La battery and connect the output from the BtoB charger to your Li house battery bank. The BtoB charger will see the voltage rise on the input side when the engine starts and will pass current to the output side to charge the Li bank. When the engine stops, the voltage drops on the input side and the BtoB charger will turn off properly isolating the La and Li batteries. If you want more charge current than only one BtoB charger can supply, add more BtoB chargers in parallel. Do not exceed a total of 60% of the rated capacity of the alternator to prevent over heating these big oil cooled alternators. They can handle a lot of heat but no reason to take a risk since you can connect three 60 amp BtoB chargers for a total of 180 amps of charge current that will charge even a large Li house battery bank while driving in a reasonable time.
Jerry
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From what i’m understanding is the DN50 will over charge the LifePO 4 batteries, Book says at 15v the batteries will shut off, Is there a way to stop charging the DN50 at 14.5v, The Bosch relay connects pos on DN50 to Pos on regulator when Ignition is on, If that connection is broken will DN50 stop charging Safely without hurting DN50? if it was set to charge at 14.4 then at 14.4v switch a switch on dash to shut off charging??
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Art, how do you typically use your Bus? This may help in getting you a better answer.
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Jerry, thanks for the post. I was thinking along the same lines. In my distribution box (where the two 2/0 cables from the alternator terminate) there is also a “Gen boost” cable that runs over to help the generator lead-acid battery. I was thinking of connecting the input side of the DC-DC to that so the 50DN sees 12V. Think that will do the trick?
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Different converters used different schemes to keep the gen battery charged and deployed the big oil cooled alternator in different ways. If you have two alternators, one 12vdc and one 24vdc be sure you know where any line from your 12vdc alternator goes and be sure the Li batteries are isolated from the La batteries via a BtoB charger. Check carefully any “boost” wires/switches. Some converters used the big oil cooled alt as a 12vdc house charger and the separate 24vdc air cooled alternator as the charger for the chassis batteries. Others apparently reversed those so check carefully. A 12vdc BtoB charger needs 12vdc on the input side to turn on and a rise in voltage from the alternator running to pass charge current on to the Li batteries. If you are trying to charge a 12vdc Li bank from a 24vdc alternator you need more engineering than can be done in a few sentences.
Jerry
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Liam, CC usually wired the house La bank as two banks wired in parallel, each service by an inverter/charger and via one of the 00 wires running from the alternator. Both 00 lines normally terminated behind the black panel between the inverter/chargers on the same fused post. The gen “boost” wires picked up there, went to a “boost solenoid” and then on to the generator La start battery.
To replace the La house banks with Li you need to add one or more BtoB chargers and disconnect that “boost” wiring so the Li batteries never come together with the La batteries except vis the BtoB charger. Easy to do on most CC setups.
Jerry
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My thought the Royale House batteries are only charged by the 12v DN50, From DN50 there is a 4/0 cable from rear to DN50 to 2nd compartment back on passenger side where the four LifePo4 batteries are and one 12v gell battery for gen, It’s only way to charge is when it’s running and a small 120v trickle charger when parked, It does have a momentary boost button, The 4/0 cable from DN50 goes to battery compartment and then tied to Li batteries, Why can’t I rewire 4/0 cable to gen battery (Optima) DN50 likes Optima them from Gen to input side of 60 amp DC to DC charger them output side of charger to LifePO4 batteries,So driving down the road the gen battery is charging and LifePO4 batteries are charging,That should work??? If I sacrifice one of the LifePO4 batteries the DN50 won’t like that either, them it is no different then I have now but less one 280 amp hour batteries. If I use the gen battery for the DC to DC charger the DN50 won’t be a problem.??
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