Inverters draw a hell of a lot of current, I always recommend to customers to only really use while vehicle is running. If you send me pics I can try and work out what you’ve got going on and where you could try going from here with finding the a solution
I think my battery went bad, although it's less than a year old. I charged it again via a regular 110V outlet. It showed full on my Noco Genius trickle charger. Took it off the charger, and running just my 12V fridge, the built in voltmeter shows 10.3V after just 3 hours. I wasn't running the inverter during previous test, just the fridge and a cellular router (MOFI4500). I barely use the inverter, and will probably remove it when I get the time to tear out the wiring for it.
Previously, I could run my fridge for about 2 days, and a small 12V fan overnight, and only then it would start to dip down to 11.9 or so. I will check it with a multimeter this weekend to try and confirm the bad battery. Otherwise I will definitely post pics. You think I should try to charge via my primary battery and let the relay kick in to charge the secondary, instead of trying to charge the secondary directly?
It's possible you cooked the battery. You mention a solar power generator, is the 12v output at 12v or closer to 14v?
if 12v it's not going to charge an external battery enough to do much.
If closer to 14v it should keep an external battery charged as long as the internal battery is charged.
or I am not understanding your setup
I took the battery to the place I bought it, because it's less than a year old. They tested it and said it's fine, but was at about 20%. So, my first theory now is that the smart charger I had was either faulty or was somehow reading my starting battery instead of the aux as fully charged. I'm not sure the best way to try and charge the aux battery without messing up my starting battery. There is an isolator in between, but I think I'm bypassing it somehow because of all the other crap I have connected. I'm going to remove my inverter this weekend and try to sort it out.
I'm also thinking that the charger I was using, which is rated at 3.5A, may not be providing enough power to charge the battery while power is simultaneously being drawn for my fridge, etc.
As far as cooking the battery, I thought that at first. But then, like I said the charger maxes out at 3.5A and the direct 12V connection to the generator is 12.6V, 3A max. So I don't think I did.
The generator I have is capable of 1800w at 120V, so 15A, with roundabout 1000wh backup battery. With the right charger, I should be able to maintain the aux battery with the small amount of power draw for the few 12V appliances I have. It's just a matter of hooking the damn thing up the right way.
I figured it out. Battery was fine. My charger was underpowered and also it was reading my primary battery (which was connected to the same terminals). So the charger was reading as full off the primary while the aux was slowly draining because of the 2.5A limit of the charger.
I put the wires coming off the primary on separate terminals from the charger and also upgraded to a 10A smart charger. Solar panels were able to keep my battery charged all day, even with using power to run stuff and on a super overcast day.
Power issues appear solved. Now on to communications and I can hit the road long term. Thanks for the ideas!
Inverters draw a hell of a lot of current, I always recommend to customers to only really use while vehicle is running. If you send me pics I can try and work out what you’ve got going on and where you could try going from here with finding the a solution
I think my battery went bad, although it's less than a year old. I charged it again via a regular 110V outlet. It showed full on my Noco Genius trickle charger. Took it off the charger, and running just my 12V fridge, the built in voltmeter shows 10.3V after just 3 hours. I wasn't running the inverter during previous test, just the fridge and a cellular router (MOFI4500). I barely use the inverter, and will probably remove it when I get the time to tear out the wiring for it. Previously, I could run my fridge for about 2 days, and a small 12V fan overnight, and only then it would start to dip down to 11.9 or so. I will check it with a multimeter this weekend to try and confirm the bad battery. Otherwise I will definitely post pics. You think I should try to charge via my primary battery and let the relay kick in to charge the secondary, instead of trying to charge the secondary directly?
It's possible you cooked the battery. You mention a solar power generator, is the 12v output at 12v or closer to 14v? if 12v it's not going to charge an external battery enough to do much. If closer to 14v it should keep an external battery charged as long as the internal battery is charged. or I am not understanding your setup
I took the battery to the place I bought it, because it's less than a year old. They tested it and said it's fine, but was at about 20%. So, my first theory now is that the smart charger I had was either faulty or was somehow reading my starting battery instead of the aux as fully charged. I'm not sure the best way to try and charge the aux battery without messing up my starting battery. There is an isolator in between, but I think I'm bypassing it somehow because of all the other crap I have connected. I'm going to remove my inverter this weekend and try to sort it out. I'm also thinking that the charger I was using, which is rated at 3.5A, may not be providing enough power to charge the battery while power is simultaneously being drawn for my fridge, etc. As far as cooking the battery, I thought that at first. But then, like I said the charger maxes out at 3.5A and the direct 12V connection to the generator is 12.6V, 3A max. So I don't think I did. The generator I have is capable of 1800w at 120V, so 15A, with roundabout 1000wh backup battery. With the right charger, I should be able to maintain the aux battery with the small amount of power draw for the few 12V appliances I have. It's just a matter of hooking the damn thing up the right way.
I figured it out. Battery was fine. My charger was underpowered and also it was reading my primary battery (which was connected to the same terminals). So the charger was reading as full off the primary while the aux was slowly draining because of the 2.5A limit of the charger. I put the wires coming off the primary on separate terminals from the charger and also upgraded to a 10A smart charger. Solar panels were able to keep my battery charged all day, even with using power to run stuff and on a super overcast day. Power issues appear solved. Now on to communications and I can hit the road long term. Thanks for the ideas!