Fault: Dead Battery Charge

[mmalkire]

Everyone

Just brought my Palazzo 33.3 out of storage. Started up fine and got it home.
Connected to full electrical hook up at my house.

Went back in coach and nothing comes on. I mean nothing. Can't start generator, no lights, nothing.

On the Magnum Energy control panel it says Dead Battery Charge with the red Fault light on.

It wont switch over to shore power and can't get generator to run.

Will the batteries eventually charge to a minimum level connected to shore power? Do I need to remove batteries and see if they will charge up?

Any thoughts on how to get things running would be appreciated.

Matt

[Mr_D]

You will probably need a different charger. Most can't bring a totally discharged one back to life, there must be some voltage in the battery to let the charger start. Some inverters/charger will do it though. Mine is supposed to but I've never tested it.

[nothermark]

Did you get out a meter and measure the battery voltage? It could be dead batteries and it could be something in the wiring.

If the battery was low I'd try to recharge them with a separate charger. Might or might not bring them back with reduced life. Other folks will tell you to just replace them. Either way check them first.

[MisterT]

make sure you didn't accidentally hit the 'store' button switch next to the door

make sure you actually have the Inverter 'ON'

make sure you actually have the Charger 'ON'

- tie the Chassis and House batteries together with the 'AUX' dash switch to try to crank the Generator


if nothing works, make sure you have power coming from the Shore Power outlet, and if so, you may need a separate battery charger to bring the house batteries out of such a low state before the Magnum charger can kick in.

you said it cranked easily and you drove it home, yet you didn't say 'how long' it sat there before you 'went back in' and had no electricity, 12v, or generator.


The Magnum ME-RC controller has an 'LBCO' setting, I believe in the TECH button section, which tells the Inverter when to 'cut itself off' if the batteries fall to a low level. A good rule of thumb setting might be 11.5, which preserves the ability for the batteries to remain high enough to crank the Generator, and the Charger the ability to continue charging, or when on Shore power.

[Pusherman]

Not sure what type of charging system you have, but many times solenoids will not engage if they don't get the appropriate voltage, probably around 12.0V.

Put an external charger on your house batteries to see if you can get some voltage into them. Once they come up to the threshold voltage, chances are the solenoid (if so equipped) will engage and voila, now when plugged into external power, everything will work.

Note: There is a label on my battery system to 'disconnect' from the motorhome before charging the batteries externally. Proceed at your own risk.

[Tony Lee]

Also check for frozen battery damage before you hook it up to a big charger

[cruzbill]

Reset the Magnum inverter, this will clear the fault.