Bogart 2030RV

[ModestMonk]

We leave tonight for the first leg of our coast to coast and north to south retirement trip.

Quick Question: Yesterday morning I ran the inverter to cool down the fridge. It took the batteries down to 40%. I noticed later in the day that the batteries were still at 40%. Knowing that couldn’t be the case after checking the solar Charger readouts, I hit the reset button and the meter showed 100%. Why would the meter not update as the batteries recharge? Thanks, so many details and last minute reviews before we pull out.

[twinboat]

Every wire going to the negetive battery terminals must now go to one side of the shunt.

A single cable from the other side of the shunt goes to the negetive battery terminals, no other wires.

Send pictures of how yours is wired. We can help.

[CountryFit]

the reset button confuses many people. it's not a general concept of reset in our life, which means "start over" or 'back to 0". when you press reset on a battery monitor, you are telling the monitor that the current soc is 100% (that was why you saw 100%), although your actual battery soc might have been just 40%.

when to use reset? i hit reset only when i see my battery has been charged xx ah and the monitor shows 100%. that tells me that previous set point was not at the max capacity of battery (soc). when you see your battery has less than 100%, don't reset.

this post does not mean to answer your question; just an fyi.

[ModestMonk]

Originally Posted by twinboat

Every wire going to the negetive battery terminals must now go to one side of the shunt.

A single cable from the other side of the shunt goes to the negetive battery terminals, no other wires.

Send pictures of how yours is wired. We can help.

We got to the first campground. I send some pic’s in the AM. Thanks

[ModestMonk]

Red to power
White to battery side of shunt
Two black to the inverter side of the shunt




The troubles seemed to have started after hooking the Zamp 160w portable to the system. Zamp technical insisted that their built in controller would work with the MPPT for the panels on the roof.

[twinboat]

Did you hook the Zamp controller to the battery ?

The pos. wire can go there but the neg. wire needs to go on the side of the shunt that does not go to the battery..

Send pictures of the large cables , not the small wires.

[Grump010]

The meter updated to 100 % when you reset it. By pressing the reset button, you told the meter that the batteries are at 100% and that is the % it will continue to work from. At this point you will need to determine the actual SOC of your battery, either by voltage at rest or hydrometer and if required recharge your battery to 100% state of charge, then press the reset button.


I don't have the factory ZAMP plugin on my trailer so forgive me for my ignorance but is plug for the portable panel connected directly to the battery bypassing the shunt? If it is, it will be bypassing the measurement at the shunt and therefore your battery will probably be charged but the measurement through he shunt missed all of the amps / power going to the battery from the portable solar panel. Also verify that the roof panels are charging through the shunt.

I hope this makes sense, I rattled this off trying to get out the door to work. 366 days to go before my freedom kicks in.

[twinboat]

Your setup should look like this.

[ModestMonk]

My negative buss bar is right off the batteries.

Will change it out tomorrow and report back....thanks!

I turned off the solar Charger as today is a cloudy rainy day anyways. I’ll run the genny and let the inverter/Charger fully charge the bank and then reset the bogart. Thank you for getting me on track!

[twinboat]

I never turn off the solar charger. They all work fine together.

[Grump010]

Remember to disconnect your panels from the charger prior to disconnecting the battery terminals.

[ModestMonk]

Originally Posted by ModestMonk

We leave tonight for the first leg of our coast to coast and north to south retirement trip.

Quick Question: Yesterday morning I ran the inverter to cool down the fridge. It took the batteries down to 40%. I noticed later in the day that the batteries were still at 40%. Knowing that couldn’t be the case after checking the solar Charger readouts, I hit the reset button and the meter showed 100%. Why would the meter not update as the batteries recharge? Thanks, so many details and last minute reviews before we pull out.

As it turns out there was a bigger problem than the negative connections on the wrong side of the shunt. My batteries wouldn’t recharge even with bright blue sunny skies. I’d checked everything I had installed, it was all torqued to spec. The Victron Solar Charger stopped functioning. The voltage was intermittent coming from the panels. I checked each panel, they all were working. Which left one connection that I hadn’t installed....the Zamp Solar Ready Combiner box, preinstalled on my 2018 ORV. The negative and positive leads weren’t even finger tight, a prelude to a fire.

With the connections tightened and torqued the batteries are now charged, and the Bogart 2030RV was reset properly. Thanks for your help!

[Grump010]

Great to hear you got it sorted out, not good about the connection box faults. I added that to my to do list prior to our next trip. Now back to enjoying your retirement adventure.

[Motor7]

Good thing you caught that. Even though I consider myself a shade tree mechanic/electrician/plumber/carpenter I always check others work when it's done for 'me'.