Redarc not charging

[ColoradoCantu]

I have had my 100 AH battery with 25amp BCDC Redarc charger working great for just over a year. When parked in my garage it's plugged in to AC outlet. I was getting ready for trip and noticed my aux battery was at 48% which was very odd even if i forgot to plugin for a day or two but I figured I'm about to go on 9 hour drive, it will recharge no problem. Well I got to Bozeman, MT and my battery is at 0 and my fridge has no power. I have jackery 2000 with 2x 200 watt solar panels so, I used my main battery to jump my aux and got it 14 % and the solar panels recharged got it to 100%, which meant my battery takes a charge, I checked both 40 amp fuses to main battery and aux battery, they were good but replaced them anyway. Test power at main battery, was 14.4v. Measured the brown power out of Redarc and it was 13.3, measured at the end of the brown where it connects to aux positive and it was 13.3 with engine running but my aux battery is not recharging. My solar panels recharge thru the Redarc and they still work fine. They are currently recharging my aux battery. The LEDs on my Redarc are solid Li, vehicle and stage. Everything appears fine other than my Redarc not having enough voltage to charge me Lithium battery and only putting out 13.3. So my guess is the Redarc is problem at this point. Anyone else have a similar set up. Should the Redarc be putting out more the 13.3 with engine running?

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[Bandit’s Lair]

Did you check and give each connection a tug for tightness? Are you getting any kind of fault indicator on the redarc? To my basic knowledge of 12V wiring, if nothing is smoking or blatantly indicating a problem I start checking connections and tightening grounds. Especially on an off road vehicle where the vibrations are greater than normal. Sounds kinda basic but that’s where I’d start.

 

[ColoradoCantu]

Yeah, i checked all the wiring and everything is snug, all my conenctions are visable except the connection block that comes with Redarc, its next to the aux battery, the LEDs on the Rearc are LI, Vehicle and Stage when running and just one blinking Standby light when engine is off. Now that im back, i can disconnect everything and make sure but im 99% sure its not a wiring problem. The solar charging is working at 13.5/13.6v thur the redarc and coming out of the redarc with engine rtunning, i have 13.3v which doesnt seem to meet the minimum threshold to charge a lithium battery of 13.5v.

 

[Bandit’s Lair]

Electrical gremlin oddities. This pushes me even further into the power station direction for a 12V setup. I’ve looked and researched that redarc pretty hard though.

 

[Alx63]

It says: The BCDC requires at least 4V at the auxiliary battery to detect its presence; if the battery is too flat, it must be boosted with a jump starter or mains charger before the BCDC will initiate charging.

 

[ColoradoCantu]

It says: The BCDC requires at least 4V at the auxiliary battery to detect its presence; if the battery is too flat, it must be boosted with a jump starter or mains charger before the BCDC will initiate charging.

Right, the first thing i did was jump the aux and got it 14% charge which was like 6v and no luck, then used the solar to recharge it all the way to 100%, 14v and drained a some to recharge and no luck, the battery has been powering my fridge a couple days since and was down to 78% after driving home for 7 hours and the Redarc never recharged it.

 

[Pliny]

Not saying this is your problem, but sharing what I learned about our Redarc charge controller in our camping trailer.

It is the "The Manager30" so it supplies a maximum of 30A to charge the LiFePO4 batteries in the trailer. So doesn't sound like it is the same one you have, but it might have similar features.

Ours has an "Ignition Trigger Feature" that I ended up using. When the smart alternator in our JT decides that the baterries are charged enough (don't want to over charge them) the output voltage drops. The Redarc sees that lower voltage as below the threshold for when it is safe for it to run the DC/DC charger so as to not drain the engine starting battery. What I ended up doing on the trailer is run a wire from the 7-pin trailer wiring block from the tail light wire to the control terminal input on the Redarc. Then have to go into the setup menu on the controller and change it from being automatic to use the ignition trigger instead. All I then have to do is remember to tow with the parking lights turned on and the Redarc will DC/DC charge the whole way. Before, would start the day 100% charged, and end up at the destination already down to 85%. Now, arrive still at 100% charge. If you don't already have it set up you'd probably just want to use a wire that is hot when the ignition is on. It is just a logic input on the Redarc, it doesn't draw any appreciable current.

Does your Redarc controller have "Touring Mode" and "Storage Mode"? I have to manually put our Redarc into Storage Mode when it is not in use. Storage Mode has an 8 stage charging profile vs. 3 stage in Touring mode. I used to automatically switch from Storage to Touring when I would hook up the 7 pin trailer connector (it would sense the voltage on the +12V pin and wake up) but now that I've enabled the Ignition Trigger Feature it won't switch into Touring mode until it senses the tail lights on.

 

[Chance575]

Same as the above on my travel trailer, my redarc trigger is wired to my parking lights to trigger it on

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