weird red light...2002 Knaus 708G

buttsoirl

hi all..

cane somebody assist me with this before I go postal and beat my camper to a pulp with a hurley.. its a

this error popped up on holliers...and comes and goes..
the german manual says something about the leisure battery .. but I have checked fuses, relays, wiring, voltages inverters..
unattached, the terminals of the leisure battery are getting 13.4 volts..so I know its charging on mains..

the battery seems charged, I even tried a second different battery
when you press the battery test option, they both shoot to the top.. mind you it shot to top even when the battery wasnt connected.., so dont trust that too much..

HELP :eek:

any advice much appreciated..
here is a screenshot.

[IMG][/img]

Aidan_M_M

Try the (Calira?) control panel with the fuses on it. Bad connection etc. the gauges go faulty an odd time too.

Possibly a fault with the meter itself. How should it normally behave?

Aidan_M_M

Sir Liamalot wrote: »

Possibly a fault with the meter itself. How should it normally behave?

It's a rough guide to the battery. Voltage linked. Battery at 13-14, it'll light all the way up. With that red light on it should mean the battery is 11v or less.

buttsoirl

Hi lads..

thanks very much for the advice so far..

I took it out to the garage and hooked it up to my optimate charger.. and it charged for a while and then came back green..
but I suppose that only charges the remaining capacity of the battery

so do you think I need a new one?

where is that calira charger? I looked..
but under the seat, I can see the inverter... then a large red key..

is it in the engine compartment?

Aidan_M_M

Are you sure that's an inverter? I'd say that's the charger. Does the green light at the 2 battery symbols stay lit always?

buttsoirl

ok.. went out and did some testing

the large red key turns the battery inverter off, so that's that.

the battery reads 13.2 volts... but when I turn on 3 lights within 2 mins.. was down to 12.5 volts.. and was dropping.. the voltmeter on the control panel went from 100% full.. to 50% full...

so at least I know that the voltage tester is working

sounds like the battery is knackered.. it probably shouldn't drop power that quickly for 3 fluorescent bulbs should it?

Quickest suss. would be to verify what it's telling you with a real meter.

Aidan_M_M

I still reckon thats a charger , not inverter .

What size is the inverter? Does it buzz/alarm when the meter shows you a low state of charge.
Was the second battery you tried a known good one?
Does it only illuminate normally when you press test? Or does it always display your SOC? If the red light is on when it should not be displaying then I'd suspect a ground fault.
Can the battery run a large load when it's in low SOC? Try a halogen/tungsten headlamp high beam and see if it gets noticeably dimmer...without touching the bulb glass of course.

Aidan_M_M

Aidan_M_M wrote: »

Are you sure that's an inverter? I'd say that's the charger. Does the green light at the 2 battery symbols stay lit always?

???

Aidan_M_M

Aidan_M_M wrote: »

???

The photo certainly does not look like an inverter. There are inverter/charger units...I've never seen one though.

Red switch might be a battery isolator, does it turn everything off?

buttsoirl

yeah the big red key turns off the inverter and all power inside coming from the battery

the batteries are charging, I get two green lights on each battery when connected to mains..
I also tested the terminals of the leisure battery with a multimeter and can see 13.4 volts being delivered when connected to mains, so the onboard charger must be working..

I ran the camper on battery... turned on a load of lights and the meter reading in the camper dropped to 50% within a few mins, then it went back up into the green,, back down.. went up etc.....
so all seems to be doing what it should.. but just with a large initial drop of the battery.. I must check today to see is the red light back..

its very very odd.

The check when the battery is off charge and loaded will be the teller. Voltage while charging is the charger voltage more so than the battery.

Aidan_M_M

The red key is a standard Knaus fitment, a common battery isolator. And that's not an inverter, it's quite the opposite.

Next time you see the red light stick the meter on the battery with the charger off. If it's < 11.8v...the battery is the most likely problem.

buttsoirl

buttsoirl wrote: »

the battery reads 13.2 volts... but when I turn on 3 lights within 2 mins.. was down to 12.5 volts.. and was dropping.. the voltmeter on the control panel went from 100% full.. to 50% full...

so at least I know that the voltage tester is working

Sorry didn't notice this at the time (stoopid small phone). So far your meter is verifying the control panel give or take.

Rough guidelines;

buttsoirl wrote: »

sounds like the battery is knackered.. it probably shouldn't drop power that quickly for 3 fluorescent bulbs should it?

That depends on the size of your battery vs the power consumption of the fluorescents. Which if you can provide I'll calculate a run-time. Usually fluorescent lighting would happily run for hours/days on a modest battery and would not be that significant. However the voltage of a loaded circuit will show lower than it is until you turn off the draw. Likely your battery was showing 12.5v loaded meaning 12.6v/12.7v resting.
It's hard to say without more numbers/testing.

buttsoirl

buttsoirl wrote: »

I ran the camper on battery...
. .

While charging? or stand alone?

buttsoirl wrote: »

turned on a load of lights and the meter reading in the camper dropped to 50% within a few mins, then it went back up into the green,, back down.. went up etc.....
so all seems to be doing what it should.. but just with a large initial drop of the battery.. .

If it was charging this could possibly be what happened; Battery takes load, voltage drops, charger detects voltage drop increases charge amps, voltage rises.

If you want to test the battery best leave the charger off for a while and see how the battery performs standing alone (hook-up disconnected is the easiest way I suppose without knowing the system). The charger/monitor does sound like its working.

old_aussie

Get a hydrometer and measure the specific gravity of each battery.

That will be a good guide to start.

old_aussie

old_aussie wrote: »

Get a hydrometer and measure the specific gravity of each battery.

That will be a good guide to start.

I agree, after letting the battery rest for a day. If it's a wet battery, that said sealed ones don't put up much fuss when you pry them the right way.

m8

Hi I have a Knaus as well and this led strip also displays the water tanks levels. It could be just one of the push buttons are faulty. There are 4 in total, 2 for the batteries and 2 for the tanks.

When you press these do they all give a display on the strip.?

A lot of the time the grey water one goes faulty. It should not light the strip until you push the test button so I think it's a faulty button or short\bad connection somewhere.

When you see the green lights on the batteries symbols (like in the pic) it means they are charging at the moment. They usually go out a few minutes after the charging has stopped. IE mains unplugger or engine switched off.