Batteries - How do I charge them from landline hookup??

[ccarole]

Good morning fellow Ollie owners,

 

Shouldn't my batteries be recharging to full when I plug my Ollie into a landline?  "+"  in the amp of 6-7. ..... then within minutes drops back down to .1 - .4.   I read somewhere here that there is a red knob to be sure is in the on position -- but I don't find any kind of lever anywhere.

 

I do have solar panels.

 

I can't get the batteries past a 75% charge.    I do live in the Pacific Northwest so my solar panel are not able to do much at the time. Trailer is also stored under cover.

 

Thank you!

 

Carole

[ccarole]

Hi Buzzy,

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to try to help me out. It is sincerely appreciated.

 

I'm going to go back out again to the trailer today and see if I can work this out.

 

The cable works as there is a blue light.

 

When I plug in it will say ~13.5/~+4.0   then within minutes  changes to   ~13.5/~0.2.  It has done this consistently.

 

I'll take a couple pictures today and try to get better information to you.

 

Thank you Buzzy,

Carole

 

 

 

 

[ScubaRx]

...When I plug in it will say ~13.5/~+4.0 then within minutes changes to ~13.5/~0.2. It has done this consistently...

 

 

 

If you are getting a reading of 13.5 V you are fully charged. I understand your IPN-Pro is telling you you only have a 75% charge. That calculation is incorrect.  If you could pull your trailer out into full sun for a few hours it would reset your IPN-Pro and it would read properly. My trailer has been under cover for the last 30 days or so and it is doing the same thing. I cannot tell you why it is like this, it seems to be some idiosyncrasy between the Progressive Dynamics charger and the Blue Sky system.  I will let you know when I get this sorted out.

[snowlakemike]

I have this same issue.  Reading 13.5 and only 74% while plugged into a live 30A outlet under cover. Projected to drop to 17 here Thursday Evening...here's hoping I got that Winterization thing correct!

[ccarole]

It will show 13.5V almost immediately after plugging in so I didn't think that was an indication of a fully charged battery....but just and indications of power available (from the landline cord).  It also states something like 77 hours to full charge on one of the screens.

 

Yes it's cold here too.  I plugged in a space heater to run during the cold spell. The voltage moniter went CRAZY!!  Quickly up to over 100 amps then the heater shut off/and amps down then up and down again very quickly several times. Then the heater quit working - I figured I had blown a fuse in the trailer but turned out I just needed to reset the plug in outside. Obviously I didn't use the heater so I'm hoping my trailer lines haven't frozen and blown ( I did empty the water lines).  Has anyone had this problem?  I used it a little heater like this in a class c I had and it worked like a charm.

 

Carole

[ccarole]

I sent an email out to Jason at Oliver last week. I will let you all know when I hear back from him and what his answers are.

 

Carole

[ScubaRx]

It will show 13.5V almost immediately after plugging in so I didn’t think that was an indication of a fully charged battery….but just and indications of power available (from the landline cord)...Carole

 

That 13.5V is DC volts and there is NO DC power available from "the landline cord."  That cord supplies 120 VAC to the charger/converter which in turn charges the battery and supplies 12 VDC to all the accessories in the trailer.  It also supplies 120 VAC to your outlets and the AC side of the inverter.

 

 

 

...I plugged in a space heater to run during the cold spell. The voltage moniter went CRAZY!! Quickly up to over 100 amps then the heater shut off/and amps down then up and down again very quickly several times. Then the heater quit working – I figured I had blown a fuse in the trailer but turned out I just needed to reset the plug in outside. Obviously I didn’t use the heater so I’m hoping my trailer lines haven’t frozen and blown ( I did empty the water lines). Has anyone had this problem? I used it a little heater like this in a class c I had and it worked like a charm. Carole

 

 

 

This sounds as if the heater was plugged in while the trailer was disconnected from outside power and was getting its power from the batteries through your inverter.  That would quickly run the batteries down, make your inverter go into a low voltage state and shut down, which kills the power to the heater as well.  In order to use a high current draw accessory like a heater, you MUST have the trailer plugged into an external power supply and make sure the outlet that the heater is plugged in to is not drawing off the batteries. (This would assume that you have some outlets that are ONLY connected to the inverter--not likely.)

[ccarole]

Thanks ScubaRX,

 

Trying to give myself an education in voltage.  :-)  Thank you for helping.

 

"This sounds as if the heater was plugged in while the trailer was disconnected from outside power and was getting its power from the batteries through your inverter."

 

Hmmm. It was plugged in. Maybe for some reason the power had been kicked off at that outlet over the past week and I just assumed there was still power supplied. I'll go back out tomorrow and confirm the led light is on before trying the heater again. It sounds like this is also connected to my question as to why I can't get my fridge to run on AC there (only DC).......that was going to be my next issue to tackle.

 

"make sure the outlet that the heater is plugged in to is not drawing off the batteries. (This would assume that you have some outlets that are ONLY connected to the inverter–not likely.)"

 

I'll have to check with Oliver to see. I would think the wiring would be done the same in all their trailers.....I can't imagine having plugs that I can't plug any appliances into. .....my little vacuum I plugged in wouldn't work either.

 

So I'll closely check out my power source at the trailer storage tomorrow. Hopefully that's the gig.

 

Thank you ScubaRX for your patience trying to explain voltage to a newbie.  :-)

 

Carole

 

 

 

 

[DavidS]

Trying to give myself an education in voltage.

I found this to be a very good web site: http://www.marxrv.com/12volt/12volt.htm