Alternator light flashing on ctek d250se after adding solar panel

[Frazman]

I’ve had a lot of advice recently from the forums regarding fitting mine but also had the same problem with the alternator light flashing.

I have a Sargent controller and for some reason switching between the engine and leisure battery resolves the flashing light. Might be worth a try?

 

[Hamjamham]

Well, everything had been going swimmingly and as intended. I'm now in the Lakes and my vault meter (still not bought a multi one yet ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) is showing 13.4 vaults. The van has been parked in the shade most of the day in a couple of NT car parks so not much in the way of solar.

My victron is showing the minimum battery voltage as being 13.49 which is something I've never seen before. My CTEK has a solid battery light but a pulsing alternator one so I'm Guessing the two are still having some back and forth and have been all day.

Aside from the fridge running on its lowest setting, I've not been using much power today and have probably driven for a couple of hours in total. Just don't want to wake up tomorrow and be stranded if my starter battery gets drained for god knows what reason. Never a dull moment in campervan electrics, eh?

 

[Frazman]

@Msmith

Did you get any further with this? Mines the same, solar just gave excessive output today whilst driving for some reason.

Sargent have advised to disconnect the solar to fix the issue. They also provide a separate relay should be set alongside the CTEK for a proper installation. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Msmith]

@Msmith

Did you get any further with this? Mines the same, solar just gave excessive output today whilst driving for some reason.

Sargent have advised to disconnect the solar to fix the issue. They also provide a separate relay should be set alongside the CTEK for a proper installation. *

Well everything worked fine for me for months and months but recently I noticed my solar light wasn’t flashing. After a call to Simply Split Charge it was likely I’d popped the internal fuse in the Ctek. From what they told me on a sunny winters day the VoC can rise above what they say in the panel specs, annoying but I probably shouldn’t have bought a panel with a VoC of 22.7v! It is possible to change the fuse yourself but I opted on a 30amp solar controller and just bypassing the Ctek, seems to be working fine.

 

[2bat1]

I don’t have the ctek manual handy, but isn’t this the ctek pulse charging the starter battery - if the leisure battery is fully charged, it pulses the starter battery every few seconds to charges it. This is what mine does.
The VW smart alternator deliberately doesn’t fully charge the starter battery, so there’s always some charging that the ctek+ solar panel can do after you’ve driven the van

Simon

i have the same flashing alternator light flashing but when starting the engine it goes solid .so is this ok ???? thxs andy

 

[2bat1]

I don’t have the ctek manual handy, but isn’t this the ctek pulse charging the starter battery - if the leisure battery is fully charged, it pulses the starter battery every few seconds to charges it. This is what mine does.
The VW smart alternator deliberately doesn’t fully charge the starter battery, so there’s always some charging that the ctek+ solar panel can do after you’ve driven the van

Simon

ctek d250se alternator light is flashing on and off on the ctek but when engine is running it stays solid and i have solar as well is the light suppose to flash ???? thxs andy