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Phil_G
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Thats right 
PMS 3h - Power Management System
- Thread starter andy greenwood
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What is the meaning of life? This one will suit you VICTRON IP 65 12/7 Bluesmart | travelvolts
Boilerman
New Member
Boilerman
New Member
One last question, honest How does adding that charger marry in with the PMS build-in charger?
Gordon.
Just leave the PMS charger switched off as it will be redundant.
Hi Phil
Thanks for your reply, is Martyn actually travelvolts ? I'm just in conversation with him at the moment with regards travelling down there and getting whatever is needed to sort it all out
hi Andy,
Definitely worth the journey down, at least that way you can collect the gear you need and I’m sure Martyn can explain how to do it. Or get him to fit...
Andy
Hi Andy
Its an old thread, i actually went down to see Martyn back in oct 2018 and he sorted everything out for me.
Cheers
PKK1973
Member
Bit of an old thread to reply to, but I've tried without luck to find information.
I've got one of these PMS3V/H systems in my van. I've had a sealed lead battery running since I got the van without issue, seems to charge and discharge well enough via a mixture of mains plug in and Sterling B2B charger off the main van battery. Always had a couple of summer days off grid use with a fridge on low and standard phone / laptop charging which I thought was good.
I'm now wanting to upgrade to e.g. a 200Ah Lithium Iron Phosphate battery for longer off grid wild camps.
Will the PMS charge the battery correctly? There's no option to set what battery type you have like you can do with the Sterling. Can I just swap out the lead battery and replacing it with a lithium one?
Thanks for any help.
I've got one of these PMS3V/H systems in my van. I've had a sealed lead battery running since I got the van without issue, seems to charge and discharge well enough via a mixture of mains plug in and Sterling B2B charger off the main van battery. Always had a couple of summer days off grid use with a fridge on low and standard phone / laptop charging which I thought was good.
I'm now wanting to upgrade to e.g. a 200Ah Lithium Iron Phosphate battery for longer off grid wild camps.
Will the PMS charge the battery correctly? There's no option to set what battery type you have like you can do with the Sterling. Can I just swap out the lead battery and replacing it with a lithium one?
Thanks for any help.
No! You will need to disable the
PMS "charger" and fit a more sophisticated one such as a Victron 12/30
PKK1973
Member
That bad?
Do you know what the actual point of the PMS that’s in my van? The conversion is only just two years old on a 2018 T6, yet these PMS's seem to be from a different era. Are they mainly for managing 240v supply to your van electrics, but also charge the battery as a 'bonus' albeit a charger that can’t fully charge your battery? My fridge seems to run via a separate fuse, leaving only the tap, lights, 2 sockets and 2 12v sockets being powered via the PMS.
The PMS is designed primarily for cheap caravans. A caravan is normally only used on a site with a mains hook up. The "charger" is really just a power supply that takes over from your leisure battery which in theory rarely gets used so does not require much charging.
In your care the PMS is just a 12 volt fuse box and some 240 volt breakers.
PKK1973
Member
So I need to disconnect the charger element of the PMS without also cutting power to the 240v sockets in my van. I'm assuming that's as simple as turning the Battery switch on the PMS to OFF when I'm hooked up. Then I get a proper smart charger (e.g. a Victron Energy Blue Smart charger that can charge all battery types). Charging the battery when on hookup would then be via the new charger plugged into one of the vans 240v sockets.
Basically yes. Depending on how your 240 volt circuits have been there will most likely be a spare output at the back of the PMS where you can connect the new charger to save using up one of your sockets. Don't turn off the battery switch or you will cut off the 12 volts to your pump etc. Turn off the breaker that supplies the charger.
PKK1973
Member
Thanks for this.
I did try turning the charger breaker off, but I don't think it's wired that way. There's three breakers, the third turns off the entire PMS (i.e. no 240v passed through to the PMS / sockets) and the first two don't seem to do anything. Nothing happens if you trip either of them, the charger is definitely still active as the voltage on the battery doesn't drop. If the battery is in the OFF position, but the shore power is on the pump and lights all still work. There's 4 blade fuses underneath, one of which is for "the PMS". Maybe that's the charger.
I did try turning the charger breaker off, but I don't think it's wired that way. There's three breakers, the third turns off the entire PMS (i.e. no 240v passed through to the PMS / sockets) and the first two don't seem to do anything. Nothing happens if you trip either of them, the charger is definitely still active as the voltage on the battery doesn't drop. If the battery is in the OFF position, but the shore power is on the pump and lights all still work. There's 4 blade fuses underneath, one of which is for "the PMS". Maybe that's the charger.
PKK1973
Member
I've charged my leisure battery with my new Victron iP65 charger. I take it that with what's said about the PMS ruining the battery earlier in the thread has happened here looking at this? Practically zero time in bulk and a suspiciously fixed low amount of time in absorption. There's not a lot of Ah gone in over 8.5 hours through the charging phases.
KiwiDaveNZ
Member
Hi , Just wondering what you fitted in the end for Mains hook-up charging of the LiFePO4 battery.
I have just bought (but waiting for delivery of) A Renogy RBT100LFP12SH-UK (100Ah LiFePO4 self heating) battery. I also have the PMS 3H unit in my van, but fortunately have the Victron 75/10 for solar (which has a Lithium setting) and the Sterling BB1230 (which also has the option for a Lithium profile). I generally am wild camping, but thinking I would like to be able to use my mains hook up either at home or on the rare occasion I am camping with a mains hook up, to give the battery a good charge to keep it in good nick.
So trying to figure a good fit for disabling the PMS 3H charger functionality and putting a Lithium compatible charger permanently in place.
I think this is a common issue as there seems to be a lot of converters using these Power Management System units.
I will be getting an auto electrician I have used in the past who did a bunch of remedy work for me (when the installer put a relay in my T6 Euro6/used under sized cabling/insufficient fusing etc) to do the work. They also did my solar install and have a good rep. But it would be good to know what others have used successfully in this situation, as I have dropped a wad of cash on the battery upgrade. My old Lead Calcium-Calcium battery was on it's way out so bit the bullet, as got the Renogy and a BT-2 unit for £525.
I have just bought (but waiting for delivery of) A Renogy RBT100LFP12SH-UK (100Ah LiFePO4 self heating) battery. I also have the PMS 3H unit in my van, but fortunately have the Victron 75/10 for solar (which has a Lithium setting) and the Sterling BB1230 (which also has the option for a Lithium profile). I generally am wild camping, but thinking I would like to be able to use my mains hook up either at home or on the rare occasion I am camping with a mains hook up, to give the battery a good charge to keep it in good nick.
So trying to figure a good fit for disabling the PMS 3H charger functionality and putting a Lithium compatible charger permanently in place.
I think this is a common issue as there seems to be a lot of converters using these Power Management System units.
I will be getting an auto electrician I have used in the past who did a bunch of remedy work for me (when the installer put a relay in my T6 Euro6/used under sized cabling/insufficient fusing etc) to do the work. They also did my solar install and have a good rep. But it would be good to know what others have used successfully in this situation, as I have dropped a wad of cash on the battery upgrade. My old Lead Calcium-Calcium battery was on it's way out so bit the bullet, as got the Renogy and a BT-2 unit for £525.
I have a PMS and find the easiest way is to plug my Victron charger into one of the 240v sockets. I have fly leads on both batteries and can charge either one as required and change the profiles from Lithium for the leisure battery to AGM on the starter battery.
KiwiDaveNZ
Member
Funnily enough I was thinking the same thing last night. Was thinking getting a switch cover to stop the PMS 3H charger switch from being used, and putting fly leads on the Lithium battery as you say for connection when required. I have two three pin plug sockets on the 240v side available.
Any recommendations for a suitable lithium profile charger suitable for the 100Ah Renogy? Was looking at the Victron BT enabled ones, but not sure what output is required for this battery to ensure it gets a proper charge. What are others using with similar setups?
Any recommendations for a suitable lithium profile charger suitable for the 100Ah Renogy? Was looking at the Victron BT enabled ones, but not sure what output is required for this battery to ensure it gets a proper charge. What are others using with similar setups?
KiwiDaveNZ
Member
The other thing I was wondering, when charging the leisure battery using the mains charger (whatever smart charger I go for), during daylight with the van outside the MPPT from the solar setup will also be trying to charge the battery. Will the two charge controllers fight each other, or will they just sort it out by adjusting the input voltages they both send when they look at the current battery voltage. I assume this also occurs at the moment when the Sterling B2B is in action while I am driving and the solar panel is still generating juice during the day. Just interested if anyone can enlighten me on how this works with multiple charging sources on the same battery.
Should all loads be off when charging the leisure battery with the mains charger, or is it OK to be discharging the battery while charging from the mains charger?
Should all loads be off when charging the leisure battery with the mains charger, or is it OK to be discharging the battery while charging from the mains charger?
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