Voltage falls about a volt on unlock

[Deleted Member]

Neither of my BM2’s show any history, they just show ‘no data’.

I must get round to disconnecting them both and seeing if that resets them.

 

[Samro]

The AMT12-2 is recommended and programmable...
( That's provided you have a decent leisure battery setup)

Good suggestion with the AMT 12-2 @Dellmassive - Easily installed this tiny little thing today, (Hid it under the drivers seat with my Renogy 170Ah Lifepo4 and Victron 12-12/30 DC-DC charger.)

Waiting on the BM2 to come tomorrow, but once I managed to set the thing up for Smart Alternator/Lithium Battery (Mode 3) and the thing is definitely doing its job.

Nifty little thing. Also Kevin from Ablemail is a good chap. Spoke to him on the phone and he seems a good chap.

I am so glad i did this instead of buying an extra solar panel for the dash as it feels a more proper solution.

Thanks for help. You are slowly helping the T6 community create many awesome upgrades.

 

[Samro]

Neither of my BM2’s show any history, they just show ‘no data’.

I must get round to disconnecting them both and seeing if that resets them.

Odd! I hope mine does what is is supposed to. Please let me know if if you work out the fix, it may be useful to know in the future.

 

[Dellmassive]

Good suggestion with the AMT 12-2 @Dellmassive - Easily installed this tiny little thing today, (Hid it under the drivers seat with my Renogy 170Ah Lifepo4 and Victron 12-12/30 DC-DC charger.)

Waiting on the BM2 to come tomorrow, but once I managed to set the thing up for Smart Alternator/Lithium Battery (Mode 3) and the thing is definitely doing its job.

Nifty little thing. Also Kevin from Ablemail is a good chap. Spoke to him on the phone and he seems a good chap.

I am so glad i did this instead of buying an extra solar panel for the dash as it feels a more proper solution.

Thanks for help. You are slowly helping the T6 community create many awesome upgrades.

sweet . .

you know we all like pictures . . .

so when you get a chance, post some.

of the AMT12-2 and BM2 etc etc ...

also do a few pics of your seat base build over here:

Seat Base Electric + EHU + Solar Install + Charger + DC-DC -- How We Done it --

Seat Base Electric + EHU + Solar Install + Charger + DC-DC -- How We Done it -- id like to build a thread showing what's possible as regards to seat base builds. lets post a collection of our electrical installs, be it in the seat base or rear conversion. just EHU or SCR/VSR, charger, DC-DC...

www.t6forum.com

.

 

[Dellmassive]

For reference.

Here is my BM2 plots for the last few days....

Va - van aux.
Vs - van starter

AMT12-2 . Not installed ATM. Still testing roamer 230sb battery.

So this is normal starter battery behaviour for my van.

...





....

 

[Samro]

sweet . .

you know we all like pictures . . .

so when you get a chance, post some.

of the AMT12-2 and BM2 etc etc ...

also do a few pics of your seat base build over here:

Seat Base Electric + EHU + Solar Install + Charger + DC-DC -- How We Done it --

Seat Base Electric + EHU + Solar Install + Charger + DC-DC -- How We Done it -- id like to build a thread showing what's possible as regards to seat base builds. lets post a collection of our electrical installs, be it in the seat base or rear conversion. just EHU or SCR/VSR, charger, DC-DC...

www.t6forum.com

.

My seat bases are already in that thread (Post #97).

Like a fool I didn't get any pictures of yesterday's install of the AMT12-2. The seat is now back in situ, but I'll get a pic when it's next accessible.

In the meantime here are some older pictures with explanation of what was done:
It was an easy install fit me because you can see how accessible the bits I needed access to are:



The black MIDI fuse holders are circled in purple in this pic and the fuse on the left is the feed to the LB from the DC-DC charger. The one on the right is the supply from the vehicle to the DC-DC charger, so connections to the new charger were a doddle as they were made at this point.

I grounded the AMT12-2 to the shunt (which is circled in green).

I used Velcro to mount the new charger to the base in the area circled in red.

After accessing the shunt, I simply placed my temp controller (shown in yellow) back in its area of the base before refitting the seat.

 

[Samro]

For reference.

Here is my BM2 plots for the last few days....

Va - van aux.
Vs - van starter

AMT12-2 . Not installed ATM. Still testing roamer 230sb battery.

So this is normal starter battery behaviour for my van.

...
View attachment 153901View attachment 153902View attachment 153903View attachment 153904




....

By way of comparison, I just thought I'd have a look at your data and it highlighted that my starter battery is discharging way too fast!

Then I realised that the data is across 24 hours and I initially thought it was days! (I thought you'd not used you van first 2 weeks and seen minuscule depletion in voltage!

 

[Dellmassive]

Sure..

Here is same data for 7 and 15 day views.


.




.

 

[Samro]

My relationship with the Ablemail AMT-12 was off to a rocky start as it would only charge with my starter battery when the lithium leisure bank was above 13.5V and the starter under 12.4V. This is well discussed by @Dellmassive on the following topic - BM2 update

(To be fair this was detailed in the instructions that came with the unit, but the instructions also stated that for a LifePo4 leisure and an AGM starter use profile 3 or 7.)

I originally plumped for profile 3 and found that the threshold for the leisure battery was simply too low. Today I removed the seat (again) to changed to setting 4 and played around by draining the battery as much as possible and seeing how the AMT-12 got on. After a couple of hours I decided I'd try out setting 8 which is the same as 4, but with a "Higher power setting". (This was largely inspired by @Skyliner33 on post #24 of the BM2 update topic. Thanks @Skyliner33!)

I am yet to determine what this higher power setting means, but i have more capacity in my leisure battery than I need and so I thought see how I get on.

It was a bit difficult to test when the starter battery was in good health as it maintained 12.4 volts prior to being unlocked. Unlocking caused the voltage to fall but the below graph clearly shows the trickle charger quickly doing its thing to recover the voltage back to 12.4 Volts (Just before 11:40 and again after 12:10):


All good so far. Now need to see how things go when the vehicle is left to rest.

 

[Dellmassive]

High power is longer charge duration.

So 9sec on / 3off type thing

Instead of ³sec on / 9 sec off.

 

[Skyliner33]

I agree, settings 5-8 are just higher power versions of 1-4 as @Dellmassive says above.

Jonathan at Ablemail said the final column in the table in instructions was s bit misleading when i asked him if using 4 or 8 could be used for my van as i have lithium. He said the only difference is the voltages in the table. So if i set it at 3 or 7 the starter would only be trickle charged when the engine was running, on solar or on EHU.

@Samro

 

[Oceanis]

Just thinking out of the box .... I fitted one of these to my garden shed ...

 

[Drive Wayne]

If I can wire in an Ablemail 12-2 anyone can. Set to default #4 it seems to keep the starter battery at 12.35 volts. I did cheat with the install and spliced into the necessary cables because I am lazy and didn't want to take out the front passenger seat to expose my Victron Orion 12 - 12 - 30 and do the job properly. I hereby promise to do the job properly when it's warmer outside. Amber light flashing every 10 secs and green when voltage dips below 12.4 volts. Recommended to anyone with a decent leisure battery to keep their starter at a reasonable level. £65 from Simply Split Charge, money well spent. Only slightly lacerated my left middle finger with a Stanley knife, the joys of being married to an NHS'er...