Aux battery controller setup

G'day fella's, I know some of this was covered in another thread, however, I didn't want to hijack that one any further so here is a fresh on topic one.
I did a vid of what my plans were. Basically, I want to be able to remove the controller after 4wd trips to use it for a solar controller on the deck at home. If it turns out all the extra connections are not so much of a great idea, I'll just get a mppt controller for the solar at home (currently just a crap pwm).
I use that to charge all my deep cycles that I use for the bilge pump which runs the highbanker.

Anyway let me know what you think of my setup and any ideas that you may have that would improve it.
[video=480,360]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4BOFeyLSy8[/video]

BTW my current uses are just a fridge when on trips and a bit of led lighting, no inverter or heavy current devices.

Neat arrangement, I've just reinstalled my Redarc in my new 4by. As another option here's a pic of how I mounted it. Although fixed, it can be used as a portable and has one less connector as it's not the solar version. I am however going to run a lead from my battery to a rear bumper Anderson connector for ext power or solar input as I have a portable panel with its own controller.





I got a switch box from Rexcel, inside are terminal posts to connect everything as well as my fridge (Engel). There is a fuse for car power in and another for the fridge inside the box. On one end are the Anderson connectors, 1 for car power in and 1 from the Redarc to the Aux battery and this cable has the fuse for it inside the battery box. On the other end of the box is an Engel threaded socket. The Redarc is on standoffs (20mm long 10mm alum tube) because the Redarc can get hot and I wanted to keep it off the plastic and allow as much air to circulate as possible.

It's now basically "plug n play"

The inside pic was take 1, since then I've added a 3rd post inside. 1 is positive + input for the Redarc - 1 is for the positive + output (where fridge is connected) and the 3rd is for the negative - which is common to everything (inputs outputs and fridge)

I figured that hiding everything in a box was the way to go. At this point the only cable on the battery is from the Redarc, but it's not finished yet. I will be adding a short lead to an internal Anderson plug, which will power a small box with 2 cig sockets and 1 Merit socket. This will power my travel Buddy Oven and my 150W inverter. The other lead will run outside the car as per my previous post. Their fuses will be inside the battery box.

I do have one concern fusing the socket box - My oven pulls 6 amps, my inverter pulls about 14 amps. So running them both off the same box will mean that I should use a 20A fuse, a 25A if both are on at the same time, for the inverter which is too big for the oven. So I may run a separate cable for the inverter with a 20A fuse and the box with a 10A fuse to make sure.

BTW - all the sockets, plugs, the Redarc etc are in the lid of the box, so that when opened, I can leave the bottom part screwed to the false floor I installed and there's nothing to disconnect......

Thank's mate, I might commandeer your idea with standoffs.
So will all the connections I have in mind not be an issue?
I know you lose a bit with each connection, but the 50A Andersons really do seem to give a good connection, so I think it'll be fine.
Even with some efficiency losses it really shouldn't be significant.
Cheers Mark

BTW my unit looks like about double the length, so the heat sink casing should dissipate reasonably well.
My intended use for it won't give it a hard time so cooling shouldn't be an issue, I could always put in a small fan in the back of the box.

I have a handy device I use for RC petrol airplane engines that measures peak temp, I'll stick that in there to check things out.

condor22 said:

Neat arrangement, I've just reinstalled my Redarc in my new 4by. As another option here's a pic of how I mounted it. Although fixed, it can be used as a portable and has one less connector as it's not the solar version. I am however going to run a lead from my battery to a rear bumper Anderson connector for ext power or solar input as I have a portable panel with its own controller.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/1932/1486270050_20170203_111845.jpg
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/1932/1486270050_20170203_111900.jpg
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/1932/1486270050_20170203_142503.jpg

I got a switch box from Rexcel, inside are terminal posts to connect everything as well as my fridge (Engel). There is a fuse for car power in and another for the fridge inside the box. On one end are the Anderson connectors, 1 for car power in and 1 from the Redarc to the Aux battery and this cable has the fuse for it inside the battery box. On the other end of the box is an Engel threaded socket. The Redarc is on standoffs (20mm long 10mm alum tube) because the Redarc can get hot and I wanted to keep it off the plastic and allow as much air to circulate as possible.

It's now basically "plug n play"

Click to expand...

Condor the units certainly run warm / hot ................. I used a nice 5mm piece of aluminum plate welded to alloy brackets to mount mine and it acts as a great heat sink for unit.

That's interesting Bogger, I have only used mine to charge with solar so far, but it never got past luke warm, I was actually feeling it quite often as I needed to know how to mount it. Hopefully the circuits that charge from vehicle input don't heat it up any more than the solar side does.
I'll keep you posted.

Hey Condor, just another query, how come you use self resetting breakers? I know redarc don't recommend them due to heat issues. But my concern would be if there was a fault somewhere and the breaker kept trying to reset would that potentially get too hot and cause an issue?
I do kind of like the idea of a fuse, it will go pop and tell you there is a problem, at least it then lets you know there is an issue, so you can then seek it out and rectify it. My worry with a breaker is it could trip and reset without me knowing, and thus not knowing there was an issue to fix.
Or am I just a worry wort?

The self reset circuit breakers are under the hood they protect the solenoid and the cable to the rear. I still have a fuse in my mounting box before it goes into the 1220.

I ran the same system in my FJ Cruiser for 4 years, they never tripped once.

So I protect both the cable run and the device on a long run. Also the solenoid powers my Anderson caravan connection which doubles the in car length. The Redarc in the caravan also has a fuse next to it at the input as well.

I had a chat with the auto elec that installed the solenoid for me re using self reset CCTBKRs and he said that they were better than fuses re heat under the hood and I tend to agree.

Re the Redarc heat - If you run a battery down to the point where it needs the boost phase then the Redarc will run hot, even more so in hotter ambient temps. They don't run as hot if you are only ever continually topping up the battery....

Occasional_panner said:

That's interesting Bogger, I have only used mine to charge with solar so far, but it never got past luke warm, I was actually feeling it quite often as I needed to know how to mount it. Hopefully the circuits that charge from vehicle input don't heat it up any more than the solar side does.
I'll keep you posted.

Click to expand...

I think Condor has pretty well covered it ................... I'm running an 80 and 50 litre fridge of mine and outside temps here are over forty and in car probably + 50 C at times so controller is already at air temp before even starting. Spoke with manufacturer and they said good to +80C and also has an over temp protection so shouldn't be an issue. The temps up here and further north are what probably create the largest loads on batteries as fridges struggle against the temps ..................... whole different ball game to operating in the 20 to 30C temp range

Great... thanks for the input fella's.

Well said Bogger-

A system for use in the winter of VIC is very different to WA in summer (for example). In car is also different to in camp. Many make the mistake of setting up for what they believe they know they want and then change the game rules and wonder why it doesn't work.

As I said in other threads, solar input in winter is much less and so is the load, conversely solar input in summer is greater, but so is the load. Adding more fridges is an obvious game changer as well lol. ALWAYS DESIGN FOR YOUR WORST CASE SCENARIO

• Know what power (AH) you need for what you do per day or regular charge cycle as a MAX,[/*]
• Work on this as being 25 to 50% of battery capacity to size a battery supply depending on *** frequency of use,[/*]
• Chose a good quality charging method, preferably more than one and size it according to the battery capacity,[/*]
• Then add 20% redundancy to make sure and everything should work correctly and have the best service life.[/*]

Pretty simple actually

*** As previously stated, out there every few weeks a few times a year =50%. Out there full time, work on 25% to maximise battery cycle life.

Hi OP. Would like to know how you connected the Anderson plugs tp the RedArc wiring (crimp/solder or both), and looping the common ground must use a damn big connector.

Use an earth block with multiple connections.

My box mount, contains 2 external Anderson plugs (IN/OUT), an Engel power socket and inside terminal posts and fuses.

Term 1 - All Negative (black) Cables
Term 2 - Positive IN and Redarc Positive IN
Term 3 - Positive OUT for battery and Engel (Not shown as I hadn't installed it when I took the PIC)

Finished box (top half) - All sockets wiring, terminals and the Redarc are on the lid, the base half of the box is only screwed to my floor.

The Redarc sits on 20mm long x 10mm dia alum tube to avoid heat transfer to the plastic box



Fully installed

BigWave said:

Hi OP. Would like to know how you connected the Anderson plugs tp the RedArc wiring (crimp/solder or both), and looping the common ground must use a damn big connector.

Click to expand...

I finished the wiring a while ago, and it's nicely set up. I just need to connect up the input feed voltage to the meter on the battery box and it's done, but I really don't need that, so not a real priority.
The neg/ground is in common loops to all the anderson plugs, and it's connection to the body is via the start battery connection.
I'll do another video, it's easier to visualize it.
But overall it's a great unit, one other thing I might do is have a simple plug in connection that goes to the dash to tell me what stage the charger is at. One of the optional wires can be hooked up to an LED (to the dash for instance) to indicate whether it's on boost/absorption/maintenance.

Also the casing on mine is double the size of condors unit. Even when it's charging on boost from aux voltage at 12.2v for instance, it doesn't get remarkably hot, you can still keep your hand on there quite easily, so less heat, I'm happy with that.

[video=480,360]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWBzIEL_Vug[/video]

Hey BW I soldered all the joints, I looped all the wires, you could have had one central post to connect all the earth's to I suppose, but the electrons don't know the difference, and this unit is really only handling 25amps, which is really not much at all. So even though I may have not done it as an auto elec would have done due to the excessive size wiring it will be just fine. It all has the big low resistance fuses, so I reckon it's pretty well set up.

This is the redarc recommendations for fuses. https://www.redarc.com.au/faq-tech-tips/bad-fuses-or-bad-fuse-holders

Finally finished (nearly) mine. BCDC1250D is heat sunk by the Al case (using heat-sink compound).
The "Y" cable connects to both the Aux Battery and (via an extension) to an Anderson plug at the rear bumper next to the trailer plug (also to LED camp lighting on Rhino Rack).
Just needs control wires insulated, holes siliconed and output ports & fuses labelled.

PS: Thanks for your assist Occasional_panner, condor22 and Bogger :Y:

Dang wee hell!! that looks awesome, you can come over and re do mine.
Very neat professional looking job mate. :Y: