Electoquest ("Fairstone") ABC-1230D 30A Charger

[TomasK]

There is a full user manual in czech language, it might help with little bit of Google translator

 

http://www.battery.cz/files/ckeditor/ABC-1230D_rev3.pdf

[TomasK]

The same for ABC-1245D

 

http://www.battery.cz/files/ckeditor/ABC-1245D.pdf

[Lazwal]

TomasK, Thanks for the information on the instructions. Although I started this topic I have still not fitted the Charger. Cleared a fault on my old Mobitronic and have used it all this summer. I still have the new charger and may well fit it in the winter. I did try it earlier in the year just to test it and used it with the crocodile clips to the batteries. What I did notice was that My NASA battery gauge failed to show the current rate of charge at all. There is an inbuilt small LCD display at one end of the Numax charger. I can only assume that this LCD affected the reading of the NASA battery gauge.

[Iain_S]

(snip)

I did try it earlier in the year just to test it and used it with the crocodile clips to the batteries. What I did notice was that My NASA battery gauge failed to show the current rate of charge at all.(snip)

 

Was the croc clip on the battery, or the other side of the NASA shunt?

[Lazwal]

Ian,as you probably guessed I placed them directly onto a battery.But thinking about it my leads that feed my existing charger are also connected straight to the battery and my NASA always shows the current reading.

[Phil Ambrose]

Ian,as you probably guessed I placed them directly onto a battery.But thinking about it my leads that feed my existing charger are also connected straight to the battery and my NASA always shows the current reading.

The only way your NASA will read the current is if it passes through the shunt

Phil

[Lazwal]

The negative lead from my batteries is connected to the shunt with the leads from the battery charger connected to the battery terminals.My NASA has always given me voltage and current readings from my leisure battery's accurately. So why should it be that when I temporarily connected the mobitronic charger via the crocodile clips I got no current reading.Could it be that the LED inside the Mobitronic is interfereing with my NASA ie that it has its own shunt system inside blocking my NASA.

[Phil Ambrose]

Ian,as you probably guessed I placed them directly onto a battery.But thinking about it my leads that feed my existing charger are also connected straight to the battery and my NASA always shows the current reading.

Not getting this, your charger is connected directly to the battery so what is your shunt connected to?

Phil

[Lazwal]

The shunt is connected to the negative terminal of the leisure batteries as described in the NASA diagram.

 

[Phil Ambrose]

The shunt is connected to the negative terminal of the leisure batteries as described in the NASA diagram.

 

OK. Pic just shows the neg cable connected to the shunt, your battery charger should be connected to the right hand side of the shunt, the positive should ne just connected to the battery. For the shunt to work all current must pass in or out of the battery via the shunt so it can be measured

Phil

[Lazwal]

Phil, thanks for that I will check the wiring when I go over the boat.

[Phil Ambrose]

Phil, thanks for that I will check the wiring when I go over the boat.

OK, I should also have said that all current from or to whatever source must go through the shunt, that is any form of charging and any discharge

Phil

[by'eck]

The negative lead from my batteries is connected to the shunt with the leads from the battery charger connected to the battery terminals.My NASA has always given me voltage and current readings from my leisure battery's accurately. So why should it be that when I temporarily connected the mobitronic charger via the crocodile clips I got no current reading.Could it be that the LED inside the Mobitronic is interfereing with my NASA ie that it has its own shunt system inside blocking my NASA.

 

Simply because when you connect the charger with crocodile clips directly to the battery, specifically the negative terminal, the shunt is being bypassed. How can it possibly measure the charge current therefore.

 

If you want to see the current going in to the batteries the charger negative cable/clip must be attached to the non-battery side of the shunt. Note this will be offset by any loads on batteries though. e.g. 10 amps from charger going in + 10 amps from batteries going out to power something on board - monitor will show 0 amps.

Edited November 17, 2015 by by'eck

[alan_fincher]

On 4/17/2013 at 19:51, alan_fincher said:

OK, I realise I should have done this as part of the original post.

 

 

All help with translating and explaining in the areas I have particularly mentioned is much appreciated.

 

I'm keen to understand what I can tweak, and when it only changes the measuring and monitoring, and where it can actually influence how it charges, (and in what circumstances it is sensible to do so).

 

There doesn't appear to be any facility to attach any kind of temperature sensing probe, BTW

 

The actual model I have is ABC-1230D

 

[alan_fincher]

I'm re-opening this thread after a couple of years, because the charger involved has finally found itself installed in one of our boats.

Whilst basically doing some charging, what i is actually doing, and the degree to which it can be affected by settings in the device still remains a mystery to me, (despite having re-read all the pertinent previous discussion).

The instructions are some of the worst translated I have had to deal with, and I really can't work out what options I have for materially affecting how the charger performs.

It seems to be going into float sooner than I would have expected, (or certainly sooner than my Smartgauge expects, as that is only registering 90 to 95% of full SoC when it does.  That said based on readings I have taken with more than one multimeter once surface charge has been lost I'm still seeing around 12.7volts, which seems pretty fully charged to me.

So has anybody actually fathomed their description of the display and the controls, and been able to change any settings that make things behave differetly, please?

Charger is a 30 amp one.  Battery bank is 5 x 100Ah lead acid, (with removable caps).

As Photobucket will no longer display the scan of the manual pages, I'll attempt to add them here...