Charging of batteries

Hi all,

As I'm new to all this was wondering if I could pick your brains please.
I have winterised my 2007 Boxer Nuevo ES and have the mains hook-up cable plugged in with an adapter into a 240v socket in garage.
Can someone please tell me if both of the batteries are being charged whilst set up like this?

Also I have broken the glass shade on one of the reading lamps under the overhead cupboards and I'd love to know where is a good place to source second hand or new parts please

Many thanks

Depends on your control panel. Does it look like this?...

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Hi,
The control panel is like this[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I'm not conversant with that one so hopefully someone else can help but it looks like you have it set to leisure. If you touch the 'hab' does it change to 'veh' , if it does then presumably you can select which battery gets charged. Hopefully someone will be along soon.

Thanks for your help, Ill try that and see how we go

Paulmold wrote:I'm not conversant with that one so hopefully someone else can help but it looks like you have it set to leisure. If you touch the 'hab' does it change to 'veh' , if it does then presumably you can select which battery gets charged. Hopefully someone will be along soon.

I can confirm you have to choose manually which battery you want to charge. Tapping the screen battery icon will alternate between 'veh' and 'hab'

It is an MES panel

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When all else fails, connect to EHU and use a voltmeter across each battery's terminals in turn. If the battery is being charged the reading will be above 14v.  That means the meter scale should be set to at least 20v.
Keith

Loui1121 wrote:Thanks for your help, Ill try that and see how we go

We have our Nuevo parked outside our door but it is still a chore to keep the batteries topped-up.
With the alarm activated we find that the VEH icon needs to be activated at least once a week for about twelve hours and then switching to the HAB, despite having a solar panel it still needs a top-up as sunshine is in short supply these months.
I would strongly advise keeping the vehicle battery charged as it seems to deplete very quickly.

In that situation, it may be worth investigating whether the MES system incorporates a built-in split charge relay, or a separate one. If it's separate, it should be possible to replace the split charge relay with a VSR, and then you would not need to keep switching - once the leisure battery's terminal voltage exceeds the VSR's threshold, the two batteries should charge together - either from the EHU/charger, or from the solar panel.

Paulmold wrote:Depends on your control panel. Does it look like this?...

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With that control panel what is charging with the hab/veh rocker in the central position

And do you need the master switch on for any charging to take place

In Central position no charge happens to either battery from the main charger. Not sure about master switch. I had solar and battery-master on my Nuevo with that panel and didn't need master switch on as I didn't need hook up to electric,  the solar was capable of keeping both batteries up to par. Obviously when on site the master switch was on for everything else to work so charging then took place from main charger.

Its a while now since I had the Rienza which had a panel similar to the first one posted by Paul.   The horizontal switch in the middle alternates the reading on the meter from battery to water capacity.     If I remember correctly when it is set at Battery, you can take readings for both leisure and vehicle battery by alternating the switch on the extreme left from Hab to Veh.    Is my memory accurate.

BobK wrote:Its a while now since I had the Rienza which had a panel similar to the first one posted by Paul.   The horizontal switch in the middle alternates the reading on the meter from battery to water capacity.     If I remember correctly when it is set at Battery, you can take readings for both leisure and vehicle battery by alternating the switch on the extreme left from Hab to Veh.    Is my memory accurate.

You are correct. I am not sure however that hook up does not charge when the bat switch is in the centre position. It might actually charge both batteries. I will test this with my Multi meter when I get a chance

mcalid wrote:

Loui1121 wrote:Thanks for your help, Ill try that and see how we go

We have our Nuevo parked outside our door but it is still a chore to keep the batteries topped-up.
With the alarm activated we find that the VEH icon needs to be activated at least once a week for about twelve hours and then switching to the HAB, despite having a solar panel it still needs a top-up as sunshine is in short supply these months.
I would strongly advise keeping the vehicle battery charged as it seems to deplete very quickly.

Ditto

BobK wrote:Its a while now since I had the Rienza which had a panel similar to the first one posted by Paul.   The horizontal switch in the middle alternates the reading on the meter from battery to water capacity.     If I remember correctly when it is set at Battery, you can take readings for both leisure and vehicle battery by alternating the switch on the extreme left from Hab to Veh.    Is my memory accurate.

Incorrect as for the battery meter. That only reads the leisure battery regardless whether the rocker is on veh or hab.

So I went in my Motor home and tried the battery test with the Battery selector in various positions.

My conclusion is that it reads which ever battery the battery selector is set to.

Why do I say this.

Well I set it to Hab and did the battery test and the needle swung to a particular position. I then switched it to the centre and interestingly it then swung to a slightly different position (greater swing). This seemed to pick up the charger voltage alone

I then changed it to Vehicle and the swing position was different to the other two positions.

I didn't just make up my answer, I don't do that.  That question has been  asked a dozen times or more over the years, when I had my Nuevo I researched the answer and found the information on various forums which all gave the answer which I posted. I suppose it is possible that some vans using that panel are wired differently. If you have your own multimeter I wonder why you asked the question as you have the ability to find out for yourself. From your other posts/threads it's pretty obvious you ask questions to which you have already  made your mind up of the answer.

Paulmold wrote:I didn't just make up my answer, I don't do that.  That question has been  asked a dozen times or more over the years, when I had my Nuevo I researched the answer and found the information on various forums which all gave the answer which I posted. I suppose it is possible that some vans using that panel are wired differently.  If you have your own multimeter I wonder why you asked the question as you have the ability to find out for yourself. From your other posts/threads it's pretty obvious you ask questions to which you have already  made your mind up of the answer.

I asked the question as at the time I did not know the answer and thought I might get a quick and accurate answer here rather than get my tools out. There was then some differing opinions. I thought about it and then decided upon a simple test when I had time.

My test was on an actual Nuevo done today so should be accurate. I hope that my real life test and answer might be helpful to others that might read this.

As you say some vans may indeed be wired differently

Asking questions and debating them is how people learn and also help others. Some people however seem to have a problem if the answer they believed was correct is sometimes proved to be incorrect.

There is nothing wrong with being wrong one of the ways we learn.

I can see that you have been on this forum some time and have an incredible number of posts to you name and I am certain that you have been very helpful to many people. 

Other People with fewer posts might just have got a huge amount of life experience and be able to be helpful also.

Look at the number of views associated with my posts so far. Perhaps that is good for the forum

Hi Loui1121, you have the same control panel as me & yes you switch the charging of the batteries by pressing the hab or veh icon.
You can check what voltage is in each battery on the control panel which mine was accurate as I checked with a multi meter.
As to your lamp, you might be able to get one but most people on here tend to upgrade to led lights.

Quote...'"I can see that you have been on this forum some time and have an incredible number of posts to you name and I am certain that you have been very helpful to many people. "

I joined way back in 2011 within the first few weeks. My posts number is inflated by the fact that I used to welcome every single new member which probably accounts for over 7000 of those posts which still leaves a lot but that's over almost 11 years. I no longer welcome people, there's plenty of others to do that . I like to think that I have helped many members and will continue to do so.

There's an old Victorian household guide and cookery book entitled ENQUIRE WITHIN UPON EVERYTHING.
On this forum Paulmold is the 21st century manifestation of that book 
Keith

Paulmold wrote:Quote...'"I can see that you have been on this forum some time and have an incredible number of posts to you name and I am certain that you have been very helpful to many people. "

I joined way back in 2011 within the first few weeks.  My posts number is inflated by the fact that I used to welcome every single new member which probably accounts for over 7000 of those posts which still leaves a lot but that's over almost 11 years. I no longer welcome people, there's plenty of others to do that . I like to think that I have helped many members and will continue to do so.

I think perhaps some of the threads I have started here have also been helpful