Echo Charger

[Gary Wolfer]

I just changed out the echo charger with a new one cause the old one did not light up and I already had a new one. My question is after charging the drained chassis batteries with the alternator then shutting all power sources down and installing the new echo charger then I plugged the coach into the shore power and the light stayed green for a while then started flashing green is it supposed to do that or did it quit charging. The 4 6v house batteries are setting with no charger hooked up at 6,17v and the two new chassis batteries that i just recharged are setting at 12.63v are the chassis batteries fully charged now and is the echo charger supposed to start flashing green until the chassis batteries are down again? or are the chassis batteries draining and will the echo charger turn solid green again later?

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

Gary,
It's working as designed. The green LED will flash if the house battery voltage is below 13V or above 17V. With a  6.17v reading on one bank of the house batteries, you don't have 13 v available. After a few hours on shore power, teh house batteries should be fully charged >13V. Green light will be on steady and you're good to go.
The other reason the LED may flash green is a difference of >10v between house and chassis batteries, usually caused by bad chassis batteries.
http://www.xantrex.com/documents/Accessories/Auxiliary-Battery-Charger/Echo-charge-OwnerGuide%28445-0204-01-01%29.pdf
Steve

[Joel Ashley]

Gary, you probably shouldn't use the engine to bring your batteries up.  That's a practice that can do in your alternator eventually - a pretty expensive battery charge.  The alternator should be only for on the road maintenance of charge and chassis component operation.  Always try to use only shore power, a portable 12v charger, or your genset to revitalize low batteries.

Fully charged or "float charged", my batteries usually read 13.8v.  Just sitting parked and solar charger on but not inputting, its 13.3v.  Sounds like Steve is right and you just need to allow more time while the light flashes green, or something is still drawing current as fast as things are charging.  It probably stayed solid green initially while it analyzed the status of things.

Joel

[Gary Wolfer]

The alternator brought up the heart status monitor to 13v while the engine was running but the genset and the shore power only showed 12v on the status monitor thats why I used the engine alternator Joel.

[Gerald Farris]

Gary,
If the house batteries only show 12 volts when you are plugged into shore power or when the generator is running, either the charge function is not turned on for the inverter or the inverter is malfunctioning.

Gerald

[Edward Buker]

Gary,

The Echo Charger is not really a charger per say. It is a switch that connects the two battery banks when the charging voltage on the house batteries is in the proper charging range of not too high and not to low. The blinking means the house bank voltage is too high or low and the coupling function of the Echo Charger is now turned off. Solid green means the proper charging voltage is applied to the house bank by the Charger/Inverter and the coupling is turned on. As long as the coach is plugged in and the charger inverter is working properly that light will always be solid green.

Later Ed

[Gary Wolfer]

I have another problem it is still not charging. I tried to check the isolator today but I am not good with a multimeter and mine is a cheap one with no way to check amps. One time I got a voltage reading from the alternator post to post a and b both with voltage from alternator to a and b but not backwards. That is a good sign but I have to get a better multimeter. It doesn't help that my wife got out of spine surgery day before yesterday and I have to lift the bed for a while while she lays on the couch. I installed new chassis batteries last week and ordered a new echo charger but I found the original echo charger when I got under the bed. I found out it was not working so I put the new one in yesterday. The light stays green when the alternator  is charging and the charge rate is higher with the engine running. The genset does not charge more than 12v on the remote. The house batteries are holding a charge but slowly dropping because the chassis batteries are losing their charge. I have a gut feeling the isolator is shot Hopefully not the inverter. I am going to buy a better multimeter tomorrow and study internet files. I am not good with a multimeter but am going to teach myself. The local rv tech passed away a month ago of cancer. I have to learn to do it myself. Something is draining the chassis batteries I think.

[Gary Wolfer]

Gerald the house batteries are 4 6v batteries and each are running about 6.15 v each. The chassis batteries are new and streadily running down

[Gerald Farris]

Gary,
At 6.15 volts each on your house batteries, that is 12.3 volts for your house battery bank. That means that your inverter is not charging your house batteries, and therefore there is no way for the Echo Charger to charge your chassis batteries. There is a normal discharge from the chassis batteries of about 2 amps to power the keep-alive memory in the ECM (engine control module). This discharge will completely discharge your chassis batteries in less than a week if they are not recharged from a source. So you will need a battery charging source, and that needs to be from the inverter or solar panels.

The battery isolator is not involved in the charging circuit from the inverter. The charging current form the engine alternator alone goes through the battery isolator. So if your engine alternator will recharge your batteries when the engine is running, your battery isolator is probably OK. From your description above, it sounds like you have an inverter problem.

Gerald  

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

Gary,

With the echo charger flashing green, there is no connection from the chassis batteries to the house batteries so bad chassis batteries aren't affecting you house units.

Since you need 13V from the house battery bank to get the echo charger working, check the voltage across the complete house battery bank, not across a single battery. Place 1 probe on a house battery post on the inner-most batteries (posts closest the center of the coach. This will probably be a negative (-) post. Place the other probe on a post closest to you and the outside of the coach. This will normally be a positive (+) post. With the meter set to DC volts and a range of 20V or greater, you should be reading approximately 12 to 12.5V based on yuo 6.1v measurement mentioned earlier.
With the inverter charger on and the coach plugged in to shore power or teh generator running, this voltage should go to 13-14 volts, as Gerald noted earlier.
Steve

[Gary Wolfer]

Gerald Thanks I did check out the isolator and indeed it is working like it is supposed to. I Believe you must be right. I think I have found an auto electric company about 20 miles away but being sunday I cannot get ahold of them til tomorrow. I will ask them if they can test the inverter if so I will take it out and let them bench test it if they can.

[Edward Buker]

Gary,

The inverter charger may be best tested in the coach because it is already set up in an environment to operate. For the charger function, you need a good house battery bank and AC power to the coach. If it is working properly the house battery bank will have 13.2V to 14.4V across the bank from ground side to the output side of the bank which is nominally 12.6V when charged. That is measured from the main ground of the 6V battery bank that goes to the chassis, to the main 12v lead that goes to the coach house wiring. These wiring connections are across pairs of 6v batteries wired in series in order to make 12V nominally.

From what you have been measuring/seeing with your Echo Charger it appears that the main charger/inverter is not supplying the voltage it should be for whatever reason. That is why the Echo Charger light is blinking. The auto electric company should be able to help but may want to have you bring the coach in for trouble shooting. It may be that AC 120v is not being supplied to the inverter charger and they would not know that if it is taken out of the coach as an example.

Later Ed

[Karl Welhart]

This Issue brings up a thought on the Echo charger logic process.  IMHO it appears that the Echo charger must see a external charge cycle (over 13.5) then and only then will the Echo charger transfer amperage to the chassis bank of batteries.  Perhaps I am wrong on this but just having ~ 13.5volts to the coach batteries does not necessary insure that the Echo charge will charge the chassis batteries.

[Gary Wolfer]

I really appreciate your help guys I am in quite a pickle. since I came back from Quartzsite in February I have had two tarps on top because of leaks. My DW just got out of lower spine surgery last Thursday and I am her caregiver. I moved her to the couch during the day so I could get under the bed. I have alot of stuff to move to get ready to move the coach if necessary I can take my wife to my son's coach who is just across the park. I was just trying to bypass that problem. Possibly I could get someone out here I am 20 miles away from their shop. I found out about them yesterday(sunday)

I know you guys are right I have been trying to keep the batteries charged up so the refer does not quit. I do have 30 amp service here however I charge 13,5 rate on the remote inverter module only from the alternator. Yesterday I did get 13.5 v charge from both shorepower and genset power for a brief time then they both dropped to 12v. Right after I charge the batteries with the alternator the echo charger light stays on green til the batteries start dropping then it starts blinking. I am confused why the genset and shore power both charged at a high rate for a few minutes yesterday but it was when the batteries were way down and my refer had stopped working. Fortunately I got the batteries back up and the refer has been fine since and never lost any food.

Yesterday I went to walmart (20 miles away) to buy a big charger. I bought what I thought would work because they did not have a big one and found out after getting home it was just a start booster and had to be charged by power for 36 hours so today I have to take it back and find a big charger with wheels I guess.

[Karl Welhart]

Gary,

As others have said, your charger/inverter does not appear to be working properly.  It would not be good to use your alternator to charge your batteries if they are significantly low.  The 30 amp shore power should be plenty to supply the charger/inverter.  Using a external charger is a good idea, but a 20-40 amp one will be plenty to keep your batteries charged, just be sure it has "smart" stage capabilities.