[ridzilla]

hey guys,
I've got one of those redarc smart soleniods for my dual battery system and I'm pretty sure it's frucked. The zook has been out of service for some time now and I think something is draining the crank battery, but I tested the voltage and got 7.83V on the crank batt, but the second battery had 11.9V.

I can't figure out why it's not transferring any power across! Any help would be good

[want33s]

Have you connected the extra wire to bridge the solenoid?
The Redarc unit is meant to connect the two batteries ONLY when the starting battery has reached full voltage... 13.7V I think....

You need to power up the little (blue?) wire to engage the solenoid to start the car from the second battery.

[ridzilla]

Nah, I never connected the over ride switch...
worth doing it?

[want33s]

Edited post above.

[Scales]

i just finished finalising my redarc override wiring today, only reason i did it was to force the redarc on when i wanted to use the winch and also to jumpstart off aux battery. i used an on/off switch rather than a momentary as i may want the override on for several moments whilst winching (i know i could have wired a relay in to do this for me on winching but i didnt want to)

i followed the wiring diag here
http://redarc.com.au/handy-hints/wiring ... bi-install

keep note on which terminal goes to which battery, sounds like you may have them on the wrong terminals or something. if you look closely at the pic you can tell which terminal is which on redarc, bit hard to see. also, you dont HAVE to have the LED and resistor in there, it just duplicates what the redarc LED is doing, ie. lit when closed.

EDIT:
i just re-read your post, if your crank never goes above the preset voltage (13v or something i cant remember) the solenoid WONT close. so you probably have a shagged starter battery or something.
If you wire in the override, you will be able to crank off your aux (thats the whole point of the override) but you may still have a shagged crank batt.

[royce]

your crank battery is stuffed and the redarc did EXACTLY what its meant to do, its not some magic device that will reverse charge a battery out of thin air

[ridzilla]

So it's wired up correctly, and tomorrow I'll start setting up the over ride because it's too dark at the moment.
My crank battery is fine, it's only a few months old and I got it checked.
So the idea for the redarc was to keep enough charge in the crank battery to start the car, by moving power from the AUX battery?

[Scales]

the redarc cuts the line between the aux and crank when the volts start to drop so that when you are running your fridge, work lamps etc off your aux battery with the engine off, when you go to start your car the next day... you CAN (as the aux is no longer connected to the crank battery, it would drain both otherwise). even if your aux is flatter than crank (from fridge running all night)

then when you manage to start the car the next morning, the volts slowly get up to the threshold voltage from the alternator, close the solenoid, and charge the aux battery simultaneously with the crank batt.

If you cant get the volts up on your crank battery, IE running stereo all night, headlights on etc etc. you can "override" and effectively jump yourself.

So yeah, your crank is stuffed mate. or you are running stuff off it when you should be running them off the aux batt....


In simplest terms, redarc is designed to protect your start battery so you can start the car no matter what gear you have wired into your aux battery. additionally, any extra stuff you have like UHF, fridges etc etc should be on your aux battery.
worse case scenario with a correctly wired redarc is your aux batt goes dead flat and you cant charge it. hence why most ppl run deep cycle as an aux battery.

your crank should never be flat however with a good redarc setup.


Longwinded but hopefully that explains it.

[royce]

ridzilla wrote:

So it's wired up correctly, and tomorrow I'll start setting up the over ride because it's too dark at the moment.
My crank battery is fine, it's only a few months old and I got it checked.
So the idea for the redarc was to keep enough charge in the crank battery to start the car, by moving power from the AUX battery?

no, as nothing is charging the aux battery so how can it?

you need a maintenance battery charger

[Scales]

well he could wire in the override to start the car and hope that the alternator charges his crank battery after that. but i wouldnt count on it with 7v on it....

[ridzilla]

so even if the aux battery is full, it needs to be charging to give power to the crank?

I went to work with my crank battery, and got the mechs to check it and give it a full charge. I'm assuming its alright,

[Scales]

i guess my post didnt explain it then.

it ISOLATES the auxillary battery until 1 of 2 conditions are met:

* the charge present on the CRANK battery side (either by the battery itself being really full or the alternator/engine running) reaches 13v (or so, cant remember figure)

* you press the override switch.


Thats it. nothing else. will link the batterys.... it only links them to charge the aux battery. not the other way around.

the setup isnt designed to let the aux give power to the crank all the time (unless you override it in a dead crank situation, if you left your headlights on or something)


you know what they say about assumption dont you?



out of curiosity, what are you running off your aux battery? and what is your understanding of what is supposed to be happening?