Low Battery with dim lights

Squirrel

Member
Two times now our lights go dim. I checked the fuses, inverter, and breaker. After looking over the fuses, unplugging the inverter and plugging it back in the lights came back to bright. The batteries showed 12.4 then. Second time I did the same thing and the batteries showed 14.2. So the batteries are good and can't understand why this problem started. Any help appreciated. Dan
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
What you are probably experiencing is the converter changing modes. The "dim" may be the normal brightness, when your battery is fully charged. When the converter senses it needs to add a charge, it goes into BOOST mode. The voltage will be higher and the lights will brighten for several minutes. Once charged, the lights will dim again.

If you have a Progressive Dynamics converter, you can buy a "Charge Wizard" that attaches to it and will indicate what mode your converter is operating in.
 

Oregon_Camper

Well-known member
Two times now our lights go dim. I checked the fuses, inverter, and breaker. After looking over the fuses, unplugging the inverter and plugging it back in the lights came back to bright. The batteries showed 12.4 then. Second time I did the same thing and the batteries showed 14.2. So the batteries are good and can't understand why this problem started. Any help appreciated. Dan

Did you mean the "converter" not "inverter"?

The "converter" supplies 12v to RV and batteries. The "inverter" will create AC power from the batteries.

This is what a typical "converter" looks like.

Converter.jpg
 

Jesstruckn/Jesstalkn

Well-known member
Is this on battery power only or are you plugged into shore power ? Sounds like you might have the the little manual reset button tripped on the circuit breaker in the front compartment. You'll find it on the side of only 1 of the circuit breakers.

Jerrod
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
Is this on battery power only or are you plugged into shore power ? Sounds like you might have the the little manual reset button tripped on the circuit breaker in the front compartment. You'll find it on the side of only 1 of the circuit breakers.

Jerrod

Or a bad battery and the converter is compensating for it by trying to maintain a charge on it. If the battery water level has not been maintained properly, there is that possibility.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

wdk450

Well-known member
If this problem is still happening, I think you need to take voltage measurements on the battery when the lights go "dim" BEFORE taking any corrective action. It would probably be helpful to measure the converter output voltage at the converter, or at the fusepanel, or at the incoming wire to the converter circuit breaker on the battery bussbar. The busbar itself is connected to the battery. You can also take measurements after resetting power, if you choose to do so.

The converter/chargers initially put out 14.4 volts DC when AC power is applied to the converter/charger. This will step down to lower charging voltages as time passes, or the charging current is reduced by the increasing charge resistance of the battery. Good sophisticated converter/chargers have logic circuitry that recognizes this.

Here is a link to a webpage on the charging levels of the Progessive Dynamics charge wizard circuitry: http://www.progressivedyn.com/prod_details/charge_wizard.html

This might help, too: https://manuals.heartlandowners.org..._Buss_Bar/Heartland/12V diagram and notes.pdf
 
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