Hooking up battery. Setec system in Jayco camper trailer

[Don 130]

After quite a few years of ownership, I've finally got a battery to hook up to the Setec ST20 power manager in our camper trailer. 120amp AGM battery. I've also got a 160 watt solar panel. The battery is hooked up to terminals VBATT+ and VBATT-, shown in the user manual the link to which is below.
Can anyone confirm that I can charge the battery with the solar panel through the drawbar Anderson plug (Same feed in as the Defender), or do I need to wire a separate dedicated connection direct to the battery for the solar panel?

http://www.setec.com.au/pdf/ST-Series-User-Manual.pdf

Don.

[Don 130]

Anyone help with this?
Don.

[Mick_Marsh]

The way I read it, you connect the solar system to the DC external input via a solar panel regulator.
That way it runs through the trickle charger.
Where is the Anderson plug connected on that diagram?

[Blknight.aus]

with that setup you must have regulated panels, due to the blocking diode in external DC supply I would advise connecting to the anderson plug as you could be loosing upto .7v through that diode which will rob you of potenailly 15% of your battery capacity if the panels are only trying to float charge (negligible difference if you have a decent load like a fridge running)

If it was me...


I'd be ripping that diode out and fitting a solar regulator in its place then only plugging the panels in there and then using the trailer setup to charge the vehicle battery while stationary.

The bonus of putting the solar on the anderson plug is this, you can use it to charge both the defender and the trailer depending on which you connect to BUT you cant do both at once.

reading the spec sheet I would guess that the Diode in the DC input would be likely to be a 10A diode, if you hook a 160 watt panel to it its going to pop if you have a flat battery and a big load.

Also, the current sensing is on the earth cable so make sure you run everything back to the unit or its going to get confused. you'll have to make an exception for the anderson plug for charging from the vehicle and just accept that your battery monitor figures will be a little off.

Also Ignore the wire chart they provided. you should slide all those values up to the next common wire size for the amps they specified.

[Don 130]

The way I read it, you connect the solar system to the DC external input via a solar panel regulator.
That way it runs through the trickle charger.
Where is the Anderson plug connected on that diagram?

Mick, The thing was wired onto the trailer when we bought it new, but I assume the drawbar Anderson plug is wired to DC External input.
Don.

[Don 130]

with that setup you must have regulated panels, due to the blocking diode in external DC supply I would advise connecting to the anderson plug as you could be loosing upto .7v through that diode which will rob you of potenailly 15% of your battery capacity if the panels are only trying to float charge (negligible difference if you have a decent load like a fridge running)

If it was me...


I'd be ripping that diode out and fitting a solar regulator in its place then only plugging the panels in there and then using the trailer setup to charge the vehicle battery while stationary.

The bonus of putting the solar on the anderson plug is this, you can use it to charge both the defender and the trailer depending on which you connect to BUT you cant do both at once.

reading the spec sheet I would guess that the Diode in the DC input would be likely to be a 10A diode, if you hook a 160 amp panel to it its going to pop if you have a flat battery and a big load.

Also, the current sensing is on the earth cable so make sure you run everything back to the unit or its going to get confused. you'll have to make an exception for the anderson plug for charging from the vehicle and just accept that your battery monitor figures will be a little off.

Also Ignore the wire chart they provided. you should slide all those values up to the next common wire size for the amps they specified.


Thanks Dave, I can already charge the Defender through an Anderson plug on the side of the battery box. The solar panels do have a solar regulator fitted, so if the diode is going to be a problem, should I just hook a separate heavy input direct to the battery. That way I can still charge either, but I bypass the diode by going direct to the battery with the solar.
Don.

[Blknight.aus]

thats in in a nutshell.