Program the battery type into the unit, go to the battery type program dip switches on the unit 12 and set
the battery type accordingly. There are 3 main battery types,
Non sealed lead acid or sealed lead acid, where you can unscrew the lid of the battery and are able to top it up with water, these are by far the best type for fast charging and long life. ( max voltage 14.8 )
Gel / Exide spec. This program is, as per the recommendation of Exide, set at a voltage of 14.4 volts for
about 10-12 hrs. The unit drops then to float.
Gel U.S.A. spec. For some reason known to someone but not to us, the American gel manufactures want a different charging regime than the European ones. Don't ask us why, if in doubt as the battery supplier, this setting has a max charger voltage of 14.1 volts.
Sealed lead acid/ A.G.M. This is set to a maximum charger voltage of 14.4 with a software program to match most of these battery types, some AGM batteries only want 14.1, if so, set the unit to the American gel setting. If in doubt ask the battery supplier
My advise is where possible use the open lead acid batteries, which are also by far the lowest cost . Due to their
slow recharge rate, avoid gel batteries for fast charging cycles.
Fit the unit as close as possible ( taking into account the above requirements ) to the supply batteries.
If you must fit it in an enclosed engine room ( i.e. a small yacht , where the engine room is fully enclosed with sound proofing all over the place ,then fit any equipment as low as possible. Its best to fit it outside the engine room near the battery box.
Always remember, that the only thing in the engine room that is air cooled is your alternator. If you have a totally sealed room then don’t be surprised when you go through alternators on a regulator basis. If the engine room is sealed then put a vent tube from outside to the back of the alternator, the alternator will suck air through the back and cool itself. Then you will never have any alternator problems.
Battery temp: Simply connect one of the enclosed temperature sensor to a battery terminal post 6 ( neg. or pos. ), and to the 2 x small terminals marked battery temp. simply push the small lever down and insert one wire into each side, there is no polarity on these wires. make sure you do not crush the temp sensor which is a small thing inside the yellow ring terminal, as this will destroy the processor chip. The output voltage will be reduced in accordance with manufacturers battery charging temperature curves and in the event of the battery temperature increasing due to battery failure, it exceeds 50 deg C, which is a major problem, the unit will switch off the charger .
Alternator high temp disengage: 10 This is another temp sensor ( supplied ) which should be connected to your alternator output post ( b+ ) and will disengage the amplifier in the event of the alternator reaching 100 deg C. LED does simply inform on the remote when the alternator reaches the temperature. When the alternator cools down a little, the system automatically reengages and carries on .
Domestic sense: 8 As standard this unit senses all the control voltages at the unit, however if you want to sense the voltage at the domestic battery direct, to over come the voltage drops in the cable run drops, then simply connect a cable from the domestic sense connection direct to the domestic battery
Remote control kit: 13 An optional extra with this unit is the remote control kit, this comes complete with a remote display, See fig 5-6 for remote operation.
Start up and test procedure
When the unit is connected, it senses the output voltage from the input battery, if the voltage is above 11 volts then the system will come on for about 5 min., it will then work out that the input battery is to low to do anything and shut its self down into sleep mode, the only way to start the system up then is to increase the input battery voltage by either switching the engine on or start a battery charger. When the unit first starts up then the top battery type LED should show yellow red or green, depending on the battery type selected, and the constant current LED ( 3 down ) will flash slowly. This green LED should slow flash, which shows that the unit is working but is inactive for the first 2.5 min. to allow the engine battery to recover a little.
After about 2.5 min. the green light will stop flashing and go onto green continuous, or shut the system down to rest mode if the battery voltage is to low. The chances are, that the engine load, which is the system on constant current, will increase while the unit should be boosting the current into the domestic battery bank. This high current will continue for about 20 minutes then it will stop for 3 min. to allow ensure the engine battery is o.k..
Once the domestic battery reaches a certain voltage ( depending on the battery type setting but between 13.5-14 v) , the trimmer LED will come on and high charge rate will continue for a calculated time period ( never the same ) see fig 8 lower right of page , the box marked setup. This time period is determined by what battery type program you select and the state of charger of the batteries. The rest periods is 3 mins every 20 mins, After the time is over, the unit drops to float at 14 volts at constant voltage with no switch off period. The unit will attempt to hold the battery voltage. However, if the output battery falls below about 12.8 volts for more than 15 mins , the system will reset into the boost charger mode again. also it the input voltage fall below 12.8 volts, the system will assume, that the input is switched off and will switch the system into rest mode to conserve energy. Only if the input voltage rises again, will the system restart.
