Drifter Control Panel - Charging Current

[Paul75]

G'day. Prior to my changes (which I'll mention shortly) I had 2x100amp batteries, SETEC and Drifter Control Panel. All worked as it should.
Recently I've rewired it so I now have a CTEK D250S with inputs from solar and car alternator. Have also put in a fuse box to add extra circuits (more 12V points, LED lighting in pantry, rechargeable 12V torch, etc).

While doing this I had to disconnect everything, which meant Drifter Panel as well. The instruction manual for this says if doing this then you have to go back through the setup for the control panel. Then discharge batteries and recharge.

Now the problem is….After I had discharged the batteries I connected to mains 240V and recharged them. One they appeared charged I turned off and disconnected the 240V however the Drifter still showed a charging current of about 1.6amps. I turned the battery switch off and the current still shows. If I turn a light on then the charging current goes down by the amount that the appliance draws.
So where would this charging current be coming from? Could it be from one battery to the other?

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[DaveS]

Hi
how did you connect the batteries together, you should have a shunt resistor that the drifter uses for amp usage. a dual battery system should have both batteries connected together at the battery terminals and not after the shunt if you know what i mean. if you connect the second battery on the other side of the shunt from the original battery you may get some amps showing as they balance out.

 

[Paul75]

G'day Dave. Yeah both batteries were connected together at the terminals. I think they problem may have had something to do with adding circuits while everything was still hooked up. I disconnected the negative lead from the battery to the shunt and reconnected and it is now all good.
Thanks for your reply.

 

[jbell6660]

Found this old thread which is revel ant to my problem. Have done the same but charging current from the solar panels shows only around .9 amps but I have measured with multi meter and earlier today it was around 8.5amps. Have a feeling I have a negative maybe on the wrong side of the shunt. Photo shows set up. Any thoughts why drifter only showing this charge amps?? I guess my question is where does the negative cable from the solar panels connect to??? Jim.

 

[jbell6660]

Guys a bit more info to above. That 0.9amps was discharging. When I switched on a light etc that amp rate increased. So why is the selection show charging and. Not discharging???

All sorted. Jayco has wired the shunt arse about. Now all good. Cheers.