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Redarc BCDC charger

PostPosted: Sat, 06 Apr 2019 3:05 +0000
by GD40
Hi all,

My auto-elec in me is very very amateur and I'm trying to understand what the charger does and how.

Long story shorts I believed the charger was supposed to look after my aux battery which runs my fridge. It has an Anderson plug attached to it for solar.

I went away and decided to plug my solar into this Anderson plug and after 2 days my fridge was showing it was out of power.

I reconnected the solar via alligator clips to the aux battery.

Does anyone know why plugging directly into the charger via the Anderson plug would not be charging the second battery?

I'm bad!

GD40

Re: Redarc BCDC charger

PostPosted: Sat, 06 Apr 2019 5:33 +0000
by dabbler
If your solar panel has a regulator, it would be competing with the mppt built into the Redarc. Bypass the panel's regulator when connecting through a dcdc charger (I left the regulator in place and rewired to bypass).

Of course, if it hasn't, you will kill your battery by using an unregulated power supply connected directly.

Edit..A Redarc bcdc out of the box, has no terminations on wiring. Any Anderson plug was added by your sparkie and I'm assuming done correctly.

Re: Redarc BCDC charger

PostPosted: Sun, 07 Apr 2019 5:45 +0000
by martynvella
You need to be asking someone that is able to look at it otherwise you will just get educated guesses without a very detailed description of every detail of your installation.

Re: Redarc BCDC charger

PostPosted: Sun, 07 Apr 2019 5:58 +0000
by DeadlyBeast
As Marty suggests more detail may help
Firstly - what model BCDC do you have?
Sounds like you may not have a redarc model that has a solar regulator built in and that the your anderson leads charge your starter battery when connected to the solar panel