Sterling Power Products PDARRC - Handbuch (Seite 10)

post may increase in temperature due to electrical resistance caused by bad connections, which could result in
misleading temperature readings by the sensor. This would result in the Regulator shutdown with no fault with
the batteries, a simple visual check and touching the battery case and battery terminals should establish if the
electrolyte and the terminal are the same temp or the terminal is much hotter than the electrolyte, in which case,
the problem could be bad electrical connections at your battery.
Other new features on this unit:
Dash warning light, some new alternators have a high voltage warning build into their alternators regulators, this
switches on the ignition warning light in the event of fitting the Advanced Regulator (the Advanced Regulators
higher voltage control makes the standard regulator think that it has failed).
One of the limitations of battery temperature
sensing is that you could have 6 batteries and 1 sensor. The battery the sensor is connected to could be OK but
battery number 5 could fail and the sensor is on battery number 2, the sensor would not pick up that problem.
WARNING: TO DATE, THERE IS
ONLY 1 MARINE ALTERNATOR WITH THIS PROBLEM (ON SOME FORD ENGINES) AND ONLY A
FEW AUTOMOTIVE ALTERNATORS WITH THIS. SO PLEASE PHONE BEFORE ASSUMING THIS IS A
PROBLEM. A small relay is built into the Regulator to disengage the D+ warning when the alternator has started
up. This was a special function for a special vehicle where Sterling Power Products had a demand, however, it
may become more common in the future.
a:Green High Charge Rate On: (top L.E.D. 1) This should be on form start up and shows that the alternator
should be working at it’s maximum. It should remain on until L.E.D. 3 comes on and shows the high charge
rate is over.
b:Yellow Timer Activated: This comes on when the voltage reaches about 13.9 - 14 volts and depending on how
long it takes to come on, the software will calculate the timing for the high charge rate. This will vary from 1
- 6 hours and the time will be displayed on the remote panel and a count down shown. This light will remain
on until the high charge rate light goes out.
c:Green Float Mode: This indicates that all the high charge cycles are now over and should remain on after all
the high charge lights are out. The system is now running at a standard charge rate only (about 14 volts)
regulated on the battery.
d:Orange Low Voltage Warning: This is simply saying that there is a low voltage at the main battery bank and
has no active function. For information only, this usually indicates a defective alternator.
e:Red Dual Information L.E.D: This L.E.D. Has two functions and as such, has two display modes.
Display Mode 1: Solid red L.E.D on indicates a high battery voltage trip, suggesting that the voltage
exceeds 15.5 volts. There are three things that can cause this.
1) The alternator’s own regulator has failed closed, if the voltage continues to climb after the trip light has
come on then the alternator’s own regulator is usually to blame (or there is an installation fault).
2) The Advanced Regulator’s own regulator has failed closed. If the battery voltage returns to 14 volts after
the trip light has gone off then the Sterling Regulator has failed and the unit should be returned for
repair/replacement as soon as possible. It is, however, still safe to use in an emergency case only, as when the
batteries are flat the unit will charge them to 15.5 volts and then switch off. It should be stressed that this is
for emergency, get me to port use only!
3) Some other charging source has failed, ie: the battery charger/wind generator /solar panels etc. In this
case, the voltage would continue to rise even when the engine is switched off.
STOP as
soon as possible and disconnect the alternator wires. Then continue on your journey and fix the problem at
the first opportunity. Sterling are unable to defend you against this fault other than warn you as it is on your
basic system over which we have no control. Failure to react to this problem will result in your batteries
boiling.
WHAT TO EXPECT ON THE L.E.D. DISPLAY and what to do about it
see fig 2 for the relevent l.e.d. .
SETTINGS
Remember
fast charging cost water, check your batteries water level regularly.
the internal pots are set up reference voltages for the new software control system, and not
external voltage adjustment pots (as in the older, non digital models were).
A word of warning, the most likely fault (assuming the Regulator is correctly connected) will be the high
alternator voltage trip warning (all lights flashing), This is a unique safety device to prevent you setting
fire to your boat. The trip consists of two sensors; one is sensing the battery voltage and will trip if the
batteries exceed 15.5 volts (this will only happen if the standard voltage regulator on the alternator is
defective, or the Advanced Regulator is defective). The other sensor is connected to the alternators D+
(the brown wire), this trips the Regulator if the voltage exceeds 17.5 volts at the alternator (all L.E.D's
will flash together) the reasons for this tripping are usually poor cable connections, long cable runs or too
thin a cable to carry the current now being produced or simply a failure in the connection between the
alternator and the batteries) or the most common cause is a inline amp metre. Please be aware of cable
runs with amp metres in the system. A good question to ask yourself is what is the cable length between
the alternator and the batteries, you may think about 4 ft, but on further investigation you could find that
the alternator output goes up to a dash mounted amp metre, then back down to the engine room and then
through a diode to the batteries, total length about 15 feet. This is totally unacceptable and will require
doubling up the cable thickness or replacing the amp meter with a shunt type or induction type (see the
Sterling Power Management Panel)
Up until now you may never have maintained your batteries but with the regulator on the high charge rate you
would expect to use much more water out of your batteries. It is therefore very important to regularly inspect and
refill your batteries water level. For fast, high charging use only conventional lead acid batteries, do not use gel,
or sealed batteries unless the maintenance free aspect is a priority and performance is not. The term 'maintenance
free' may be on the side of your lead acid battery but this is not true in marine work cycle mode. Please ignore
any reference to maintenance free on any open lead acid battery; this is for automotive cycles only.
In order to find the fault, switch the engine on and increase the engine revs to just below where the high
voltage trip is going on. Test the battery voltage (must not ever be above 14.5 volts gel, or 15 volts
normal), now we must measure the voltage drops in the cable between the positive terminal on the largest
battery bank and the alternator itself. Place the negative probe of your volt metre on the positive terminal
of the batteries and measure the voltage between the posivtive of the batteries and the posivtive of the
alternator. Under normal circumstances there should be a 1.2-1.5 voltage drop across the diode and about
1 volt max drop in the cables = 2.5 volts drop in the charging system, any more than this is excessive
cable loss due to poor connections or thin cables. This will show itself as heat, the best thing to do find the
fault, is to carefully feel all the connections on the positive (AND NEGATIVE) sides of the charging
circuit, if the main cable is warm to the touch the or connections are hot, then double up on charging cable
and re do battery connections.
Battery Maintenance.
Temperature sensing: see fig 3 a= alt temp sensor, c = bat temp sensor
Connect the temperature sensor to a domestic battery terminal and to the 2 x terminals inside the Regulator (see
internal drawing) and extend the cables as required. There is no polarity to these cables so connect any way
round. Ensure the sensor is not crushed or nipped, in the event or the sensor becoming broken then the unit will
revert to a standard 20 deg setting, however, if the wire is nipped and a 12 volt feed is fed up the wires this will
destroy the unit . CONNECT TO THE NEG TERMINAL OF THE BATTERY ONLY NOT THE POS
The new Advanced Regulator has in built temperature compensation based on the graphs supplied by the battery
manufactures. There are three graph types programmed into the software and are automatically selected with the
battery type choice. There is also an alarm/shut down function in the event of catastrophic failure of the batteries
or the Advanced Regulator, it may be left off if not required or fitted. This device will reduce the charge voltage
as the battery temperature increases and switches off the Regulator and gives an L.E.D. alarm in the event of the
batteries over heating. This function is good in the following conditions A) defective battery, all other trips are
catered for electrically, remember this will only trip the Sterling Advanced Regulator, your standard regulator
could continue to boil the batteries in the event of a bad battery fault or a standard regulator fault. The Sterling
can only look after problems relating to the Sterling system B) defective Regulator: in the event of a defective
Sterling Regulator or standard regulator the batteries will start to over heat, the Regulator will pick this up and
shut down the Sterling Regulator only, it cannot shut down the standard regulator in the event of it failing closed,
however the alarm function will be on.
False readings: the temperature sensor is designed to fit on the battery terminal post to pick up the electrolytic
temperature inside the battery case. In the event of the post having bad connections of very high current flow, the
In order to accurately monitor what is going on in your system I suggest you look at the Sterling Power
Management Panel / Amp Hour Counter because without this, you have no way of knowing what is going on
your system and will be unable to diagnose any other faults on the electrical system.