Onan gen, solar charge voltage

[rtbmrgl]

Hello,
I have a two part question,
1-what is a good charge cut off voltage for solar charger,
I have wet filled batteries and 2-100w panels, it's now set at
13.8v
2-my battery went very low, (refer was on DC at night by mistake)
The battery voltage dropped to about 10-10.5 v, the generator
started and ran as long as I pushed the start button, it stayed running but when released it stopped running. The orange light on the switch did not come. When the generator
is running and charging the orange switch light is on. Once the solar brought the batteries up a little the generator worked normally.

I have a onboard Onan 2500, AF-990.

Thanks Mark
Roseville, Ca

[USMarine0369]

rtbmrgl wrote:

USMarine0369 wrote:
Mark, was it a bad hour meter? My gen works fine and starts great, but the hour meter is blank. I'm thinking I need to replace just the hour meter. If you replaced yours, where did you get it? Thanks!

Hello, yes the hour meter was bad, I replaced the whole control board, it was close to the same price as the meter.
bought on eBay $39
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Onan-RV-Generator-Remote-Switch-Panel-With-Digital-Hour-Meter-028-00022-/292...

thanks!

[rtbmrgl]

USMarine0369 wrote:
Mark, was it a bad hour meter? My gen works fine and starts great, but the hour meter is blank. I'm thinking I need to replace just the hour meter. If you replaced yours, where did you get it? Thanks!

Hello, yes the hour meter was bad, I replaced the whole control board, it was close to the same price as the meter.
bought on eBay $39
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Onan-RV-Generator-Remote-Switch-Panel-With-Digital-Hour-Meter-028-00022-/292...

[USMarine0369]

Mark, was it a bad hour meter? My gen works fine and starts great, but the hour meter is blank. I'm thinking I need to replace just the hour meter. If you replaced yours, where did you get it? Thanks!

[rtbmrgl]

DrewE wrote:

rtbmrgl wrote:
Hello again, I didnt want to start a new thread,
My Onan hour meter just quit, before I start digging around is there a good starting point to investigate.


Thanks
Mark, Roseville, Ca

The hour meter is (at least on my installation, and the ones I've seen) just wired in parallel with the red pilot light on the remote panel. If the wire to them is open, neither one would work. If the pilot light illuminates when the generator is operating, the problem should be very easy to find on the generator control panel--or else it's the hour meter itself that's broken.

There are four wires to the remote panel, as I recall: one common, one to the "start" side of the switch (which connects to common when the switch is pressed), one to the "stop" side of the switch, and one to power the indicator light and hour meter. I don't offhand remember for certain if the common was ground or +12V, but I suspect it's chassis ground. At any rate, if the start and stop switch works, the common is obviously OK.

If the hour meter is on the generator itself, I would guess it's wired similarly, but perhaps not.

Thanks Drew for getting back,
Yeah it sounds like it may be just a wiring issue or bad meter. The Gen light comes on and it charges. When I got the camper it only had 1.8hrs on the gen, so now I wondering if the meter was always operating although looking at the generator it was very clean and the oil looked new.

thanks again

[DrewE]

rtbmrgl wrote:
Hello again, I didnt want to start a new thread,
My Onan hour meter just quit, before I start digging around is there a good starting point to investigate.


Thanks
Mark, Roseville, Ca

The hour meter is (at least on my installation, and the ones I've seen) just wired in parallel with the red pilot light on the remote panel. If the wire to them is open, neither one would work. If the pilot light illuminates when the generator is operating, the problem should be very easy to find on the generator control panel--or else it's the hour meter itself that's broken.

There are four wires to the remote panel, as I recall: one common, one to the "start" side of the switch (which connects to common when the switch is pressed), one to the "stop" side of the switch, and one to power the indicator light and hour meter. I don't offhand remember for certain if the common was ground or +12V, but I suspect it's chassis ground. At any rate, if the start and stop switch works, the common is obviously OK.

If the hour meter is on the generator itself, I would guess it's wired similarly, but perhaps not.

[time2roll]

Better change the thread title and list the exact serial number and model number of the ONAN

[rtbmrgl]

Hello again, I didnt want to start a new thread,
My Onan hour meter just quit, before I start digging around is there a good starting point to investigate.


Thanks
Mark, Roseville, Ca

[rtbmrgl]

Thanks for all you feedback,
DrewE, sounds like the generator is acting normal.
You would think it should start charging as it started the gen very easily. I have a Arctic Fox camper so starting the truck is an option.

Ill step up the solar charge voltage as westend suggested.

heres a pic of the controller......



http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad102/rtbmrgl2/AB12ACD7-E9AC-4359-9928-E7C4CE715033_zps8gwzcgje.j...

[time2roll]

13.8 is low. What is the controller model?

Generator powering the converter should have brought the system voltage up fairly quick... what converter do you have?

[Moderator]

Moved from "General"

[Sam_Spade]

westend wrote:
13.8 V for the solar voltage limit is too low.

Probably but it really depends on whether he has a smart controller or just a voltage limiter.

[westend]

13.8 V for the solar voltage limit is too low. You don't state the type, amount, and capacity of your batteries but a typical arrangement of two 12 V batteries will not be fully charged in a day of typical use with the 13.8 V limit. FWIW, my programmable controller is set at 14.6 V for daily bulk and absorption charging and the float is set at 13.6V. The controller charge is temperature compensated so voltage will swing off those numbers in the seasons.

Your generator problem can be one of a number of things. I'd suggest to search the Forum for that starting problem as it has been addressed many times.

[DrewE]

Regarding question 2, the generator needs 12V power in to operate; the battery provide excitation power for the field (and to run the generator controls). If it's not getting enough power or detects any of various other problems, it shuts down. Many of the fault checks are disabled while the start switch is held in.

If this is a motorhome, you probably could have started the main engine so that the alternator charges the house battery and whatever battery isolator system you have engages, and then started the generator. Once it is running and the converter providing 12V power, it likely would have enough voltage to keep going and operating (and you could then shut down the main engine).