Warwick XL Leisure battery / Vehicle battery

Last newbie post from me folks and, in advance, thanks for all your helpful replies to this one and the other threads.

The 2018 van we collected at the weekend has an unusual feature we keep falling foul of. The electrical controller unit under the offside rear bench seat has a button to switch the Caravan side power source from leisure battery to vehicle battery. The head height control panel above the sliding door has the same feature. With the latter it's really easy to select vehicle battery which soon results in all manner of electrical gremlins as voltage drops, and thankfully a warning noise and visual indicator that the vehicle battery is being drained.

Also why this feature is present - why on earth would anyone want to risk killing their vehicle battery in this way when they could just run the engine? 

Pedantic perhaps but am really intrigued how you folks use this feature to your benefit.

Can I ask what your tips are for avoiding use of vehicle battery - presume just a matter of do your best not to press the wrong button and listen out for the warning? 

Cheers,

I think I can envisage a situation where using the vehicle battery as a power source is desirable but only in very limited situations.
My main problem with Sargeant electrics is the frequency of events where I find I get switched over to the vehicle battery without my selecting it (which I would never do).
This alone is enough for me to hope for AS to stop using Sargeant electrics.

One situation I have identified is when I am on EHU and smart charging decides it needs to charge the vehicle battery. It charges the vehicle battery by selecting vehicle as the power source (no problem at this point as I am on EHU). If I now switch off EC480/500 and disconnect (e.g. to move site), then the next time I switch on (without EHU) the vehicle battery is still selected as the source and the hab electrics are run off the vehicle battery (when I never asked for it, ).

I have changed the MH Vehicle Type advanced setting to Fiat to stop an automatic switchover (from leisure to vehicle as power source) when the Leisure drops to 12.4V (which I think quite a high threshold)  

You need to be constantly watchful of which battery source the Sergeant has decided to use. Then I can live with it but I really wish AS would drop Sargent.


NB my experience is based on a EC480/EC500 system from 2017.

I just got off the phone with the helpful chap at Autosleepers who said this feature is something to do with the variety of options offered for charging. He suggested leaving it on 'smart charge' which I think is what you are describing though clearly there are pitfalls to this as well. Thanks for sharing those. I'll check the manual to see what that looks like as am pretty sure I have only been able to select vehicle source as LB Leisure batter or VB Vehicle battery and I presumed these were for source not for charging as well - do let me know what it looks like if you know though!) 

Seems keeping a close eye on charging is the way forward. The 2008 van we changed for this had no such issues. It just worked, albeit no solar!

I think we are talking about the advanced settings
reference pages 2 and 3 of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] (EC480/EC500)

I have charging mode as SMART, with associated pitfall as you recognise.
I also set MH Vehicle Type to FIAT. My van is a Peugeot and was supplied with this set to Peugeot but I was getting low battery alarms in the middle of the night when the Leisure battery was at 12.4V and the source was swapped automatically to Vehicle (with no involvement from me). I think 12.4V is too high a threshold for this action but you cant adjust it, either 12.4V Peugeot or 10.9V FIAT.

So if I select vehicle battery, does that mean I am running on that battery? I thought it only selected where the charge went.

After 4.5 years I am still confused

I have also set van to Fiat or should that be FLAT

So many posts---confused.com
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Richard

rgermain wrote:So if I select vehicle battery, does that mean I am running on that battery? I thought it only selected where the charge went.

If you're on EHU then it means you're charging the vehicle battery. If you are not on EHU then you're running the hab electrics from the vehicle battery (I say be careful of doing this).

So if off EHU and using solar and the smart switches to Vehicle and I am watching TV etc, then power comes from Vehicle not leisure?
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Richard

rgermain wrote:So if off EHU and using solar and the smart switches to Vehicle and I am watching TV etc, then power comes from Vehicle not leisure?

So it does get confusing now your referring to the "solar charging" setting (which also has a smart setting) as opposed to the "charging mode".

I think the power for your TV will come from the the battery that is selected as "active" (battery select button). Shown as "Active Battery Data (Vehicle selected)" along the bottom of the EC480. I think this is independent of which battery is receiving solar charge.

I am looking at the manual now, it says the battery selected is the power source if no mains supply is present, or battery to be charged if mains supply is available.  I think that supports my belief.



I would never select Vehicle as the active battery when not on EHU. I am trying to devise a punishment for the person at Sargent who suggested this idea. I think a firing squad or hanging as too good for them, I want something worse. They make me suffer and I want them to.

AutoSleepy_Don wrote:

rgermain wrote:So if off EHU and using solar and the smart switches to Vehicle and I am watching TV etc, then power comes from Vehicle not leisure?

So it does get confusing now your referring to the "solar charging" setting (which also has a smart setting) as opposed to the "charging mode".

I think the power for your TV will come from the the battery that is selected as "active" (battery select button). Shown as "Active Battery Data (Vehicle selected)" along the bottom of the EC480. I think this is independent of which battery is receiving solar charge.

I am looking at the manual now, it says the battery selected is the power source if no mains supply is present, or battery to be charged if mains supply is available.  I think that supports my belief.



I would never select Vehicle as the active battery when not on EHU. I am trying to devise a punishment for the person at Sargent who suggested this idea. I think a firing squad or hanging as too good for them, I want something worse.

Thanks, I will have a look with my meter or just disconnect the leisure battery and see what happens.

Crazy set up if you ask me.
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Richard

If the smart charge is turned off in the advanced menus, a solar panel and it’s own regulator connected to the leisure battery and then a battery master connected to allow the starter battery to be topped up would the Sargent system have any reason to try and use the starter battery to run things or switch over to it?

FreelanderUK wrote:If the smart charge is turned off in the advanced menus, a solar panel and it’s own regulator connected to the leisure battery and then a battery master connected to allow the starter battery to be topped up would the Sargent system have any reason to try and use the starter battery to run things or switch over to it?

There is still the automatic changeover when the leisure drops to 12.4V if you are still set to PEUGEOT. Have you taken steps to prevent that?
Can't think of anything else.

I haven’t done anything yet ,still in the planning stage for when I get the van next week

I've accessed the secret menu and switched ours to Fiat and activated smart on EHU and Solar. Have removed EHU as need to tweak the water pressure switch for voltage so it works on battery (see other thread on water pump). Will keep a close watch see how we go.