Advice on Travel Power / Inverter / Charger

[Mrs Humdinger]

We have a Mastervolt Mass Combi (Sine Wave Inverter/Charger with Generator/Mains Support) with the basic indicator panel - sorry, don't know which model as I am at home with only the generic manual to refer to - and a Dometic 230 V Travel Power Unit.

 

Normally, when we are going along, on the panel the inverter light goes out and the charger light comes on, indicating that the inverter is operating in charger mode and doing it's 3 phase charging thing. This weekend, I noticed that when going along the inverter light stayed on, which would indicate that the inverter is not going over to charger mode. The batteries still charged, but I would imagine that it's better to 3 point charge via the charger than not?

 

All the lights are green, everything looks good to go and we haven't fiddled with anything. These seem quite clever bits of kit, so if anything was wrong I would expect to see some kind of indication in the form of a red light or a buzzer. If you stick your head in the cupboard and look at the actual unit itself, the AC light on the inverter seems to flicker. It seems to me that either the Travel Power is not producing electricity, or it is and that the Inverter somehow isn't registering this. This has happened a couple of times before, but seems to sort itself out.

 

Mr Hum is completely befuddled with the whole thing, and suggested that perhaps the batteries didn't need charging enough to warrant the charger kicking in, but that doesn't seem like a very plausible explanation to me, particularly as we'd been moored up overnight with the fridge, lights, etc, on.

 

I've had a read through both manuals but can't see anything that would explain it. Can anyone offer any advice, or point me at where I should be looking?

 

Thanks.

 

Mrs Hum

[Chris Pink]

First step, assuming no voltmeter on the 240V side of things is to switch off the Mastervolt unit and see if the Travelpower is still producing 240V. This will identify whether the fault is with the Travelpower or the Mastervolt (or somewhere betwixt)

[Canalwatcher]

On our Victron combi we have a "charge only" switch. Selecting this cuts out the inverter. If we run the engine with this selected the charging light illuminates on the control box and the 240v sockets supply 240v. If the travel power was not working then the charging light would not be illuminated and there would be no 240v at the sockets.

 

If Mastervolt set up is similar this would be a way of testing whether your travel power is working

[Evo]

This isn't going to help but it does seem to be wonky Inverter week.

 

Last night a mate of mine came flying off his boat with his engine board in his hand.

"I reckon the bloody shit tank is leaking all over the place..!! Can you smell that!!!"

 

A white vapour was rising from the engine hole and a faint hissing could be heard.

Rotten eggs... hmm.

 

"Thats the batteries cooking, its not the poo tank"

 

"Bloody hell I'd better go turn the genny off"

 

His Inverter seems to have switched over to charge allright - monster charge.

 

 

3000 quid inverter scraps 500 quids worth of batteries in seconds.....amazing.

 

I'm glad we haven't got any of that automatic switching crap. Last night finally convinced me I made the right decision steering clear of fancy electronics on our boat.

 

And now your problemm...what is it with these things. I spent all morning searching for victron inverter issues and the only sensible solution seemed to be something called a "float test". I'm not so sure thats such a daft idea.

[WotEver]

First step, assuming no voltmeter on the 240V side of things is to switch off the Mastervolt unit and see if the Travelpower is still producing 240V. This will identify whether the fault is with the Travelpower or the Mastervolt (or somewhere betwixt)

What Chris said.

 

Tony

[Keith M]

We have a Mastervolt Mass Combi (Sine Wave Inverter/Charger with Generator/Mains Support) with the basic indicator panel - sorry, don't know which model as I am at home with only the generic manual to refer to - and a Dometic 230 V Travel Power Unit.

 

Normally, when we are going along, on the panel the inverter light goes out and the charger light comes on, indicating that the inverter is operating in charger mode and doing it's 3 phase charging thing. This weekend, I noticed that when going along the inverter light stayed on, which would indicate that the inverter is not going over to charger mode. The batteries still charged, but I would imagine that it's better to 3 point charge via the charger than not?

 

All the lights are green, everything looks good to go and we haven't fiddled with anything. These seem quite clever bits of kit, so if anything was wrong I would expect to see some kind of indication in the form of a red light or a buzzer. If you stick your head in the cupboard and look at the actual unit itself, the AC light on the inverter seems to flicker. It seems to me that either the Travel Power is not producing electricity, or it is and that the Inverter somehow isn't registering this. This has happened a couple of times before, but seems to sort itself out.

 

Mr Hum is completely befuddled with the whole thing, and suggested that perhaps the batteries didn't need charging enough to warrant the charger kicking in, but that doesn't seem like a very plausible explanation to me, particularly as we'd been moored up overnight with the fridge, lights, etc, on.

 

I've had a read through both manuals but can't see anything that would explain it. Can anyone offer any advice, or point me at where I should be looking?

 

Thanks.

 

Mrs Hum

[Mrs Humdinger]

Thanks all - I've taken heed of your suggestions and am going to go and fiddle at the weekend!

[smileypete]

This isn't going to help but it does seem to be wonky Inverter week.

 

Last night a mate of mine came flying off his boat with his engine board in his hand.

"I reckon the bloody shit tank is leaking all over the place..!! Can you smell that!!!"

 

A white vapour was rising from the engine hole and a faint hissing could be heard.

Rotten eggs... hmm.

 

"Thats the batteries cooking, its not the poo tank"

 

"Bloody hell I'd better go turn the genny off"

 

His Inverter seems to have switched over to charge allright - monster charge.

 

 

3000 quid inverter scraps 500 quids worth of batteries in seconds.....amazing.

 

I'm glad we haven't got any of that automatic switching crap. Last night finally convinced me I made the right decision steering clear of fancy electronics on our boat.

A £10 analogue panel DC voltmeter might have saved the day.

 

Maybe the OP could do with an analogue panel AC mains voltmeter.

 

cheers,

Pete.

[Evo]

No, I dont think so, no volt meter would of helped him....nothing would.

 

Most of the week he runs his engine for hot water and his twin alternator setup takes care of all of his batteries. No problems.

 

Once or twice a week he runs his 6KVA genny for washing machine (inverter wont run it properly) and general top up of batteries via Inverter bulk, absorbtion and float. When its been in float for a while he switches off and assumes he has full charge on everything. (massive blue Victron inverter)

 

I went through how the whole thing worked with him the other night, The split charge relay, how his engine and BT battery gets charge when the genny is on. What the Solar panels doing. After a while I realised I may aswell of been talking to the dog, at least the dog looked at me and tipped his head, the guys eyes had glazed over and he was trying to get away.

 

Simple, simple, simple...would of been spot on for these . Whats the point of worrying about wear and tear on your engine when an inverter/charger costs nearly as much as a new engine (Isuzu), is half as reliable, and you haven't got a clue what it does anyway.

 

After the inital panic that all his batteries were scrap, his inverter was bolloxed, and he now had no power for the rest of the night, we finally calmed down and went through it. The inverter is fine, 2 of his batteries have gone mental the other 4 are OK. One of the 2 has a casing thats bulged out like its about to go pop. That one was hot smoking and fizzing, the other was dribbling acid down its side but not as bad as the other. His split charge relay had been clicking like mad and the whole event - what with the smell - had been pretty frightening.

 

Turns out he'll get his batteries replaced FOC and nothing is damaged other than an isolator switch which I noticed had a cracked body. Lucky boy eh.

 

Theres no way he will ever leave his boat connected to a shoreline or genny whilst its charging ever again.

[smileypete]

No, I dont think so, no volt meter would of helped him....nothing would.

 

...

Would have thought an analogue DC voltmeter was simple enough, just mark off the scale with the normal charge voltage. Car drivers seem to manage OK with the temperature and fuel gauges.

 

Might be worth pointing him towards River Canal Rescue or a marine electrical specialist.

 

Problem with getting involved like that is the 'since you did whatever (ie. helping for nowt) this isn't quite right (and can you fix it again?)' sort of thing, BTDTGTTS

 

I'm usually more than happy to help where someone is taking a real interest.

 

cheers,

Pete.

[paulcatchpole]

Would have thought an analogue DC voltmeter was simple enough, just mark off the scale with the normal charge voltage. Car drivers seem to manage OK with the temperature and fuel gauges.

 

I rely on the overcharge cutouts instead, as a weather vane on charge voltage, on my car. When the alternator voltage goes up beyond 15v, the dashboard lights up like a christmas tree as the protection shuts down the ABS/ASC/Airbags/etc/etc/etc..... :D

 

Maybe I should just find the problem and fix it...

 

PC