Help with a Inteli-Power 9200 Series Charge Wizard

Dave Siegel · June 23, 2013, 07:10:36 AM

I have been using an Inteli-Power 9200 series Charge Wizard when we were in Florida. I had two 12 volt batteries hooked to it and the batteries were also hooked to the gen set for charging when not hooked to shore power.

I guess I cooked the batteries when we had to live in the bus for a couple of months on shore power and I have no house batteries at the moment. My question is: can I use this Charge Wizard with no batteries and power the 12 volt side of the bus? Or do I HAVE to put a battery in line?

Also: Is there a way to check this unit to see if it is working correctly?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Dave Siegel

bevans6 · June 23, 2013, 07:36:55 AM

It should put out a stable 13.6 volts without a battery. It's designed as a converter (RV power supply) first, charger second. It is supposed to be an excellent charger, though, so I am surprised that it cooked your batteries. It's supposed to be able to supply the house DC and maintain the batteries indefinitely, as long as they are happy with 13.6 volts or less. If you put it in Charge Wizard mode it should be able to also act as a 4 stage charger.

Brian

Dave Siegel · June 27, 2013, 04:55:29 AM

OK, I think I understand, but have another question. I have a 27 series battery that I use to start my genset with can I hook this Charge Wizard to it and create enough 12 volt power to run a few 12 volt items in the coach (only occasionally)?

Dave Siegel

bevans6 · June 27, 2013, 06:10:32 AM

If the converter is on (charge wizard is just a software upgrade that lets it do three or four stage battery charging, it's really a converter) then you can run any DC items up to the current limit of the converter, be that 30 or 40 amps. If you have a battery connected, ditto with the difference that drawing over the current limit of the converter will draw down the battery. If the converter is off, you can obviously run things directly off the battery and recharge it when you can. I would not have the converter connected to the battery while the generator is on, you don't want the battery being charged by two things at once and the generator could harm the converter.

Brian

Dave Siegel · June 27, 2013, 07:00:21 AM

Thank you that makes really good sense about having the converter on and off when the genset is running. That explains why I fried the house batteries that I had in place. Now I have to check and see how to turn on and off the converter. I didn't notice a switch before.

dave Siegel

Dave Siegel · June 27, 2013, 07:40:16 AM

Hi Brian, I just went up to the bus and hooked up the start battery and got the generator to start, yeah. Looked on all four sides and I can not see an on and off switch. Do you have a suggestion as to how I might hook this up to remotely start and stop?

Dave

bevans6 · June 27, 2013, 08:08:22 AM

A converter is normally wired directly to a breaker on the main panel. In RV use they are designed to always be on, and if batteries are being charged through the generator the way that is do is to have the gennie power up the converter with 120 VAC and the converter charges the battery with 12VDC. In your case you are using the generator start battery which is normally separate and is charged by the generator 12v alternator, so that is not a normal situation. In your case I would just throw the breaker that feeds 120VAC to the converter off while you are running the generator. That way the start battery is only getting charged from one source at a time.

Brian

boogiethecat · June 27, 2013, 08:58:37 AM

Contrary to some comments above, I have my Intelipower permanently connected to my batteries and whatever AC is on at the time (shore or gene), and the batteries are permanently connected to the alternator and a solar charger as well. The Intellipower's function (with wizard attached) is to keep the batteries properly charged and if something starts using DC power, whichever of the three "providers" is functioning at the time will provide it- ie if I'm parked and hooked to shore or the gene is running, the intelipower runs things; if I'm driving the alternator runs things, and if I'm parked without shore power and it's sunny, the solar panels run things.

As long as all three power providers are adjusted properly (ie their output voltage is correct for the type battery you have) then the end resulting system is seamless- simply put, whichever one is able will take care of the battery and provide power to your system, no switches needed, nothing to change or turn off. Each of those devices has a diode in it's output and it's pretty much "whoever is able to do the job will do it". They don't fight and they can't cook batteries in this kind of system UNLESS one of them is defective and has an overly high output voltage.

That said, I've had this system running 24/7 for almost 12 years now without issue BUT I have had one or two Intellipower units go south in other projects and instead of just stopping, they tend to go to a high voltage state and definitely have cooked batteries. So I'd check your intellipower's output voltage and see if it's on the blink. Otherwise you should be able to leave it turned on always and not have any problem.

bevans6 · June 27, 2013, 12:47:50 PM

That is good advice, that you SHOULD be able to have all the charging systems connected together. I was being conservative with my thought to disconnect one when the other is on, since they can interact and have bad results if one or the other is operating slightly wrong. Also keeping in mind that the last set of batteries got cooked for some unknown reason. Start slow and work into it, basically, keeping track of what is happening.

Brian

Dave Siegel · June 27, 2013, 01:27:58 PM

I plan to go slow. I was looking at a photo I took of the past setup and I had the Genset battery just for the gen set, the two house batteries were being charged by the genset and the charging unit I think. I will set up the house batteries as separate things.

bansil · June 27, 2013, 04:11:19 PM

Boogie that is exactly how fluid it should be,I am getting the IOTA 45amp convertor with icq4 technoligie...same basic unit
As long as everything isolates itself and you don't backfeed,there will be no worries IE:12 years down the road

boogiethecat · June 27, 2013, 05:16:21 PM

The way alternators, chargers and solar controllers are built, they all have diodes in their output, from necessity. As long as those diodes are good there will/can be no interaction between any of them. If any of those diodes go bad, you'll know it, I guarantee it, and it won't be from frying batteries! It'll be from the smoke that comes out of the bad unit!!!

CHeers guys