What am I doing wrong here???

[gixer1]

You may have seen a thread I put up where I posted about a cracking little diesel night heater I bought recently, it’s great and runs off the cigarette lighter or mains transformer no problems.

On reviewing YouTube. I decided to try the Milwaukee battery alternative so it was truly mobile, so I purchased the battery adaptors, switches, online fuses, low voltage controller and voltage regulator.

I’ve wired the batteries in parallel, through the fuses and switches and then into the low voltage controller, then into the regulator and into the input on the heater.

When I attach the power it reads 12.33 volts, both on a multimeter, and on the heater display, and 20.4v on the voltage controller as input.

When I switch heater on the multimeter voltage and heater display slowly wind down to 7 volts, the LVC drops to 19.8v and the heater fan runs, you can hear the fuel pump but it never quite gets going, it runs for a while and then shows a low voltage error (E-6 for anyone that knows these heaters)

My gut is telling me is the low voltage controller and I’ve got a setting wrong but they are the finest chinese components and don’t have very good instructions and nothing I’ve found online really gives me any clues…

Could anyone think of what I’m doing wrong?

I could take the low voltage controller out however I put it in to protect the Milwaukee batteries as they are the most valuable part of the system by a long shot!

Thanks in advance for any assistance!

 

[gixer1]

Last few photos -

 

[Liveonce]

looks like the current draw for the glow plug in the heater is pulling the voltage down, better photo of each part may help as you look to have two voltage regulators in the circuit?
Are both batteries 18v 4AH?

 

[Swedish]

Glowplug draw (around 10A for the first few minutes) is too high to be supported by your battery capacity and its dragging your terminal voltage down, I did say this in your other thread.

 

[gixer1]

looks like the current draw for the glow plug in the heater is pulling the voltage down, better photo of each part may help as you look to have two voltage regulators in the circuit?
Are both batteries 18v 4AH?

Just one regulator on the system, and two 5ah 18v…

 

[gixer1]

Glowplug draw (around 10A for the first few minutes) is too high to be supported by your battery capacity and its dragging your terminal voltage down, I did say this in your other thread.

Still doesn’t explain how it’s working for others? And it’s the same batteries.

 

[Liveonce]

Just one regulator on the system, and two 5ah 18v…

picture is not good on the two parts, small PCB? and larger square box after the PCB, why two?

 

[Swedish]

Still doesn’t explain how it’s working for others? And it’s the same batteries.

OK, then we need to know more, what is the spec of each battery, the cabling, the current handling capacity of the dc/dc converter and the voltage controller?

 

[gixer1]

picture is not good on the two parts, small PCB? and larger square box after the PCB, why two?

The PCB is a low voltage controller, it cuts the power if the voltage gets below a certain level, the other is voltage regulator that drops the from 18v up to 30v input to 12v output.

Regards,
Gixer

 

[gixer1]

OK, then we need to know more, what is the spec of each battery, the cabling, the current handling capacity of the dc/dc converter and the voltage controller?

Batteries are M18 4ah or 5ah (I have tried both)

The DC converter -

DC 12V Voltage Regulator DC 8V ~ 40V to 12V 3A 36W Converter- DC 36V 24V 18V to 12V Step Down Converter Regulator Waterproof Module Transformer​

The low voltage controller -

Digital Low Voltage Discharge Protection Module Disconnect Switch Over Discharge Protection Protector for 12-36V Lithium Battery with 24AWG Wire​

 

[Swedish]

Your DCDC converter looks to be rated at only 3A output, your glowplug draws nearer 10A plus a little more for the fan and pump. At that level of current your converter output voltage will usually drop dramatically. Consider upgrading your converter to a more suitable unit, say 12-15A output

 

[Liveonce]

plus disconnecting the power abruptly can damage the heater they have a power down cooling cycle.

 

[gixer1]

plus disconnecting the power abruptly can damage the heater they have a power down cooling cycle.

Yeah, I did know this - hence the pain it is when it throws an error code as it shuts down.

 

[gixer1]

Your DCDC converter looks to be rated at only 3A output, your glowplug draws nearer 10A plus a little more for the fan and pump. At that level of current your converter output voltage will usually drop dramatically. Consider upgrading your converter to a more suitable unit, say 12-15A output

You were spot on sir! Changed the converter to a max 20A output and it’s working just fine!

Much appreciation for all the input…now will be cosy wherever!

Regards,
Gixer

 

[Swedish]

Glad to be of service!

 

[thefoxandthe.243]

Out of interest, what sort of money did it cost minus the batteries?

Thanks
Kyle