Sterling Plumbing BB121250 - Manual (Page 6)

Program the battery type into the unit,
Non sealed lead acid
Gel / Exide spec.
Gel U.S.A. spec.
Sealed lead acid/ A.G.M.
My advise is where possible use the open lead acid batteries, which are also by far the lowest cost . Due to their
slow recharge rate, avoid gel batteries for fast charging cycles.
Battery temp:
Alternator high temp disengage
Domestic sense:
Remote control kit:
Start up and test procedure
go to the battery type program dip switches on the unit and set
the battery type accordingly.
There are 3 main battery types,
or sealed lead acid, where you can unscrew the lid of the battery and are able to top it
up with water, these are by far the best type for fast charging and long life. ( max voltage 14.8 )
For some reason known to someone but not to us, the American gel manufactures want a
different charging regime than the European ones. Don't ask us why, if in doubt as the battery supplier, this
setting has a max charger voltage of 14.1 volts.
Fit the unit as close as possible ( taking into account the above requirements ) to the supply batteries.
If you must fit it in an enclosed engine room ( i.e. a small yacht , where the engine room is fully enclosed with sound
proofing all over the place ,then fit any equipment as low as possible. Its best to fit it outside the engine room near the
battery box.
Always remember, that the only thing in the engine room that is air cooled is your alternator. If you have a totally sealed
room then don’t be surprised when you go through alternators on a regulator basis. If the engine room is sealed then put a
vent tube from outside to the back of the alternator, the alternator will suck air through the back and cool itself. Then you
will never have any alternator problems.
Simply connect one of the enclosed temperature sensor to a battery terminal post ( neg. or pos. ), and
to the 2 x small terminals marked battery temp. simply push the small lever down and insert one wire into each side, there
is no polarity on these wires. make sure you do not crush the temp sensor which is a small thing inside the yellow ring
terminal, as this will destroy the processor chip. The output voltage will be reduced in accordance with manufacturers
battery charging temperature curves and in the event of the battery temperature increasing due to battery failure, it
exceeds 50 deg C, which is a major problem, the unit will switch off the charger .
: This is another temp sensor ( supplied ) which should be connected to your
alternator output post ( b+ ) and will disengage the amplifier in the event of the alternator reaching 100 deg C. LED does
simply inform on the remote when the alternator reaches the temperature. When the alternator cools down a little, the
system automatically reengages and carries on .
As standard this unit senses all the control voltages at the unit, however if you want to sense the
voltage at the domestic battery direct, to over come the voltage drops in the cable run drops, then simply connect a cable
from the domestic sense connection direct to the domestic battery
An optional extra with this unit is the remote control kit, this comes complete with a remote
display, See fig 5-6 for remote operation.
When the unit is connected, it senses the output voltage from the input battery, if the voltage is above 11 volts then the
system will come on for about 5 min., it will then work out that the input battery is to low to do anything and shut its self
down into sleep mode, the only way to start the system up then is to increase the input battery voltage by either switching
the engine on or start a battery charger. When the unit first starts up then the top battery type LED should show yellow
red or green, depending on the battery type selected, and the constant current LED ( 3 down ) will flash slowly. This green
LED should slow flash, which shows that the unit is working but is inactive for the first 2.5 min. to allow the engine
battery to recover a little.
After about 2.5 min. the green light will stop flashing and go onto green continuous, or shut the system down to rest mode
if the battery voltage is to low. The chances are, that the engine load, which is the system on constant current, will
increase while the unit should be boosting the current into the domestic battery bank. This high current will continue for
about 20 minutes then it will stop for 3 min. to allow ensure the engine battery is o.k..
Once the domestic battery reaches a certain voltage ( depending on the battery type setting but between 13.5-14 v) , the
trimmer LED will come on and high charge rate will continue for a calculated time period ( never the same ) see fig 8
lower right of page , the box marked setup. This time period is determined by what battery type program you select and
the state of charger of the batteries. The rest periods is 3 mins every 20 mins, After the time is over, the unit drops to float
at 14 volts at constant voltage with no switch off period. The unit will attempt to hold the battery voltage. However, if the
output battery falls below about 12.8 volts for more than 15 mins , the system will reset into the boost charger mode again.
also it the input voltage fall below 12.8 volts, the system will assume, that the input is switched off and will switch the
system into rest mode to conserve energy. Only if the input voltage rises again, will the system restart.
This program is, as per the recommendation of Exide, set at a voltage of 14.4 volts for
about 10-12 hrs. The unit drops then to float.
This is set to a maximum charger voltage of 14.4 with a software program to
match most of these battery types, some AGM batteries only want 14.1, if so, set the unit to the American gel
setting. If in doubt ask the
battery supplier
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