Magnum Inverter/Charger Question

angus99 · 06-07-2017, 05:13 AM

We are using our MS 2812 for the first time in the water, including the ARC50 remote. It worked perfectly yesterday to bring the house bank up to a full state of charge. This morning the charger seems to be locked in "standby" mode. One DC meter says the house bank is at full charge but the SOC reading is 97%. The charger LED is blinking--indicating standby--and the on/off switch does not produce any notable result.

We are heading home this morning and I hesitate to leave things this way. I see nothing in either Magnum manual that addresses this and was curious if any Magnum owners have any insights. Thanks in advance!

sunchaser · 06-07-2017, 05:40 AM

Angus, is the Arco supplied by Magnum? What does the voltage say? Maybe your Arco is saying 97% but the Magnum has not been setup to read that level as sufficient for going to charge mode.

My Magnum inverter charger will stay on standby according to the Magnum BMK until the batteries are drawn down a bit. Turn off shore power for 20 minutes or so and draw the batteries down. Then see if it goes into charge when re-applying shore power.

angus99 · 06-07-2017, 05:45 AM

Thanks VERY much for the quick reply, Sunchaser. I'll try that.

The ARC 50 is a Magnum product and works with the BMK.

I did cycle the AC off and on briefly; the charger entered charge mode for a few seconds, then reverted to standby and the 97%/fully charged scenario.

Still can't turn the charger off with the ARC50; pushing the charger button has no effect (although Inverter on/off works normally). Does that sound normal?

sunchaser · 06-07-2017, 05:59 AM

PM me your email and I'll forward some pictures. And with my charge light blinking, pushing the charge button does not do anything. Probably because the charger is already off and cannot be "turned on" due to full charge. I just tried it.

angus99 · 06-07-2017, 12:33 PM

I want to say a big public thank you to Sunchaser. We woke up this morning facing a 750-mile drive and were concerned about leaving the boat with uncertain charger performance. Sunchaser was able to reassure me that the standby function I was seeing is normal. His suggestion to open the AC breaker, draw down the house bank and see if the charger would be restored to charge mode worked perfectly. Gotta love this place of you're a boat owner.

ktdtx · 06-07-2017, 01:47 PM

Glad you got it sorted out.
Also Magnum phone tech support is easily available and most of the time useful.

Ken

Lucky Chucky · 06-07-2017, 08:25 PM

If Magnum tech support can't be reached, you may try the battery manufactor as they are used to dealing with Magnum inverters/chargers...at least that was my experience.

~Lucky Chucky
Selene 43

angus99 · 06-07-2017, 11:00 PM

Thanks, all. I did talk to a Magnum tech today and he amplified what I learned from Sunchaser. He said the unit is programmed to "rest" for 4 hours periodically after the bank reaches full charge as determined by voltage, not the SOC percentage shown on the screen. So, unless this resting feature is disabled, the unit goes into standby if the battery bank reaches its target voltage, regardless of how the system has calculated SOC.

Also, the blinking charge light on the remote monitor, indicating that the charger is on standby, cannot be over-ridden by the on/off switch. It will continue to blink until the unit starts charging again, or until AC power is removed.

So, bottom line seems to be that my charger is functioning normally.