Knee bone's connected to the thigh bone

[ArmorAbby]

I guess this is more of a vent.... a rant... sharing my misery with the world.. rather than a question or a beneficial post :  

Our dear Trebor has helped me with my electric when I had time. Things were good.... A couple days ago, I started my van and wooooow... some weird noises.. like a crazy fan under the engine... gauges going crazy.. oil pressure almost off the charts... I started to panic.. as the car warmed up.. it was ok...

I thought my serp belt or something was going bad... alternator? something with the system? a pulley?  

I continued through my day.. everything ok.. except for the voltage gauge and slight thump thump thump heartbeat of the sparkplugs/engine going in sync...

Next day.. WOOOW, that fan noise was soooo crazy now, that the van actually felt like it was shaking with it!!!  

Trebor explained a short in the system.. so I unhooked my isolater.... everything is all back to normal... 

I got me some chocolate... spent a day or two in self-pity while I went back to only solar...  
I have 200watts and only a computer and a fan.. and a phone.. so no big deal...  


End of rant.... will eventually hook it all back up.. but... crazy how that whole system works together... 
knee bone's connected to the.... bah.. nevermind...

 

[Cobra246]

Any idea where the short is? Is the isolator gone bad? Btw what is an isolator?

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[ArmorAbby]

isolater is a device that I put on my system that connects the alternator to a battery bank inside my van so that my alternator will charge my batteries along with the solar, but not kill my van battery.

 

[Weight]

You do not have fuses in the correct locations. Such a short should have opened a fuse or breaker. But as for the problem. Walk through your stuff and you should be able to correct the wiring. I am helping you hope your alternator did not overheat much. Are you still in school?

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

Any idea where the short is? Is the isolator gone bad? Btw what is an isolator?

An isolator is a chunk of aluminum with lots of heat sink fins.  It has several simple diodes in it.  Diodes are essentially one-way valves for electricity.  You hook your alternator wire to the center post and your two batteries to the other two.  It allows electricity from the alternator to flow through to both batteries, but prevents electricity from either battery from flowing "backwards" to each other.

You can check one with a digital meter set to continuity test.  There should be continuity from the alternator post to each of the other two posts, but NO continuity between the battery posts.

Unfortunately, diode type isolators cause a voltage drop, so your batteries don't get as much power as they would if you used a continuous duty solenoid.  The lost power is converted to heat, which is why the diodes need to be mounted in a big heat sink with fins.

There are, BTW, some isolators that use more advanced components like MOSFETS, that don't have the voltage loss, but they tend to be expensive.

 

[ArmorAbby]

I'm considering just leaving the alternator hanging there in limbo for now.. because the solar seems to be doing just fine on it's own... for now...

for...

now....

that is...

*dramatic music*

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

for...

now....

that is...  

*dramatic music*

*cue audience applause track*