Pinging, Clicking & Flickering - Oh My!

[Cherry]

So I finally got my house battery installed today. When it was installed my furnace fan kicked on and wouldn't turn off (even when I turned off the breakers) so I pulled the fuse and that stopped it. Now when I turn the van on I can hear clicking/ pinging at my isolator/ inverter/ converter (I'll be honest I can't remember what I have where) It's also causing all of my dash lights and headlights to dim and I can watch the needle on my battery gauge in the dash go up and down with each click. I turned all the breakers off and it's still doing it. I read elsewhere when I searched<br>

Q: I'm hearing a ?clicking? or ?pinging? sound from my converter. What's going on?<br>A: The likely cause is the auto-reset breaker on the charger output cycling on and off. The DC load on the charging output exceeding the available output of the charge circuit causes this condition.

<br><br>Can someone explain this in a more layman term to me so I can figure out how to fix it?<br>Edit to add - Dumb it WAY down. I'm terrified of electricity since a VCR tossed me across a room when I was 9 and really don't want to have to dink with it.<br>

 

[Cherry]

43 views and no ideas. Hrm . . .<br>

 

[Stillwater]

I wrote out a long response, basically trying to dumb down what you quoted but, when I read it, I realized my response was no more basic than what you posted.<br><br>&nbsp;The current load demand may be too high on the output of the charger due to -bad battery, bad connections, bad inverter on the charger or something in the circuit is grounding or locked up.<br><br>Maybe the bad fan - AC or DC? Fed by inverter or direct house DC - did it burn out the auto-reset with too high of a load? <br><br>Are the house battery connections good? Tight? Correct polarities attached? <img src="/images/boards/smilies/wink.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"> <br><br>Do you still have electrical drawings for the van? I might be a good idea to pick up a $10 multimeter at Northern Tool. <br><br>Was all of this working BEFORE you replaced the house battery or was there never a house battery in place since you've owned the van to confirm operation? <br><br>So? House system working when you bought it and you replaced the house battery, then the issue ensued? Or is there an existing problem that was identified by first application of power from a house battery?<br><br>(I know the clicking is new.)<br><br>First, if you haven't disconnected the house battery, please do so and see if there is clicking. If not, with no clicking now, then check the voltage at the terminal ends that connect to the house battery. What is the voltage? Confirming that the auto-reset &amp; charger are working. <br><br>If the inverter is clicking, then it sounds like something is pulling more load from the inverter than it can supply. Either bad inverter, bad device pulling too much load or bad wiring.<br><br>If the charger auto-reset is clicking, then checking the OUTPUT of the car battery WHEN THE VEHICLE IS RUNNING. This identifies the amount of recharging going on via alternator. (Should be around 14vdc&nbsp; or higher.) If good voltage going to auto-reset, is the auto-reset just bad? <br><br>If everything worked before you swapped house batteries, then check connections and correct polarity.<br><br>If you've never tested the house system (house battery in place, inverter powering furnace fan) then there may be an existing problem that needs to be addressed first.<br><br><br>It's hard to describe without actually standing in front of it with a multimeter in hand. Sorry...<br>

 

[Cherry]

There was a dead gel battery in place when I purchased the van so the house systems have never been checked. I've narrowed down the click (sort of) it's coming from the isolator or the 12v 30 amp circuit breaker. All systems that I can check with the battery installed are working. The furnace works (I believe my thermostat is the culprit for the constant running/ turning on) The lights worked, the useless analog TV turned on as well as the rear stereo, the fridge turned on (I have since turned it back off) I didn't check the microwave because I don't want the damned thing to start with so it will be getting removed as soon as I can get help removing the fridge (because some asshat engineer decided it was a good idea to make one impossible to remove without taking out the other)<br><br>When the house battery was first installed the fan for the furnace kicked on and wouldn't stop so I pulled the fuse.<br><br>The converter w/ charger was checked yesterday according to a website I found and I believe I was getting a 12.4 reading there - the starting battery was at 12.6 there is a spike on the converter when the clicking happens.<br><br>There is a very good chance that I am experience an equipment failure with any of the following:<br>converter w/ charger<br>isolator<br>12v 30 amp circuit breaker<br><br>Here's pics of my equipment - not sure if that will help at all:<br><br>

<br>My isolator and circuit breaker under the hood.<br><br>

<br>Relay and breaker buttons for my overhead switches TV, mood lights, fog lights, driving lights, overhead lights, dome light<br><br>

<br>Fuse panel/ breaker switches where my converter w/ charger is (under my fridge) The breakers control the furnace, AC, fridge, microwave as far as I can tell from the scrawly handwriting of the previous owner<br><br>

<br>My PITA house battery compartment UNDER the van with no access from inside.<br><br><br>Edited to add - I have no idea if the batteries are installed properly. The place I purchased them from installed my drive battery and then couldn't get my house battery installed. The battery that came out was a gel battery (intimidator or some such crap) with side terminals - they sold me a deep cycle battery with two sets of top terminals. The battery was able to be placed by a friend of mine using the smaller of the two sets of terminals on the top and the stupid thing only goes in one way. It can't be slid in with any sort of angle to it - has to go straight in and I can't even lift the battery to do crap with it.<br>

 

[Cherry]

Ok so I plugged it into my house electricity and immediately heard a humming - turns out that turning the fridge knob to "off" isn't off it actually clicks off so ... NOW IT'S OFF. Wonder if that drained the battery enough to cause the clicking issue? How long should I leave it plugged in to charge the battery? Can I start the van while its plugged in?<br>

 

[Cherry]

Fixed <img src="/images/boards/smilies/smile.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"><br>

 

[stude53]

<p style="margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">So, Cherry <img border="0" align="absmiddle" src="/images/boards/smilies/confused.gif"></font></p><p style="margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"></font>&nbsp;</p><p style="margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">What was the problem, and fixed how?</font> <img border="0" align="absmiddle" src="/images/boards/smilies/rolleyes.gif"></p>

 

[She]

See Cherry it takes a woman to fix things up&nbsp;<img border="0" align="absmiddle" src="https://vanlivingforum.com/images/boards/smilies/cool.gif">&nbsp;....but do share.&nbsp;