2013 T@B Wiring Diagram including TriMetric Battery Meter Shunt and Noco Genius Battery Charger

Ratkity

Them flamingo skivvies pushed me over the edge!

Nomad

You seem to hallucinate about flamingo skivvies quite regularly - It must be all that battery testing.

ScottG

If you wire up two 9 volt batteries in series, can you get yourself an extra large tongue zap?

ericnliz

Ratkity, Yup, did it just the other day.....testing.....uh...., oh....the garage door opener.
ScottG, Ya don't have to wire 'em up...uh...just..oh...hold one on.....oh.....OW... each side of your tongue....ow. 

ericnliz

I'm now dubbing that one the 18 volt jjjjjjolt!

Nomad

You know the batteries are good when your eyes cross.

jkjenn

AldebaranJill said:

I used that diagram of Rick's as a starting point, and then traced every single wire by hand.
Note this shows the electrical mods that I installed: 
1. Trimetric Meter (with shunt)
2. Noco Genius Charger
3. Cut Off Switch
4. 2nd 12 Outlet

Happy to answer any questions anyone may have. It's been a labor of love.
Jill

This is an excellent diagram. From what I understand is that most RV converters undercharge the batteries. It isn't an obvious problem to most but shortens the lifespan of your batteries. One reason I like the Victron solar controllers is the ability to enter charging details, based on the battery manufacturers recommendations.

FuzzyYanni

Hey Jill,

Totally with you in this. The Trojans need 14.8V to operate and charge fully. I've been following Handy Bob's Blog as well. I am currently looking to remove the Battery Charging component of the WFCO and replace it wither with a programmable stand alone battery charger or a replacement.
This might do the trick: http://www.bestconverter.com/PD-9260C-148-60-Amp-RV-ConverterCharger-_p_618.html

I looked at your diagram, but perhaps I didn't quite get how / where to wire the Noco and what model Noco you purchased.

I think the concept is disable the battery charging component of the WFCO 8995 (in my case) but if I understand correct, it still needs to power all the 12V stuff on board. Did you disable that part of the WFCO, or simply add the Noco on top and hook directly to the battery?

Can you describe the wires that must be connected/ disconnected? My wiring might be different so I am trying to understand the wire functions and not rely solely on colour schematics in case they are not identical.
Thanks for the post !

AldebaranJill

I have a Trimetric meter that uses a shunt, so all the negative loads and charging paths (including the Noco Genius Charger) have the negative to the shunt and then the shunt goes to the battery. The positive for the Noco is connected directly to battery positive.

I selected the Noco 15000 because of its size (I have it mounted below the fridge) and the amps fell nicely within my Trojan SCS150 charging profile.

I will note that in order to fully charge a Trojan you need over 16V, I forget the actual whether 16.2 or 16.5. So in order to achieve this I put the Noco into repair mode. I had to determine this by talking to Trojan and Noco and my measuring specific gravity of battery cells. For my battery, I run one 12V cold cycle followed by 3 repair cycles. This brings up specific gravity to 100%. It is a bit wonky but manageable. I follow the Trojan Battery Guide religiously and have spent many many weeks charging discharging and measuring specific gravity to determine how to create a charging environment that is as close to the chart that yields 100% in all cells.

I did not make any modifications to the WFCO at all, and by experiment found that it works fine. Once on a fluke, the WFCO actually went to 14.8V - and I was so shocked I took a video. This was when I was running my generator and so I unplugged the Noco. But this only happened once in 4 years of ownership so I can't trust it and it certainly never would get to 16V.  But it seems to do no harm to let it try to charge. Handy Bob and I had several talks and correspondence to figure out what would work best for me.

So my advice, as with Bob's, is to get a good meter so you can see V and A, and then follow the battery manufacturer's charging specs by whatever means possible and verify this whole thing works by specific gravity testing. Unless you measure specific gravity, you will never determine whether your configuration reaches 100%. Once you can determine the config, then you can program the meter, and let it measure amps in and out to determine %. It is a lot of work but I have killed many travel trailer batteries and was determined with this one to fully understand and fine tune the system to have it work so I get every amp hour possible. 

Let me know if this answers your questions

AldebaranJill

jkjenn said

This is an excellent diagram. From what I understand is that most RV converters undercharge the batteries. It isn't an obvious problem to most but shortens the lifespan of your batteries. One reason I like the Victron solar controllers is the ability to enter charging details, based on the battery manufacturers recommendations.

I fully agree. I have been pondering solar and it is good to know that Victron allows you to specify the charging profile! Thanks for that tip!

FuzzyYanni

Hi Jill,

Thanks for the reply! 

How often do you need to run the repair cycle ?

What voltage does the Noco put out when bulk charging and for how long ?

When you say program the meter, you are referring to the Trimetric right?

Lastly what do you recommend as a decent specific gravity meter?

thoughts:
I think the modified PD 9260 14.8V  http://www.bestconverter.com/PD-9260C-148-60-Amp-RV-ConverterCharger-_p_618.html
should work pretty much in the same way as it also has the repair button.

Many thanks

AldebaranJill

FuzzyYanni said:

Hi Jill,

Thanks for the reply! 

How often do you need to run the repair cycle ?

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I run it everytime when I depart for a trip and when I return. 

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What voltage does the Noco put out when bulk charging and for how long ?

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It follows a charging algorithm based in the state of charge of the battery - there is a chart in the Noco literature which should have this diagram that you can see. Not a straight line but really varies and cycles around. The total time to charge will depend on the state of charge and the amps that the Noco is rated at. I have recorded details if you want them.

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When you say program the meter, you are referring to the Trimetric right?

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Yes, sorry about that, the Trimetric meter
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Lastly what do you recommend as a decent specific gravity meter?

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I bought an inexpensive one at a local auto parts store, was under $10. If you go this route, be sure to do the testing while wearing old clothes. I got little teeny droplets on my jeans that havr grown into holes. 

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thoughts:
I think the modified PD 9260 14.8V  http://www.bestconverter.com/PD-9260C-148-60-Amp-RV-ConverterCharger-_p_618.html
should work pretty much in the same way as it also has the repair button.

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As long as the return policy is good, any charger is worth the try. Just don't do a permanent installation so if it doesn't output what you need, you can return it. You can use spare test wires to simulate how you would wire it and then see how it does. I no longer trust published rv charger specs ☺️

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