12
NEW BATTERY INSTALLATION
The Drifter unit is a smart battery monitor in that it is able to learn the actual battery capacity
and thus provide more accurate “Time Remaining” feedback to the user. When an existing
battery is replaced by a new one, the capacity of the new one is likely to be much higher.
Fitting a new battery and doing nothing else will result in the “Time remaining” display initially
being quite inaccurate. As the battery is charged and discharged during normal use, the Drifter
unit will learn the battery capacity of the new battery.
CAPACITY LEARNING
This procedure should only be used when an existing battery has been replaced with a new
battery.
The general method the Drifter uses to learn the battery capacity is to measure the Amp-hours
required to flatten a fully charged battery. The detailed process we recommend is as follows:
1. Enter the Setup Mode and view the Battery Capacity parameter. It should be set to the
manufacturer’s rated capacity for that battery. e.g. 100 Ah
2. Dis-connect all power to the Drifter for 5 seconds and then re-connect.
This allows for the Drifter to reset all counters for the new battery capacity therefore learning
the battery faster.
3. Charge the battery until the State of Charge reads 100%. Then further charge the battery for
24hrs.
4. Stop charging the battery. i.e. remove the 240V power.
5. Switch on loads (e.g. lights, TV etc.) until the battery is being discharged at 10% – 20%
capacity rate.
e.g. If you have a 100 Ah battery, 10% of 100 is 10, 20% of 100 is 20.
So, adjust the loads until the battery current reads between 10A and 20A.
Note:
When discharged at the 20% rate, the discharge time will be approximately 5 hours.
At the 10% rate, the discharge time will be approximately 10 hours.
6. Wait until the battery voltage reaches 10.5 V.
If you are using the Drifter with a Setec power supply, this will not damage the battery. These
power supplies have a low voltage disconnect which protects the battery from discharging
to a damaging level. With these products the flat battery state will be indicated by the battery
current dropping to zero and there being no power to lights etc.
If using a power supply without a low voltage cutout, you must monitor the battery voltage
and, when it reaches 10.5 V, turn off the loads.
When the loads are turned off, or when the low-voltage disconnect has been activated, the
battery voltage will increase slightly—this is normal.
7. Repeat steps 2 to 5 once or twice more.
8. The capacity-learning process is now complete.
The above process allows the Drifter to figure out what full and empty is and calculate the
actual capacity of the battery fitted. If for any reason step 6 is not done, steps 1 to 5 MUST be
done to get a reasonable state of charge reading.
9
13
