Nonal Luna DC25 Power Pack

[N-Ice]

Look very neat. Will tweak the box on the weekend

[Thug]

Just saw this thread.

I purchased the NL auxillary battery box with a WRND for camping and it worked brilliantly with the Solar Panels charging the battery.

[burmtec]

I made my own unit useing a WRND unit. Works a chalm. Mine has an amp and volt meter to monitor the battery state while standing or driving. i tow a caravan which has a battery as well, so i fitted a change over switch to charge the local battery or the caravan battery while traveling. I have just made a unit for a friend and the components cost him R 3 940.00. It has a solar input for when i am parked at camp. Its portable between vehicles and you can lend it to a friend. Purchased all from 4x4 Direct. The cover i had laser cut.

[Chaka22]

[QUOTE=burmtec;4319341]I made my own unit useing a WRND unit. Works a chalm. Mine has an amp and volt meter to monitor the battery state while standing or driving. i tow a caravan which has a battery as well, so i fitted a change over switch to charge the local battery or the caravan battery while traveling. I have just made a unit for a friend and the components cost him R 3 940.00. It has a solar input for when i am parked at camp. Its portable between vehicles and you can lend it to a friend. Purchased all from 4x4 Direct. The cover i had laser cut.
QUOTE]

Nice!

[BasZ]

You guys seem to be in the know, so would love to ask a couple of questions if you don't mind. I don't have a dual batt system in my car yet, so need to start from scratch. Reading from the comments above the Green box seems like a good deal (I am also a bit apprehensive of building it all myself). What i have in mind us to mount the green box in the back of the car, next to the 40 liter Engel. Here are my questions:
1. is it correct that I will no longer need the Intelligent Solenoid, but that the box will give priority after starting to the Main Batt and charge the Aux batt afterwards?
2. are the Main and Aux batteries connected when ignition is off? The manual doesn't explain, but it does mention "If both MAIN BATT and SOLAR are connected simultaneously. The Power Pack DC25 will give priority to the MAIN BATT source and will switch to the SOLAR source automatically when voltage on the MAIN BATT input drops below 12.6V (11.5V if IGNITION SENSE is used)" I interpret this in the way that they are connected, but that does not really make sense
3. if I am camping and the green box is connected to the main battery (disconnecting every time is asking for problems, right?) and I hook up solar panels, according to the text above it will drain the Main batt to 12.6 V before switching over to solar. That doesn't seem right though. I would imagine in that situation that the 2 batteries are disconnected and that my solar is used to charge the Aux batt. Or am I understanding this incorrectly?
4. if for some reason my Main batt is drained and i want to connect the Main + Aux batts in parallel (like the "override" function on the NL dual batt controller does) is that possible? How do I do this? Do I need a Dual Battery controller?
5. is there a way of connecting the Main batt from the back of the box instead of the front? Seems a bit of a nuisance to have the cables run into the front of the unit or am I whining here?

Many thanks for your input!

[N-Ice]

You guys seem to be in the know, so would love to ask a couple of questions if you don't mind. I don't have a dual batt system in my car yet, so need to start from scratch. Reading from the comments above the Green box seems like a good deal (I am also a bit apprehensive of building it all myself). What i have in mind us to mount the green box in the back of the car, next to the 40 liter Engel. Here are my questions:
1. is it correct that I will no longer need the Intelligent Solenoid, but that the box will give priority after starting to the Main Batt and charge the Aux batt afterwards?
2. are the Main and Aux batteries connected when ignition is off? The manual doesn't explain, but it does mention "If both MAIN BATT and SOLAR are connected simultaneously. The Power Pack DC25 will give priority to the MAIN BATT source and will switch to the SOLAR source automatically when voltage on the MAIN BATT input drops below 12.6V (11.5V if IGNITION SENSE is used)" I interpret this in the way that they are connected, but that does not really make sense
3. if I am camping and the green box is connected to the main battery (disconnecting every time is asking for problems, right?) and I hook up solar panels, according to the text above it will drain the Main batt to 12.6 V before switching over to solar. That doesn't seem right though. I would imagine in that situation that the 2 batteries are disconnected and that my solar is used to charge the Aux batt. Or am I understanding this incorrectly?
4. if for some reason my Main batt is drained and i want to connect the Main + Aux batts in parallel (like the "override" function on the NL dual batt controller does) is that possible? How do I do this? Do I need a Dual Battery controller?
5. is there a way of connecting the Main batt from the back of the box instead of the front? Seems a bit of a nuisance to have the cables run into the front of the unit or am I whining here?

Many thanks for your input!

I'm not 100% sure on the green box from NL but I have played with the grey box with a WRND DC to DC controller on it.

From my experiments I understand the NL system as follows and I hope it helps with you questions.
The built-in solenoid to the main battery monitors the input voltage only. So if the vehicle is off and this drops below the specified level of 12.6V the two systems are disconnected. There won't be any connection between the main battery and the aux battery.
The grey box has a basic 5 minute delay for this function and I have tested it. Once you start the vehicle you can see the input voltage go up. After 5 min you hear a loud click in the box and the system starts charging from the alternator. Similar with shutting down the car. You see the input voltage drop and the moment it goes below the specified level there is a click and they are disconnected. The main and the aux battery are then fully disconnected.

My understanding on the solar port is that it is directly linked to the battery charging (through a regulator). The DC to DC charger can then pick the best source for the charge an switch to the most optimal source between the alternator(main battery) and solar.

The whole focus on the design is charging the power pack for use later on it's output ports. So a very one directional flow I understand that if you want flow back to the main battery you will have to make some modifications to allow this. Like a battery management system.

[oebie]

Hi! What I've done some years ago was to replace the solenoid inside the old grey box with a Ctek DC-DC 250S dual charger that could handle input from both the alternator and a solar panel. I cut a square opening in the back cover in order to see the LED's on the Ctek. I had to fit a red BH plug for the solar panel on the roof rack. That setup used to charge both the secondary battery in the Patrol as well as the 2 deep cycle batteries in the Imagine Comfortvan via a Ctek DC-DC 250S.
This DC-DC 250S is now obsolete after changing to Lithium in the Caravan. The Lead Crystal secondary battery is still going strong but if I need to replace it with a Lithium battery in the future, the DC-DC 250S dual will also become obsolete. Then I might have to consider replacing the grey box with the green box as it can charge Lithium.

[oebie]

[IMG]file:///C:/Users/oebie/OneDrive/Pictures/LITHIUM%2020200623_103317.jpg[/IMG] I removed the solenoid from the old gray NL box long ago and replaced it with a Ctek DC - DC S250 Dual some years ago. The 200W solar panel on top of the roof rack charges the battery at the same time as the alternator. Inside is a Lead Crystal battery (33Kg). In the caravan I replaced 2 Lead Crystals with one BN13V-104 1.3k - weighs less than 1/2 of one of them. The Blue Nova battery is a great option for carrying around, only a lot more expensive than lead acid. Had to replace the Ctek with a HCdP DB that has an option for charging a lithium battery. It also takes solar input.