Great videos! You brought me on the path of the afterburner and one is underway from Australia. The afterburner has a fail safe, shutting down at low battery so in that case this board isn’t needed
2:54 opps ~ he says here - not cutting off heater, just fuel pump. But I guess it would error our when fuel starved. That Avenger seems like a better solution.
After watching a few of your videos i will be installing one of these on my Deisel heater when i get it. Just wondering if you know how many volts the diesel heater will need to complete the shut down cycle?? Could I set it lower than 10.5?? I will be running it off of an old truck battery with a trickle charger but we get a few power outages here and there and want to get the most out of the battery.
Cool. But because these units pull a fairly high current during startup, it might be good to add a timer circuit or use a time delay relay, so the startup load doesn’t trip the unit prematurely. IE: the voltage has to be below the set point for X minutes(longer than a start cycle) before it trips the pump offline... excellent, informative and yes, entertaining video, as always...
@@DavidMcLuckie for a given load, it would depend upon the size and condition of the battery. The drop will be greater on a smaller older battery with less available plate surface area...
Amazon link shows no longer available. Most similar ones show 12v-36v input but it appears as though the one in the Amazon link is 5v-36v. Does it matter?
than you for geting back to me , good point ,i live in the mountains and have constant power outage,and was told the unit could turn too shit. i rely hevally on information ,im still waiting on mine ,im australian .if i dont make sence it,s 1 am, just got your mesage been on the grog (or alcohol) too . thanks again bro.
The board should also be killed when not in use. The draw from keeping the circuit energised led and 5V buck reg (not the relay) for long term would also run your battery flat (especially small capacity batteries) . There are ways to back off the relay consumption but that would involve adding an rc network into the feed for the coil of the relay
I just recently installed a converter and mount and made my setup portable,runs off a Milwaukee battery...lol...works great as a potable spot heater ... I will add a person may want a 8.0 or larger battery to run any length of time,or if you were going to be cycling it on and off alot before changing batteries..
Thanks for that David ordered, Don't know if your still looking for ideas but on the subject of flattening batteries wold you be able to measure the actual power draw for a 2, 5 and 16 kw heaters, I know the 16 kw water heater would be difficult with the dual voltages. Checking your videos the pulsing of the pump makes it difficult gauge the current draw when running. was thinking start power from start until glow plug goes out, then power draw for 20 or 30 mins on max heat output, and maybe min heat out - many thanks
No Hogmanay for you then? Ah well, have a happy new year nonetheless... :D As for the module, it works kind of like my cheapo solar power controller's lightbulb output, goes off below a set voltage, comes back on only after it reaches a higher voltage (and can also switch on and off like a streetlight if I want, but, meh!!)... :P
Hi David I've ordered all of these from your link 👍 just wondering if a perspex cover comes with the controller if not I'll have to knock something up.
Hi, I'm always looking forward to your video. David's regulated power supply does not drop in voltage under load. How about a lead battery? The glow plug consumes a lot of current when the heater is ignited or extinguished, so my small lead-acid battery dropped to 10.2V when ignited. So I think you should add a program that cancels the device only when it is ignited and extinguished. By the way, I added an LED that flashes at the frequency of the fuel pump while driving. Convenient.
@@stevefish4153 Hi, the fuel pump connector is positive on the left and negative on the right. The voltage is 12V-14V. Therefore, the resistance is 1kΩ to 2kΩ. It was connected in parallel to the fuel pump. I've been using it for a year and the LED doesn't break. It is installed on the dashboard. Simple but convenient. It's on my channel. Tnx too :) Now, I am making a fuel low alarm buzzer with a non-contact liquid level sensor.
Thanks for this info, that's exactly what was happing to mine, I've not worked out a way to over come it yet, but I'm heading over to your channel to hopefully see how you've done it, mine cuts out on start up because it's draining too much from the lead battery, probably this wouldn't happen if connected to 240v AC, but that's not how I want it to run, I want it from a battery and possibly looking at the Lip04, thanks agian
Thanks for the video Boss, happy new year. As an idea for a follow-up video, would it be possible to test the quiescent current of each module? It would be interesting to see if the extra gubbins would drain the battery more or whether they are more or less the same. Thanks David.
I have this unit, but did not use it because voltage values on display are 0,5 volts under the real measured voltage. (measured 12,2, on display 11.7) The same problem i noticed with a low voltage disconnect module with a bigger relais on it. Did you or other viewers have this problem too?
I know nothing about electronics. So please be patient. If the you set the module to cut off the fuel pump at 10v, and reconnect at 12v, does that mean that it will not power the fuel pump until you've charged the battery?
Yes, if I remember correctly on the controller you set the voltage you want it to cut out at, say 10V and then you set how many volts it has to increase by before it turns on again. So you'd set it to 2V so it turns on again at 12V.
If you had one before the heater and split power 1) to heater set at 12.6 volt 2) to second shut off set to 12.8 volt and connected to fuel pump. Your thoughts ?
Great video, best wishes for 2012 - everyone really! Sorry in case it has been mentioned in another video but what is the maximum length exhaust pipe you can use with diesel heaters, so if i want to use in the garage, can i run a 4 or 5m run of pipe to outside or is there a maximum length that should not be exceeded? Cheers David
I'm hoping someone else who's either done it or has a better memory, but a few people have run long lengths and had problems. The shorter you can get away with the better.
@@DavidMcLuckie many thanks i suppose like car exhaust systems there is an optimum length to draw exhaust gases through. Cheers though, keep up the good videos, you sound exactly like my old boss - he was entertaining and a good boss.
Hello I like this idea, in your previous video you wired this to the pump via a relay, only can I ask why fit a relay? Can you not just use the 12v cut off switch wired directly to the fuel pump. Once it hits the predetermined voltage it will cut power to the pump as it does to trigger the relay. Interested to hear your thoughts
The relay on the board switches it own supply. The pump doesn't use 12V continuously but only a pulse. You might be able to modify the board and resolder the relay in a way that lets us use the switched pins for what we want and not have them connected to the boards power supply.
@@DavidMcLuckie Thanks for replying. I opted to wire in without the cut out switch. I believe my chinese bought cut out switch was faulty as I had a constant live at the relay.. not being an electrician I could not figure where the short was. So for simplicity I opted to keep it simple.
I was able to remove the DC+ supply to the the relay on the board so now the relay can open and close the fuel pump circuit to eliminate the second relay just simplifies things
I have just received one of these boards having seen you video and i am confused. It would appear to have the relay switch built in as it cuts the vout when it reaches what you set it too. Is it maybe an updated version or i am not understanding the circuit please??
The one I had just cut the 12V negative. But we don't want to supply the pump with that 12V negative we want to interrupt the pulsed feed to the pump. Easiest way is with another relay.
I have an old (but working) 80w solar panel and a new 320w panel. Off subject.... Running the main solar (rated 320w) into a dual 130ah battery bank (260ah) If drawing a constant 4amps max How much buckfast will it take to top up the batteries after 1 month? And will my batteries die in under 20hours?? Btw... why is whiskey so much cheaper in England than Wales or Scotland??
Ah, so this is intended to break the power to the fuel pump only, not the whole heater? I was about to write a comment asking what one could do to prevent the risk of hard cutting the power to a diesel heater which in my case (power cut) caused a bit of melting of the controller PCB as the heater metalwork was Ruddy hot and when the fan stopped without warning, that heat percolated into the rest of the board. Perhaps a development of this idea would be to have two of these cut off units, where unit 1 cut power to the fuel pump at say 11 volts, and another cut power to everything else at 10 volts, in order to avoid the risk of heater fan continuing to run, or perhaps the controller is smart enough to shut down completely when fuel stops flowing?
Once the fuel pump is disconnected the heaters ECU doesn't see a pump anymore and goes into shutdown mode and stops. When the the power is reapplied to the pump you can start the heater up again as normal.
How does this save you flattening the leisure battery? Without affecting the diesel heater by causing premature shutdown? One of the biggest causes of bad starting and excessive smoke. This device is ok for the likes of cooler boxes. Which I was fitting 10 years ago
The controller is outputting to a relay connected to the fuel pump. At low voltage the controller turns off the relay and the pump stops. The heaters ECU detects the lack of pump and goes into a shutdown sequence.
So your relay on the fuel pump circuit gave me hope that a foolproof solution can be found. If a relay on the fuel pump is set to let go and stop the pump when the power is cut. We then just need to find a way to keep the heater powered while finishing the cool down. Would it be possible to simply have a second relay controlled by the fan motors wireing, so that it cut a seperate power supply taken from the battery side of the main switch. So when we turn the main switch off, the fuel pump will stop, the heater will cool off and when the fan stops all power is safely off. This also means that we safely can fit a switch for the heater next to the display, to spare a little standby power and the displays LED's will last longer. Without worry that someone would use that to switch off and frying the heater ! But !! Can the fan motors speed controle handle the extra current it takes to pull a relay ?? What kind of voltage is there ? Where to connect it ? Maybe you can think of a better solution. Surely we are not the only ones with this problem. Cheers, Niels Larsen and my Dumfries wife Zoe Here in action: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8Mi8PxVTbHE.html
Yes, I see the problem. So the fan doesn't run at the full 12V, 6V will be enough to run it for cooling. I'll have to think about a solution for that kind of situation. :)
Just ran some tests with a volt meter: The 5 KW heater fan motor hit a max of 8.7 Volt and a minimum of 2.6 Volt. Thats is not likely to hold a relay inn during cool down. So a better solution may be to have a simple switch, that powers 2 relays, one on the fuel pump circuit and another on the (dirrect from battery) power supply to the heater, but the second one must have an off delay timer set to about 250 seconds. This
How about a 5 pin relay. Use the normally open pins connected to a cycle relay. I've got one that you can set to run once when it's powered on and you can set the duration of the run time. Output of cycle relay to a 6V voltage regulator? While I was writing this reply I ordered some of those parts on eBay. :)
@@DavidMcLuckie Thanks David. Got it in the post today without instructions. Do you have any idea how I set I programme turn off below xx voltage, and turn on once xx voltage has been reached or is above? THanks.
My Chinese diesel works well most of the time but for some reason it starts blowing cold air for no reason and I can't turn off Unless I disconnect from the battery there are no time settings turned on have you ever come across this ? Happy New year
It's starts for no reason but only blowing cold air and I can not turn off from the on / off button . If I disconnect the power supply and reset the time starts and runs fine and power s down fine it just seems to have a mind of its own
Yes. It thinks it's overheating. Could be the housing temp sensor, or the part of the ECU that is responsible. I've had then when I used the wrong sensor with a different ECU. As soon as I gave it 12V the fan just started running and didn't stop.
Damn.... Wish I hadn't jumped in and brought the other one now... I had to mess around with a multimeter and a drained battery to get the settings as didn't have an adjustable power supply
As if your heater is running at full power and you just kill the power, there is a good chance the heater will kill the ECU as there is no fan running to keep it cool or let it shutdown and then be cool.
Well, it's not relly a good idea. The heater needs a proper shutdown circle. This may cut the power when the heater body temperature is 200C which can cause a serious demage. Buy Afterburner heater controller and you can set the low voltage cutoff. It will shut the heater down properly at a set voltage.
Thanks for your information 💓 Should I still be worried if I run my heater from a 100ah deep cycle battery being charged from a 100w panel through a BMS. In the UK. How much does the heater use in terms of Ma or Amps if it is not running and idle while being awaited to set to run??? Any help David would be beneficial from you as you are the diesel heater god of the internet these days. 💪💪💪 Happy new year and friends!!! Sincere regards, Scott liddle.
You're correct. The nice thing of cutting power to the fuel pump is; when there is no fuel the unit completes a shutdown series which cools the unit as to not melt the motherboard. If you cut power directly to the entire board it can be a catastrophic event. Good call!
Hi David just spend hours writing a letter to you, about diesel heater and main switch dilemma in boats. I pressed send and saw it pop in between the other comments. But now it seem to have vanished ?? Honestly I did not use bad words, unless Jane Godleys name is sesored !?? Probably just my ipad skills that failed 🤨 I’ll try again later
