Victron Centaur 12/30 Battery Charger

[Jollyboat]

Hi there,
Does anyone have a dead Victron Centaur 12/30 I could buy for spares or know where they go to once they have died. I have one component top left on the motherboard labelled RT003 that has fried. Victron say they don’t have spares and won’t give out the wiring diagram so no help. If I can find out what it is I may be able to get one from RS. Should be cheaper than a new one!
Many thanks

 

[Obi]

RT usually designates a resistor(thermal) on a PCB AFAIK.
If anyone else has the same unit and is willing to take a look and a close up pic, you might find you can get the part for pennies. Soldering it on to the PCB would simply be a case of getting the direction right, only two pins as long as there was no power to the unit.

 

[Jollyboat]

Hi Obi,
Many thanks for your reply.
Good to know that RT denotes a thermal resistor so I can now look into what these are and get a bit closer to a solution.
I am hoping that it is a generic part which, as you say, might be had for rather less than a new charger!

 

[B27]

Parts like that rarely self-combust without there being some other problem.
It's on an obvious fat high current track. Does that go directly to the output or input?
If so, then you could perhaps deduce a suitable protection component to replace it.
It could be a thermal fuse, or it could be an NTC resistor to limit input surge current.

Trouble is, get it slightly wrong and you have either no meaningful fault protection, or a charger that fails repeatedly.
If that 0934 is a 2009 date code, it's probably done its time, more so if it's been powered up a lot of that time..

 

[Jollyboat]

Hi B27,
Thank you for your reply.
I bought the boat in 2015 so it could well be from 2009 which makes 15 years so your age comment is pertinent.
Apart from the burnt resistor it looks like new, no corrosion anywhere.
When I unplugged it from the boatyard mains I found the socket under the plug was all blackened so I am speculating that a surge fried the component. Of course there is no telling if it consequently damaged another part of the charger as you say. It is worth a try to source a new component before accepting defeat.
A photo of this component on a Centaur 12/30 motherboard with any markings would be gold.

 

[B27]

Blackening under the plug suggests arcing as the unit was plugged in or unplugged?
If the burned component is what I suspect, that component alone is unlikely to cause that.

Do Victron offer any repair service?

 

[Jollyboat]

Midsummer Energy, a Victron agent in Cambridge were very helpful and contacted Victron but they don’t hold spares for that model and Victron don’t send wiring diagrams. I think my best bet is to get a photo of the resistor and markings from someone who has the same model but as you say without knowing the underlying cause ….!

 

[KompetentKrew]

You should post on the Victron Community Forums - it's basically the place to get specialist help; if you contact Victron directly then they may or may not bother to reply, but there are Victron dealers and installers who post on the forum and I think maybe employees too.

 

[Jollyboat]

Hi KompetentKrew
Many thanks