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

 

[Jollyboat]

Hi there,
I found someone who allowed me to photo component in working Victron Centaur 12/30 battery charger. See photo.
This is a Surge Guard inrush current limiter manufactured by RTI Electronics Inc which was bought out by Amertherm Inc.
They can be bought at Mouser Electronics UK for £2.34 + £16 postage. Spot on B27. So far so good.

By doing a bit of digging I think I have found out that the most likely reason for it getting fried is a short circuit in the battery charger. Does anyone know how there could be a short in the charger. As B27 says without understanding how it got fried it is a bit of a gamble replacing it

Any ideas

 

[B27]

The input side of a switch mode power supply is often quite simple.
A bridge rectifier charges a capacitor.
A switch of some sort (typically a FET) discharges the capacitor through the primary side of a transformer.
If I had to choose something in the sweepstakes, the capacitor is a likely suspect.
I'm not sure I'd rate this as high as 'educated guess', it's certainly not a professional diagnosis!

You'd be looking for a large-ish can labelled so-many uF and 400v or similar.
The yellow square cap next to the coil is just a filter, unlikely to be the culprit without vaporising itself.

 

[Jollyboat]

Hi B27
Here are two photos of the Victron Centaur12/30.
The first is of the overall layout of the motherboard and the second is of the 450V 330 micro farad capacitor I think you were referring to. It is in the centre and you can just see it’s top only in the first photo. It does not show any distortion and to my eye appears to be undamaged. I have gone over all the components visually and the all seem OK. I guess I will replace the SurgeGuard and see what happens. What do you think?

 

[B27]

I think I'd be trying to find an equivalent component a lot cheaper or at least with cheaper p&p.

There are various NTC surge limiters on ebay for less, but ratings are important.
I'd prefer to test the capacitor first, because I have the kit to do that, but it looks to be hard to remove.

There is an old trick of firing things up with a mains light bulb in series, common used in DIY audio.