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Voltage regulator MEP002a alternative?

amolaver

Member
64
6
8
Location
maryland
just wanted to follow up on this. i've got almost 20 hours on this unit (the 'noco gen2 genius marine charger') and am extremely pleased with it. despite a goofy name, this appears to be a very well made, heavy duty and weatherproof fully potted relatively high amp dual bank charger. twice now, after sitting for a couple of weeks, i hit the glow plugs for 60 seconds and fire up the gen. switch the house to it for a full day each time, and when i go to shut it down, the charger is indicating 'green' - it is providing enough current to feed the pumps (and whatever other DC draw there is) and charge the battery to get it into 'maintenance' mode.

certainly 20 hours is not 100% definitive, but i am gaining confidence this is a good alternative to NOS regulators. yes, its $115. if my sieve-like mind can remember, i'll try and post follow ups at the 6 month and 1 year mark on how its holding up.

ahm
to follow up again on the noco charger, i've crossed 100 hours of operation, using both the day tank and aux fuel (pulling from a drum). at one point, we had lost grid power for about three days (after the derecho June 2012 North American derecho - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) and other than my foolishness at not understanding the cold weather intake baffle, the 003 ran perfectly while being charged from the noco. i'm quite happy with it and would recommend it to anyone who's DC VR dies. it is fully epoxy potted and is advertised and appears to be weatherproof (mine has sat outside on the trailer since i got it). i believe it is intended for marine use, so it is pretty durable.

i leave it plugged into the convenience outlet, but manually turn off the breaker before shutting down the gen, and don't reset it until the gen is up generating stable power. i assume the voltage trailing off as it shuts down and ramping up would probably not be good for it, but just a precaution.

ahm
 

cucv1833

Member
533
4
18
Location
Lake Charles, LA
just wanted to follow up on this. i've got almost 20 hours on this unit (the 'noco gen2 genius marine charger') and am extremely pleased with it. despite a goofy name, this appears to be a very well made, heavy duty and weatherproof fully potted relatively high amp dual bank charger. twice now, after sitting for a couple of weeks, i hit the glow plugs for 60 seconds and fire up the gen. switch the house to it for a full day each time, and when i go to shut it down, the charger is indicating 'green' - it is providing enough current to feed the pumps (and whatever other DC draw there is) and charge the battery to get it into 'maintenance' mode.

certainly 20 hours is not 100% definitive, but i am gaining confidence this is a good alternative to NOS regulators. yes, its $115. if my sieve-like mind can remember, i'll try and post follow ups at the 6 month and 1 year mark on how its holding up.

ahm
Hows that charger holding up??

I just did a lot of research and decided to get that charger. Mainly just to charge 2-batts. In general but also a back up if my mep002 charging system isnt working properly. I just bought 2 super start 51r72 batterys. I only put 1 hr on the generator so dont really know if its charging correctly. With fresh batt. The battery meter is in yellow through out the 1 hr run time. The stator checks out ok as per the Tm manual testing procedures. And i got power at the regulator fuse and thats as far as i got.
 

Triple Jim

Well-known member
1,375
286
83
Location
North Carolina
What do you need to know, Aces? There are two wires that carry AC from the stator that connect to two terminals on the terminal strip under the DC regulator. The third terminal on the strip is the DC output to the batteries. The two wires coming out of the top of the regulator go to the fuse holder.

If this isn't the information you need, let me know, I might be able to help.
 
Last edited:

amolaver

Member
64
6
8
Location
maryland
Hows that charger holding up??

I just did a lot of research and decided to get that charger. Mainly just to charge 2-batts. In general but also a back up if my mep002 charging system isnt working properly. I just bought 2 super start 51r72 batterys. I only put 1 hr on the generator so dont really know if its charging correctly. With fresh batt. The battery meter is in yellow through out the 1 hr run time. The stator checks out ok as per the Tm manual testing procedures. And i got power at the regulator fuse and thats as far as i got.
I know this is old, but I'm still using the noco charger, it is still sitting outside in the weather, and still works perfectly. If it died tomorrow, I'd order another one. The only nicety I treat the charger to is pulling the convenience breaker b4 shutting the generator down so it doesn't see the voltage trail off (and keep the breaker off until the generator is outputting stable a.c.)

We just had another storm this week and were happily on 003 power all day with the noco keeping the Costco batteries topped up. For whatever reason, one battery usually ends up showing green on the noco while the other shows status red (green = trickle, red = max amp charge).

Regardless, I'm still using the original costco batteries I put on the genset, with the noco (dc charge circuit never worked since pickup at GL). I try to run it once a month for at least a couple hours (with the whole house load on it) if not a full day, plus the actual grid outages. I did have the ac regulation transistor fail, and one of the fuel pumps die, but I couldn't be happier with the unit. I doubt I would have been able to diagnose the a.c. output transistor on my own - steelsoldiers is an amazing resource because of the folks who contribute. Hats off to all the smart guys sharing their experiences!

ahm
 
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