By dead short you mean zero ohms?
Yes zero or under 1 ohm ballpark is my definition of dead short. Sorry about the wording.
I do not have the shielded lines grounded yet. Is this where the instructions say all these grounds need to be at the same place?
Yes/no but let's be clear on the differences between shielding and grounding. It may be misleading as the manual goes from talking about the shields to talking about the grounds quickly.
For now if you have used the factory orion main harness, your CAN cable shield is connected on one end to 12v gnd and should be OK for now. Does the Elcon have any wires coming out from the CAN port other than high and low? Like a shield wire that connects to a pin on the charger? Find out but you can sort this out later.
Now, regarding
ground references from wiring manual:
"Any external devices connected to the Orion BMS’s CAN interface must share a common ground with the BMS (Main I/O connector pin 12). This is important as differences in ground potentials can damage the CAN transceivers on the BMS and on other devices. If it is not possible to use the same ground, external CAN isolations devices must be used. Please note that while the low voltage electronics in the BMS are electrically isolated from the battery pack, the CAN
transceivers are referenced to the 12v – 24v power supply ground and are not electrically isolated from the 12v – 24v power supply ground or from each other. If the BMS is connected to motor controllers, chargers, or other devices which do not offer isolation between the high voltage battery pack and the CANBUS (or any other low voltage signals that are connected to the BMS), an external CANBUS isolator is required for safety and for the protection of the equipment."
This is something you need to make sure you are clear on. I am not familiar with your newer Elcon model but its spec sheet and CAN mapping document do not convince me either way whether the CAN references battery (-) or is isolated internally. Old ones with optional CAN did reference battery (-) for their low voltage circuit. Not what you want if it forces you to tie chassis/12v system ground to battery negative to achieve a common reference. And yes, issues here can result in fried CAN transceivers or even melted wires in some cases.
I am using can one lines on the Orion. I’m not sure what you mean by different devices on different busses. But I assume I am not.
Some installations will use CAN2 on the Orion directly to the charger, and CAN1 to motor controllers, etc. CAN network design takes some knowledge of how all of the above discussed grounding and stuff works, so unless you have built your van wiring EXACTLY to a schematic for a proven kit using all of the same components, you are designing a CAN network and need to learn more about the topic. Fried components can really slow down a project.
Perhaps before you go any further, confirm the baud rate of your Elcon charger as ordered. Looks like default is 250 but other options exist.
What is the baud rate of all the other components that are functioning correctly on the bus?
I suspect this is what is causing your issue, while the other things I brought up still need to be understood and addressed.
I’m not sure about the half amp. I briefly saw bms software showing -.5 amps. I assumed that was charge coming in. But I’m not really sure if that is what was actually happening.
Have you spun the wheels on your van electrically yet? Does current show up as positive value when you did? Checking that your current sensor is programmed for correct direction.
The bigger CAN TC/Elcon chargers that I see will only turn their fan when actually outputting charge current, in case you noticed that happening or not.
Let us know!
