[crofter]

My son uses quite a few of the Parmak Magnum fencers but uses larger batteries and other sourced solar panels. If you have stretches of cloudy weather and your fence is fighting a fair bit of weeds, the original solar setup allows the batteries to drag down and sulphate. Those little batteries do not survive that many times before they give up the ghost.

The fencers themselves are trouble free.

 

[crofter]

I sure am not singing from the same hymn book! My ParMak Magnum 12 V fencers show ~12,000v fence to ground on two bee yards. They will volunteer jump about 1/8".
This is while my separate solar panels and controllers are showing 14.3 volt across the battery terminals. (many chargers are not rated to be connected while being charged but the ParMaks have no problem with it.) I have not checked the fence voltage when the solar charger is off line and the supply voltage would then be down around 12.8 to 13 volts.

I have a 15 year old other brand charger on the horse corral and its output voltage to the fence is just over 8,000 V, despite having a 6 joule rating. The ParMaks have a more attention getting smack despite having a lower joule output rating, according to my unfortunate personal experience.

 

[crofter]

I hope this development is only a temporary glitch with ParMak. Too many quality old companies seem to have cheaped out and lost their reputation.

 

[crofter]

If the open circuit voltage is virtually the same as the fence to ground voltage then the present grounding area is adequate. The series of neon lights tester is not a very accurate indicator. some of the examples of this indicator will not survive the open circuit voltage of the magnum 12 when powered by a full sized 12v battery under charge. My external solar panel controller keeps terminal voltage at 14.3 volts and shows 12,000 volts fence to ground. I think my tester is rated up to 20,000 V. My setup will volunteer jump of nearly 1/8" when a ground is brought near it. I think you could google up the voltage required to jump a given gap and this might give a more accurate assessment of the applied system voltage vs your Christmas tree meter. That might tickle your inquisitive fancy.

 

[crofter]

I have blown several of the testers with the ladder of lights, plus I am seriously red color blind and cannot see the lights unless I shade them under my jacket. I believe i paid close to 40$ for the digital read out one that is rated up to 15,000 V.

Using multiple ground rods is advisable, thus a series of ground rods, but they are not electrically in series. Actually they are hooked in parallel. The ground wire leads do not require insulation! You might as well use bare wire since it is contact with the earth that the grounding system is all about. If your soil is on the dry side it is to advantage to place your ground rods further apart and strung out along your fence. Run one across to the other side of your enclosure is good. With an accurate readout meter you can test if readings are lower at locations further along the fence from the hot connected point. This would indicate that that soil is not providing a good connection via the earth for a return circuit.

My son had one area that was on rock so he ran alternate runs of galvanized barbed wire connected to the ground rod and the ground side of the fencer, between the energized ones. It is illegal to energize barbed wire but it can be used for ground. There is net fencing that alternates hot and ground wires for the horizontals so it can be functional without a driven ground rod and is independent of the conductivity of the soil in the area.

 

[crofter]

I would say the $ 32 one. Faults are usually quite obvious or audible; a cracked insulator or a juicy slug bridging to a post. Accurate voltage readings at various points are good indicators too. The fiberglass ribbons with fine woven metal conductors can go open circuit after a deer crash etc., and may not be readily obvious.

 

[crofter]

Having raised pigs out on pasture I have learned what to stay away from, at least around here. Any thing from the big box stores including Gallagher, Zabera. Electric fencing is all we used. Sooo many unplanned litters because these units showed that they were working while in fact they weren't.
We finally found Speedrite, a company out of New Zealand. No Chinese components! The best model for us was the Speedrite 1000 which comes with the ability to operate from the power grid or deep cycle batteries and comes with a wiring harness that hooks up to solar panels. Five years ago we paid less than 150$ apiece and they are still in service for the bee yards.
These models show battery strength, load impedance and have multiple settings for day/night use and usually average 10k kilo volts.
The best space for finding information on portable fencing is to look into forums dealing with pasturing pork. After learning how to contain boars and sows that can grow to 1000 pounds, bears aren't that big of a deal.

Interesting. I had thought that Gallagher was decent but no personal experience with them. They are pricey! Fair bit of experience though with the feed store cheapies, Zareba amongst them do not last. I dont think the transformers are varnish soaked and baked. In field conditions they soak up moisture and short out, plus their voltage is on the low side even when new. I have an oldie from Princess Auto that has been ticking away for more than 20 years. 6 Joules and not extremely high voltage but it will handle a high load of weeds and still keep the fence hot. Seems to me it was about $150. which seemed like a lot at the time.

 

[crofter]

<Snip>
How long is the fence? I would definitely jump wire to wire at the furthest point from your energizer. As for the 10 feet on grounding rods, I have read that if too close together they will act as one rod, defeating the purpose of multiple rods. J

Yes, if your fence is anywhere near square area, loop ends back together. If ground rods are too close together they serve the same area and their effects are not additive; It is more area you want contact with, so spread them out. There are test methods to determine whether more ground rod contact area would yield improvements but that is not likely your limitations.

A have a 4 foot deep layer of acid peat bog under my fenced area so one ground rod is more than adequate.

That Speedrite site @crab414 mentions has loads of information.

 

[crofter]

I hav'nt reread the thread but your suggesting the fencer might be sucking makes me wonder about the state of the internal battery. I am skeptical about things in general that are part and parcel of a mini solar panel and an enclosed lead acid battery. Two reasons; one is how long has it been sitting on a shelf in a discharged condition? Lead acid batteries self discharge even with no load applied and sitting in a discharged condition leads to plate sulphation which is, for practical purposes, not reversible. The death knell of LA batteries. A simple voltage test with a multi meter or its own test may not indicate its arterial sclerosis. Secondly lead acid batteries give off corrosive fumes when charged which is bad news for printed circuit boards inside a cabinet with them.

Corrosion has been mentioned quite recently in the Parmaks. I have had no problems with their basic 12V units but power them with a free standing 25 or 30 watt solar panel and a car battery which has the capacity to power thru long periods of no sun without been drawn down excessively.

Stay on its case; the truth will out!

Jack gave you a good trouble shooting procedure.

 

[crofter]

Well then a lot of what I blathered about does not apply. I guess I gathered from the thread title that it was the Solar Magnum setup you had. Much better with the battery and solar panel as separate units.

 

[crofter]

We learn more from attempting to analyze the off beat situations than from the instant success stories; It is all good!

 

[crofter]

I needed a swift kick in the butt. Your mention of "bad wire to wire connection" got me motivated. I tore apart the "wad of wire" at the wire coming from the hot terminal. I was using a section of polywire as the jumper for the five strands...tied it to the terminal wire. As time went by I simply added another wire over that one. Anyhow I un-wadded it today. When I did, I found some yellow wire that hadn't been sun bleached...Farmworks (Tractor Supply brand)...the sorriest polywire I've ever seen. I got rid of a bit of wire. Anyhow, once I got down to the 4awg wire coming from the terminal I saw a dull, oxidized surface. I got some sandpaper and cleaned it up good. I then took a piece of galvanized electric fence wire and made a new jumper for the five strands and connected this to the terminal wire. I went ahead and added the existing pigtail of the polywire jumper, too. Big wire nut and it was all nice and neat...much better than the wad of wire crimped into the wire.

I'm getting anywhere from 5kv to 7kv (max) on my Christmas tree tester. If I get a good spot to stick the earth probe in I get 7kv on any place on the fence...otherwise it's a solid 5kv. If I ground the probe to a t-post I get 7kv every time! For some reason I did not try the "touch test". I may try that, yet, just to see if the opposite corner from the energizer will give me the jolt I got at the terminals.

Another thing is that I'm getting an arc spanning a good 1/16", pushing an 1/8", when I use a screwdriver to short the polywire to a t-post. Before, I was simply getting a little pinpoint of contact-spark. I even heard some "cracking" when the arcing took place!!!

And, the last thing... I was standing at the fence with the Christmas tree tester in one hand and the probe wire in the other and for some reason decided to touch the tester to the fence. The meter showed 3kv. This seemed kinda odd. I didn't feel anything. I then moved the probe into my hand and touched the fence again...I could feel the weakest tingle of electricity from the probe. I guess I was completing the circuit, but as far as I could tell I was insulated from the circuit...plastic case of the tester...insulation of the wire...but yet showed 3kv on the meter...???? I've seen a tester that looks kind of like a spark plug and has no probe. I guess I was picking up induced voltage of sorts...???

Anyhow, I think the fence is in much better shape tonight. I had a couple of Bambi's grazing the white oak acorns this morning. I think if they nose around the fence they might get a surprise!!!

Thanks, everybody, for putting up with my rambling and fussing. And I'm happy to say it was OPERATOR ERROR the entire time. I still don't think the energizer is putting out its advertised 13.5kv and I do miss the pre-tests the old pcb had, but the Parmak is paid for, past it's return window, and hopefully is putting out enough to turn a deer now. When...if I ever get the Whizbang Fencemate fence tester I'll post what it shows and what I think of the meter. Until then I'll try not to bug ya'll. Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!

ETA: I also added a jumper at the far corner from the energizer to connect all five strands together. Just thought I'd mention it. That's all.

When you get your new tester you should perform the test routine @Jack Grimshaw gave you . Wit the fence not in the ciruit you should get close to the same voltage between the connection point and ground as you get across the fencer terminals. Voltage will be less with the fence connected since the fence wires act as an antennae and do waste some energy with every pulse.