question

picotfloyd avatar image
picotfloyd asked

100|30 charging at 16v high voltage on 12v FLA bank

65912459892-1ff7f607-5928-43f4-a389-3c97a0a1d180he.jpegSystem:

3 Victron 100|30 SmartSolar chargers and one 30amp generic cc.

Each attached one cc to one 405W solar panel. (four panels, one charge controller each)
All charging a 12v FLA 4-battery bank connected in parallel for 800Ah

SmartShunt and SmartBatterySense are also all in one VE.Smart network.


Problem:

My inverter was not working properly so I checked battery voltage. The voltage off of the recently purchased batteries was >16V!! Three Victron CCs showed 12v charging, but somehow 16v was being introduced. I disconnected the no-name CC, but no change. I disconnected the starboard 100|30 and voltage into the system dropped to 15.5 (still way over 14.4 charging voltage.) I disconnected the center panel 100|30 SmartSolar charge controller and voltage in the system went immediately to 14.4v. I added the 3 chargers back one at a time with a close eye on the voltages, but no further issues were seen.

I have been using these controllers since 2018 with no issues (panels upgraded 18 months ago, batteries replaced 3 weeks ago (1000 + daily use FLA died as expected)


Help needed:

Anyone have any insight into how this can happen or what I can do to prevent it from occurring? Those voltages could kill a battery pretty fast.


Additional detail:

This was observed as a problem about 2 hours into my charging day, 10am, it could have been going on for up to 2 hours, but no longer. Charging continued the rest of the day with no issues. system shows 6 hours bulk, 3 hours bulk and 1hour float now that the charging day is done.

MPPT SmartSolarbattery system voltageovervoltage
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5 Answers
Matthias Lange - DE avatar image
Matthias Lange - DE answered ·

You have SmartSolar MPPTs so use the VictronConnect app to check the settings.

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picotfloyd avatar image picotfloyd commented ·

I used Victron connect app -- all settings are as before, using normal 12v battery charging profiles.

controllers are all using latest firmware.

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picotfloyd avatar image picotfloyd picotfloyd commented ·
equalization voltage is showing 16.2, but all three controllers show automatic equalization set to DISABLED
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picotfloyd avatar image
picotfloyd answered ·

Here are the settings:screenshot-2021-11-21-at-125948-ampng.jpeg


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picotfloyd avatar image picotfloyd commented ·
Any other ideas why charging ran away and went to 16+v ?
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picotfloyd avatar image
picotfloyd answered ·

the chargers have worked providing normal 14.4 volts for years, that one morning voltages drove up to 16+ volts. any ideas on why this could happen? @Matthias Lange - DE

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kevgermany avatar image
kevgermany answered ·

Perhaps you accidentally started an equalisation cycle

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picotfloyd avatar image
picotfloyd answered ·

is there any logging for equalization cycles ? I have not been able to find any information about this. I was not logged into any of the 3 chargers before the voltage bump to 16+ volts occurred. all 3 are set to "Disabled" for equalization and I rarely (never) even look at this page in the VictronConnect App.

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klim8skeptic avatar image klim8skeptic ♦ commented ·
The mppt records min and max battery voltages for each day.

Post a screenshot of your mppts history (detailed).

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Related Resources

MPPT product page

VictronConnect manual

PWM or MPPT

MPPT calculator

MPPT codes

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