75/15 'batterylife' jumper behaviour?

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Dave asked Apr 11, '19

75/15 'batterylife' jumper behaviour?

Hi just joined after purchasing the above controller. This is my second post the first disapeared without warning.

Anyway, the controller arrived yesterday and I wired it straight in, it replaces a cheap MPPT unit, which originally replaced a great PWM unit. I notice the green LED flashing rapidly, but I have set the jumper to convential charging, I do not have anything connected to the output terminals, so why is the 'batterylife' mode showing? I tried no jumper, green flashes, jumper on 1-2 and 2-3 same flashing.

It is too early to say if the batteries are charging correctly although the yellow LED showed bulk charging when I left the car. I left everything connected all day and as I live on the South coast of Spain the panel was exposed to sun for at least 8 hours, tomorrow morning I will check battery voltage.

Setup is:

Two 12v IIRC 100 amp marine batteries in parallel, single 75 watt panel, 4.45 amps, I can connect the second panel (same output) if need be.

Many thanks

MPPT Controllers battery

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solgato commented · Apr 12, 2019 at 11:09 AM

What is your panel’s voltage output rating? Do you have enough voltage for the MPPT to work? Might be the problem. I’d wire that second panel up in series and feed it into the 75/15.

If you have the smart version you can use the App to see values of current and voltage coming in and out of MPPT.

I think it needs something like 5V more than Bank V to activate, then will stay on unless V drops below 1V over bank, or something to that affect.

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Answer 1 · 2019-04-12T14:52:08Z

Dave answered · Apr 12, 2019 at 02:52 PM

@Solgato many thanks for the reply. Today I can confirm the system is charging fine.

My panel voltage (open) is 21.40v, peak connected is 17v.

This morning I checked before opening car doors and voltage on the dual battery monitor is showing 13.7, the controller green LED was not flashing and neither was the yellow, indicating a float state IIRC. Time was around 10.00 and the panel had veen exposed to day/sunlight for around 2 hours.

I switched off the SC and disconnected the panel. Car was used on and off for around eight hours today, when finished I parked up, switched off engine, switched on SC and plugged the panel in, sun still up. Green and yellow were flashing fast together, a couple of minutes later the yellow flashed slowly but green continued to flash fast. I am not sure why this is happening, in particular ad I have replaced a reliable PWM, with this not so cheap MPPT

The two panels can get shaded, but rarely together at the same time, as I understand it, if in series and one panel gets shaded the both stop?

Regards

Dave

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Answer 2 · 2019-04-12T14:54:56Z

Dave answered · Apr 12, 2019 at 02:54 PM

Bugger, can't seem to edit out typos?

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Answer 3 · 2019-04-12T18:31:48Z

Dave answered · Apr 12, 2019 at 06:31 PM

In an effort to offer as much info as possible to aid readers in coming back with thoughts/solutions I checked the SC status as the sun went down.

Yellow LED out so no charging taking place, green LED flashing fast.

So the issue (if there is one) is all about the green LED.

Any thoughts?

Regards

Dave

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solgato commented · Apr 12, 2019 at 07:33 PM

You don’t say what the rate of flashing is other than “fast”, but I’ll assume it’s a speed similar to the speed when starting up in which case a Green Flashing Float LED can be an indicator of 3 faults:

-Charger temp too high

-Charger over current

-Charger or panel over-voltage

Also I’m a bit confused by the behavior of your LED’s all together. On my 75/15’s there are 3 -blue for bulk, yellow absorb, green float. The LED’s blink now every 3 seconds or so at all times now that my units are networked together with a BMV-712, and they will blink rapidly whenever I am connecting to them via the Victron Connect App until connected, and will blink fast upon initial connection to a battery source, but other than that I would assume fast blinking to be a fault code. I also don’t believe/remember ever seeing two different color LED’s blink at the same time as you described your yellow and green doing.

Maybe others who know more can help.

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Answer 4 · 2019-04-13T00:15:08Z

Dave answered · Apr 13, 2019 at 12:15 AM

Hi, there are only two LED's on my 75/15 green and yellow. There are as far as I can tell three modes for each LED, on/slow flash/fast flash. When starting they both flash fast together, depending on variable amounts of time the green continues flashing and eventually stops and stays on, it may resume flashing for no apparent reason, the yellow slows the flashing rate and this eventually stops flashing, going by displayed voltages this is normal behaviour for the yellow going through bulk/absorb/float stages.

Hope that helps?

Regards

Dave

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solgato commented · Apr 13, 2019 at 01:08 AM

Sounds like you have a different model than mine, perhaps an earlier one or maybe the non smart version has a different layout.

Either way you should look at the booklet that your unit came with or find the owners manual online and look at the chart for what the various LED’s flashing behavior represents.

If it comes and goes on it’s own and is fast flashing, I would suspect a fault based on the behavior of my version of the MPPT 75/15 and what it’s LED flashing indicates which I posted earlier.

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Answer 5 · 2019-04-14T14:44:39Z

Dave answered · Apr 14, 2019 at 02:44 PM

Jeeez!

Today I noticed another weird issue. If I drive the car for say fifteen minutes switch off and lock up, my LED voltage indicator shows 13.2v, this is normal and is just displaying a surface charge, after about 30 minutes this drops to 13.0v again normal, within the next couple of hours this will drop to 12.6 where it will stay all night, this is with the solar controller and panel disconnected. Something else I have noticed since the first day, is that within a few minutes of switching off the 75/15 the battery monitor drops straight down to 12.6v? The alternator charges to 14.4 dropping to 13.8 on a long run.

The only conclusion I can draw is the 75/15 is not holding the absorbtion period long enough. The behaviour of my old technology and cheap PWM used to pretty much mimic the alternator, I never noticed anything unusual with that install over four years.

In an effort to get to the bottom of this I have further invested more money in the bluetooth dongle, hopefully this will shed some light on the issue?

Regards

Dave

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Answer 6 · 2019-04-14T17:40:07Z

Dave answered · Apr 14, 2019 at 05:40 PM

The connect app via bluetooth got things sorted.

Regards

Dave

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Answer 7 · 2019-04-14T17:51:41Z

Dave answered · Apr 14, 2019 at 05:51 PM

Having had a few frustrating days since the install of the Victron 75/15 I purchased the bluetooth dongle. Within 5 minutes of plugging it in and connecting via the Samsung 8 android and with a couple of clicks and the MPPT 75/15 works how I expected it to work.

A simple reset, and chose the no output option and my solar life seems to be happier. I am not counting my chickens yet, I intend to run it a few days and see what happens.

As the power supply is cut to the controller at every engine start I hope it does not revert to giving me trouble again.

As it was over a long weekend there was no input from Victron staff, I look forward to their thoughts over the coming days.

I will get back with the results later in the week.

Regards

Dave

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solgato commented · Apr 14, 2019 at 07:45 PM

Turning the charger off and on with every start/shutdown by cutting its power might not be the best thing to do.

When you turn the charger on, I believe it may then need to go back to sleep, and then wake up again before it can begin proper full charge cycle using MPPT.

By constantly interrupting this process, you may not get the performance you seek or were use to with a PWM.

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Dave solgato commented · Apr 15, 2019 at 04:47 AM

@Solgato Thanks for that, I too am not sure if that is the way too go either. I do note the charge cycle starts completly from fresh after being off overnight, I also disconnect the panel as well so the SC has zero supply when driving. Technically speaking, I would have thought the only harm done would be a break in the monitoring data, I am a long way away from being a MPPT expert.

Now I have reset the SC via the bluetooth dongle I must say it is definetly more stable, both LED's doing as expected. I can also confirm after dark last night, the weird behaviour of not maintaining the absorption charge long enough has sorted itself. After dark there was a residual surface charge whicH was good to see.

Over the coming two weeks the car will see way more use than normal use, so the on/off with the SC will be more than tested.

Thanks again.

Regards

Dave

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Answer 8 · 2019-04-17T14:09:22Z

Dave answered · Apr 17, 2019 at 02:09 PM

So after the connection of the bluetooth dongle and reseting the 75/15 MPPT and disabling the 'batterylife' function all is well, three days and not missed a beat.

My experience with the Victron Energy 75/15 has unfortunately not been a good one.

It was not working properly from out of the box, and having to purchase a special bluetooth dongle which once plugged in transformed it's performance to a fully functioning MPPT pretty much just rubbed salt into the wounds!

Compare it to purchasing an expensive car, finding you can only go 50 MPH until you go back and purchase an extra (equally expensive) part for the transmission, then you find your new car runs brilliant!

Many thanks to the forum member for your support.

Regards

Dave

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