12/1600 Easy Solar slow shore charge

Question

question

marcustanway asked Jan 29, '23

12/1600 Easy Solar slow shore charge

After 10 months of use with no problems, my EasySolar unit has run into problems when trying to shore charge at home/campsites.

I have a 200ah Victron LifePo4 battery, BMV-712 Smart and 16/1600 Easy Solar, connected to three 175w Victron Panels and controlled via a Multi-Control unit and the victron app.

A few weeks ago when on shore power I noticed that the charge was incredibly slow. (1-2% per hour). I suspected the campsite might have limited amps, but have encountered the same issue now at home and elsewhere. It seems to be constantly stuck in Float on the multi control panel.

I read in the manual that you can kick the unit into forced absorption by flicking charger only on / off four times which I tried and indeed the unit will then kick into a higher amp charge (40amps) but will tail off over the next 20-30 minutes.

Therefore to get a full charge I have to force absorption 5/6 times in order to get the battery up to the required voltage. This is impractical as it requires staying in the van and is obviously not best practice for the system.

I have the setting a for lithium battery and haven’t changed any other settings via bluetooth, but cannot tell what the issue is or how I could connect to the multiplus to change the settings.

I have no issue charging via MPPT or with the Orion, just when I plug in.

Feeling a bit stuck!

EasySolar All-in-One shorepower

8

2 |3000

Attachments: Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

klim8skeptic ♦ commented · Jan 29, 2023 at 11:56 PM

forced absorption by flicking charger only on / off four times which I tried and indeed the unit will then kick into a higher amp charge (40amps) but will tail off over the next 20-30 minutes.

What did the battery voltage get to?

0 ·

marcustanway klim8skeptic ♦ commented · Jan 30, 2023 at 08:31 PM

It steadily increases up to around 13.6 -13.8v

0 ·

klim8skeptic ♦ marcustanway commented · Jan 31, 2023 at 12:53 AM

Is the fan running? Could be de-rating if it gets hot.

0 ·

marcustanway klim8skeptic ♦ commented · Feb 08, 2023 at 09:53 AM

Yes fan definitely running

0 ·

klim8skeptic ♦ marcustanway commented · Feb 08, 2023 at 10:40 AM

Another thing that will cause low charge rates, is low AC input voltage.

Can you confirm 230 ish volts when charge is slow.

0 ·

marcustanway klim8skeptic ♦ commented · Feb 14, 2023 at 09:23 AM

Thanks Klim8.. another good suggestion. Thanks for your ongoing help.

I looked into the AC input as you suggested and noticed that at a few of the campsites I have been to there is variation in the amps, from around 6 at the lowest to 16 at the highest. I always keep the dial on the multi-panel to 16amp input.

I have just completed a full charge on a 16amp socket at home in the garage. This took nearly 50 hours to take the battery from 11% SOC to 100% - The multicontrol panel read that the charger was in 'float' voltage for the entire charge duration. This is obviously too slow, and not convenient for when we're at a campsite for just an overnight stop to charge up.

The problem I am having with the EasySolar unit is that you cannot control the multiplus element via bluetooth, only the MPPT settings, so I am unable to view or change the settings for the charger to see if that might help. As I mentioned this is a new problem with my setup, I would previously cycle all charge stages 'Bulk/Abs/Float' when hooked up.

I have been looking into the documentation myself and have seen that there is a way of changing input current and voltage settings via 8 DIP switches housed within the EasySolar unit. Do you think this could be worth checking that they are set correctly?

I don't want to tinker too much with my limited knowledge. I don't believe my workaround of forced absorption to shove in a higher current is going to do any harm as I know the battery and charger can handle it, but as you can imagine is not optimal.

0 ·

klim8skeptic ♦ marcustanway commented · Feb 14, 2023 at 07:29 PM

@marcustanway It is probably best to confirm what battery you have. Lithium SuperPack (inbuilt BMS), or Lithium Battery Smart (external BMS). Which BMS?. An external BMS will have control of the Multi. Battery temp over 5c??

have seen that there is a way of changing input current and voltage settings via 8 DIP switches housed within the EasySolar unit. Do you think this could be worth checking that they are set correctly?

Even if the DIP's were set to 4a ac input limit, that will still allow about 50a of battery charge (depending on ac loads / other settings).

The problem I am having with the EasySolar unit is that you cannot control the multiplus element via bluetooth,

Out of the box, the multi is not configured for Lithium batteries. To configure or update the multi you need a Mk3-USB and VE Configure. Maybe you could borrow one from your installer / supplier?

0 ·

kevgermany ♦♦ klim8skeptic ♦ commented · Feb 15, 2023 at 07:40 AM

Can be done with the dip switches, but they don't always take effect, some trickery needed with switching on/off as per manual.

MK3 will, of course, override the switches.

0 ·

question