question

dave556 avatar image
dave556 asked

Erratic Output from SmartSolar MPPT 100/50

This system is in an RV (caravan). Victron Energy equipment includes SmartSolar MPPT 100/50, MPPT Control, BMV-712, VictronConnect App. Batteries at 100% SOC, 1.81A load, 600W solar array. It seems the controller has difficulty providing only the 1.8 amps drawn by the load steady state when the batteries are floated and not drawing any current. In this case, the solar controller stops supplying current, the battery drives the load, and then the solar controller pulses a bunch of current back into the battery to replace the charge used. Then stops, letting the battery continue to drive the load. This happens every few seconds. Charge current is steady when batteries are less than 100%. Here is a link to a video showing this MPPT 100/50 behavior

MPPT Controllersbattery chargingchargererror
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1 Answer
Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) avatar image
Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) answered ·

Hi Dave,

This looks normal to me.

Batteries are full and you have a very small load.

The charge controller is trying to maintain the battery voltage, not power the load.

So it will push a little bit, and then back off if the battery voltage rises above the target.

It's fine for the batteries to transact a few amps like this at the top of their charge cycle.


The MPPT and BMV will also report different currents. The BMV is much more accurate at current counting than the MPPT, so you should trust it's current readings before the MPPT.


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Related Resources

MPPT Product Page

MPPT Error codes

MPPT 150/60 up to 250/70 Manual

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Chargers.

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