Blue Smart Charger & LiFePO4 Battery Smart not fully charging

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offgrid asked Aug 7, '20

Blue Smart Charger & LiFePO4 Battery Smart not fully charging

Hi there :)

I have recently bought a LiFePO4 12,8v Battery Smart 200ah
It is not yet hooked up to a system as the facility is still under construction

The manual for the bettery says it must be regularly (at least once every month) charged to 14V (max 14,4V)

I have a Blue Smart IP22(1) 12|30 Charger

I am using the Victron Connect app to monitor the voltage of the battery
I have tried charging it twice and am now trying a third time.

The battery was sitting at 13.25V
Cell 1: 3.32V
Cell 2: 3.31V
Cell 3: 3.31V
Cell 4: 3.31V

When I start charging, the charger jumps straight to ABS
The battery voltage occasionally jumps to 13.26V momentarily
With Cell 2 jumping up to 3.32V momentarily and back to 3.31V

After an hour or so the charger has progressed to Storage
The battery voltage is still at 13.25V

Does anyone know why it is not charging up to 14V ?

Thanks very much in advance

battery charging Lithium Battery charger

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Matthias Lange - DE answered · Aug 07, 2020 at 04:05 AM

Check the fuse at the charger, sounds like it's blown.

Do you try to charge without BMS? If yes you have to adjust the settings of the charger!

For the very first charging set the absorption voltage to 13.8V and give the cells time to balance, this can take 10-12h (only charge under supervision!).

If you don't do that you will get most likely a cell over voltage alarm.

If the battery voltage reach 13.8V and all cells are around 3.45V(+-0.05V) you can continue the charging with 14.2V.

Edit: You don't have to charge the battery every month if they are not in use.
The once a month fully charged is to ensure the cells get time to rebalance while sustem is in use.

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rjacobs answered · Aug 07, 2020 at 06:41 AM

First, there is no need to charge the battery every month while waiting for the installation to be completed.

The procedure described by Matthias is correct if you charge without BMS and you don't know if there is an imbalance. So it's always safe to use this charging method.

There must be something wrong with the charger or charger profile. Did you update the firmware to the latest version? Maybe you can check the voltage on the charger's clamps to see if the charger is ok?

Once the battery is connected, the charger has to go back to bulk until the absorption voltage is reached.

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rjacobs answered · Aug 07, 2020 at 10:30 AM

Is the voltage you mentioned, the voltage measured on the battery or the charger? I assume the battery. It seems you have some voltage drop over the cabling. Check that the clamps are properly attached.

The charger switched over to float quite quickly. When you are charging for the first time or if you don't know if there is imbalance, it is better to set a longer absorption time. You can set it to fixed 8h for example. Once the battery is in balance, an absorption time of 1 or 2 hours is sufficient.

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offgrid commented · Aug 07, 2020 at 11:00 AM

The voltage I mentioned was the battery voltage.
Ihad to go out so I stopped it and am now back at it.
I have set the charger to fixed absorption time of 8hrs
The battery is now at 13.76V
Cell 1: 3.52
Cell 2: 3.37
Cell 3: 3.36
Cell 4: 3.51

That is a little out of range of the 3.45 +/-0.05 you mentioned

Not sure what to do...

Also should i have it set to Low Mode (15 amps instead of 30 amps) ?

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offgrid offgrid commented · Aug 07, 2020 at 11:08 AM

Sorry I missed your message about screen shots...
Here we go:

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victron-ss-1.jpeg (117.7 KiB)

victron-ss-2.jpeg (131.0 KiB)

victron-ss-3.jpeg (113.6 KiB)

rjacobs offgrid commented · Aug 07, 2020 at 11:28 AM

Your battery has some imbalance. Cells 1 and 4 are higher. The battery will balance the cells during absorption. You will see that the current drops until 1,7A and stays there for some hours. The voltage of cell 1 and cell 4 will drop slowly and cell 2 and 3 will slowly rise. The current will drop when all voltages are equal. Then the balancing is almost done what means that you can increase the charging voltage to 14,2V.

Once the battery is properly balanced, you can use the standard lithium charge profile.

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rjacobs offgrid commented · Aug 07, 2020 at 11:33 AM

You don't have to do anything. Just let it charge, this is normal behavior.

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offgrid rjacobs commented · Aug 07, 2020 at 11:37 AM

Thanks so much for your help, I really appreciate you taking the time to guide me through this.

Absolute legend.

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Modifications Space

Node Red Space

Answer 1 · 2020-08-07T07:59:47Z

offgrid answered · Aug 07, 2020 at 07:59 AM

Legends!
Thanks for your replies!

And thanks for the tips about not needing the monthly charge while not using the battery.
I'll just charge it now to get used to the procedure and to make sure the equipment is working

The firmware on the charger and the battery are the latest versions.

I checked the 40A fuse on the charger and yes it was blown.
Not sure how and I don't have a multi meter on hand

I just went and bought some more 40A fuses and replaced the fuse.

And I created a user defined preset the same as the L-ion preset but with ABS set to 13.8V

I'm now charging again and the charger went quickly to ABS and is currently running between 13.81 - 13.83V

The battery has climbed quickly from 13.25 to 13.53V

I was thinking it seemed to be working...

But now it is sitting at 13.53V and not changing...

Cell 1: 3.39V
Cell 2: 3.38V
Cell 3: 3.38V
Cell 4: 3.38V

Does that sound normal?
Should I just let it charge for a few hrs and see if it climbs up or should I stop it and check the fuse again?

Thanks again!

EDIT: The charger is on Float now, everything else is still as described above

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Matthias Lange - DE ♦ commented · Aug 07, 2020 at 08:33 AM

Can you make some screenshots from VictronConnect app from the battery and the charger.

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Answer 2 · 2020-08-07T08:36:47Z

offgrid answered · Aug 07, 2020 at 08:36 AM

Ok, I can confirm it is still charging ...
Current voltage is 13.55V

Thanks very much for your help guys!! :)

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Answer 3 · 2020-08-09T12:37:22Z

offgrid answered · Aug 09, 2020 at 12:37 PM

Thanks again for your help...
Yesterday that all worked...
I completed that charge then ran it at 14.2V it was looking balanced
And I ran the Li-ion preset and it completed successfully with all cells perfectly balanced.

I actually have two of these batteries and today I have been trying to repeat the process.

I used the same preset I made using 13.8V and fixed 8h ABS time
One of the cells made it up to 3.70V while the others were sitting around 3.36 - 3.37V
So I stopped it thinking that cell will go over voltage

I tried again without the fixed 8h
And this time the charger went through all its stages but ending with the battery at 13.56V
Cell 1: 3.49V
Cell 2: 3.36V
Cell 3: 3.34V
Cell 4: 3.37V

For some reason it is not balancing the cells

I'm not sure what to do.
All I can think of is turn it off and try again tomorrow...

Incidentally, I do have a V.E Bus BMS but I've never used it and I'm not sure it's even useful with the Blue Smart charger... I bought it to use with an EasySolar 24/3000 which is still in it's box... I know that I need to balance and fully charge both batteries before connecting them in series and hooking them up to the EasySolar... that's why I bought the 12V Blue Smart charger...

Any thoughts or suggestions?

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Matthias Lange - DE ♦ commented · Aug 09, 2020 at 12:42 PM

The balancing starts at around 13.8V without the fixed time the charger goes into float to fast.
Just charge like you did with the other battery (maybe with 13.70V or 13.75V).
Have an eye at the cell voltages, if one cell goes to high(around 3.75V) the battery status will say "charging disabled" and you should stop charging for a while.

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offgrid Matthias Lange - DE ♦ commented · Aug 11, 2020 at 10:29 PM

Thank Matthias,
I've now charged both batteries and I think everything is ok :)

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