which charger? World Voltage, Cerbo/BMS, higher amperage?

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cedarm asked Jul 25, '21

which charger? World Voltage, Cerbo/BMS, higher amperage?

I need help selecting a Victron 12V charger that

Can handle 120V and 230V power
Can connect to a Cerbo and honor stop charge commands from the Cerbo (which in turn is listening to REC Victron Compatible BMS)
I need relatively high amperage charging. 100a would be ideal.

Are there any devices that would work? It seems the Centaur doesn't communicate with Cerbo, and isn't programmable.

BTW, my absolute fantasy product is an inverter/charger that can plug into any shore voltage, but puts out only 230V. Sort of an transformer/inverter/charger.

Background:

I'm on a boat that uses shore power all over the world, so I need to be able to plug in to USA 120V and 230V everywhere else. I use that to charge my batteries, and use a a separate inverter using the batteries to provide AC house power to the boat. I currently have a Mastervolt Chargemaster 12-100 that handles any voltage. That works great, but now I'm upgrading to LiFePo4 batteries, and the Mastervolt doesn't have Lithium profiles, doesn't seem (???) to be programmable. It also will not connect to the Cerbo or Bms, so I can't send stop charge commands.

Thanks!

cerbo gx BMS charger

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Paul B answered · Jul 25, 2021 at 06:53 AM

The Skyla Ip65 is uni voltage https://www.victronenergy.com/chargers/skylla-ip65 but max 12 volts amps is 70 amps.

another way is a Isolation autotransformer - so input can be 110 or 220 and the output is always 230, then the output is always 220 and you can then use any 220 battery charger. Bonus is that you are then totally electricaly isolated from the shore power and these reverse active and neutral connections no longer will bother you at marinas as well.

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Answer 1 · 2021-07-25T18:12:27Z

cedarm answered · Jul 25, 2021 at 06:12 PM

Thanks for the suggestion of the Skyla Ip65! It's almost what I want, and will have to do. It's a shame that it maxes out at 70a and that there doesn't seem to be a non-IP65 equivalent. I feel that adds cost and bulk needlessly, and I don't need that capability.

I'll have a think about the transformer suggestion too, though I'm not sure where I'd put it on my boat (it isn't tiny), and also, it doesn't resolve 50-60 hz issues. Not sure how some of my equipment would like running at the wrong frequency.

Thanks again for your help!

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hoeken commented · Jul 27, 2021 at 07:33 PM

That IP-65 charger above says it can be paralleled, so you could get two of them and have 140A capacity. How many Ah of lithium are you getting? Usually they can do 0.5C charging, so anything over 280Ah would be fine with 140A of charging.

Also, are you sure about waterproofing being unneccesary on a boat? Salt spray, humidity, leaking hatches... electronics like to corrode on boats and that is just a fact of life.

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