I am totally new to the solar charging system on our rv. I seem to have one battery that becomes over charged and goes into safe mode while the other battery is being drawn down to 50 %. I was of the understanding that the inverters would draw from both of them at the same time.
Are your batteries simple drop in batteries with an inbuilt BMS that do not communicate with each other.
If so then this can be a problem as explained below from what I have seen people observe.
When charging, if the charge voltage is too high or one of the batteries has imbalanced cells and one cell goes high, that battery BMS shuts down, leaving only one battery running. The shutdown battery BMS will reconnect but it may take a lot of discharge before it does.
To try and stop this, reduce the absorption charge voltage on the MPPT so the one battery does not shut down. Check the cells in the offending battery are balanced. If they are not then again, a lower charge voltage will hopefully give more time for balancing rather than shutting down.
This is not a Victron problem, it is with your not Victron batteries.
@pwfarnell said it pretty clearly but it could also be your batteries have a charge command, building on the assumption that your batteries have inbuilt BMS, it’s possible that the one asks for charge depending on preset parameters.
Perhaps a bit of information about the batteries is in order?
This is one of the 2 batteries.
This s seems to be the datasheet: 573a6b8344d2b996987b46e28afc954458cf672d4bc5bdd5b6e98b37aa14a9da_optim.pdf (1.2 MB)
Have you looked at your battery settings in your charge controller? What are those settings?
Also, we should request moving this to an appropriate section, like modifications to avoid undue effort by the mods
Not sure what you mean by moving this to an appropriate section. Like I said. I am a total newbie
How do I look at my battery setting in my charge controller
Tell us what your solar charge controller is, if it is a Victron controller with Bluetooth you need the VictronConnect app on your phone.
We mean by modifications that whilst you have some Victron gear in your system, it is not an entire Victron system. We will try to help BUT you need to supply info such as equipment models etc.
May I make a suggestion, go back to the supplier / installer and ask them to sort the problem. If you DIY installed then you have a steep learning curve ahead of you.
As am I my good man..an absolute noob but past experience has shown that the gods are not to be trifled with.
Tell me, were both batteries at 100% when you installed them? A trivial glance at the datasheet and gathering from your depiction, I’d like to assume that perhaps one battery is in protection mode.
It’s why I asked what you charge settings were so we can figure it out together.
I do t know how to access my charge settings.
I would confirm that the batteries are parallel connected properly. In other words cable of equal lengths and of sufficient size. Then make sure you are using the outermost positive and negative terminals in the bank to insure both batteries are being charged and discharged evenly. Best practice would be to have the batteries paralleled to bus bars. Check out wiring unlimited section 3 page 18 for examples of how this should look.
If there are no obvious issues with the cabling I would remove each battery, charge them individually with a suitable charger and test each one independently.
Its going to be very hard for us to help you on this forum if you are not able to understand the basics of you system and be able to communicate them with us. I would suggest finding a Victron professional in your area that can guide you a bit more. I regularly provide consultation services to my clients who have purchased an RV with custom solar and electronics installed. I can usually get someone with no knowledge at all pretty comfortable with their system in about an hour. Most say it is money well spent.
If it is a Victron solar charge controller with Bluetooth (SmartSolar or BlueSolar with a Bluetooth dongle) you need to download the VictronConnect app onto your phone.
For manuals go to Victronenergy.com, navigate to the product page and you can download from there.
Tell us what model you have, we may be able to help further.