I have been charging my 2 lithiun batteries in // more often from solar panels (mppt smartsolar 100/50), and while driving with an Orion Smart 12/12/30, and occasionaly from a Multiplus 12/800/35. They are all setup identically, i.e as found on some victron documentation at 14,2V
here are some screen shots of my settings
What I do not understand is that when I charge through the Mppt or the Orion (not that I drive a lot at the moment), my batteries voltage reaches max 13.2 volts, while when I charge through the Multiplus, I get 14,2V, either it summer or winter.
This for a fulltime living in a van for the last year, and of course battery don’t last as long when charged at 13,2V instead of 14,2V.
Any suggestion?
Thanks
You would need to see how much voltage drop is there between the orion and the battery.
The mppt has how much solar and is the VOC close to battery voltage or have you got a decent VOC panel there?
I see you have lithium set on some and temp compensation on other settings(so lead acid profile), so they aren’t exactly the same (except for voltage settings).
Thank you LX
Regarding the Orion, I haven’t driven long distances for quite a while, doing 30km a day max at the moment. But I remember on long travels, it took for ever to leave the bulk charging to switch to absobtion.
I am not 100% familiar with terms VOC but I guess this is Uoc, but here are the solar pannels tech info.
I have installed 3 in serie, so unless there is no sun, I usually have more than 50v entrance to the Mppt. https://imgur.com/a/xPbymVy
As for the temp compensation I guess you are speaking about the mppt module. The only preset mentionned is Smart Lithium (LiFePo4). My batteries are not victron, so not smart, but have a bms. Would that be the preset to use?
Coming back to what I said earlier, I finished the charging with the multiplus after posting, and as soon as I started to use energy, the voltage dropped from 14.2 to 13.3V quite quickly.
What ever the manufacturer recommends. With lithium there won’t be temp compensation but low temp cut off would be there.
You can use the lithium profile and edit accordingly.
VOC refers to panel voltage open circuit. Is a good level. Seen so many try charge to 14v with a 19v panel. Too marginal. Hence the thought there.
Thank you for your answer. I have done those changes. Initially I used the battery manufacturer recommended voltage, but I was experiencing some high tension peak after putting the second battery in //. I have solved this after charging them separately, but stayed at the recommend victron charging voltage. May be I should try the constructer voltage again. Any risk of damaging them?
Undercharged just means its not balanced and you don’t have the capacity as you have experienced. The tech sheet shows they start balancing at 14v so you need to reach there at least and stay there for a while.
How are they wired? Maybe there is poor current sharing? They have a low charge current expectation.
The tech sheet says balancing inferior to 14V which I am not sure what that means. I did put 13.80V so far
The baterries are connected to busbars. The [busbar+] is connected to [battery1+ ] , and [busbar-] is connected to [battery2-],… then [battery1+] is connected to [battery2+] and [battery2-] is connected to [Battery1-].
Should I just increase the voltage to the recommended 14,6V by the manufactor data sheet? It doesn’t mention absoption voltage but I guess this is the same where is goes from bulk to absorption once that voltage is reached…
I am just getting confused with different names given by victron and the battery maker. I am not sure what is the Self-Discharge > 14.4V
Could you help with the setup?
Absorption Voltage =? (used so far with 14.2V) should I go to 14.6V
Floatvoltage= ? (used so far with 13.5V)
Balancing voltage =? (used so far 13.8V) I have noticed that it isn’t ON on the multiplus
But also as the data sheet says for the battery, this a 12,8v nominal Battery. Does it means that it shouldn’t be above that value once in use?
I am doing a test with the multiplus with adaptive charge curve (Absortion at 14,4V) and batterysafe ON without changing the other settings
Thank you again LX.
So this is my setup for the time being, having implemented this on all the the appliances.
Absobtion = 14.4V
Float =13.8V
I just ran equalisation for a short hour, as I have never done this before. I switched off all appliances, as recommended by help on the multiplus as voltage can reach 17V. It did trigger every few second my BatterieProtect (error 3) (under voltage) which was what I experienced in the past when I had short peak of 17 v. Maybe something I should run regularly manually.
I let you know if my performances have improved in a week or so.
Thanks again
Just to give a little feedback following the advises. Seeing that 14,4V worked well, I set it up all as the recommended tension by the manufacturer of the batteries, i.e. 14,6V and kept the float at 13,8V. So far it is all good and while I haven’t used my rice cooker which is the one pulling the most power, I have used quite a bit my diesel heater as it is cold, and my cool box is running all the time with a timer 1/4h On 1/2h Off, my computer a few hours a day, and a small amp for a few hours a day. I haven’t been under 12,9V in the last two weeks, which is a great improvement, despite some overcast days.
Thank you again to those who have spotted my setting mistake and the advises.
I’m with you Laurent12B. The terminology in the industry absolutely needs to be standardized or they’ll loose all the folks who could be using this tech but don’t have the background.
After much help from folks on this forum and my own online research I eventually determined that the charge/absorption voltage for my battery (SOK LiFePO4 280Ah) should be 14.4V to 14.6V, with 14.4V recommended to increase battery longevity. Note: if anyone disagrees, links to reference to manufacturer (Victron for the electronics or SOK) would be much helpful.
Float voltage and Charged Voltage seem more iffy.
Victron SmartShunt settings in Smart Connect only refers to Charged Voltage and Recommended Settings for Victron SmartShunt, BMV 712 & Lynx Shunt – SOK Support states: “Charged Voltage: 13.8V”
However the Victron manual for the SmartShunt IP65 states on page 21: " The “charged voltage” parameter should be set to 0.2V or 0.3V below the float voltage of the charger.". Also note that on P16 of the same manual, it says “Charged voltage - the float voltage of the battery charger.” - why would they used two different terms to refer to the same thing (translation issue from German into English? I used to be a technical translator so I know how tremendously difficult this can be…)
One needs to learn to read between the lines and make appropriate assumptions on the intended meanings in order to get extract accurate info.
At this point, based on all this, I intend to define the settings (for SOK LiFePO4 280Ah) as follow: SmartShunt, Charged Voltage = 13.8V; SmartSolar: Absorption Voltage = 14.4V and Float Voltage = 13.8V.
Then I’ll cross my fingers until the next goofiness shows up on my system.
Thx I didn’t know that. I though equalization was neccessary by time to time to balance the different cells within the batteries. I mean on the lithium setting this option is available. I keep it off tho.
As for absorption time, it is only available on the Orion (which I rarely reach as I rarely drive long hours) , and maybe the multiplus (not connected to the main at the moment). The mppt doesn’t seem to have that setting available.
I know what you mean. Probably translated from chinese rather than german, with just an added local company logo. But yes, such an important industry, specially with all the consumer products on the maket should have a standardized voculaburary.
