Hello @mpvader and thank you for taking the time to answer my question!
During my first tests directly after upgrading the firmware to 3.65 it seemed like the charger was working again, charging my battery with up to 15A.
But I thought the charging process seemed a bit odd because it went very quickly from Test → Bulk → Abs (12.51V / 2.1A) and then back(?!) to Bulk (14.9A) for 10 minutes as the voltage increased from 13.94V to 14.71V, after which it again continued to Abs (when the voltage became ~14.7V) and charged first with 14A and then the current decreased for a few hours until it switched to Float (13.8V / 7.8A).
Triggered by you mentioning “use it to charge an empty enough battery” and the fact that the battery was almost full when doing my earlier tests directly after the firmware update I decided to run a ‘final’ test last week with a half-discharged battery (according to the camper’s system: ~53% and 12.3V) instead of an almost full battery (~92% and 12.5V).
And now the charger failed again!
This time it was first in the Test stage for a minute or so (never taken that long before) and then in Bulk for a few seconds and then directly to Abs. The voltage in both the Test and Abs stages according to the Victron app was 12.32V and the ‘charging current’ 1.0A. In contrast to last Sunday, the charger did not go back to the Bulk stage after a minute or so and since the lights were still on, this meant that the battery continued to be drained even though it was being ‘charged’…
After 7 minutes in Abs and ‘charging current’ 1.0A I thought it was enough and turned off the lights in the camper so no current was consumed (before the consumption was about 6-7A) to test if it might affect the charger in any way. Disconnected the charger from 220V, waited until the charger’s LED lights went out, waited another minute and reconnected the charger to 220V.
And then the exact same thing happened again: Quickly to the Abs stage (now 12.49V / 0.9A) where it remained for 3 minutes before I disconnected the charger and connected the CTEC 5A charger (which I had to buy abroad this summer) instead. It has exactly the same stages as the Victron charger and it did exactly what it was supposed to do: max current in the Bulk stage until the Abs voltage was reached and then to Abs etc.
So, I guess my charger isn’t OK after all and needs to be replaced?
Is this (failing) different behaviour while charging a half empy battery compared with an almost full battery something you can confirm in relation to the failing hardware?
After the update to 3.65 I don’t get the alternating behaviour between Bulk and Abs anymore, it just stays in Abs the whole time. Is this something you recognize?
And why did the app state the battery voltage was 14.7V during my first tests? I am running the charger in Normal mode, not in ‘High’ mode.
Question for @symovo : In this thread https://community.victronenergy.com/t/blue-smart-charger-ip65-12-15-low-voltage-and-current-firmware-bug/5863/10 you wrote your problem was fixed with update 3.65. Can you please confirm that still is the case? And if so, did you try charging a half empty battery too or are you just ‘maintenance’-charging a battery?