Hi all
Have an RV system with 3 x MPPT 100/50 chargers, 2 connected to fixed panels, 1 as portable blanket plugin.
System has been running for 2 years and recently the 2 chargers with the fixed panels have been going to sleep upon reaching 100% SOC. Despite adequate parameters of voltage and falling SOC below 100%, these 2 fail to restart charging. Status shows as Bulk, incoming voltage on panels as being 65V for a 12V battery system. I have let the system run as is to see if charging resumes without intervention which it failed to do even down to 70% SOC.
Seems the only method to wake these chargers up is to do a hard reset by isolating battery bank for 60 secs and reconnecting although the chargers still took approx 20-30 mins to wake after reconnection.
The fact that these 2 separate units have the same issue would suggest that the chargers are OK and problem lies elsewhere. Programming has not changed since original commisioning.
Perhaps the Cerbo is the issue.
Hi Dave
I hadn’t updated software prior to this starting but have updated all equipment since with no improvement, perhaps made it worse. Nothing else was changed unless there was an automatic software update.
The post you referenced had similar issues etc but not exactly.
The current problem is the RV is in storage so at the moment have no physical access to the system and of course, they went to sleep as soon as it reached 100% SOC when back in storage
System has 4 x 200 ah lithium, 830 w solar on 1 charger, 680w on the other charger. Smart shunt, 3000 multi and some dc-dc chargers.
As a sidenote, other users have mentioned enabling/disabling the mppt chargers via a vicconnect app button but havent been able to find that page, just go around in circles trying!
Maybe l have different version?
Thanks so much Dave. Yeah found it. Made sense then but dont know why l didnt find it earlier! Frustration is a thinking killer
Batteries are in their sealed compartment as per our regulations but charging equipment mppt temp gets up to 42c when solar charging and inverting. Ventilation fan kicks in at 37c
Chargers began recharging at 70% SOC 13.1v.
At this stage it appears there is some intelligence in the software that will put the mppt chargers to sleep when SOC reaches 100% with a minimal load in the lead up to that charge.
That would minimise any lithium battery degradation by unnecessarily keeping the charge at 100% without any significant load. Therefore keeping charge between 70 and 100.
Cant find this in any documentation or any user settings to adjust
Are the solar charge controllers in a Victron Network and also connected via VE.Direct? If so, remove them from the Victron Network.
In my prior camper I had the same 100/50 solar charge controllers. They worked fine, going to float when they should. I tend to use the default settings for LiFePO4, with only minor tweaks to parameters, mainly the charge voltage.
Hi Jim
Chargers are on VE direct connections. Bluetooth is enabled but no smart network has been created.
Dc-Dc charger on the system is by bluetooth to the Cerbo
Wouldnt disagree but currently float is 13.5v which with a 0.1v offset would mean bulk charge should start at 13.4.
Charge started at under 13.2.
What is also confusing is that chargers are showing they are in bulk charge mode but have zero output. They stay in bulk mode all day until they turn off at night.
I need to allow it through a cycle and see if the 13.2v is a consistent restart level.
Its not really a huge issue if it is consistent as you know when its going to restart. If you dont know and you are in an isolated area you are wondering if it is going to go into recharge. Although l think 70% is too low if you are heading into a low solar period and want a higher charge to begin with.
As far as i know, with a GX device (your Cerbo) in the mix, some of the decision making is taken away from the SCC and taken over by the GX. If the GX is not available, the SCC resumes on its own local config, which is why its good practice to configure the SCC for the correct battery type even if the GX is controlling the SCC (but please correct me if im wrong or only partially correct).
If you were to get to 100%, SOC and the SCC go to sleep, and then the SOC drifts down below 100%, you could unplug the VE.Direct cable isolating the SCC. If this causes the SCC to start charging again, even just floating, it seems to prove that the GX is telling the SCC not to charge - hence we can stop looking at a SCC config issue and look at a GX issue.
AFAIK, having them in a bluetooth network will only affect their timing to sync the timing for the change from bulk to float, not anything with sleeping.
Your reboot seems to fix the issue, but the fact that it doesn’t fix the issue until 20-30min later makes me think that the reboot is not actually affecting anything, or only via a third variable.
Thanks RP. Sounds like the way to isolate the cause.
Might take a while as the RV is in storage. In the meantime ill let it cycle up and down to confirm startup points.
Its got a cover over it so only getting about 7% solar on the 1600w panels so will take time
