I needed to change from a Votronic to a Victron charging booster. Now I never have a full battery… If I am lucky, I get to about 80 percent battery charge, before the booster switches into float. The details for the battery are configured based on the manufacturers recommendations.
My setup is as follows: I have one fusebox, where all the “red” cables arrive. The box itself is directly connected to the battery (a 200-Ah-Lifepo4). Both my solar paneels (well the MPTT) and the Victron charging booster arrive into the box. My thinking right now is, that the fact that solar arrives in the box as well, disturbs the readings of the charging booster (it did not though for my Votronic).
Can I teach the Victron about the solar? I.e. change the values in a way it makes sense? I would hate to turn off the solar during driving? If that’s the only way though, are there any proposals on how I can to this automated based on the D±signal?
I have a hard time imagining that I am the only one with this setup. If I am missing something else, please let me know!
Sitting here in the dark with no solar, the charger still jumps straight into absorption mode. It never stays in bulk. The voltage entry lock is turned off.
The battery reports a voltage of 13.1. and the charger an exist voltage of 14.2.
If I would have bad wiring I would expext it to never jump out of bulk, but it stays in absorption and the 13.1. is well below the rebulk valie of 13.4.
Shouldn’t the Orion jump into Absorption when the voltage is higher? A bad cable / connection would lead to a drop in voltage, right? Hence, it would never get out of bulk?
Nope. Bulk is a state where it’s delivering Current. If, due to bad wiring, that Current can’t actually be delivered, then it will go straight to Absorb and complete it’s cycle there. The Orion can only see the V on it’s own output terminals. And if that V is different to Battery V then there’s a disconnect between them.
Assuming of course that the V measurements aren’t faulty.
Thank you for your answers. I did change the 40amps fuse between booster and battery to a 60amps fuse. I also slightly tweaked the charger settings. Now it gets closer to what it is supposed to do. I am going to run some tests. However, is ot normal that the booster gets too hot to comfortably touch? It os in a quote big closet with a fan that blows air out. I am in Colombia though, so there is not much supply of cold air
Is there any way to disable the automatic motor running recognition? I have wired my D±signal, but when I turn off the motor with the recognition disabled in the app, the charger won’t shut off. I can’t run the recognition, because my light machine gets to some really low voltages while driving.
W is an ac signal , the frequency is the speed of the alternator. So with a rectifier, capacitor and relais you have a signal that the engine is running.
But that sounds like what D+ is. The thing is, right now it is connected like stated in the manual, but it does not work for turning off even if the recognition is turned off in the app. In that case the booster keeps charging from the starter battery.
If you have a bad connection between the orion and the battery, the orion will be “pushing” but not getting much current through, which to the orion looks exactly like a full battery.
While the engine is running, and the orion is charging, get a multimeter and using a common negative (i suggest the battery neg) check the voltages at the orion, and every point to the battery positive. If there is not much else happening (which might confuse the situation) , the bad connection is between the biggest drops, so for example if the orion is 14.2, the fuse is 14.2 one side and 14.2 the other, and the next point is 13.2, and battery is 13.2, you have a bad connection between the fuse and the battery.
DONT set the orion higher yet, or you will over charge the battery when currents are lower. I.e. first presume you have a bad connection, once that is ruled out, then we can investigate a skewed voltage sensor or similar.
@RoarPowerNZ thank you for the warning. By now I realized that the previous charging booster was charging at 14.4, while my manufacturer mentions 14.2 for boosters and 14.6 for 230V chargers. So I guess it should be alright at 14.3 - since it is even lower than the previous booster. The battery BMS never reported any problems.
@Ludo it is currently connected as shown in the manual, as there is no other possibility shown.
Once you have sorted your on/off signal as @Ludo mentions, i think you still need to check your voltages, but first turn off the isolator on your panels so that the mppt is not giving you a false reading. Also turn off your inverter so that there is no load.
