Suddenly our agm batteries (2 rows of 4, set up as a 48volt system, each batt.135ah) are making the dreaded bubbling noise while absorption charging. They are only a couple of weeks old, and barely used. They replaced similar batteries, but these ones are dual purpose, i.e. could be used for starting a vehicle ase well as for deep cycle purposes. We hadn't changed any settings on the 150/60 Blue Solar mppt, but it was the first time I ever heard the bubbling. We reduced absorption voltage to 56v, and float to 54v during the bubbling, and it stopped, but then we used a hot plate, and charging changed to bulk, and when it went back to absorption the same bubbling noises started, so I further reduced the voltages, with float now at 53v and absorption at 54.5v. Once again, the bubbling stopped, but who knows what will happen next time a load is applied and it goes to bulk, then absorption, and possibly triggers the bubbling before float kicks in. The highest current we observed during all this was 8 amps, and towards the end, before I intervened with voltage reductions, 3 amps. I thought bubbling would only occur at high charge voltage/amperage. I also read somewhere that something called sulfation can occur if charge voltage is not high enough. What could go wrong with the lower voltages I've now set? It's like choosing how to die: lose the batteries through cooking away the electrolyte, or lose them through sulfation. Documentation the manufacturer provided indicates that the original higher values the mppt was using would be fine, so I don't understand why this problem has suddenly arisen. Can anyone help, please?
3 Answers
Hi can someone tell me what the bulk protection mode does on the MPPT and why it is active?
Over VRM or the console is nothing apparent but via grafana is the solarcharger/State = Bulk Protection. Now I wonder if something is wrong with the system or if I reach a limit somewhere and therefore lose solar energy.
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hi there!
I upgraded my system with the inverter in the title, and I have trouble setting it up correctly with my system, problems I have so far:
>solar charger will not start charging even though it has energy.
>not sure how to setup batteries, I have lifepo4 ones (4 in series) and they have a rudimentary bms, which is not accessible from the outside, no BT or CAN or similar)
>I decided to keep the solar charger (smart solar 150/70) of the prior system connected, currently it is charging the batteries, but the RS will seemingly randomly shut down
so about the shutdowns: in two days I got the #29 "battery overcharge" error code twice, yesterday noon when the solar charger (of the smart solar unit, mind you) went into absorption mode, and voltage was 56.80V, interestingly the RS showed slightly higher values than the solar charger. also the 4 series 12v batteries were not perfectly balanced yet, I have since installed 3 battery balancers from victron, and they are dead on balanced since yesterday evening.
so the second shutdown was weird though, it happened when there was little to no sun in the morning today, the batteries were at about 75% and the voltage was way off the maximum. this led me to try to dive into the menus to fix the issue, and to try to feed the MPPT of the RS instead, but as initially pointed out, I did not even get it to charge at all, not sure why.
so to sum it up, this unit is a bit weird for me, I used to have a cheap chinese inxiii 2400w 24V inverter which workes flawlessly without a single shutdown since about october in my old 24V system, with 4 of the same batteries.
what's happening here?
two thoughts I had:
>maybe I need to change battery preset to anything but lifepo4, albeit my batteries are lifepo4.
>maybe I need to find a way do disable the BMS? why does and inverter have a bms anyway? I was not aware of this initially.
any hints tips or an outright solution would be highly appreciated. if some pro could give me guidance on how to setup the battery that I have (for which there is not preset) that would be awesome.
I had no issues setting up the battery with the smart solar 150/70, but it doesn't have fancy bms tech, either, does it?
cheers,
bill
p.s.: I can't leave my home rn, as a fridge sits on this inverter, and when it decides to protect me (forced protection seems to be quite trendy these days, especially by governments) even though the BMS inside my german made (no, not german assembled, but german made) expensive lifepos is doing a nice job with overvoltage, overcharge, undervoltage, undercharage, overtemp, and undertemp protection.
p.p.s.: some more thoughts/observations:
>battery voltage measurement is exactly 0.05V higher from the RS than either the smart shunt or the MPPT150/70 during charging, I think it is about the opposite (lower by 0.05V) when discharging, but I will report back on this in the evening. what could this indicate?
>just checked in the RS' history tab, there are three errors, some hopefully due to me installing and connecting things, cause I never noticed them before, the are: #29 overcharge protection (we know this one), #10 battery low voltage (probably cause I disconnected the battery when connecting the balancers) #53 Inverter internal DC level (curious about this one). the main takaway here though is the max recorded voltage of my string of 4: 56.96V, which even if the RS shows .05V more than the other devices, is still "only" 14.24 per battery, which has an end of charge voltage of exactly 14.4V, according to spec-sheet. so again, what's happening here?
> is it possible the RS is not really designed or compatible to be used in inverter only mode, with a separate charge controller like I do? to me it seems the RS somehow "thinks" "look, the battery voltage is rising while I am not charging it, so it must be faulty? better shut it down" and then shuts down..?
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I disconected my battery for an hour to clean terminals but when i reconected and turned on Battery then PV array i noticed batteries were not charging , . Used Bluetooth to see what was hapening and im getting the normal 94 volts but only between 10 and 30 watts instad f the normal 500 - 1400 i get in Bulk
I have tried turnng PV array and Batteries on anf of several times and al that hapens is that all three lights flash quickly once then Bulk light comes on but still only normal Voltage and little power .
I am assuming its the MPPT rather than the panels but until the expected input from th panels is less than 20 amps i cant chack that .
I have a seriuse breathing problem and have to use an oxygen generator and it only lasts 3 hours on is batteries so i nee do sort this out as quickly as i can so any assistance would be very much appreciated .
1 Answer
I hope somebody can advise? I have a 75/15 smart solar mppt hooked up to a 150w solar panel and 105ah battery on my campervan. The battery is 5 years old and been used quite a bit. It was tested and showed 26% health, but then the person also said the solar panel was faulty and quoted me to replace it. Would a poor condition battery cause this? I was going to replace it with a 120ah AGM, but before I invest I would appreciate any advice.
I presume from the readout below the solar panel is working fine (sunny today). I notice the battery state is off, but it does go on intermittently. Could the mppt be faulty? The blue light flashes every 4-5 seconds and every 15 or so times (I didn't count) all three lights flash quickly 8 times. The history shows little activity.
Please treat me gently. I'm new to this so simple terms would help. Thank you.
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I have a SmartSolar MPPT 100/30 which I am attempting to control remotely using the relay on a BMV 702.
In the online manual Item 5.2.5 states the following;
Remote on/off:
This is the default setting. This functionality will switch the solar charger on or off via the RX pin.
- RX pin to GND will switch the solar charger off.
- RX pin floating or to battery positive will switch the solar charger on.
However this does not appear to work, when I short Gnd-Rx nothing happens?
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Hi, my setup 3phase MP2, 1,1,2, cerbo, shunt, 2xMPPT. After add second MP2, the mppt cant chrge. Must be ESS at all MP2 or in slave MP2 not? Many thanks at answer. L2 Answers
I have two 150/70 mppt’s. One is in “float”, while the other has been in “bulk” for days. One the cerbo screen this mppt (the one in bulk) is showing that it is in “off” state. My battery charge is at 100%. I don’t turn shore power off much. But when I do and the batteries need to recharge it seems to take forever (all daylight) to bring them back to 100% regardless of how much charge was used. I am really at a loss. Can anyone help?
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I appreciate the help, I am new to this, I would like to know if it is normal for the load output to put 0, when there are cameras, control unit and so on connected to the battery... The mppt 100/20 is new too, is it broken or am I doing something wrong?
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Hi Guys,
actually i monitored MPPT data to create some Node Red analysis. Due to this i noticed that todays data of e.g. Yield, Max Charge Power a.s.o. is only working right partially. It looks like the data is correctly showed when PV Power is active but if PV power is gone all values showing 0. Checking the same data via Victron Connect Remote shows the same result. Can someone out there confirm my observation? If yes, works it as designed or is this a bug?
Thanks for help and comments
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Hi everybody,
On our camper we have 4 victron solar panels of 175W (~24V, ~9.5A). We have sets of two panels in series wired to their own 100/30 SmartSolar Charger which are connected to our 12V battery system. This has been working for many months without issues, but since a day or three one of the two charge controllers is not functioning properly anymore. The other one is working just fine.
Instead of the expected 32-48V PV voltage during the day it only measures 16-24V - displaying only half of the voltage that is measured on the PV pins of the controller. And as a result, the controller turns itself on and off because it drops below battery voltage + 5V sometimes.
To test if there is a problem with the MPPT or the array, we have swapped the two controllers - and as expected (by the fact that a different voltage is measured on the pins) it's the controller that is acting weirdly.
The dealer told us there is probably something wrong with the controller and we should get this one tested and replace it with a new one. But I would like to understand a bit better what could have gone wrong. Did anyone experience similar issues with a controller like this?
Cheers,
Joy
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I have brand new 600ah AGMs and 420 watts solar. BMV has me at 80% SOC but MPPT controller seems to be going into float prematurely. It looks like the battery voltage on the MPPT is quite a bit higher than what the BMV is saying and my guess is that this triggers the Float. MPPT goes from 200 watts down to zero. I then see, within seconds, the voltage drop on the MPPT and the watts cycle up again.
Ultimately the SOC doesn't rise above 80% as the MPPT stays in float.
This can't be normal. Thoughts?
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Having problems with our set up, MPPT (100/20) showing 0-1w and battery reading is showing as 13.78, but multimeter showing 12.16.
The wires did get accidentally unplugged, but not working properly since plugged back in.
Sometimes the app doesn't come up with the controller at all.
Please help!
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How to I connect 10 x 355 watt panels on the multi RS solar ?Does it damage the MPPT if I do connect to much solar ?
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MPPT turns off for 20 minutes when battery switches to absorbtion.
What is the reason for that?
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DC power can be sent to grid because DC feeding is allowed.
When I reboot GX, MPPT production resumes earlier that if I do nothing.
2 Answers