Hello,

I plan to convert my battery setup from the original FLA batteries on my 35ft sailboat ( 1 engine 70AH and 2 service 70AH ) with lifepo4 batteries (200AH setup)

I don't need a lot of energy, nor AC power inside the boat, but I need security and reliability.

Needs are basically (maximum values) :

- Laptop : 3A

- Electronics : 2A

- Fridge : 3A

- Navigation lights : 1A (led)

- Cabin lights : 2A (led)

- Autopilot (? average 3A ?)

- rarely : anchor winch ( ~100A ? ) -> He will stay on the engine FLA battery.

I'm rarely more than 3 days at sea.

The original setup is the following. (I dont know why there is a GND swtich on the original setup, any Idea ? installed factory by Beneteau).

[image]

I plan to convert to something like this.

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Any advises/recommandations about this setup ? (missing breakers ? fuses ? ...)

Best regards.

Note: please see my latest update for additional information and findings.

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Hi all,

I've been having issues with my MP2 since installation. Every so often when the grid fails ("load shedding", substation trips, etc.) the MP2 shuts off for about a minute before starting up again).

System:

• 1 x MultiPlus-II48/5000/70-50 230V
  • Firmware: v490
• 1x BSL Battery LiFePO48 Battery 8.2kWh (160Ah)
• 1 x SmartSolar MPPT 250/100-Tr VE.Can
• 12 x LONGi 450W mono panels
• Cerbo GX
• ET112 Energy Meter

At first I suspected a battery (BMS or otherwise) issue, due to the fact that the shut off coincides with "Low battery voltage" warnings and alarms, as well as "High DC ripple" warnings. There's a whole thread about this. I however do not believe this is actually the issue, but rather just a symptom.

A battery supplier technician was on site a few weeks ago to inspect the battery, and reported that everything seems fine (checked battery params via RS-485). He said:

There's a known issue with the MP2 and BSL and FreedomWon batteries. The MP2 has some low voltage offset bug where it would shut down on a battery voltage that isn't actually too low. The issue has been reported to Victron.

He suggested the installer set the "DC input low shut-down" lower as a workaround for now, until Victron fixes the bug. They set it to 46.80V (at this point the BMS should shut down the battery in any case). They also checked all wiring and replaced all fuses as a precaution.

After this, the issue seemed to go away. There was a "Low battery voltage" warning at one point, but no alarm and the system didn't shut down. However, last night when the grid failed (minisub explosion led to panel trip at substation, i.e. probably brownout) the MP2 shut down again for a minute. What is very strange is that there was only a "Low battery voltage" warning - no alarm. I don't understand why it shut down on a warning.

I am skeptical that the cause of the issue is actually a MP2 bug, since this happened on v481 and v490 firmware. Does anyone know about this bug?

EDIT: I just realized that the MPPT reported a large drop in battery voltage - see the VRM screenshots I replied with. It shows a voltage drop to 46.58V, which is well below the 46.80V DC input low shut-down. I measured the voltage on the battery terminals and at the MPPT with a multimeter. The battery terminals currently measures 53.7V, while the MPPT battery terminals measure 53.9V. Does this seem okay?

My theory of the actual root cause:

- I've seen threads about similar issues, such as this one: MultiPlus II overload on grid failure. One comment that stood out:

Hi. Solved a similar problem. If you have No grid code set please set you Ac low disconnect to 195vac of even 200ac....low reconnect from 202ac and above. Where i am in Zimbabwe my grid is above 240ac sometimes on failure it browns out as low as 170ac! Unless you install some external capacitors the Mp2 struggles to get into inverter mode from such a low voltage to raise it to 230! HENCE DC RIPPLE SHUTDOWNS..LOW BATTERY LIGHTS.and BMS SAFETY SWITCH OFF..etc.

- I have a feeling that when the grid fails (often due to equipment failure) the grid actually experiences a brownout. Then the MP2 tries to follow the voltage down, and finally attempts to switch over to inverter mode, but now the voltage is low enough that it struggles to reach 230V, draws a large current on the battery (thus causing a voltage drop), and shuts off.

- The "AC low disconnect" is currently set at 200V, but maybe this is still too low. The grid runs at anything from 235V - 251V. Should I maybe set the low disconnect to 210V or even higher?

- An external energy meter is beings used via USB (ET112) on the Cerbo. Could it be that it is too slow, and when the grid browns out the MP2 actually follows the grid below the "AC low disconnect"?

- I checked the BMS warning & alarm history via RS232 and PBMS Tools. There is only one alarm in the log since I purchased the battery, and that's when the "Low battery voltage" warning occurred without the system shutting down. The BMS reported a "SCP" protection (which I assume is Short Circuit Protection). Is this maybe due to a large current being drawn? There was about 4500W that was being drawn at that point, but the battery is 160AH @ 1C, so it should easily be able to handle that.

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Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? The installer has been on site multiple times and they can't figure it out, so I don't know. Should I maybe just insist that they replace the MP2 and battery?

P.S. screenshots of system configuration to follow.

Hello everyone.

I'm the owner of a MPPT 75/30, who was working really fine for 2 years. I have Lithium battery 100AMP connected to the MPPT and a solar panel 200W in 12V.

Battery : 100AMP Lithium

MPTT : 75/30

Solar panel : 200Watts

Settings : Absorption : 14.5 - Float : 13.3

Here my problem : When the batterie start to be full, and I'm going in absorption mode, the voltage sometime rise to 15V or even 16V! I have notice it first by checking historic and after...

I arrive to track it to live. The solar panel was in absorption with 0 watts, and out of nowhere, surge to 90watts, and voltage switch to 14.4 to 15.5 for example.

Notice that this situation happened without using any device in the same time.

Do you have an idear if it's normal or not and how can I fixe it?

[image]

My problem, is that the MPPT after Bulk, Goes into 'Float' for 2hours, and then stops supplying the loads, and the batteries then start to discharge. This happens between 13:00 and 14:00, with ample sun, so this then drains my batteries unnecessarily.

I tried so many settings but cannot get it to supply the loads, while there is sunlight.

Location:

Totally off grid on a farm.

My setup is as follows:

Old Blue Solar MPPT 150/70

Old Firmware (Not upgradable) Multiplus 24/3000/70-50

- Firmware 209

BMV 712 Smart

Color Control GX

Hubble AM-4 Lithium Battery X 2

Hubble CloudLink (RiotCloudLink)

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As you can see from the above images, as soon as float is finished, it just stops supplying, and the battery is drained.

The Charge Setting on the MPPT (Menu 04) is Set to 7 for standard Lithium presets.

The Color Control GX is setup to DVCC.

The Multiplus does not work with DVCC, as its too old to upgrade, but this should not influence the MPPT though.

[image]

I hope that I have supplied enough info, and am hopeful for a solution.

There's a new distributor of LFP batteries in Europe for a couple of months now, under the V-TAC brand. V-TAC was founded some 20 years ago at UAE and has a very strong presence in Europe, particularly eastern Europe and the UK. They've been hard into the LED and lighting business. They've recently started offering LFP batteries for solar projects, along with other energy bundles of dubious quality. I am interested in their 10kWh model (model name: AT48-200H or VT-12040), since I can source them locally for under €250/kWh and they come with a full 5-year warranty.

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According to the local distributor, the battery is made by Vestwoods, who are a quite well-known producer of batteries, however I haven't seen any in that form factor from them.

I am trying to figure out the model of their BMS and whether there is any chance of it getting along with an ESS GX setup, either officially or through Louis' excellent serial tool. Here's a photo of the BMS they are using, in case it rings any bells (searching for "CPES-BMS16S" online wouldn't produce any results):

[image]

They have published lots of documentation on their website for all models, and there's also a compatibility chart that displays Victron among the compatible brands; it doesn't mention to what extent, though.

I would appreciate any additional information or insights.

Here's the manual, including communication ports pinout

VT-12040 - manual.pdf

Ve.Bus (275) intermittent low battery alarm and high DC Ripple using Blue Nova Lithium batteries although the battery voltage is ok both on the Battery Voltage and Current (512) and VE.Bus DC Voltage and Current (276). I get the alarm intermittently when grid is lost momentarily. No Battery Warning and Alarm (512) is raised. This issue causes the inverter to switch to off and then restart.

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ESS System:

2x E-BOX-48100R-C - FW: v105.0

1x SmartSolar MPPT 250/60-Tr

1x SmartSolar MPPT 150/35

1x MultiPlus-II 48/5000/70-50

Early at morning I usually have about 20% SOC left. When the Battery is charging I noticed that it charges above 50% SOC with a insane speed. From 55% SOC to 99% SOC (~ 4,5 kWh) in about 30 min. That is not possible There is no power source that strong.

further Investigations:

1. after reaching 99% SOC Battery draws still 25 A of current for several hours then reaching 100% SOC and stops charging. The calculated energy makes sense.

2. when reaching ~95% SOC (to early) the BMS reduces the CCL (Charge Current Limit) to 25 A.

3. the voltage rises from (to early) 99% SOC (~53.9 V) to 100% SOC (~56.7 V) quite a bit

So I make the assumption that SOC calculation in BMS Firmware is incorrect.

Does anyone have a solution for this? Has anyone experienced the same?

Regards, Andreas

Hi! I am working on a "simple" diagram for a sailboat.

All charging sources (including 4pcs MPPT 75/15) go to Charge Bus Bar that feeds LiFePo4 house battery.

From the same Charge Bus Bar I am going to feed the ORION DC-DC Charger to charge the AGM starter battery. The AGM start battery will supply also the bilge pump.

When I leave the boat for longer period, I would like to disconnect the LiFePo4 house battery to store it at 50-70% SOC as recommended (all charge sources and loads disconnected).

The AGM battery remains connected to keep the Bilge Pump working.

Now the question:

Will the AGM battery get solar charge, when MPPT supplies voltage to the Charge Bus Bar and from there to ORION Charger, but no other battery is connected to the Charge Bus Bar (in other words: no battery connected to MPPT).

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I recieved below settings from the battery manufacturer for a 100AH Redodo Lifepo4, but so far have not used them because I got an overvoltage alarm the first hour I did. I've been using the standard Victron MPPT preset for now that seems to work fine.

[image]

To me from what I've researched these settings seem way off. Absorption seems super long. Perghaps they are trying to get a cell balance going but 6 hours i've never seem before. And equalization on a Lifepo? I just don't get it.

Do you think they just gave me wrong information? This is the same factory as Zooms, Amperetime etc and nobody used these kind of settings.

I have an all-Victron 12v system (diagram attached) with a MultiPlus II 2x120 and 4 100Ah LiFePO4 batteries installed in our RV. It has worked extremely well for 18 months, and this past weekend we had a problem with faulty power at our campsite power pedestal. I have an EMS permanently installed, and it did its job by preventing the power from entering the trailer.

We were in a hurry when setting up camp, and when the "pilot" light came on in my 50A plug I failed to double-check that the trailer was in fact receiving shore power. It was hot inside so I turned on both ACs, not knowing that they were being powered only by the inverter and batteries.

After a while, I happened to see that the MultiPlus was blinking low battery and I checked the GX Touch 50 to notice that the batteries were at 1%. I immediately turned off the ACs, fired up the generator, lowered the AC input current limit to 20A and plugged it in. By that time the lithium batteries had reached 0%. Once plugged in all was well with trailer power, and that evening they fixed the power pedestal so we plugged into 50A for the remainder of our trip.

When we broke camp to leave, I double-checked that the batteries had charged to 100% and displayed 14.4v. Once we unplugged from shore power, however, the slide moved very slowly and then stopped so I looked at the system and saw that while the battery was reading 100% the voltage was only 11.7v. I plugged back into power to retract the slides, and the battery voltage jumped back to 14.4v. Unplugging power the final time showed the batteries still at 100% and back down to 11.7v.

I'm unable to charge the batteries since they show 14.4v when plugged into shore or generator power, but they are virtually empty when unplugged despite showing 100%. I understand there is a possibility that running the batteries down to 0% may have damaged them, though I'm holding out hope that this is not the case. Is there a way to test for this? And if it's not a battery problem what are the troubleshooting steps I can go through to find the problem?

Sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance for any help you all can provide!

Patrick

Grand Design 303RLS Power Diagram v1.png

I bought a boat and am redoing the electrics.

Reading for a long time now but I am still unsure how to connect my new setup in the best way.

I have:

- AGM for Anchor

- AGM for starter

- LiFePo4 with REC ABMS for service

- Balmar 100A Alternator

- Smart Aternator Regulator but only with AGM profiles

- Mastervolt 75A Chargemaster Plus Charger with three outputs

- Solar MPPT

Now, should I go:

1. All charging (alternator, mppt, chargemaster) to a general charge bus, then three DCDC to every Bank

2. All charging to a charge bus and then two DCDC - AGM and Lithium

3. Alternator charging to isolating Diode, from there one DCDC to the two AGM and one DCDC to the Lithium, and for shore from Chargemaster one to the DCDC to AGM and one to the DCDC to Lithium

4. Alternator and Chargemaster to anchor or starter bank, from that one one DCDC to the other AGM and one to the Lithium

5. Alternator to diode, directly to AGM and from one of them to the Lithium

Sidenote, I need to reduce the output of the alternator to about 50% to not overheat it as my regulator does not have alternator temperature input.

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Hi,

I am just starting out in he PV / Backup system world and would appreciate it if someone would let me know if my plan for a system upgrade makes sense.

Background:

My existing system is made up of a Synapse 3.0+ inverter with two lead-acid batteries in series to provide a small amount of backup power to a fridge, PC and some lights during rolling blackouts. I'm South African and, for someone who doesn't know, we have frequent scheduled blackouts (3 a day for 2h30m lately).

The Problem:

The batteries are now showing signs of corrosion and have lost most of their capacity. Many days there isn't enough time between blackouts for the batteries to recharge fully.

My Goals:

1) I would like to keep the Synapse 3.0+ to charge my batteries from grid at night time after a blackout.

2) I want to replace my worn batteries with Lithium for greater DoD.

3) I want to add PV solar to my installation to allow the new batteries to get at least 1 full charge daily.

4)

My Proposed Solution:

The picture at the top of the post is a simple diagram of the changes I'd like to make to my system.

The first problem I have is that my roof is almost completely East/West facing. This means I need two strings on my roof to get the required coverage during the day to ensure at least 1 full charge per day. My plan at the moment is to have 2x360W (40.4V Voc, 11.4A Isc) panels per string.

Herein lies the second problem: The Synapse 3.0+ only has 1 PV input. This means that I need to get an additional MPPT to run the West string. For this I am looking at the Victron SmartSolar 100/30.

For the battery I am thinking about going either with 2x LFP 12.8/160 or 1x LFP 25.6/200 with the smallBMS for management.

My Question:

Does the diagram make sense as a system that will function as intended? Is there a better design that is maybe cheaper?

Also, I have been told by a supplier that the additional MPPT will only charge the battery and won't provide power to the Inverter, is this right?

Any advice and/or link to a similar functioning design would be greatly appreciated.

Hi all,

Can anyone tell me if I can fit an isolator switch right between the Victron 330ah smart battery and the BMS (connected to the Distributor busbar on the left side)?

All the schematics on the Victron site show the batters being connected directly to the BMS busbar but I prefer them to be able to be switched off individually if needed. this is also a recommendation by the Boat Safety Scheme so I prefer to follow their advice (and I do my narrowboat refurbishment).

I know there is a very fine and precise battery current reading by the BMS, so I wonder if a isolator fitted inline will affect the battery management process? Off course, the bank of 4 batteries will have absolutely identical isolators and cable lengths (positive and negative), would you see any issues? Cheers

My first post. A newbie to Victron Systems. Installation is in a professional campervan conversion that is less than one year old. Built for boon-docking for several days at at time.

Renogy PV panels - 600 watts total
Pylontech LiFePo4 100aH batteries x 4
Victron Cerbo GX firmware - v2.89
Victron Orion Smart 12V/12V-30A firmware v1.13
Victron SmartSolar MPPT 100/50 firmware v1.61
Victron MultiPlus 12V 3000 120-50 120V firmware ?
DVCC screens below

AC loads are 1800W induction cooktop, 450W milk frother, chargers for laptop/tablet/portable
speaker.

High Voltage Alerts (HVAs) frequent after batteries reinstalled from wither storage. Assuming that was the batteries balancing themselves? See HVAs again because of small AC drain and high solar input. (3 days off grid and batteries did not drop below 86%).

So... questions
1. Will I be always chasing HVAs because DC-DC charging + PV charging capabilities
may often outstrip AC loads?

2. Will continuing HVAs cause battery damage over the long haul?

3. Are their setting changes that will dump/divert excess charge?

4. Any other basics here that I am missing?

Any guidance greatly appreciated.

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Usage: small travel trailer, moderate usage but needing more power to get through nights running danfoss chest/cooler fridge (outside) and inside small danfoss fridge, when it's hot out. Plus lighting, and charging up various other bits.

I've currently got a BattleBorn 12v 100Ah battery, and I'm looking for 200+Ah (not going to describe fuse setup, it's sufficient with fallback Class-T at the battery). I'm contemplating switching to Victron LFP so I can tie into the rest of my current Victron systems (BMV-712, MPPT 150/50, Orion Tr Isolated 12-12 18a) for monitoring/etc of the battery, which BattleBorn doesn't have, which would be a nice to have.

I could just add a 100Ah BattleBorn, or upgrade the newer 270Ah BattleBorn, but the monitoring/integration could be nice.

However, upon reading closer, it looks like the Victron LFP doesn't have an integrated BMS in each battery pack? But it does have in-pack cell balancing? I'm getting confused now, so it had no built-in protection at all from over-current or over-voltage or anything like that?

So I'd need both a Smart BatteryProtect as well as a BMS, such as smallBMS or VE.Bus BMS V2. Seems overkill for my system, I'd just like cell health monitoring and such, but seems like Victron isn't for small systems with limited space :(