charging

Is there a way (switch, assistant, setting) that allows me to force a Quattro into Float -regardless of state of charge on the batteries?

I hope this hasn't been asked before, but search is not working at the moment (internal server error) so,

Here is my scenario, this deployment is in an RV.

I have a Quattro 24/5000/120 connected to a pair of 12V lithium batteries in series, with a BMV 712 monitoring them.

For half the year, this vehicle is spent "off grid", meaning no constant source of shore power (a generator is used to recharge the batteries).
In that scenario I manually manage the charge of the batteries to ~90% SOC (because evidence is showing it increases their lifespan over a constant 100% SOC). I do that by turning off the generator, and the batteries are allowed to discharge with regular day-usage. Then the recharge cycle is repeated.

That works great, however,

For the remaining half of the year, this vehicle is spent on-grid and has a constant AC input. That, of course, triggers the Quattro's charger functionality and it happily tries to recharge the batteries to 100% (with a *mandatory* and unnecessary 1 hour absorption as a bonus). And it repeats this cycle, anytime powerassist is triggered and the batteries are used temporarily (however little), thus discharging them enough to restart the whole cycle over and again.

I don't want it to do that :)

I believe that to be deleteriously burdensome on my batteries (or any lithiums for that matter), who would be much happier at ~50-60% SOC when operating in this "storage" mode.

And that's my issue.

I want to discharge the batteries to 50% and leave them there, while keeping the Quattro happily plugging along doing its other functions like passing power and power-assisting from the batteries as needed.

Is there a way to accomplish this with my Victron equipment?

I've tried a series of hacks to simulate this behavior. Primarily by using the charge rate assistant with an aux1 trigger switch. But even that, even though the assistant is set to 0 amps, when active, still isn't really 0 amps. It keeps a creeping 1.5 to 2 amps going, regardless - which eventually charges the batteries up anyway. Just slower.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Hi All,

The literature says a 12.8V 300aH LFP smart can take up to 600A but the recommened charge current is less than or equal to 150A. If I were to use a 12KV generator to charge would it be unsafe to regularly charge above the 150A recommened?

Thanks

Hie,

I have a Multiplus 2 connected to a Victron battery (70Ah). The system shuts down after bulk charging as soon as it is about to go into absorption.

Please help

Hello,

We are working on a project to charge/discharge a battery by using a PLC. We have seen that the Venus GX supports Modbus tcp/ip but it is not clear to us whether it is possible to control the controller via this protocol. Here we think of for example:

- Charging the battery

- Discharging the battery

- Charging speed of the battery

- Battery Discharge Rate

So we want to get the intelligence out of the controller and control it from the PLC. Is this possible?

Thanks in advance for your efforts!

I have a bmv-712 but it does not show any positive readings when charging the battery. It displays negative readings but I can’t figure out why it does not display positive readings when charging.

Any tips???

I have a Quattro 24/5000/120 connected to a pair of 12V lithium batteries in series, with a BMV 712 monitoring them.

After the Quattro completes its absorption cycle, and goes to float, I am seeing a constant .7 amp “parasitic” draw that is being reported equally by the BMV and the battery BMS.

It starts almost immediately after absorption is complete and float starts. It shifts from 0 amps, growing to .7 over the span of a few minutes.

That draw will remain constant for hours/days without any action on behalf of the inverter/charger. Even if the battery SOC continues to drop (below 85% at last test).

That draw appears to be caused by the Quattro itself. I established that as follows:

1) there is no other 24V device in circuit. It’s just the Quattro, the bmv, and the batteries.

2) I shut off the Quattro and watched the load drop to 0 amps, as reported by both the bmv and the BMS. Turned it back on and watched it happen again.

Does that behavior make sense?

Is the Inverter supposed to generate a constant draw? I understand it needs its own internal power consumption, but assumed it would come from shore power -which is currently connected.

Will the Quattro at some point stop discharging and return to keeping the batteries, well, floated? Last time I let it get to 85% before forcing a bulk cycle (out of float) by triggering a (heavy) discharge.

The entire time the display on the CCGX just says float and idle.

[image]

This is not a grid tied system. Just an RV with 50 amp shore power.

I have rebooted/power cycled both the Quattro and the bmv and removed the batteries from circuit and put back in, for troubleshooting.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Today I've spent pretty well all the hours of daylight, and then some tonight, on trying to penetrate the thick defences of my Multiplus 170/50. All I want to do is tick the box to allow more tolerant generator standards, and untick the UPS button, so I can get my generator to charge.

I've tried the MK2 USB dongle with both Windows and Mac computers. I've tried to connect through bluetooth. I've finally managed to send into the nearest city for a long ethernet cable in order to connect to our internet router.

I've successfully installed VRM Portal, and though it is nice to see everything as seen on the colour control mirrored on my laptop, I STILL can't see how to get into the generator settings.

I've worked fairly intensively with computers since 1990, both Windows and Mac, and yet the installing of the USB drivers for the dongle cost me 4 hours, despite following all the instructional videos and reading forums.

Is there anything else anyone can suggest to get me in to where I need to go?

Hello folks, a couple of questions. I have a VW camper with a solar panel c/w Bluesmart 75/15 MPPT controller connected to a SuperB Lithium 90Ah battery with built in BMS. I need to add a mains (240V) charger & am looking at either the Bluesmart IP22 12/15 or the Bluesmart IP65 12/15. Reading through the instruction manual for the IP35 version, I see that a "Test" is carried out prior to charge commencing,:-

The TEST LED will flash as long as a charge pulse does

not increase battery voltage to more than 12,5V resp. 25V.

If the flashing persists during several minutes the battery is

probably damaged (internal short-circuit): disconnect the

charger.

A false rejection may occur if a load is simultaneously

draining a very weak or fully discharged battery during the

test phase: disconnect the load and repeat the test.

Question:-

1) If during the test phase, the solar charger is charging the battery, would the IP65 12/15 charger see the increased battery voltage & assume a fault & fail the test?

2) Is the IP35 version designed to run in parallel with other charging sources? If not, would the IP22 version suffer the same problem?

3) The charger will be permanently hardwired to the to the battery. Depending on circumstances it's highly likely that the charger maybe powered up whilst loads are simultaneously connected, (fridge/lights/diesel heater etc.) these loads may be running during the "test" phase, would this be an issue for either charger in question?

4) If the "test" fails, does the charger lockout until the next power up cycle or does it retry after a period of time?

5) Is there a more suitable charger for the application, it must be Lithium capable & be suitable for permanent installation in a small space, preferably fan-less.

Thanks for any help.

I only use my solar system during summer and I'd like to top my batteries off-season with a cheap method. I do not want to invest into another battery charger, so I figured maybe I could simply use the MPPT for this purpose.

Question as above. Does any amount of charging count as one cycle?

IE if you charged from 60% to 90% would that count as one cycle?

Or is a cycle only counted when you fully charge the battery to 100%

For instance yesterday my 300ah 24 v bank was at 56% so I ran the genset which charged at @149amps

The skylla tg cut out when the battery voltage reached 28.4v the 24 /3000/ 70 Phoenix inverter carried on charging but at much lower rate

But the app only showed 63% and stayed there. so on my thinking that was time to synchronise to 100%.

And that counts as one cycle?

Sorry if this is stupid question but I’ve just had the Lithium-LiFePO4 fitted and I am anxious to get the charging regime right

I accidently connected the vacuum cleaner (approx. 1800W) to one of the sockets connected to my MultiPlus 500 while shore power was connected. It made a strong buzzing noise as from a relay switching really fast. The inverter works as usual but, now I noticed that the MultiPlus will not charge the battery and are not able to switch over to shore power as before when connected.

Did I burn the “push true” relay or is there any fuses on the 230V level?

I have 2 x 135ah gel batteries wired in parallel, will a solar controller regognise this as one 270ah battery, effectively doubling the maximum allowable charging current? Or am i safer sticking to the 25 amps i currently charge with.

Cheers.

Hello,

System consists of 3 mppt's 150/70, 100/50. 75/15, 3kva multiplus, Venus gx and four 6v 377ah Trojan flooded batteries on ESS. Average daily discharge upto 70% SOC

I have set the manufacturer absorption voltage of 29.4 and maximum absorption time 4 hours in all the mppt's and the multiplus charger settings, but the absorption only reaches 28.6v and less than 4 hours. When I check the gravity of the cells at 100% SOC they are measuring 1.250 instead of 1.277 which means the batteries are under charged.

What can I do to rectify this problem?

Thanks

I am in the final stages of designing a battery backup system with the Multiplus II. The main purpose of the Multiplus II would be to have a backup power source for when the grid goes down. The Multiplus II would be fed from the grid to ensure the batteries remain fully charged. This would be the first stage of the install and gives me a very good indication of the power draw throughout the day for my critical loads.

The second part of the install would be to connect a PV system (MPPT) that would keep the batteries charged throughout the day. I would then allow a certain % discharge going into the evening. The PV array will be sized based on the power draw of the critical loads and the solar yield on an overcast day on the shortest day of the year (New Zealand - relatively high sunlight levels). On sunny days there will always be excess power available and I would like to dump the excess power into a hot water cylinder. I am looking at including the fronius Ohmpilot that would be connected to the AC-out (non critical load) of the Multiplus II. This way there will only be limited amount of power going back into the grid. I will only be installing the fronius smart meter and leaving out the Victron smart meter upstream of all the electrical loads as the fronius smart meter would be the only meter that needs to determine if the load is dumped into the hot water cylinder or if it is being exported back into the grid. I assume this is correct? Below is an overview of how I would like the final system to look:

[image]

I look forward to comments and feedback on the above.

Greetings to all.

I have on board a Victron Centaur 24v/80A charger charging a bank of 2x2 12V/225Ah lead acid batteries. Recently the batteries started to heat and loose water, when I went to diagnose I found out that the charger is outputting 29.8V regardless of dip switch setting. I found that there is a potentiometer inside and tried adjusting that but I could only reduce the voltage to 29.6V with strange pulsing noise from internal SMPS like it is running on minimum pulsing. I cannot leave the charger like this,it will destroy the batteries. Did someone encounter a similar problem? Is there a solution or should I just buy another charger? This one is about 4yrs old so if its gone already I think I will consider another brand. The one I replaced lasted over 12 yrs. Oh,I tried replacing the batteries with another bank new batteries but the charger is still outputting 29.6V.

I have a 230V Quattro running on a 200Ah 24V lithium (Battleborn) battery. I also have a 110V Multiplus on the same battery. Both appear to be functioning fine, but I'm only running the Multi in Inverter mode and only charging with the 230v Quatro. Is there going to be a conflict if I turn both charger functions on? Or will I damage the inverter/chargers?

I am looking at implementing an 'intelligent' energy harvesting system using a recently installed system that has PV array and a Pylontech battery bank and the above plus a mppt 150/70, that is to use a certain/calculated amount of stored energy in the evenings, and then restore that with PV sourced electricity via the mppt 150/70 the next day. I have made a seperate contoller to do this, that can monitor the SOC from the Pylontech bank via CAN Bus messages, so that once the SOC quota is used it will go back to AC power. I will activate the Inverter by an external transfer switch to disable the AC in and that will get the Inverter on line.

What I don't want the Inverter / Charger to do is use the main supply to charge the batteries automatically when it comes on again, that will be done by the PV the next day, I know one can switch off "Enable Charger" in the VE Configure but I want to be able to do this via a control signal or software command to the Venus or the Quattro everyday and can't seem to find any way of doing that so far.

I would appreciate any information in this regard.

One way of doing this is to switch OFF the Inverter by the remote control which is easily done but then there would be gaps in the data on the VRM portal since the Quattro monitors the main feed in terms of power supply.

Thanks in advance.

If I connect a VE. Bus BMS (connected to Victron Smart LiFePO4) and a Skylla IP44 to a Venus GX, will the BMS be able to control (disconnect/connect) the charger without additional devices (remote disconnect)? Or, must I use the BMS charge disconnect output?

I just bought Gel battery 130 Ah - BAT412121084. In the datasheet it looks like this is the C20 (in German K20) value. My charger requires the C100 (K100) value to be entered. I've read on some places that I can get it by multiplying 130x1.125=146.25 Ah. Is that correct or I can find more accurate source of this value ?

This system is in an RV (caravan). Victron Energy equipment includes SmartSolar MPPT 100/50, MPPT Control, BMV-712, VictronConnect App. Batteries at 100% SOC, 1.81A load, 600W solar array. It seems the controller has difficulty providing only the 1.8 amps drawn by the load steady state when the batteries are floated and not drawing any current. In this case, the solar controller stops supplying current, the battery drives the load, and then the solar controller pulses a bunch of current back into the battery to replace the charge used. Then stops, letting the battery continue to drive the load. This happens every few seconds. Charge current is steady when batteries are less than 100%. Here is a link to a video showing this MPPT 100/50 behavior

Phoenix multiplus compact 12v 2000. When plugged into shoreline the charger just keeps running, even tho batteries are completely full. Am I missing something? I thought it should cut off once the batteries reach a certain voltage. Its the model without charge lights, eg absorption float etc. I just want to set it so that I can leave it plugged in so the ac comes through, and when the batteries are full the charge stops. Is this possible or do I need to just unplug it? Sorry if this is a daft question! Many thanks

Hello, i bought 6 12V/160Ah LiFePO4. Because of delay with the project, they are still waitig to be connected an installed. They are down to 12,65V and I want to charge them with my Blue Smart 12/5 charger... Since the BMS is not installed yet, is there anything to worry about? Or can I just fully charge them since they ar self balancing?

Thanks for your advice.

Hello guys,

I have installed a 150/35 MPPT Smart Solar charger in my van and it is driving me crazy with the noise it produces. Once I disconnect the solar panels, the noise is gone.

[image]

Is this normal, something I have to live with or is there anything that can be done?

Thank you

Hi

I have a pair of Leoch 130 AGM batteries

I would like to set the correct settings in the Smart MPPT solar control 150/45 to match the datasheet for the batteries.

But I don't quite understand how to set this up correctly with the Victron Connect app settings.

The datasheet has

Cycle Use - Initial Charging Current less than 27.0A.Voltage 14.4V~15.0V at 25 C(77 F) Temp. Coefficient -30mV/0C
Standby Use - No limit on Initial Charging Current. Voltage 13.5V~13.8V at 25 C(77 F)Temp. Coefficient -20mV/ C

My guess is the Cycle usage is Absorb and the standby use is float? They seem to have different temp coefficient and there seems to be only 1 option on the controller.

So whats boost?

It also has ~15V so assuming they will accept up to that and that can be my max absorb setting?

I've only just installed it but don't want to set anything up that will dmg the batteries.

I have 650W (2 x 325W in series) so it will get up to the 45Amp charger current if the batteries are needing it and the sun is out midday im expecting,

The spec sheet: https://www.alpha-batteries.co.uk/media/catalog/product/l/a/lagm-130.pdf

charge mode

A: With switch regulator (two-step controller) charge on curve max.charge voltage for max.2 hrs/day then switch over to continous charge

B: Standard charge without switching

C: Boost charge (Equalizing charge with external generator) charge on curve continous charge for max. 5 hrs/month, then switch over to curve Standard charge

But I haven't got a clue what that means. Or how to interpret it into how the settings are presented in The VictronConnect app for the mppt controller.

The sheet doesn't have any thing i can see about Equalisation either and no idea if its safe to do that on these.

I have them in parallel so running at 12v.

Is equalisation like reconditioning? to try and de-sulphur the plates?

Does the above "A" mean i set the max absorption time to 2h?

Thanks in Adv if you are able to provide any understanding that i clearly lack about charging batteries.

Regards

Mark

Currently my Quattro (and multi) only allows a minimum of one hour of absorption time on initial charge (even though it allows .25 hours on repeated absorption).

My (and arguably most) lithium batteries require very little absorption time. So forcing them into a 1 hour absorption is both unnecessary and potentially causes extra wear on lithium batteries.

I would like to see the base absorption time settable to, at the very least, the same levels as with repeated absorption, or to even smaller window sizes.

Ideally I'd put my batteries in 10 minutes of absorption.

Hi i basically want a DC 12v ups, for a sercurity system.

they do exist but thus far seem rare and expensive,

So I had the idea of using a battery Blue power ip67 charger to power the cameras/ led/ alarm system, while also charging a battery.

The charger is a 7 Amp, the systems draws between 1-5 amps, usually less then 2 amps.

Will the battery get properly charged and maintained, or will the fluctuating load mess up the charger's charging capability resulting in poor battery life span?

I think if the charger used volts to determine its status it would be ok but if it uses current than not so.

I plan to use one or two 7AH sealed lead acid battery, would it make any difference if i used lithium?

On my EasySolar, I'm missing the State of charge indicator since I did a firmware update. Currently using firmware 2.23 20190218173409.

The state of charge displayed correctly before the firmware update.

Any tips is much appreciated. New user, so I might have missed something really simple.

Occasionally, for various reasons, I find it preferable to force a Multiplus from Float back into Bulk.

I understand that it will do this automatically when configured for "Lithium Battery" at a delta of {0.2V, 0.4V, 0.8V} below the configured float voltage for the {12V, 24V, 48V} charger.

But, if I wanted to force it to bulk anyway, regardless of the voltage, without resetting it and losing the pass-through/inverted output, is this possible? Has anyone come up with a trick to convince it to switch back?

I am aware of the special "forced absorption" toggle switch operation. I am looking for essentially the same thing, but for "forced bulk."

Appreciate any help. I just picked up a victron 100/50. I have it paired with a 654W panel setup and via a switch a 10W panel is connected. I have it this way as my travel trailer sits under a large cover and the main panels do not get sun. The 10W panel is out in the sun to maintain the batteries (two 6v GC batteries).

I noticed that during charging with the 10W panel, voltage rises and falls every 30 seconds.

- Peak voltage and current I see is around 19.5v / 500mA ish

- Voltage and current then fall to 14.5v ish / 0mA

This rise and fall happens every 30 seconds or so which ends up looking like an exact waveform on the android app. And I see the wattage reading rise and fall exactly as with the graph.

Is this normal or is there an issue?

[image]

Just installed a new 100/30 charge controller. The blue light slow flashes. I have 4:100w mono panels wired in parallel. The solar panels unhooked to the controller show 20v but when connected to the controller, the panel voltage drops to 12.9v and 0A reported on the VictronConnect app.