charging

I am changing the battery settings in the VictronConnect app for my Smartsolar 150\35 controllers and was wondering how you change\verify what the bulk charge voltage is? I only see settings for Absorbtion, Float and Equalization voltage in my app.

These are the settings I was told to use for my GC2 6 Vilt batteries

Bulk - 14.46v

Absorbtion - 15.3v

Float - 13.4v

Equalization - 15.6v

Thanks

Hi , I'm building a battery box which will be removed from the vehicle, and charged off solar, when camping. I'm fitting a MPPT 75/15 solar controller to the battery box to control solar charging and loads while camping, and will be hard-wiring the controller to the battery.

When in the vehicle, the battery will charge off the alternator via a uni-directional voltage sensing relay.

Question: Do I need to isolate the solar controller from the battery while it is being charged off the alternator, or is it OK to just leave it connected to the battery in parallel? (No loads will be connected to the controller while it is in the vehicle).

If I have to disconnect it, would normally-closed 30A horn relay in the + line between the battery and the regulator do the trick? The trigger current for switching the relay (to break the battery-controller + connection) would come form the battery box connection point to the alternator circuit. I could also do this with a manual switch, but would prefer to automate it. One less thing to forget.

Thanks a lot!

Danie

Aloha. I have a system comprised of (2) MPPT 75/15 controllers in parallel to a 24V bank with a BMV. Each charge controller is fed by (3) 100 watt 20V panels. This system powers dual electric boat trolling motors which are wired directly to the batteries and not to the Load Outputs of the controllers.

My question is, when should the charge controllers switch to Bulk mode? Do they have to see a specific load or a load for an amount of time before switching?

I thought they would switch from Float to Bulk if the voltage of the bank fell below the set threshold, but during mid day sun while both chargers are in Float mode with fully charged batteries, if I turn the motors on and draw a load the chargers do not switch to Bulk to offset the amperage draw which causes the voltage of the bank to drop. I can see this on the BMV. I would have thought a load causing voltage drop below set float value would have caused the controllers to switch to Bulk?

I have tried networking and resetting all devices and double checked all settings.

Thanks!

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!

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.

Hey all, I want to protect 4 CALB 3.2v 180ah lithium batteries in series, as well as charge them from my vehicle charging system. which is a Ford van with a 115 amp alternator.

It looks like the smart battery protect 12/24-100A might be good for the LVD, what about over-voltage protection?

Are any of the Cyrix-CT or Cyrix-LI suitable for charging from the vehicle charging system?

Pretty soon, I'll be adding a solar panel and controller, just not there yet.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Thank you.

Currently the rate limiter is limited to no less than 13A on my Quattro, which was made available only after an update, lowering that from a much higher limit.

Are these limits physical/electrical or are they software/firmware?

I'd like to see the rate limiter set to something similar to my multi (which allows 7.5A) or even lower.

Sometimes we have available some sketchy power, that is able to reliably provide at most maybe 5-7 Amps. While not great, it's better than zero :) And it's 24/7.

Ideally, I'd like to push this thought further and see if there can be a mode the Quattro or Multi can be placed into, which leaves it still inverting all the time, but also allowing it to continually trickle charge from a power input.

I realize this is might not be possible, since you're probably using the same transformer to move power in/out, depending on shore power available.

But I figured I'd ask in case it trips off some "creative engineering" bells within the Victron mothership :)

While on shorepower, my motorhome’s 12V parallel AGM batteries (400A total) are being charged concurrently by a XANTREX Freedom SW 3012 inverter/charger and 990w parallel solar panels via BlueSolar MPPT 150/100. The SOC (for solar only) is managed through a Venus GX & BMV-712. The inverter/charger typically remains in a float condition throughout the day while plugged in to external power, maintaining the batteries at 100% SOC. There may be a few intermittent loads on the batteries throughout the day because the inverter/charger has a load mgmt system that supplements any insufficient power from shore (or generator) such as heavy start-up loads; however, the SOC typically remains at 100%. Upon daylight, the MPPT automatically enters absorption then float modes. I am not sure if both systems will recognize the other and adjust their float settings accordingly, possibly reducing battery life, and I am concerned that the batteries may be overcharged or damaged by keeping the inverter/charger and MPPT powered concurrently.
Question: To extend battery life, should I disable the MPPT while on shorepower; or should I disable the inverter/charger’s float function so that the batteries are not being charged concurrently from 2 separate sources? Or should I even be concerned about a system with 2 concurrent charging arrangements?

I have a centuar 12 VDC / 40A charger with a house battery bank of 300 Ah. When I start my generator the charger goes to approximately 50A and will continue to charge for approximately 30 - 60 minutes. The current at that time is approximately 35 A and than the charger switches to float prematurely in my mind. Batteries are not fully charged. I have checked and the charger did not seem too hot and the fans were still running. Is this the expected behavior? Thanks Rob.

With an AC Multiplus system it's easy - when AC input is ok then that is your output, when it's not ok then the inverter and battery take over. When the battery is charged it enters a resting state.

How do you do this with a DC output system where Phoenix is a DC power supply and battery is the backup supply?

My concern is that to my knowledge LiFePo4 batteries do not like 24/7 charging so should the (Phoenix?) charger output only to load when charging is completed? How?

Hallo,

I have the MPPT 75/15 unit installed in my 4x4 and connected the the Auxiliary battery for solar charging (using a 100W solar panel) as well as to manage the load output. Since solar may not always be sufficient in high demand situations (and/or not able to charge via alternator when stationary), I plan on connecting a BluePower 12V/15A charger to the mix where camp sites may have 220V power.

If both devices are directly connected to the battery (with the MPPT providing solar power to battery), will there be any risk when the Charger is plugged in and also providing charge to battery? Will the MPPT detect this higher charge on the battery and then go to float mode (or switch off)? Any settings I need to make on Connect App?

Thanks

Brian

I have an IP22 12/15 (3) with which I was hoping to separately charge and monitor 2 separate batteries via the multiple outputs.

When you connect batteries to the separate outputs, is the charger capable of detecting the state of charge of these batteries independently, and therefore potentially charge them differently, or does it just apply the same charge to both ? The batteries could of course be in completely different conditions and states of charge, so could be at different points in their charge cycles. It seems pointless having multiple outputs if not, but I cannot find this information in the manuals or elsewhere.

I have an IP22 12/15 (3) blue smart charger which I intend to use to charge to separate batteries. I have successfully downloaded the victronconnect app, but I cannot find most of the information screens which are shown in the online manual here https://www.victronenergy.com/live/victronconnect:start

In particular, I have none of the screens listed under the Battery Monitor pages: section.

All I can see is the 3 basic screens listed under the Blue Smart IP65 charger pages section.

Am I missing something ?

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."

I have a 6 ultracapacitor array with dynamic balancing, which I use to run LED lighting and as a UPS for computers.

Ultracaps unlike batteries can recharge 100,000 - 1,000,000 times, and they avoid the harsh chemicals and metals batteries use.

However, these guys make a lot of current, and they often charge differently from batteries -- for example they typically charge to the open circuit voltage due to the near zero resistance.

The Victron SmartSolar MPPT 100/20 Solar Charge Controller 100V 20A with Bluetooth seems designed for managing and maintaining batteries.

Can it also charge this array safely, from a Canadian Solar 300W panel, 44V open voltage?

I have a Smart Solar 100/20 which stops charging when temperatures reach 35-40C. This is a replacement for one that exhibited the same issue. The charger is showing in a bulk or Absorption State, good incoming voltage but 0 charge. Battery voltage and loads are updating correctly so its not as if it totally locked up. Resetting the charger will temporarily restore function for maybe half hour. Have checked all cables and they look good. Any ideas will be appreciated as I'm out of options.

View of two devices, BMV-712 and BlueSolar 100/30, in VRM dashboard

The number on the left are correct, I checked voltage at battery. The solar charger currently has 84vdc @ .27a going to it, should be producing about 23 watts? Solar charger seems to have incorrect state of battery, so not applying charge. Any ideas?

hello, can anyone help me with the correct settings for a multiplus with narada lead carbon batteries using ve config. i have included some documentation from narada, thanks so much, regards stuart

In my Airstream travel trailer I have two 300ah 12v Victron Smart Lithium batteries in parallel, BMV 712, 800w of solar, Victron 150/70 MPPT controller and MultiPlus for shore power / genset power for charging.... and CCGX for system coordination.

I also own a Telsa, and the best practice, generally speaking, is to run the lithium pack between 30% and 70% SOC to maximize longevity. We only ever charge to 100% ever 2-3 months when needed for extended use. It has active cell balancing, of course.

The Victron batteries have passive cell balancing, which of course means you must charge and float at 100% SOC to balance the cells.

My question is - does charging the Victron 12v Lithium batteries to 100%, over and over again (on a daily basis) degrade the performance of the Victron lithium cells at an accelerated rate? Or... should I manage the batteries like I do the Tesla cells - between say 30 and 70% SOC, and only fully charge / balance on, say, a monthly basis?

In other words, what are the best practices for yielding the longest lifespan / longevity from Victron 12v Lithium batteries aside from caring for them with low charge / discharge currents?

Thank you Victron community :)