Recent content by richwest3

Wow Mike, THANK YOU for that great writeup! It should be placed somewhere others can find it easily. I understand what you are saying and agree but when we're out cruising in our boat, it can be many days or even weeks between syncs. I'd like the monitor to reflect the actual charge state...

That's all well and good but that doesn't work, at least in my case. With that setting, the BMV-712 reads 100% well before the batteries are fully charged. They still accept high charging current for quite some time with the voltage well below anything that could be considered a fully charged...

I have a new BMV-712 battery monitor installed with my new LiFePO4 system. In using the system for the past two months, I've been watching the monitor as the system reaches 100% SOC and adjusting the charge efficiency factor setting to try to get the monitor to read 100% at about the same time...

After a shakedown cruise, I had a problem with the Orion Triton VR DC to DC converters getting too hot. I was planning to add fans but that heat has to go somewhere and to get it out of the boat would be too hard. Instead, I revised the system so that the alternator (with Balmar regulator) is...

Thanks for your very thoughtful reply! I really appreciate it. I thought about paralleling the start battery with the lithium house bank but didn't because I want just one source charging the LFP bank: the DC-DC converters. This will also limit the current draw from the alternator. The reason...

The battery is rated at 220 CCA, but has 540 HCA for 5 seconds. I've read where people have started an engine similar to my Yanmar 3YM30 many times on this battery without any charging between starts. I know it's small, but I wanted to save space and weight. I'll let you know how it works out.

I'm still waiting on the lithium batteries from China so I haven't made any more progress. On the issue of too much current going into the small AGM battery, I think I've found a solution. It seems that spiral AGM batteries have no charging current limit (aside from the ridiculous of course)...

The diagram I posted is a functional block diagram rather than a schematic or a wiring diagram. It serves a different purpose and generally, block diagrams give a quicker, easier overview of a system. A lot of details are omitted in block diagrams; details such as grounds and in this case...

Great point and one I hadn't considered. I just assumed that current to the small AGM battery would be limited when the charging sources lower supplied current to maintain the proper charging voltage. A re-think is in order. Thanks.

That looks like a great option but the Victron units are pre-existing and I've been using them with my current lead-acid batteries. I am adding the Bluetooth dongles to them though so I can see the data from them on my phone.

I finally went for it. Batteries and components are on order. Is there anything I should do differently? Here are some details: The batteries will be made from 280Ah LiFePO4 cells from AliExpress. I'm making two separate batteries, each with its own Daly 150 amp BMS. I did this for redundancy...

This is basically what I am planning to do. One issue that I can't seem to wrap my head around is won't the charging battery be constantly cycling? Lets say that you have the DC-DC charger cut in at 13.6 volts and out at 13.1 volts and 8 amps coming in from the start battery solar (just to pick...