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Giandel 1200 watt inverter spec

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TomTilly

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Looking at the Giandel 1200 inverter, the specs have the cutoff voltage as 9.8 VDC , that would give a 4s lifepo4 battery a cell voltage of 2.45vdc . The minimum cell discharge voltage for lifepo4 is 2.5vdc ... anyone every have any problems with this situation? I suspect the 0.05vdc difference can be accounted for in the voltage drop from the cell to the guts of the inverter, but it seems like it would be nice to have a little more of a buffer. .... 2.45 is technically out of spec for the battery.
any thoughts?
 
Personally I would not discharge my lifepo4 cells lower than 3.0 volts.
2.5 volts is 100% discharged.
Once the cells hit the low knee they tend drop off really quickly and come out of balance.
Hopefully your bms will disconnect the load if any cells goes lower than its spec which is often 2.5 volts.
For my setup I am using a Victron battery protect to shut off my inverter at 12.0 volts.
 
TomTilly said:
Looking at the Giandel 1200 inverter, the specs have the cutoff voltage as 9.8 VDC , that would give a 4s lifepo4 battery a cell voltage of 2.45vdc . The minimum cell discharge voltage for lifepo4 is 2.5vdc ... anyone every have any problems with this situation? I suspect the 0.05vdc difference can be accounted for in the voltage drop from the cell to the guts of the inverter, but it seems like it would be nice to have a little more of a buffer. .... 2.45 is technically out of spec for the battery.
any thoughts?
Click to expand...
I think if you have a BMS you can set the disconnect where you want. Many inverters use 10.5 volts, still low for my taste.
 
Mex Rider said:
I think if you have a BMS you can set the disconnect where you want. Many inverters use 10.5 volts, still low for my taste.
Click to expand...
To the best of my knowledge most commodity BMSs are not configurable.
 
Mex Rider said:
I think if you have a BMS you can set the disconnect where you want. Many inverters use 10.5 volts, still low for my taste.
Click to expand...
Yes, the bms could take care of it but I don’t really want to have to reset the bms after a low voltage cut off, the inverter is where it should happen, the bms is a SHTF last chance device.
 
TomTilly said:
Yes, the bms could take care of it but I don’t really want to have to reset the bms after a low voltage cut off, the inverter is where it should happen, the bms is a SHTF last chance device.
Click to expand...

All your loads should have low voltage disconnect.
The better inverter/chargers have configurable low voltage disconnect.
Giandel is cheap and cheerful.
 
TomTilly said:
Yes, the bms could take care of it but I don’t really want to have to reset the bms after a low voltage cut off, the inverter is where it should happen, the bms is a SHTF last chance device.
Click to expand...
I did not know you would need to reset a BMS after a low voltage cut off...my knowledge grows....slowly
 
Mex Rider said:
I did not know you would need to reset a BMS after a low voltage cut off...my knowledge grows....slowly
Click to expand...

I believe many can recover on their own, but a common port BMS like the common port version of the Daly BMS would not be able to recover on its own. This is acceptable if your BMS is the 'last line of defense' (and you will be onsite regularly to manually recover if there is an issue).

TomTilly said:
Yes, the bms could take care of it but I don’t really want to have to reset the bms after a low voltage cut off, the inverter is where it should happen, the bms is a SHTF last chance device.
Click to expand...

This is a subjective statement (which I agree with in many contexts--particularly with commodity FET based BMS), but is not universally true (especially with more sophisticated or higher end BMS').
 
Dzl said:
I believe many can recover on their own, but a common port BMS like the common port version of the Daly BMS would not be able to recover on its own. This is acceptable if your BMS is the 'last line of defense' (and you will be onsite regularly to manually recover if there is an issue).
Click to expand...

I have a daly and it recovers once the charger hits the restore voltage.
 
smoothJoey said:
I have a daly and it recovers once the charger hits the restore voltage.

Actually mine is a separate port bms.
Click to expand...


Yours could recover on its own right? LVD would disconnect discharging, but charging would continue functioning, and then discharging would resume once the recovery voltage is reached?
 
Dzl said:
Yours could recover on its own right? LVD would disconnect discharging, but charging would continue functioning, and then discharging would resume once the recovery voltage is reached?
Click to expand...

I was doing both charging and discharging on the discharge port and discharge would recover when the charge brought the cells up to the recovery threshold.
 
smoothJoey said:
I was doing both charging and discharging on the discharge port and discharge would recover when the charge brought the cells up to the recovery threshold.
Click to expand...
I have the BMS being sold with the fortune Al cells that Will tested...no Brand name, kind of hard to talk about. I pick them up Friday at the post office so I don't know anything yet... But back to Giandel inverters,I was considering the 2200 watt based on Will's recommendation, cheap but durable. Planning on full time Van life...is it a poor choice? In your humble opinion?
 
Mex Rider said:
I have the BMS being sold with the fortune Al cells that Will tested...no Brand name, kind of hard to talk about. I pick them up Friday at the post office so I don't know anything yet... But back to Giandel inverters,I was considering the 2200 watt based on Will's recommendation, cheap but durable. Planning on full time Van life...is it a poor choice? In your humble opinion?
Click to expand...

Giandel is cheap and cheerful but they do work.
In my opinion you need proper low voltage disconnect at 12.0 volts.
If your BMS can do that great.
If not there are ways to do it but the inverter needs to support remote on/off.
Do you have any other loads than the inverter?
 
Does the charger have switch load output? It may be practical to use that to disconnect the AC load from the inverter with a relay. The Giandel's idle draw is 'less than an amp', so this may be an acceptable solution.
 
Other loads are 12vdc...fridge, lights, computers, phone chargers, fans, propane stove, propane heater....would a Victron battery protect be a better solution for low voltage cutoff? Really not expecting frequent big draw on inverter, TV, kitchen appliances and heat gun for wiring, soldering iron, biggest possible draw envisioned would be a table saw at 1800 watts.
 
Mex Rider said:
Other loads are 12vdc...fridge, lights, computers, phone chargers, fans, propane stove, propane heater....would a Victron battery protect be a better solution for low voltage cutoff? Really not expecting frequent big draw on inverter, TV, kitchen appliances and heat gun for wiring, soldering iron, biggest possible draw envisioned would be a table saw at 1800 watts.
Click to expand...

I would use a victron battery protect for the dc loads inline and use the battery protects remote switching and a relay to control your inverter similar to @gnubie's idea. A cursory glance at a giandel inverter on amazon indicates that it supports remote switching.
Another alternative is https://www.sterling-power-usa.com/SterlingPowerUSA-ProLatch-R.aspx
 
Giandel's remote is usually just a parallel of the front panel soft button, not easy to control from the BP as it would require some smarts to press the button the right way (covered in another thread, done with an arduino)
 
Humm when using a battery guard to disconnect the battery at a set voltage it seems this would present an issue of having to recharge the inverters caps again on reconnect which as previously discussed can be hard on switches and the BMS?
On dc loads from the battery the inverter wouldn’t disconnect only the dc load. ?
I’m not very happy with my Samlex pat 2000 24v LVD @20v I would prefer above 21v.
The settings are not programmable on the pst series.
 
Last edited:
One possible way is to turn off the inverter by the on off switch with a voltage sensitive relay at about 3.2 vpc. It is best to but an inverter with remote on/off built in and then get a Voltage sensitive relay / BMS to drive it the way you want. What follows is not recommended for most people. This is not easy with the G1200. I'd return it or not get it. Here is the way I rigged the on/off on my Xantrex 1500 inverter
. Here is a video using a low voltage disconnect on an inverter supporting the voltage shutoff you want
. Here is the G1200 switch that turns it on an off.
 
Last edited:
MrNatural22 said:
Humm when using a battery guard to disconnect the battery at a set voltage it seems this would present an issue of having to recharge the inverters caps again on reconnect which as previously discussed can be hard on switches and the BMS?
On dc loads from the battery the inverter wouldn’t disconnect only the dc load. ?
Click to expand...
That's right. You should really do a precharge, kinder on everything all round. Button pushing the Giandel with a microcontroller is a similar concept to where Will tapped into the toggle switch on the side of an MPP. The microcontroller/arduino approach was covered in another thread, including a simple (and untested) 'sketch' that I posted.
 
gnubie said:
Giandel's remote is usually just a parallel of the front panel soft button, not easy to control from the BP as it would require some smarts to press the button the right way (covered in another thread, done with an arduino)
Click to expand...

I guessed maybe incorrectly that the ethernet connector probably only has two pins that just need to be shorted.
The battery protect has a 10k resistor on the remote signalling path.
Could be as simple as this
Code: 
battery.pos->battery_protect_in->battery_protect_remote_pos->inverter_remote_positive_pin
battery.neg<-battery_protect_neg<-inverter_remote_positive_pin
 
Last edited:
Yeah, the giandel remote is basically wired parallel with the panel. The two status LEDs and the button. Push > 1.5 secs to turn on, once on push > 250ms to turn off. The on LED can be monitored to determine the state and then carry out the button push action to comply with the BP (or what ever's) signalling.
 
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