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diy solar

CC and battery compatibility

Mrdavishistory

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Jul 1, 2021
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Doing a small upgrade but could use some experienced advice. Will this charge controller:

SolarEpic MPPT 30A Solar Charge Controller 150V PV Input 12V/24V

Work with this Lithium Battery?

Ampere Time 100 WH

Trying to figure out if I can drop this new lithium battery replacement into my current setup/controller. Thanks
 
It looks like it should work, since that CC does have a 'User' setting for battery type. Read all the reviews on your CC in Amazon that you linked to, a reviewer did clarify some caveats to setting it up right for him.

(Although he does post the following warning):
"For the above reasons I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS SOLAR CONTROLLER FOR THOSE WITH LFP / LITHIUM BATTERIES."

But perhaps if you follow his experience you ought to be able to get it to work same like he did (since you already have that MPPT controller)...
 
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It looks like it should work, since that CC does have a 'User' setting for battery type. Read all the reviews on your CC in Amazon that you linked to, a reviewer did clarify some caveats to setting it up right for him.

(Although he does post the following warning):
"For the above reasons I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS SOLAR CONTROLLER FOR THOSE WITH LFP / LITHIUM BATTERIES."

But perhaps if you follow his experience you ought to be able to get it to work same like he did (since you already have that MPPT controller)...
Thank you for the reply. For me, peace of mind means a lot, and I don't trust my knowledge and abilities in this area enough to reach a confident peace of mind. Probably just get a new controller.

Thanks again. :)
 
Yeah no problem! The Victron Smart Solar MPPT charge controllers are nice, they have smooth user intuitive bluetooth management...
 
Yeah no problem! The Victron Smart Solar MPPT charge controllers are nice, they have smooth user intuitive bluetooth management...
I got a reply from the manufacturer that reads:


It works with charging lithium batteries, but it doesn't have pre-settings for li-on. You have to set the parameters on your own.

The major difference between this BN series and other so called lithium battery compatible chargers(Tracer AN series) are:
1. This BN charger doesn't have preset for lithium battery, so you need to select "user" and adjust the charging parameters manually.
2. AN series comes with PV activation feature that when a lithium battery got protected by it's BMS, and it will not power the charge controller, the AN charger will use solar panel to activate the charger and charge the low voltage protected battery. However, the BN charger will not, if the lithium battery got protected, you have to use external charging device to charge the battery up to the certain voltage level to power up the charge controller.


If I am reading this correctly, it means it doesn't have a lithium preset, which we already knew, and the battery must be at a particular level of charge before hook-up in order for it to work. Am I reading this correctly?
 
Yeah, that's why I was saying, if you're going to do it, you have to set it all up manually under 'user' selection for battery type.

I think that's what the Amazon reviewer was referring to in his post. I guess what your email from the manufacturer is saying is if the BMS of the battery packs gets triggered by a safety (low volt, high volt, low temp, high temp), and the battery BMS kills power going out of it (turns itself off), then it sounds like they have a safety to turn off the charge controller PV circuit (leave it open), until it sees that voltage come back high enough.

That might be the 'Boost Reconnect Charging Voltage' parameter that reviewer was speaking of?

 
I sent the manufacturer a message and asked which MP50 works with this controller so I can mess with it a little before making a final decision. So, I will find out more then. This has been a good charge controller for my AGM battery, so we will see if I can get a handle on the settings. If I don't have to spend another $200, that would be nice, but the peace of mind matters most to me.
 
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