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Desperately needed help with lost charger for Bluetti 150

Mike - wow, this is all SUPER helpful, I really appreciate all the education!

Ok, so the Bluetti's AC charger is labeled like this:

Input: 100-240VAC, 50/60Hz, 7.5A Max

Output: 58.8V, 8.0A

Does that give you the info you need?

I definitely don't want to stress the alternator - this is a 1991 VW after all! And I really have no need for it to charge rapidly while driving, the trickle is great. Ideally I would get some sort of a trickle through the AC charger - again that way I wouldn't have to disconnect the solar cables and reconnect the DC charging cable before every drive, and vice versa when I get to camp. But if that's the only option, you do what you gotta do. To your point, I certainly could mount a couple of solar panels on the roof to get charging while driving (and parking, etc), and then patch in an extra portable panel that I can move around to chase the sun while at camp. Actually I bought flexible panels for that very reason, and may wind up going that direction at some point. I'm just also aware that the sun isn't always shining (or it's shining behind a thick layer of smoke....), and being able to get a trickle from the alternator seems prudent, if possible.

Thanks again!

Harwood

Ouch! The Bluetti AC charger can pull "7.5A Max" at 120VAC = 900 Watts. So even that 700W inverter I linked above, would be insufficient. 900 Watts is akin to a small coffee brewer or microwave oven. You would need a 1000W inverter, to avoid running it full out = more money, heavier cables and a bigger alternator, still. ?

There's no way to "throttle" the Bluetti AC charger so that it can pull only the fused cigarette lighter socket's 10 or 15 Amps at 12V when connected to a smaller 300W inverter, for example. The Bluetti charger will only overload a smaller inverter, forcing it to cut off.

So... I recommend pursuing a solution to your original problem - getting the Bluetti's 12V charging cable to work as expected. Your alternator will thank you. ?

Note that even my DIY, fan-cooled, 12V-to-24V, DC-to-DC converter box has to be directly connected to the car battety, while driving to keep the alternator cool at higher RPMs - and it's only delivering a charge rate of 220W at the Bluetti EB240 (pulling just under 20 Amps at 12V, so using the 15 Amp, cigarette lighter sockets is out ofthe question).

Keep in mind, too, that replacing a 15 Amp fuse with a 20 Amp fuse only invites overheated wiring and the possibility if an expensive repair job, if not a fire.

One last thing, while searching for 12V extension cables. Those that contain the cylindrical BUSS fuses within the makle cigarette lighter connector tend to quickly overheat, right there at the fuse holder, if the cable and connectirs are factory-rated for 20 Amp loads, even with a 20-amp fuse installed by the manufacturer. I've personally experienced extension cables rated at 20A and equipped with a 20A fuse, getting so hot at the fuse holder - WITHOUT blowing the fuse under a 19A load, that you can barely hold the make connector in your hand! This happens because the guage of the wire used to make the SPRING that holds the BUSS fuse in place is TOO SMALL, even if using 12 AWG conductors in the cable itself.

So... I STRONGLY recommend using male cigarette lighter connectors (in extension cables or otherwise, when pulling more than about 15 Amps) that accept BLADE fuses of the aporopriate rating - instead of BUSS fuses that use the thin wire springs.

But you won't have to worry about this with your "trickle-charging" rig, pulling less than 15A.

Mike
 
Excellent description and advice - I will abandon the inverter from the cigarette lighter port for sure. I did get a response from Bluetti asking for more details, which I supplied to them, so perhaps they will have an answer that will help me navigate the "trickle" approach. We will see. And perhaps down the road I will rig up a 12-24V step up converter to the van's starter battery, or some similar setup. Ideally whatever I rigged there would also pull a trickle - I'm wondering if your rig that pulls 20 amps at 12V is even a little bit of a heavy draw on the alternator?

Again, THANK YOU SO MUCH for all this help!

Harwood
 
Excellent description and advice - I will abandon the inverter from the cigarette lighter port for sure. I did get a response from Bluetti asking for more details, which I supplied to them, so perhaps they will have an answer that will help me navigate the "trickle" approach. We will see. And perhaps down the road I will rig up a 12-24V step up converter to the van's starter battery, or some similar setup. Ideally whatever I rigged there would also pull a trickle - I'm wondering if your rig that pulls 20 amps at 12V is even a little bit of a heavy draw on the alternator?

Again, THANK YOU SO MUCH for all this help!

Harwood

You're welcome, Harwood.

My 12-24V step-up converter has a rated output of 240W ( = 24V * 10A). But at its 12V input, that means it has to pull 20A (12V * 20A = 240W).

See: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BKWG9N2/

The ONLY reason I'm using a DC-to-DC step-up converter is because my Bluetti EB240 has an MPPT charge contrller that requires a minimum 16VDC input (with a max. of 68VDC). 24VDC meets that requirement, but I could have used a step-up converter that pulls fewer Amps on the 12V side (delivering fewer than 240 Watts to the MPPT controller.)

For example, this DC-to-DC converter (link below) delivers 3A at 24V = 72W, while pulling only 6A at the 12V input - thus, it could be connected to just about any 12V cigarette lighter socket, whether it's limited to 15A or 10A, with no need for a direct connection to the vehicle's battery AND it would not require a fan-cooled enclosure, as mine did, but... my solution charges 3.33x faster. No free rides. ?


To answer your question... Yes, to give you an idea how hard my alternator is working.... When the V6 motor is idling, I can see 13.8V at the input of my DC-to-DC convertor BEFORE connecting its output to the Bluetti, but while idling, the instant I connect it to the Bluetti, the input voltage drops to 11V and the engine RPM actually drops ftom about 800 at idle to 600 - that 20A load is quite a strain and I would never want to punish either the alternator (for lack of air cooling) or the motor (for lack of head lubrication) doing that for more than a couple of minutes. If someone in the driver's seat revs the motor to at least 2500 RPM (or we're on the highway) the voltage seen at the input of the converter increases from 11V to 13V and the charge rate at the Bluetti increases from 220W to the rated 240W or a little higher.

So far, I've not killed the alternator, but I don't do any charging in city driving. It's only for the open highway. In the end, another way of looking at this is that if I need to charge the Bluetti EB240 in an emergency (following a sustained lack of sunshine?) my solution will get the Bluetti fully charged faster and thus, in fewer miles, with less wear and tear on the vehicle. And if you wanted, crazy as it sounds, but viable in a sustained grid outage, you could sit in the driver's seat and keep the motor running at 2000 RPM, while not moving. Lame, but better than nothing. That's why we solar nuts should all have a small, gasoline or propane-burning generator - not mention a LOT of ethanol-free gasoline, safely stored. It cracks me up how many people I know with generators but almost no fuel to run them for even 24 hours. LOL

Maybe I will build another setup, using a 6A or 10A (input) DC-to-DC convertor that could be used in city driving, plugged into a 12V socket.

Collect them all! ?

Mike
 
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Update - Bluetti got back to me and told me that to use an extension cord the current of the extension cable needs to match the Bluetti's car charging cable, which is 8.2A. So now I'm searching for an 8.2A cigarette lighter extension, but I'm not sure such an animal exists....

Harwood
 
Mike does the above response from Bluetti ring true to you? If so I may be hosed on the extension cable idea. If you think that doesn't sound right I can try buying one more extension cable (all returnable). I found this heavy duty one on Amazon:


Otherwise I imagine I'll have to abandon this idea and work towards rigging something up to trickle charge directly off of the battery. Unless you can tell me that 8.2A cigarette lighter extensions are actually a thing?

Thanks again,

Harwood
 
Uggh! That was, at first consideration, a lame response from Bluetti support, but perhaps there's just a loss in translation from Mandarin to English.

My interpretation, giving them the benefit of the doubt, is that they suspect the extension cables you've tried thus far were of insufficient guage to actually deliver an unpublished (to my knowledge) requirement that the Bluetti must be able to pull a minimum of 8.2 Amps at 12V in order to begin charging.

I seriously doubt that any extension cable you've tried has failed to meet that spec. The conductors would have to be either very long or very skinny to fail that requirment. Look at the diameter of the fusible link in any 10A fuse and ask yourself if the extension cables you've tried had conductors that skinny.

Then again, consider this chart, which indicates that 14 AWG conductors are needed to avoid more than a 3% drop in voltage (which impacts the watts delivered, because amps * volts = watts) across a 10-ft length of cable:


I'm using this 12-ft., 12 AWG extension cable, that's equipped with a blade fuse holder (not shown, for some reason, as I consider this to be its best feature) in the male connector. I'm pulling very close to 20A through this cable to deliver almost 240W at my Bluetti EB240, by way of the 12V-to-24V step-up converter (and the fuse holder in the male connector does NOT overheat, as can cables that claim to be rated at 20A, using the BUSS style fuses instead, with thin-guage wire springs in their fuse holders.


In your case, there's no need to worry about the spring in a BUSS fuse-equipped male connector overheating at 20A - your cigarette lighter socket's 15A fuse would blow well in advance of that happening, especially if your Bluetti pulls no more than 10A (guessing). So, you could save yourself some money by getting the 12 AWG cable you linked above, but if it were me, I'd spend the extra nine bucks and get the one I've linked. ? These extension cables can be used for other purposes and the ability to quickly swap blade fuses to various amperages is awesome.

Either way, if you haven't tried a 12 AWG cable already, it can't hurt and is certainly preferable to using 14 or 16 AWG. (Bluetti support might be onto something.)

Given that the Bluetti charge cable works fine when directly connected to your Vanagon's 12V socket, but not when extension canles are inserted, have you tried testing other 12V appliances in both the Vanagon socket directly and with an extension cable inserted?

If Bluetti support is mistaken or just guessing, it's almost as if your Vanagon's 12V socket is uniquely and somewhat exclusively compatible with the male connector of the Bluetti charge cable - and conversely, incompatible with other 12V male connectors. Can that socket power anything else, both with and without an extension cable? Have you tested this?

If you can get any other 12V appliance, ideally rated to pull at least 10A, to run at the end of an extension cable, I would report that success to Bluetti and request a replacement charge cable.

If they refuse that request, after the dust settles, I would replace the male cigarette lighter connector on the Bluetti charge cable, being careful to get the polarity correct. Even now, a careful comparison of the dimensions of Bluetti's male connector to those of other male connectors might reveal some oddity. Size matters. ?

Mike
 

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Size matters ?

Yes, I've run those tests, and just ran them again to double check that I didn't miss something. The only other 12v appliance I have is an Iceco portable fridge freezer (which is at the heart of the matter as it's the main appliance I will have in the van which pushed me to buy the Bluetti in the first place!). The Iceco only draws around 50 watts at 4.5 amps, so unfortunately it's not testing the same amount of power draw as the Bluetti needs, but it has at least verified that both the Vanagon socket and the extension cords are working.

So I went ahead and ordered 2 new extension cords, one of them being the one you recommended (I would have only ordered that one but I had already ordered the other one I linked above), and will be able to test them soon. I'll probably wait to receive the one you recommended and try it first. Should be here on Sunday.

Will update once I've received the new extension and tried it. Fingers crossed.... ?

Harwood
 
Size matters ?

Yes, I've run those tests, and just ran them again to double check that I didn't miss something. The only other 12v appliance I have is an Iceco portable fridge freezer (which is at the heart of the matter as it's the main appliance I will have in the van which pushed me to buy the Bluetti in the first place!). The Iceco only draws around 50 watts at 4.5 amps, so unfortunately it's not testing the same amount of power draw as the Bluetti needs, but it has at least verified that both the Vanagon socket and the extension cords are working.

So I went ahead and ordered 2 new extension cords, one of them being the one you recommended (I would have only ordered that one but I had already ordered the other one I linked above), and will be able to test them soon. I'll probably wait to receive the one you recommended and try it first. Should be here on Sunday.

Will update once I've received the new extension and tried it. Fingers crossed.... ?

Harwood

Mine, too! ?

I really admire your obvious energy, curiosity and tenacity.

Looking forward to your next findings...

Mike
 
It worked! Received the Bestek cord yesterday, and it worked right away. I'm guessing you're right - the gauge of the cable made the difference. Wow, amazing to have this project done! Thanks again for all the help Mike, I'm not sure I would have resolved it without your help. At a minimum it would have taken a LOT longer!

Ironically I also got a response from Bluetti this morning - they doubled down and said the current had to match. Possible a language barrier, but I'm going to reply to them anyway to let them know that is incorrect, and that a heavier 12 AWG cable made the difference.

Thanks again!

Harwood
 
It worked! Received the Bestek cord yesterday, and it worked right away. I'm guessing you're right - the gauge of the cable made the difference. Wow, amazing to have this project done! Thanks again for all the help Mike, I'm not sure I would have resolved it without your help. At a minimum it would have taken a LOT longer!

Ironically I also got a response from Bluetti this morning - they doubled down and said the current had to match. Possible a language barrier, but I'm going to reply to them anyway to let them know that is incorrect, and that a heavier 12 AWG cable made the difference.

Thanks again!

Harwood

That's great news, Harwood. Congrats!

Yes, Bluetti Support could have stated their requirements in a more practical way. (Hint: How many customers can measure the Amps delivered at the charge port?) But we managed to read between the lines to solve the problem. :)

I have a couple of outstanding questions for you - out of curiosity.

We now know that the Bluetti AC200P requires a minimum of 8.2 Amps when charging with the provided 12V cigarette-lighter cable, but what is the minimum DC voltage required? Is that in the specs anywhere? It would be "nice" if the Bluetti stops pulling current at a cut-off voltage of something like 11.8 VDC - to prevent you from draining your vehicle's one and only 12V battery. This would allow you to pull at least a few watt-hours from your vehicle's battery without running the motor (at idle - a bad idea - or on the road - a much better idea). But, more importantly, it would prevent you from finding yourself stranded somewhere, unable to start the Vanagon.

Also, you may have stated this in the thread already, but how many Watts do you see coming into the Bluetti AC200P when (successfully) using your new extension cable + the Bluetti charge cable, when the motor is running?

Thanks!

Mike
 
Hey Mike, sorry for the slow reply. I spent most of the last few days getting ready for a trip that I just started a couple of days ago. In the meantime, I dropped a few emails....

I don't see anywhere in the specs a minimum DC voltage. I did go back to the manual and it states that the product can be charged with a car charger at a maximum of 8.2 amps. I'm not sure if is accurate or not, given what we have discovered so far.

As for what is pulling from the vehicle, it appears to be around a hundred watts. I cannot test it while driving, so that is at idle. I imagine it's about the same, but it might boost up a little bit when I'm driving I suppose?

Again, thank you so much for all of your help, it really was instrumental in the process. I am so glad that I now have the battery successfully charging while driving. Definitely a big help on this trip!

All the best,

Harwood
 
Thanks Harwood,

I was only curious, so I appreciate your reply and I'm pleased to hear that you're enjoying the fruits of your research, now.

Have fun!

Mike
 
It certainly would be nice if the Bluetti had a minimum current, after which it stopped drawing. But I think if I want that at some point I'll have to rig up a battery isolator between the van's starter battery and the Bluetti. That would certainly do the trick. For now, plugging and unplugging from the cigarette lighter is working well!

All the best,

Harwood
 
That is a very good idea, if I want to up my game at some point. I'd have to wire that to a 12v cigarette lighter (and off the starter battery), but it would create a great no fuss setup that would automatically charge from the van when available.

Thanks!

Harwood
 
It's strange, but that web address link you supplied is different than what I've been using. Everyone beware, the address https://maxoak.net/ is apparently a fake scam copy! The .net webste lists two different info@ conact email addresses. The .com goes nowhere and the .net is a scam that tries to get you to deposit money in a PayPal account.
Actually . . .
MAXOAK was founded in 2015, we are devoted to sustainable earth by researching and developing power storage and generation equipment powered by clean energy.

As Bluetti's largest distributor worldwide, MAXOAK believes in the power of green energy to innovate and improve our future outdoor and mobile lifestyles.

same address:
Address: 6185 S Valley View Blvd Ste D. Las Vegas NV 89118
Monday to Friday 9am - 5pm(PST)

General Questions
Email :service@bluettipower.com
Customer Service: +1 702-463-4792 or +1 833-737-1296
Orders&Shipping Support
sale@bluettipower.com
Sale-After Service Support
service@bluettipower.com
Wholesale,Distribute Or Dropshipping
distributor@bluettipower.com
Press,Marketing And Influencer Cooperation
marketing@bluetti.com

MAXOAK
Email: service@maxoak.net
Monday to Friday: 9am - 5pm(PST)
Address: 6185 Std D, S Valley View, Las Vegas, NV 89118
 
Ronbotex

Got my November shipment in December a few weeks ago, the AC50s. Trying to figure out the cables. I have a collection of MC4, 8mm, 6mm and APP combinations used with my GZ Extreme, accessories and custom 12vdc WAECO plug cables and APP fitted watt meters that I'm looking to see if they can be integrated into my 8mm input on my new AC50s. Mixed results.

My 8mm connectors don’t power the center pin which when I tested on the Bluetti. So with my half dozen 8mm plugs (which all fabbed work on my GZ Extreme), i may need to find a 8mm plug that lets me ‘shunt’ the inner shell to the center pin when I solder.
I did ask Greely about one of their 8mm / 5.5mm APP cables, and have yet to hear back since they claim in the info that it works with Bluetti when my other iGreely 8mm to APP does not (so far)…

UPDATE: latest test running my 12vdc cig port in the 4runner connected via APP to an 8mm adapter, seems to work my AC50s goes down and up (11-83v) and seems to turn the fan on and off..... I'm thinking that the 8mm adapters with no center pin aren't as reliable as the bluetti built ones..... whereas the Bestek 300v inverter with the OEM brick stays at a steady 83v.

Question for you:
1. have you found any non bluetti cables 8mm to app or bare that work reliably ? Does the bluetti absolutely need the center pin for power?
My plan calls for fabbing a 8mm to Anderson PP and a 8mm to MC4 for backup wire harnesses for travel.
2. Any heavier duty or higher voltage ac/dc brick for use with the AC50s?



thanks
Nice I fabbed some 5521 to 7909 based on a Lenovo power supply lead from AliExpress/eBay it allows any normal dc solar panel 18v to fit my gz yeti 400. If you hunt for them the full psu and lead give correct volts for gz and maybe bluetti
 
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