Full Charge Right Now

[John.DS99]

The scenario is - Bad Weather coming - Solar system in Winter is low because it sucks at the moment.

The weather man says LOOK OUT, Something is on the way.

So what do you do?

Victron Multiplus inverter - Change AC Input Control -> Connect when SOC Drops Below to 95% or 99%

6500ex - I set USB and CSN - Something still needs to trigger the charge - what is it? At the moment I am just giving it a fairly big load to make it recharge. There has to be an obvious simple way I'm not seeing.

I know some people have this anticipated and is part of their system use. In my case I set things up to save money, and suddenly the priority changes.

 

[timselectric]

I just turn on a chargeverter.

 

[42OhmsPA]

Is there a max grid charge current?
Enable solar and utility charging, SNU iirc.

 

[John.DS99]

Oh well, I just ran a high load and got it to reset over about an hour of time.

I'm interested in how the 6500ex works but also how other systems handle this.

 

[John.DS99]

To put it another way, the Victron settings and logic appear to be easier to use and better thought out than the 6500ex.

It is confusing in many ways. It says what the settings should do, but they interact with each other, and the manual is pretty good, but making a complex system sound simple in a manual is a tough job.

42OhmsPA, It has those settings, and like I said, you have to understand my secret code - USB means Utility priority, then Solar priority and last battery priority was set so that charging would happen like I want, it just wasn't triggered. All of these systems work different.

Thanks.

 

[42OhmsPA]

.

42OhmsPA, It has those settings, and like I said, you have to understand my secret code - USB means Utility priority, then Solar priority and last battery priority was set so that charging would happen like I want, it just wasn't triggered. All of these systems work different.

Thanks.

It was triggered because you aren't in SNU and/or you haven't hit a voltage setpoint.
You. Mentioned CSN in your first post, I'm guessing you meant CSO?

 

[John.DS99]

That's what I thought. I have run this AIO with different settings and have found that it does work as this program says. But manuals don't/can't explain this easily.

What it says is true, it can and will charge from the Utility. But if I am sitting there with biblical rains in the forecast, I might want to charge the batteries right now, like the title suggests.

When I make the changes, the AIO will charge as commanded when it needs to. The idea that I can do it to my demand (right now) is not as easy as it looks. I made these settings, and eventually when the charging occurs, might be next week, it will charge.

On the Victron, I can change a setting and it actually does flip a relay with a few seconds and begin charging. We use our equipment in different ways, and maybe someone will come along with some experience and say its easy. Others will say "Stop whining and spend some money on the Chargeverter. I am basically playing with my toys and having fun figuring out how they work. I think the answer for me is to spend less time on the 6500EX and more time on the Victron equipment.

Thanks for any contributions. Someone will say it's easy do it this way, and I will say "WOW, you are sooo smart!". But not yet.

 

[42OhmsPA]

So your running in USB, charge is set to CSO and you don't have grid charge current set to 0A; yet you're still not able to charge?

 

[John.DS99]

I think I should drop the whole thread. I made an assumption that systems should work in a certain way. In truth, firmware updates can make equipment behave in different ways for different people. Trying to make sense of machines that you don't really control is a kind of futile effort.

I will repeat, the Victron unit is the winner here in the common sense situation I was in. It worked well. The 6500EX with some huge advantages such as higher voltage solar inputs still has great qualities. I'm not sure I could ever throw either of these away. The victron is a great inverter. The 6500EX is at least a great solar charge controller for some of the arrays I have. It is worthwhile to see them both side by side. It's not cheap, but there is a lot of reward in becoming familiar with both machines.

 

[John.DS99]

So your running in USB, charge is set to CSO and you don't have grid charge current set to 0A; yet you're still not able to charge?

Waitaminute, if grid charge current is set to 0A, I don't get it. The original question is how to charge a battery bank on command (from the grid) using various AIOs or inverters. I may have confused people with my description, I often do.

The chargeverter was an obvious winner, but it's a charger, so buy one. OK. The 6500EX was not easy (I couldn't figure it out), and the Victron was easy to use. I learned a little from this exercise.

 

[42OhmsPA]

Waitaminute, if grid charge current is set to 0A, I don't get it. The original question is how to charge a battery bank on command (from the grid) using various AIOs or inverters. I may have confused people with my description, I often do.

The chargeverter was an obvious winner, but it's a charger, so buy one. OK. The 6500EX was not easy (I couldn't figure it out), and the Victron was easy to use. I learned a little from this exercise.

I said "you don't have grid charge current set to 0A;"

It's a silly setting somewhere.

Agreed voltronic isn't very user friendly but if you can't change a few menu settings and get charging from grid to work you have something else wrong.

 

[Adam De Lay]

I've done this many times on both Victron MP2 and the 6500s.

To charge from the grid on the 6500, you have to make a few changes to settings.

01 needs to be set to either SUB or USB. (edit: or "U" in SBU - by using options 12/13).
02 needs to be set to the max charge current from both solar and utility at the same time (max charge current your batteries support).
11 needs to be set to the max current you can draw from your AC IN (keep in mind this value is actually the DC current rating going into the battery).
16 needs to be set to SNU to allow for charging from both solar and utility.

There's a catch to option 16 though. If you're in SUB mode and not USB mode, option 16 acts as "solar first". You have to wait till your solar goes away and then your grid charging will commence. "Solar and Utility" charging at the same time only works when your inverter is in USB mode.