Issues with Renogy

[george_fry]

Morning All,

Hopefully someone can help.

In August I Purchased Solar Panels (200W 12/24v monocrystalline solar premium kit with rover 20A MPPT controller and a 170AH lithium battery from Renogy (Along with a smart shunt and DC-DC Charger from Victron) . I installed these items into my camper van. Back on the 28th January I noticed that my controller was saying ACR as an error message. Following this I turned off all my 12v power and it has been off since then. Since that day I haven't driven my van.

My van then went from ACR to

Error E1 (Battery overdischarged)
Solar 20.5v
solar amps 0
Battery 0%
Battery to fuse 0 Amps
solar to battery 0AH
Battery to fuses 0AH

On my victron smart shunt i was getting
11.21V
0A current
0W power

I used a multimeter to check and the solar and i was getting 20V going into the MPPT and 11V going out of the MPPT

Then a couple of days later my solar was starting to get AMps but it was cutting out when it got to approx 0.69A

The voltage on the battery was going between 11.15V and 11.75V but I am unsure as to why this was changing as everything is disconnected from the battery output ?

also the battery % on the MPPT has been changing between 6% and 15% at this point. Since then it has been to 30% all the way to 100% and all the way back down to 0%

Since this point the error codes went entirely for a short period however then went to E3 (Battery Under voltage) back to E1 (Battery over-discharged) and now it is back on ACR again.

I have contacted Renogy multiple times but am struggling to get any answers and after almost 2 weeks I was hoping someone on here might be able to help me ?

Many thanks

George

 

[mikefitz]

Hi George, it's been below freezing in the UK at times over recent months. The battery has low temperature protection and will not accept charge below around 3 to 5 deg C. However it will still deliver power to a load. It recovers when it warms up. This is what you may have been seeing.
If it does get discharged to a low capacity it will enter a protection mode. To recover you need to apply a charge from a 12v, non smart battery AC charger, or 'jump start' from a car battery. It will not charge from a solar charger until you have 'woken it up'.
Renogy have poor support so no advice from them is no surprise.
I have no idea what ACR implies.
Note when disconnecting/ connecting the solar controller, its battery first when connecting up, then solar. If disconnecting its solar first. Having no battery connected to the controller but a solar input may cause tempory issue.

Mike

 

[george_fry]

Thanks Mike, I also seem to have an issue with the App which maybe you could help. It is just always totally blank I have attached a photo to show this.

 

[mikefitz]

Sorry no experience with Renogy apps.