MPPT EPEVER

[Captain Happy]

High everyone, this is 1st Post..
EPEVER Tracer unit 60amp /150 volt vs the NO TRACER unit, is one better w lithium SOK?

 

[Deleted member 1888]

I have 3 EPevers 2 100a and a 60a and I love them, they have never given any trouble.

 

[fafrd]

High everyone, this is 1st Post..
EPEVER Tracer unit 60amp /150 volt vs the NO TRACER unit, is one better w lithium SOK?

Spring a little bit more for the Tracer AN6420AN (200V model).

It’s newer and more future-proof (will support 3S strings of modern high-power panels).

BN does not support Lithium Batteries.

AN 200V do (all models)

AN 150V models may (depending on build date).

[PS. I assumed ‘NO TRACER unit’ meant BN but actually have no idea what you are referring to.]

 

[fratermus]

"Tracer" is a general name for the EpEver MPPT line (the first models were called Tracer, and the silver RN mppt model in particular was known almost exclusively by that name). I don't think it means anything in particular.

AFAIK there is only one version of 60A 150v, the 6415AN.

Here's the manual if you want to see what's configurable See the USER column on page 20.

 

[Captain Happy]

Thanks very much,

 

[Captain Happy]

The manual says lithium are supported.

 

[fratermus]

BN does not support Lithium Batteries.

Depends on what "support" means.

Out of the box lithium profile? No.
Configurable setpoints in USER mode able to match lithium battery manufacturer charging recommendations? Yes.

 

[fafrd]

Depends on what "support" means.

Out of the box lithium profile? No.
Configurable setpoints in USER mode able to match lithium battery manufacturer charging recommendations? Yes.

What Epever told me is that the newer AN-Series will propely ‘wake-up’ after a fault (such as LVD) and detect the proper Lithium Battery voltage to use, while older AN-Series and the entire BN Series will not…

 

[fratermus]

I manually configured nominal bank voltages on my A, BN, and newer AN series models rather than rely on auto-detect. I may have trust issues.

 

[fafrd]

I manually configured nominal bank voltages on my A, BN, and newer AN series models rather than rely on auto-detect. I may have trust issues.

Do you see any difference between those models in terms of their ability to support Lithium batteries?

Epever made it sound like certain fault conditions could force an auto detect (whether you want one or not) that could fail with a BN or older AN MPPT…

(Probably just doing a sales job on me to pay more for the ‘newer’ ‘better’ stuff…).

 

[fratermus]

I don't see any practical difference between them (same firmware, I think), but then again I was unaware of the voltage detect issue you reported.

My settings are conservative enough I hope to never trip the BMS. If I do trip it I will report back to this thread what the 5415AN did afterward.

 

[fafrd]

I don't see any practical difference between them (same firmware, I think), but then again I was unaware of the voltage detect issue you reported.

My settings are conservative enough I hope to never trip the BMS. If I do trip it I will report back to this thread what the 5415AN did afterward.

Yeah, I suspect if there is any difference with the newer AN-Series models, it may only come into play following a BMS disconnect.

Rather than wait for an actual BMS trip to discover whether there is an issue or not, you may want to force one to see what happens while you are there to intervene if needed.

My BMS will disconnect if I pull the sense harness out of the connector, so if your BMS is like mine, you should be able to force a disconnect then reinsert the harness after a few minutes to reconnect, see how the BMSs wake up, and then r as/check the settings to make sure they are still where you want them.

Here is what Epever support wrote me in response to a question on what they meant by ‘Lithium Support’:

A: If a charge controller is claimed to support lithium battery, it should be able to wake up the lithium battery when the built-in BMS of the lithium battery actively cuts off the battery output because of low energy left. Trancer-BN lacks of both hardware and software to support such feature. The user wouldn't need this feature if the user would configure the charge controller setpoints so that the battery wouldn't go that low.