Need some help programming the victron ip22 charger

[Crowz]

I have my 12v ip22 20 amp charger installed and its working great.

I want to program it to full charge the battery bank and then quit charging till the battery bank reaches 13 volts and then charge it back full again and repeat forever

This way if I have cloudy days it will charge the battery bank but otherwise do nothing.

What settings would be ideal for this?

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Settings
Custom
Advanced settings enabled
Advanced battery settings
User defined
Expert mode on
Set desired absorption voltage
Float voltage 13.00
Storage voltage 13.00
Set temp comp as needed (0 for LFP)
Re-bulk current enabled and set to 1A
Set fixed absorption period and desired time
Set or disable repeated absorption.

It will charge to absorption voltage for specified time.
It will float @ 13.0V until current @ 13.0V > 1A, then it will re-bulk/absorb.

 

[Crowz]

Settings
Custom
Advanced settings enabled
Advanced battery settings
User defined
Expert mode on
Set desired absorption voltage
Float voltage 13.00
Storage voltage 13.00
Set temp comp as needed (0 for LFP)
Re-bulk current enabled and set to 1A
Set fixed absorption period and desired time
Set or disable repeated absorption.

It will charge to absorption voltage for specified time.
It will float @ 13.0V until current @ 13.0V > 1A, then it will re-bulk/absorb.

Thanks. Thats pretty close to what I ended up going with earlier.

Its set to 0 float and 13.00 storage. I'll go change float to 13 now.

 

[Crowz]

Tip for anyone that runs across this. Settings are working so far but won't know for sure till the battery bank gets low enough for it to kick back in charging. That said I could never get it to actually work at first.

You have to unplug the charger from the wall and wait for the lights to go out on the charger. Then plug it back in for the changes to take effect.

At least this is what I had to do. I could never get it to stop charging and maintaining the battery at full power until I unplugged the charger to "reboot" it via power cycling it off and plugging it back into the wall.

Once it powered back up it went thru its steps to the float stage and stopped charging. I won't know till tomorrow if it starts back at the right voltage charging. My luck the sun will come out freakishly in the morning and charge via solar messing my test up but its not supposed to.

 

[Tomthumb62]

I’m going to give these settings a try. I’m usually not near the grid but when I am for long periods, it would be nice to have it function like this.

A nice plus is since I have my charger connected to the bus bars, it will function like a 12v converter even without a battery present. So the lights, pump, etc all run the same without battery.

 

[Crowz]

It tool awhile to get it just right voltage settings wise but the peace of mind that comes from knowing it will keep my batteries charged without me having to baby sit them in bad weather was well worth it. The thing is rock solid at its job.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

It tool awhile to get it just right voltage settings wise but the peace of mind that comes from knowing it will keep my batteries charged without me having to baby sit them in bad weather was well worth it. The thing is rock solid at its job.

Did you have to modify the settings I recommended (guessed at)?

 

[Crowz]

Did you have to modify the settings I recommended (guessed at)?

Yep but I can't remember off the top of my head what the final voltages I went with was and its WAY to cold outside to go look

If I can remember tomorrow I could check them.

I just kept lowering the numbers down to get to where I wanted it to kick in at.

 

[Crowz]

I got around the having to unplug it part too. You have to go back into one of the settings again after everything is set right. Its a calculated value and it doesn't update unless you go into the setting again and save it. I need to post which one that was when I get another look at it.

 

[Tomthumb62]

I got around the having to unplug it part too. You have to go back into one of the settings again after everything is set right. Its a calculated value and it doesn't update unless you go into the setting again and save it. I need to post which one that was when I get another look at it.

Yeah I’d love to know that, too. I guess I haven’t always confirmed my settings were actually saved. Then again I was changing them so frequently for testing purposes that I often forgot what I had had it set to, lol.

 

[Crowz]

Yeah is love to know that, too. I guess I haven’t always confirmed my settings were actually saved. Then again I was changing them so frequently for testing purposes that I often forgot what I had had it set to, lol.

This ones weird. I can't remember exactly which one it was. You set the voltage for it to start charging then there is a spot where you pick like x amps being charged for x time and the value between two of those settings goes in another spot. That spot is the strange one. It will show a voltage in the box on the screen but unless you go into it a new value isn't calculated so it makes you think its setup wrong since it doesn't kick in where its supposed to. Rebooting it via unplugging makes it start charging but that isn't the automated effect your after. Going into that last setting and then saving fixes it.

 

[Tomthumb62]

This ones weird. I can't remember exactly which one it was. You set the voltage for it to start charging then there is a spot where you pick like x amps being charged for x time and the value between two of those settings goes in another spot. That spot is the strange one. It will show a voltage in the box on the screen but unless you go into it a new value isn't calculated so it makes you think its setup wrong since it doesn't kick in where its supposed to. Rebooting it via unplugging makes it start charging but that isn't the automated effect your after. Going into that last setting and then saving fixes it.

Oh yeah that’s weird. Glad you figured it out!

Would be great if they update the firmware some day that would easily automate such a function.

 

[Crowz]

Ok it drove me nuts so I went outside and got the info....



Ok notice the 13.02. You set that first.
Then set the re-bulk current to .4
Then set the rebulk voltage offset to .01

Now this is the funky part. If you notice that value in the window where you setting the .01 in offeset shows a voltage lower than
the one you set at 13.02. But whatever it shows in there is a fixed value until you go back in there. Its the REAL setting for when the thing will kick in charging the battery. You can change 13.02 to whatever you want and it doesn't take effect until you go back in where you set it to .01 in the offset setting.

You can catch it doing its thing if you watch right when you go into that offset setting. It will show the last thing the 13.02 setting was set at when you were setting the .01 setting for a split second and then it changes to what it actually should be.

Example.

Lets say we have the voltage set to 13.12 and do the whole routine of setting the other settings.
Now we decide thats not low enough for where we want it to start charging. So we change 13.12 to 13.08.
Well its still going to kick in charging around 13.12 even though we lowered it to 13.08.

But if you go into the offset setting that is .01 you will see a value of 13.11 on the screen for a split second and then it will change to 13.07. That is now the new setting. Choose to save the .01 setting again and then the overall config at the top of the screen and your good to go.

Just remember if you want to lower the voltage kick in point again you have to change the voltage 13.02 or whatever you want to try next and then go into the offset of .01 and wait for it to update to the new voltage in that window and then click save and then save the total config up top. This has to be done every time you change the voltage your wanting it to kick in at to take effect.

 

[Tomthumb62]

Ok it drove me nuts so I went outside and got the info....

View attachment 191964

Ok notice the 13.02. You set that first.
Then set the re-bulk current to .4
Then set the rebulk voltage offset to .01

Now this is the funky part. If you notice that value in the window where you setting the .01 in offeset shows a voltage lower than
the one you set at 13.02. But whatever it shows in there is a fixed value until you go back in there. Its the REAL setting for when the thing will kick in charging the battery. You can change 13.02 to whatever you want and it doesn't take effect until you go back in where you set it to .01 in the offset setting.

You can catch it doing its thing if you watch right when you go into that offset setting. It will show the last thing the 13.02 setting was set at when you were setting the .01 setting for a split second and then it changes to what it actually should be.

Example.

Lets say we have the voltage set to 13.12 and do the whole routine of setting the other settings.
Now we decide thats not low enough for where we want it to start charging. So we change 13.12 to 13.08.
Well its still going to kick in charging around 13.12 even though we lowered it to 13.08.

But if you go into the offset setting that is .01 you will see a value of 13.11 on the screen for a split second and then it will change to 13.07. That is now the new setting. Choose to save the .01 setting again and then the overall config at the top of the screen and your good to go.

Just remember if you want to lower the voltage kick in point again you have to change the voltage 13.02 or whatever you want to try next and then go into the offset of .01 and wait for it to update to the new voltage in that window and then click save and then save the total config up top. This has to be done every time you change the voltage your wanting it to kick in at to take effect.

Wow. I’m going to have to print this out and study it like a textbook before it sinks in. My system is offline for the winter but I look forward to giving this a try. Thanks for suffering in the cold to get the screenshot!

Do you think this is a bug in the software? I would think setting a setting would be a done deal.

In any case, it just further impresses me as to what a seriously impressive charger this is.

 

[Crowz]

Bug, feature, it is what it is. I just know what to do now when tweaking it so its all good

Excellent charger. I will be adding at least one more of them for when I want to "speed charge". Wish they made a 48v chargeverter style. I trust them 100% more than the company putting out/selling the chargeverter from what Ive seen on the forum and such.

 

[Tomthumb62]

@Crowz , how did you disable float in your settings? I can't see how to do that and googling isn't finding an answer either. I have the latest firmware as far as I know.

EDIT: Lol, it's right there, the little blue slider.

EDIT 2: Ok, now I think I just realized that on this Victron Charger, you can only access all the settings in USER DEFINED mode. If you create a PRESET, you are not shown all the settings. Is there a way around this? I would love to be able to create multiple PRESETS using all the settings. Also, USER DEFINED has no meaningful label to it, such as "SOK only recharge at 26%", such as can be done with a PRESET.

 

[Crowz]

You click advanced battery settings on the first page and then after it changes choose expert settings to get it all showing. That's what I do each time I log into the settings on it.

 

[Tomthumb62]

You click advanced battery settings on the first page and then after it changes choose expert settings to get it all showing. That's what I do each time I log into the settings on it.

Yes that works but only if I choose "user defined". If I create a preset or try to edit a preset, I can't change all settings. For example, I can't disable float mode in a preset, but I can do so in user defined.

 

[Crowz]

I run mine in user defined. I found the profiles useless for what I do anyways. Technically user defined is a profile to it