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diy solar

New Chargery DCC (DC Contactor)

I've run my 300A DCC's through my Thrash Tests and they didn't even warm up !
I pushed 4 packs hard with 200A discharge & 150A charge. Then I did that to single packs to really stress them up, the wires got a little warm but not the 300A DCC. I built my system for 300A handling knowing I would not get there unless it was an extremely rare instance (for surges). I did get the ones first sold (V1.0) which had a few quirks that got fixed fast.
 
Steve_S said:
I've run my 300A DCC's through my Thrash Tests and they didn't even warm up !
I pushed 4 packs hard with 200A discharge & 150A charge. Then I did that to single packs to really stress them up, the wires got a little warm but not the 300A DCC.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your personal Thumbs Up from Trash Tests. That means allot to me. ...for clarity sake: gotta ask: What are your referring to with those terms "4 packs" and "single packs"?
 
My LFP Bank consists of 4 battery packs. 2x 24V/280AH and 2x 24V/175AH.
I've tested with all 4 packs online, 3 packs, 2 packs, 1 pack. Then with 1x 280 & 1x 175 ON and the other two off and assorted combos. I wanted to determine expected behaviours and to see what can be caused, created, & dealt with in a controlled situation. I do not want to learn of errors or failures the hard way by "suffering it". This is all in my Production System now sitting side x side to my 22kwh FLA battery Bank.

Critical lesson learned:
As LFP packs fill up and the BMS' start kicking off within the bank while being Charged by the Inverter Charger, the Inverter does NOT like that flipping around... because a pack will hit full, BMS disconnects, pack settles and BMS reconnects and takes more charge. this up & down amp variations essentially is unpleasant to the Inverter/Charger. Now the Nasty ! When all packs hit HVD and consider themselves full so they disconnect while the inverter is in Charge Mode, that TRIPS INVERTER Safeties and cycles the inverter (reboots it). Geezus Murphy, it IS harsh ! Let's not discuss how the Generator takes that (simply put, does not like it one bit).

Fortunately, I am using a Samlex EVO Inverter and it has the required safeties & protection circuitry. Had I done such with my cheap Value Yiyen APC-3024 Inverter/Charger it more than likely would have gotten fried and badly. Very basic unit, identical to the Aims 3000W/24V Low-Frequency units. I believe Yiyen is the OEM for AIMS products but I am not 100% sure on that. They could be Sigineer. Would have to crack one open and look at the PCB's.
 
Steve_S said:
Critical lesson learned:
As LFP packs fill up and the BMS' start kicking off within the bank while being Charged by the Inverter Charger, the Inverter does NOT like that flipping around... because a pack will hit full, BMS disconnects, pack settles and BMS reconnects and takes more charge. this up & down amp variations essentially is unpleasant to the Inverter/Charger. Now the Nasty ! When all packs hit HVD and consider themselves full so they disconnect while the inverter is in Charge Mode, that TRIPS INVERTER Safeties and cycles the inverter (reboots it). Geezus Murphy, it IS harsh ! Let's not discuss how the Generator takes that (simply put, does not like it one bit).
Click to expand...

Well, we warn repeatedly that BMS must be a redundant safety, not the normal end of charge and LVD device. It was only a matter of time something bad would happen (and actually you got lucky it was only mildly bad). Maybe your experience will warn others better than we've done until now.
 
As I said, doing things in a controlled way prevents Magic Smoke which is NOT a lesson I want to experience.
The BMS' did / do their job exactly as desired and expected.
It also HIGHLIGHTS the need for centralised controls, which can interact with each BMS and direct Inverter ort SCC to stop or change activity.
Once a Battery Bank starts to get complex, Decentralised BMS' are called for in the real world.... (Completely outside of Will's experiences) and rarely mentioned on this forum. It crosses into a slightly different zone.

With this stuff, it is very easy to grow beyond the tech being used and having to step up a notch or two to continue growth/expansion.
 
Yep, we really need an open standard comm for our systems, because currently it's a big mess of proprietary protocols (when you're even able to have some comm in the first place...).
 
ModBus & CanBus exist exactly for that reason.
Luckily Jason @Chargery has caught onto that from our discussions and will be implementing CanBus into the new version of BMS being cooked up. ModBus can be bi-directional allowing for config modifications and such, I believe CanBus has similar capability. (I have nothing which I use CanBus for) as my Samlex EVO has both CanBus & ModBus while my Midnite Classic uses ModBus, so stuck with ModBus.

The Chargery Serial RS232 is a bit of a nightmare with 4 BMS' hooked up to one USRIOT N540 RS2323/RS485 to IP server. This is a beast I will be tackling shortly once I resolve my Raspberry Pi issues. The Win-10 Python implementation SUX ! Node_red is not meant for Windows, which is what I have used to interface with the Midnite Controller. Node_red can handle ModBus & CanBus and a lot more as well, so I'll get to it.

REFS:
Node-RED
4-port Serial to IP Converters | Modbus Serial to Ethernet Converters (pusr.com)
 
Yeah, but that's only standard on the structure, the data can be any random thing. So it's better of course, but we're still missing a standard who says what should named how, and has which format, etc..

For example "the battery voltage must be named vBatt (or "be at address 0x12" if it's a protocol using addresses instead) and is a 32 bits float number representing the battery voltage in volts".

Then everything following this standard know where and how it can read the battery voltage, and then it can do its thing with that info (like terminating the charge for example) ;)
 
Are the DCC Contactor devices compatible with ElectroDacus? I'm parting out my system and ready to pull the trigger once I get all the dots connected.

I was planning to go with 2 Victron Battery Protects, but it looks like it can just go with one DCC Contactor. :)
 
tazzytazzy said:
Are the DCC Contactor devices compatible with ElectroDacus? I'm parting out my system and ready to pull the trigger once I get all the dots connected.

I was planning to go with 2 Victron Battery Protects, but it looks like it can just go with one DCC Contactor. :)
Click to expand...
I am pretty sure that the DCC just needs a 12v signal at some tiny current. The ElectroDaucus has GPIOs, but they cannot drive it directly. Perhaps the GPIO could activate and external logical level FET, BJT, or small signal relay to trigger the DCC.

I am only superficially familiar with the ElectroDaucus, so take that with a grain of salt.
 
tazzytazzy said:
Are the DCC Contactor devices compatible with ElectroDacus? I'm parting out my system and ready to pull the trigger once I get all the dots connected.

I was planning to go with 2 Victron Battery Protects, but it looks like it can just go with one DCC Contactor. :)
Click to expand...
You could make them work.
 
the terminals are still too close to each other. Lug terminals should be spaced at least by the amount the other lug can swing over (so you do not short it by swinging the lug)
 
that chargery.com page is no shop - you cant order, but it links to ICGOGOGO aliexpress store.... is icgogogo=chargery?
 
You can email Chargery thru that web page to get quotes and order directly. Jason is generally the one who handles that and will also provide support.
That's how I got mine.

I have heard too many negative things about ICGOGO.
 
I think it's a holiday over there right now ..... haven't looked at their calendar to see what the dates are.

Chargery will air ship it and you can get it pretty fast instead of waiting for the slow boat. I figure why not order direct from the Mfg instead of involving a middleman.
 
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