Renogy Rover 40 usage

[Dustin Henderson]

Hello all.

I am not near the SCC / Solar install right now but want to gather some instructions/guidelines so I am most prepared when I head back up to the travel trailer it is installed on next time.

I have successfully installed and wired my phase one / proof of concept: 100 W panel, PV disconnect, Rover 40 with BT-1, Renogy Shunt, Battery disconnect, and associated fuses. Battery is a Chinese LiFePO4 100Ah which I have had a couple years and works wonderful.

I verified a charge was being received by the SCC from the panel, and the battery was charging per the default Li profile in the SCC. Once I made that simple verification, I had to leave so I disconnected the system as is my typical storage process.

When I return, I will add the second panel and for now run 2x100W in series. Future will be 4x100 in 2S2P.

But the questions I have first are around the SCC and shunt configurations.

1) From reading, it seems common for people to immediately start using a USR charge profile instead of the default Li profile from the Rover. Should I not even attempt to use the default profile and immediately go to as USR profile? A common complaint is that the Rover seems to under report the voltage between itself and the battery. Is this generally accepted as true? Charge Voltage for this battery is listed as 14.4. Standby Voltage is listed as 13.8. There is a “Voltage Window” specification listed as 9.2 – 14.6V. Those charge voltage numbers actually seem a little higher than I typically see.

2) The location of the SCC is a little inconvenient to read the display, and I assume the BT app is referred regardless. Any problems with the app or anything I should know beforehand?

3) I assume that every time I disconnect the PV and then Battery (for long term storage for example) any defined settings (including battery type) will be lost. True? A bit lame if so. Does entering them in the app restore them to the SCC automatically upon power up?

4) I understand I need to ensure the battery is fully charged before configuring the shunt for capacity monitoring. The catch-22 here is how do you know “full is full” without a shunt? If we accept the SCC as unreliable in this regard, and if we accept using a Voltage meter is imperfect as well, It seems all we can do is best effort if not using some external and trusted charger (which I will not bother with). I assume this is a 98% accurate is close enough, and can certainly live with that but wanted to verify that charging to full according to the SCC and my multimeter was as good as it gets.

Hope the questions make sense. It is slightly inconvenient to do a project like this “remotely”, but so far everything has worked exactly as expected.

 

[Dynoman]

Hello all.

I am not near the SCC / Solar install right now but want to gather some instructions/guidelines so I am most prepared when I head back up to the travel trailer it is installed on next time.

I have successfully installed and wired my phase one / proof of concept: 100 W panel, PV disconnect, Rover 40 with BT-1, Renogy Shunt, Battery disconnect, and associated fuses. Battery is a Chinese LiFePO4 100Ah which I have had a couple years and works wonderful.

I verified a charge was being received by the SCC from the panel, and the battery was charging per the default Li profile in the SCC. Once I made that simple verification, I had to leave so I disconnected the system as is my typical storage process.

When I return, I will add the second panel and for now run 2x100W in series. Future will be 4x100 in 2S2P.

But the questions I have first are around the SCC and shunt configurations.

1) From reading, it seems common for people to immediately start using a USR charge profile instead of the default Li profile from the Rover. Should I not even attempt to use the default profile and immediately go to as USR profile? A common complaint is that the Rover seems to under report the voltage between itself and the battery. Is this generally accepted as true? Charge Voltage for this battery is listed as 14.4. Standby Voltage is listed as 13.8. There is a “Voltage Window” specification listed as 9.2 – 14.6V. Those charge voltage numbers actually seem a little higher than I typically see.

2) The location of the SCC is a little inconvenient to read the display, and I assume the BT app is referred regardless. Any problems with the app or anything I should know beforehand?

3) I assume that every time I disconnect the PV and then Battery (for long term storage for example) any defined settings (including battery type) will be lost. True? A bit lame if so. Does entering them in the app restore them to the SCC automatically upon power up?

4) I understand I need to ensure the battery is fully charged before configuring the shunt for capacity monitoring. The catch-22 here is how do you know “full is full” without a shunt? If we accept the SCC as unreliable in this regard, and if we accept using a Voltage meter is imperfect as well, It seems all we can do is best effort if not using some external and trusted charger (which I will not bother with). I assume this is a 98% accurate is close enough, and can certainly live with that but wanted to verify that charging to full according to the SCC and my multimeter was as good as it gets.

Hope the questions make sense. It is slightly inconvenient to do a project like this “remotely”, but so far everything has worked exactly as expected.

Yes, The Renogy Rover LI parameters should not be used for Lifepo4 batteries as they are too aggressive. User settings should be used.

My Rovers under report voltage 0.1 to 0.2 volts.

Try Boost Charge Volt(V) 14.1 with Charge Limit Voltage(V) 14.2 and Boost Charge Time(Min) 10. Set Float Charge Volt(V) 13.6. Try these settings to start as this should charge the battery full charge or near full charge (98%). As the days/weeks go by you may want to slowly increase Boost voltage up. Also try a Boost Charge Time(Min) 20 as this will balance the cells in the battery longer. Measure voltage on battery with a Volt Meter during Boost and try to not exceed 14.4 V. The Shunt should also give a fairly accurate voltage reading. The BMS may disconnect the battery at the higher voltages and if so reduce the Boost & Boost Limit & Time. You will need to experiment with the settings to find what works best for your system.

I have had my Rovers disconnected from power for hours working on the system and the Rovers held the programmed settings.

Set the shunt to 100% when the Rover transitions from Boost to Float the first time and that will be a good start.

A suggestion would be to click the link below and read this message and then read the entire thread. There is significant and important information on programming the Renogy Rover MPPT solar charge controller. My system uses the Renogy Rover 40 amp and 100 amp and they both work well. I will admit it took a while to find the the proper parameters for my system, but it performs very good now and has for several years.

Hope it helps...

Renogy 40a mppt Li settings

Thanks for the info, I get no heat from the 2 awg wire so that's good for me. Just ordered a 40a circuit breaker to go between the charge controller and batteries plus the Blue Sea 5191 terminal block and 200a fuse today. The 8 guage is less than 2 feet and I did find a little heat when the...

diysolarforum.com

 

[Dustin Henderson]

Dynoman, I have already read that thread and several others with your input, and bookmarked them. My thread here was sort of just to confirm what you have said is conventional wisdom. Thanks for your contributions!

 

[Dustin Henderson]

@Dynoman

Per the picture below, why might Current from the panels and to the battery be so low? 10 AM but full Southwestern desert sun and zero shading. 2x100 in series and voltage looks normal I restarted the SCC after initial hook up (so I assume that is why it says boost mode) and now it just seems like Amps are low.

Battery is pretty much full, so is this just normal SCC behavior?

 

[Dynoman]

@Dynoman

Per the picture below, why might Current from the panels and to the battery be so low? 10 AM but full Southwestern desert sun and zero shading. 2x100 in series and voltage looks normal I restarted the SCC after initial hook up (so I assume that is why it says boost mode) and now it just seems like Amps are low.

Battery is pretty much full, so is this just normal SCC behavior?

View attachment 161270

Yes, this is somewhat normal, although the current value is very low. The longer in Boost the lower the current.

After the Boost Charge Time(Min) the Rover should go to Float. If it does not transition to float make sure to look at the rest of my suggested settings and in particular Equalize Charge Interval(Days) 185.

 

[Dustin Henderson]

The Rover 40 seems to be doing it's thing as anticipated.

The BT app interface is quite bad. Setting USR settings is weird, and the historical data is infuriatingly obtuse. Also, is there really no way to change metric to imperial measurements?

2x100 Watts laying flat, in serial, with occasional shading are giving me 20 Ah a day, although it's a bit hard to say exactly since there is not much load on the batteries right now. I will go ahead and add 2x100 soon, and run it 2S2P.

I am using a renogy shunt as well. It seems to work, although it seems to spend a lot of time at 100% charged but showing 99Ah (set to 100) on the capacity. Practically speaking not a problem, but slight discomforting to an OCD person. (You would think the "rounding" error would go in favor of the % remaining not capacity metric.)

An question: What is the feasibility of wiring a 12v "cigarette plug" in to the load terminals of the SCC? I have several little batteries that could be charged this way using their 12v plug chargers. Not worth the trouble?

 

[Dynoman]

The Rover 40 seems to be doing it's thing as anticipated.

The BT app interface is quite bad. Setting USR settings is weird, and the historical data is infuriatingly obtuse. Also, is there really no way to change metric to imperial measurements?

2x100 Watts laying flat, in serial, with occasional shading are giving me 20 Ah a day, although it's a bit hard to say exactly since there is not much load on the batteries right now. I will go ahead and add 2x100 soon, and run it 2S2P.

I am using a renogy shunt as well. It seems to work, although it seems to spend a lot of time at 100% charged but showing 99Ah (set to 100) on the capacity. Practically speaking not a problem, but slight discomforting to an OCD person. (You would think the "rounding" error would go in favor of the % remaining not capacity metric.)

An question: What is the feasibility of wiring a 12v "cigarette plug" in to the load terminals of the SCC? I have several little batteries that could be charged this way using their 12v plug chargers. Not worth the trouble?

Glad to hear the Rover 40 is working. I agree the Renogy BT app interface is lacking, but it does work to program and monitor the Rover and more important all the parameters are available. The historical data is very poor and I usually don't use that feature of the app because of that. Battery temp can only be displayed in degrees C, but that should not matter since the Rover battery temp probe should be disconnected.

Another app that I have used that shows some promise is the SRNE app. The app is regularly updated by SRNE. The Rover is manufactured by SRNE so it works on it. The links to the download are in this message.

Renogy 40a mppt Li settings

This is a great thread for those using a lifepro4 with a rover 20/30/40. If others find themselves here I’ve come to learn there are 2 different Bluetooth apps for the rovers. The original was the BT app which had more parameter adjustments in the “user” setting. Renogy no longer updates that...

diysolarforum.com

Have not used the load terminals of the Rover 40, but according to the Rover manual it is limited to 20 amps output. So for 12V x 20amps = 240 watts. Not a lot of power. I have only read of lights being connected to the load terminals and that it cannot handle the spikes of near 20 amp inductive loads like some motors. Don't know how it would go charging small batteries. For larger loads some have reported using a relay controlled by the load terminals that pulls power directly from the battery. There are also different modes the Load terminals can be programmed using the key pad on the Rover also described in the manual.

 

[Tomthumb62]

Make sure you change the default setting High voltage Disconnect from 17v to a safe zone like 14.4v.

 

[Dustin Henderson]

So it has been several weeks and all is well as far as I know. I do have another "usage" question.

For the first few weeks after install, the trailer sat off grid in storage, and I could see the panels gathering the sun, sending it to the MPPT, and charging the batteries. I verified with my shunt that by mid day the battery was charged. When I looked in early morning, the trailer had naturally lost a few Ah of stored capacity (as I left the main power on and small devices like the radio and CO detector remained powered on, or used lights for a bit). All was well.

Based on the app's "Record" tab It looks like maybe 15-20 Ah per day were recorded as charged during this period. Seems a little high, but I can buy it.

For the last few weeks, I have been mostly hooked to shore power. The system is still working fine, battery as measured by the shunt is effectively 100% as one would expect when plugged in to shore power and running a OEM converter setup.

But I still see the panels "charging" large amounts oh Ah on occasion, according to the "Record" tab in the app. For example, 35AH one day, 41 Ah the next. 8 Ah the next.

The usage question is, is this ACTUAL charge being sent to the battery from the MPPT? Does the battery take charge preference from the MPPT over the OEM converter? (I sort of would expect 0 charge while plugged in to shore power - that is definitely not the case, unless the app shows what "could have" been charged and not what really is charged).

Note again, this is basically your typical "pre wired for solar" install with an SCC placed in line from the roof cabling as the manufacturer specified.

And again ... everything is working in practice, just trying to understand and interpret data.

 

[Dustin Henderson]

Make sure you change the default setting High voltage Disconnect from 17v to a safe zone like 14.4v.

All the settings are custom more or less with what Dynoman described above ... so no issues there.

(Blus the battery BMS, but we don't rely on that)

 

[Dynoman]

So it has been several weeks and all is well as far as I know. I do have another "usage" question.

For the first few weeks after install, the trailer sat off grid in storage, and I could see the panels gathering the sun, sending it to the MPPT, and charging the batteries. I verified with my shunt that by mid day the battery was charged. When I looked in early morning, the trailer had naturally lost a few Ah of stored capacity (as I left the main power on and small devices like the radio and CO detector remained powered on, or used lights for a bit). All was well.

Based on the app's "Record" tab It looks like maybe 15-20 Ah per day were recorded as charged during this period. Seems a little high, but I can buy it.

For the last few weeks, I have been mostly hooked to shore power. The system is still working fine, battery as measured by the shunt is effectively 100% as one would expect when plugged in to shore power and running a OEM converter setup.

But I still see the panels "charging" large amounts oh Ah on occasion, according to the "Record" tab in the app. For example, 35AH one day, 41 Ah the next. 8 Ah the next.

The usage question is, is this ACTUAL charge being sent to the battery from the MPPT? Does the battery take charge preference from the MPPT over the OEM converter? (I sort of would expect 0 charge while plugged in to shore power - that is definitely not the case, unless the app shows what "could have" been charged and not what really is charged).

Note again, this is basically your typical "pre wired for solar" install with an SCC placed in line from the roof cabling as the manufacturer specified.

And again ... everything is working in practice, just trying to understand and interpret data.

So it has been several weeks and all is well as far as I know. I do have another "usage" question.

For the first few weeks after install, the trailer sat off grid in storage, and I could see the panels gathering the sun, sending it to the MPPT, and charging the batteries. I verified with my shunt that by mid day the battery was charged. When I looked in early morning, the trailer had naturally lost a few Ah of stored capacity (as I left the main power on and small devices like the radio and CO detector remained powered on, or used lights for a bit). All was well.

Based on the app's "Record" tab It looks like maybe 15-20 Ah per day were recorded as charged during this period. Seems a little high, but I can buy it.

For the last few weeks, I have been mostly hooked to shore power. The system is still working fine, battery as measured by the shunt is effectively 100% as one would expect when plugged in to shore power and running a OEM converter setup.

But I still see the panels "charging" large amounts oh Ah on occasion, according to the "Record" tab in the app. For example, 35AH one day, 41 Ah the next. 8 Ah the next.

The usage question is, is this ACTUAL charge being sent to the battery from the MPPT? Does the battery take charge preference from the MPPT over the OEM converter? (I sort of would expect 0 charge while plugged in to shore power - that is definitely not the case, unless the app shows what "could have" been charged and not what really is charged).

Note again, this is basically your typical "pre wired for solar" install with an SCC placed in line from the roof cabling as the manufacturer specified.

And again ... everything is working in practice, just trying to understand and interpret data.

The usage question is, is this ACTUAL charge being sent to the battery from the MPPT? Does the battery take charge preference from the MPPT over the OEM converter? (I sort of would expect 0 charge while plugged in to shore power - that is definitely not the case, unless the app shows what "could have" been charged and not what really is charged).

When the battery is low it will accept the charge from multiple sources when connected to it at the same time. Unless the Rover is disconnected from the battery (be sure to disconnect solar panels first) it will always charge the battery, when the battery is low, provided there is sunlight .