Renogy Rover 60 staying in float mode

[JRR]

My charge controller is limiting current. It seems to be skipping absorption mode entirely and has already entered float mode at 10:00 am. As a result, last night my voltage dropped below 12 volts on a 300 ah LiFePO4 battery bank. The system charges fine when using the Victron Energy Blue Smart IP65 12-Volt 15 amp Battery Charger from the grid. My Victron charger is showing 13.56 amps, nowhere near absorption voltage, so something is definitely up with the controller. I've checked the panels and I'm getting correct current there, the controller is just limiting it.

System: 640 watts of solar, Rover 60 controller, 3 100 ah Battle Born batteries.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Tomthumb62]

My charge controller is limiting current. It seems to be skipping absorption mode entirely and has already entered float mode at 10:00 am. As a result, last night my voltage dropped below 12 volts on a 300 ah LiFePO4 battery bank. The system charges fine when using the Victron Energy Blue Smart IP65 12-Volt 15 amp Battery Charger from the grid. My Victron charger is showing 13.56 amps, nowhere near absorption voltage, so something is definitely up with the controller. I've checked the panels and I'm getting correct current there, the controller is just limiting it.

System: 640 watts of solar, Rover 60 controller, 3 100 ah Battle Born batteries.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Having finally ditched my Renogy Rover 30A for a Victron Smartsolar 100/30 (equivalent in specs but far superior in function and reliability), and having had many headaches with the Renogy, I can tell you this:

The Rover requires the Bluetooth dongle in order to properly program it. You can only adjust settings for the USER mode, the Li and SLA (lithium and sealed lead acid) modes are presets. Most of the parameters in USER mode are only available via the app via the Bluetooth dongle.

You’ll need to read through the very long thread on how to program it. I don’t have link handy but maybe someone will post it. The title is something like “Programming Renogy Rover 40A MPPT”.

If you value your sanity and especially if you require reliability of your system, then replace it with a Victron unit similar to what I mentioned above, but you’ll need a bigger one such as the Victron 150/60-Tr or if you can live with 10A less, the 100/50 is quite a bit cheaper.

I had never ending issues with my Renogy Rover. It wasn’t defective, just extremely poorly designed. Victron has slashed their prices on the charge controllers I mentioned above by 30% and it looks like the dealer I linked (I have had nothing but excellent service with them, there or four purchases at far). It’sa no brainier IMO.

The Victron has worked flawlessly since day one. If my math is correct, I’m getting roughly 15-20% increased production in the Victron compared to the Renogy. My guess is this has to do with the super fast MPPT tracking that the Victron has—it simply spends less time seeking the Maximum Power Point and more time actually turning sunlight into charging amps for the battery.

 

[pollenface]

Correct me if I'm wrong but the rover doesn't have an Absorb stage when in Li mode.

 

[Tomthumb62]

Here’s the link to that thread:

Renogy 40a mppt Li settings

My first post, so a big thanks for those in this forum. Been reading for some time and watching a lot of Will's videos which have been very helpful. Now I have a question which I cannot find much about. I recently upgraded my batteries at my cabin to Lifepo4 and started using the Li settings on...

diysolarforum.com

Will also say that Renogy has two apps. I forget their names but they are mentioned in the thread. The older app is the only one that can change ALL the settings.

There is also another app made by SRNE, which is slightly better. SRNE makes the Rover charge controllers for Renogy.

But all three of those apps are buggy and report bad data. Not sure if it’s the Rover itself reporting inaccurate values or if it’s the software misrepresenting the data.

The Victron charge controller and app work flawlessly.

You can install the Victron app, called Victron Connect and then choose the demo mode. You can then try out a simulation of using the device you’re interested in to see how it looks. The app is very well polished and is free, you only pay for the Victron device.

 

[Tomthumb62]

Correct me if I'm wrong but the rover doesn't have an Absorb stage when in Li mode.

I’m not familiar with the preset Li mode, but the USER mode certainly allows you to set absorption settings.

The preset Li mode, if I recall, is not well suited for charging lifepo4. The settings are too aggressive. I believe it charges to 14.6v, which unless your lifepo4 battery is extremely well balanced (unlikely unless you didn’t buy a budget battery or you built your own with a proper top balance), charging this high will certainly trigger the battery’s BMS to cut off charging. This cut off protection is meant only for emergencies. Repeated tripping of the protection will eventually lead to BMS failure and you’ll need to tear open the battery to replace the BMS if you bought a battery with a lid that’s glued shut.

 

[pollenface]

I’m not familiar with the preset Li mode, but the USER mode certainly allows you to set absorption settings.

Yes.

 

[mikefitz]

seems to be skipping absorption mode entirely

Default lithium mode has no absorbtion period. Charges to target volts then stops charge. Re bulk voltage is 13.2 , so will continue charging if voltage falls below this level.
User mode allows custom settings.

 

[Dynoman]

My charge controller is limiting current. It seems to be skipping absorption mode entirely and has already entered float mode at 10:00 am. As a result, last night my voltage dropped below 12 volts on a 300 ah LiFePO4 battery bank. The system charges fine when using the Victron Energy Blue Smart IP65 12-Volt 15 amp Battery Charger from the grid. My Victron charger is showing 13.56 amps, nowhere near absorption voltage, so something is definitely up with the controller. I've checked the panels and I'm getting correct current there, the controller is just limiting it.

System: 640 watts of solar, Rover 60 controller, 3 100 ah Battle Born batteries.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Read this message about setting up the Renogy Rover 40 amp MPPT solar charge controller. It also applies to the Rover 60.

Renogy 40a mppt Li settings​

diysolarforum.com

After reading the message in the link read the entire thread as you may find it helpful.

 

[JRR]

I played around with the settings in the controller, still couldn't get it to work, so I ordered the blue tooth module. It's now correctly going into absorption stage.

Thanks everyone for the help!