Renogy Rover Lithium settings

[MisterSandals]

Once it hits 14 it just basically stays on Boost (for more than 10 minutes).

In your last pic, you have Boost Time set to 10 minutes. Its doing what its told do.

 

[SolarShed]

Just wanted to provide an update on the new settings.

Yesterday I had some good sun in the morning as soon as it hit my two panels, the charge controller charged the battery at full throttle untill it hit 14 volts. At this point the battery was at 98% capacity, according to the app, and the charge controller basically trickled the rest up to 100% over the next few minutes.

My battery was 100% charged (100% capacity at 14.0 V!

Worked quite well and and I'm starting to like this new charge profile quite well actually.

It doesn't seem to get out of boost though. Once it hits 14 it just basically stays on Boost

Should it not be at float at this point?

In your last pic, you have Boost Time set to 10 minutes. Its doing what its told do.

But it seems to be on Boost for more than 10 minutes, I don't think I've seen float. but maybe I'll just check it more carefully next time.

And this is even before I use the battery. I mean once it hits 14 volts there's really no loads on it other than some small loads that run the equipment.

 

[MisterSandals]

Once it hits 14 it just basically stays on Boost

Should it not be at float at this point?

I'd think of it as being in an absorb kind of mode as long as its at 14.0V and this puts a good full charge on it. If it gets to 14.1V or it stays on longer than 15-30 minutes, then i'd be a little concerned.

First figure out how long it stays on "boost" and see if it stays at 14.0V. This could be a good thing, especially if you are full timing it in your RV and have continual loads (fridge, lights, clocks, phone chargers...).

I am not a full timer so i charge lower and float below settle voltage.

 

[SolarShed]

hmm I think I found the problem; are the units in boost time minutes or hrs? there is a discrepancy in the app vs the Rover manual. Please see below. It seems to be consistent to being in hrs because because it stays in boost for hrs for me. let me try changing it to 1 hr of boost (or 60 min), as that seems to be the minimum??

@Bob142 have you actually timed your boost mode on your Rover?

 

[Bob142]

hmm I think I found the problem; are the units in boost time minutes or hrs? there is a discrepancy in the app vs the Rover manual. Please see below. It seems to be consistent to being in hrs because because it stays in boost for hrs for me. let me try changing it to 1 hr of boost (or 60 min), as that seems to be the minimum??

@Bob142 have you actually timed your boost mode on your Rover?

View attachment 64389




View attachment 64390

Interesting. Thanks for the update. I’ll have to check this on mine. I haven’t touched the settings in over a year but thought I timed it all out back then.

 

[SolarShed]

IT would be great if you can look at this for us.

I did some investigating, it seems to be minutes not hrs. because it would not accept a number below 10 as it kept changing it to 10 if I did. So, having said that, when I changed the time to 60 minutes (which it accepted), which supposedly is the minimum that the chart says, it still was in boost after 60 minutes.

Here's the interesting part is that it seems to be acting as float despite that it says boost, because the voltage never went past 14.0 and the current (according to the smart battery BMS), was 0.00 A.

There must be something that is overwritten with this setup.

After discovering that 60 minutes did not solve the boost situation, I starting looking into floating Lithium batteries in general. And I've learned its definitely not good to do this when the battery is full (which we are not doing) but, its also not required because there is no self-discharge of the Li batteries (or very little of it), so, hence that is why float is not required.

So thinking about this, if my battery hits 14 V and stays there, it won't drop to the boost return voltage anytime soon (unless I use the battery of course).

I tried this charging profile, which is basically the standard lithium LFP profile from Renogy, but trimmed the top end a bit. This does the same thing, hits 14V stays there, no current to battery and stays its in boost. Its like my controller is there in MPPT charge mode or boost. I think its doing what it should be doing? Does this make any sense?

 

[Bob142]

IT would be great if you can look at this for us.

I’ll try it out again tomorrow, sun permitting, and see what I get.

 

[lightmail]

As @MisterSandals pointed out, the Equalization voltage matters less than setting the time to zero so that it doesn't equalize. I set it to 14V as a hedge against the SCC doing something unexpected and not adhering to the zero time setting.

I use the BT-1 Bluetooth module and the Renogy app to set mine up. I've never tried to get to all of the settings via the front panel of the unit so I'm not sure if they are all available (I can check that out a little later this afternoon). I've also noticed that terminology between the manual snippet, what you see on the front panel, and what I see in the app are inconsistent. So this might take a few tries for us.

Here's what I have for settings via the app:

View attachment 63984View attachment 63985

My BT-1 display is different then yours, every things white, I wonder if they up dated appearance? I just bought mine a month or so ago. Bummer

 

[Bob142]

My BT-1 display is different then yours, every things white, I wonder if they up dated appearance? I just bought mine a month or so ago. Bummer

Nah, it’s just my phone set to dark mode.

 

[lightmail]

Sorry, Bob142, I got the posts mixed up. I'm using your profile for my Renogy 100 amp Smart lithium battery with self-heater (built-in heater). I live in colder climate. This new changes, shouldn't really affect that. So boost is ok for 10 minutes? I cant change it (if it needs to be).

Just to confirm, are these setting ok for my battery? Last thing I want to do is destroy my $950 battery lol!


View attachment 64004 View attachment 64005

I wonder why you have Battery Rated AH(AH) between system voltage and battery type. Mine doesn't. hmm. I wonder if it madders?

 

[Bob142]

IT would be great if you can look at this for us.

I did some investigating, it seems to be minutes not hrs. because it would not accept a number below 10 as it kept changing it to 10 if I did. So, having said that, when I changed the time to 60 minutes (which it accepted), which supposedly is the minimum that the chart says, it still was in boost after 60 minutes.

Here's the interesting part is that it seems to be acting as float despite that it says boost, because the voltage never went past 14.0 and the current (according to the smart battery BMS), was 0.00 A.

There must be something that is overwritten with this setup.

After discovering that 60 minutes did not solve the boost situation, I starting looking into floating Lithium batteries in general. And I've learned its definitely not good to do this when the battery is full (which we are not doing) but, its also not required because there is no self-discharge of the Li batteries (or very little of it), so, hence that is why float is not required.

So thinking about this, if my battery hits 14 V and stays there, it won't drop to the boost return voltage anytime soon (unless I use the battery of course).

I tried this charging profile, which is basically the standard lithium LFP profile from Renogy, but trimmed the top end a bit. This does the same thing, hits 14V stays there, no current to battery and stays its in boost. Its like my controller is there in MPPT charge mode or boost. I think its doing what it should be doing? Does this make any sense?



View attachment 64495 View attachment 64497

@SolarShed, I finally got some time to do the test. Running it now. I'll provide an update later today.

 

[SolarShed]

@lightmail I actually have two versions of the Renogy BT app on my phone. The older version has that rated battery ah setting, the newer one does not. I'm not sure why, the Rover seems to accept the number because every time I press read, it changes the number to the correct number (as opposed to the default number that is in the app). As to whether it matters, I'm not sure. Hopefully they update the new DC Home app with more of these features that the Renogy BT app has

@Bob142 Great! look forward to hearing from you.

Cheers

 

[Bob142]

@Bob142 Great! look forward to hearing from you.

Well well well. I'm seeing some shockingly bad behavior. I'm really glad you shared your experience because it is NOT doing what I thought it was!

For some background, the Rover is part of my crate system so it's not in constant use. When I ran my tests, I set up the parameters and wasn't watching the Bluetooth app, but rather my AiLi battery monitor. The Rover brought the battery bank up to 14V, and then some minutes later (likely close enough to the 10 minutes I set) the voltage was at 13.5V which I assumed meant it had switched to float. During my normal use patterns I generally disconnect the array at that point if all I'm doing is charging it up fully for later use.

Here's what it's actually doing now that I've been watching the Bluetooth app like a hawk this afternoon:

• The Rover switches out of MPPT mode and into Boost mode as expected.
• After some amount of minutes in Boost I am seeing it report a high voltage disconnect! (It's been inconsistent during the 60ish minutes I've been watching it in terms of when it disconnects. The first couple times it was within/around 10 minutes. Not so since.)
• I can confirm that the AiLi also shows an over voltage situation at the same time (I stared at it until it happened the second time).
• At that point the battery bank voltage settles down to about 13.5V (fake out float) because the Rover has disconnected the array from the battery.
• A short time later, the Rover gets out of the error condition and restarts in Boost mode.
• Wash, rinse, repeat.
• Right now it's been in Boost mode for over 20 minutes without the high voltage disconnect error.

Bottom line is that I confirm your findings since I suspect if I left this alone the rest of the day and came back hours later it would still show Boost (likely with some intermittent over voltage errors along the way). I don't know if it's trying to switch to float mode and is malfunctioning or if User mode is just programmed incorrectly in general.

This is really disappointing. I'm not certain what to try next to get the Rover to behave. It might be sent packing and get replaced by a Victron.

I apologize for the misleading information earlier in this thread. User mode doesn't solve the problem I was concerned about.

 

[SolarShed]

This is disappointing, and I cursed a little upon reading your post. I really don't know what is going on here.

I haven't seen a high-voltage disconnect, but then again, I haven't really been monitoring it 24/7. For me, it just seems to be either in boost or MPPT charge mode (or charge not ready in the night). This behavior is the same even with Renogy's default lithium settings (i.e. either its in boost for MPPT charge mode). Setting a boost time to x minutes and a (lower) float voltage, neither of these parameters are met, and you've confirmed that.

What date/lot number rover to do you have? I think that V030001 could be firmware? This is mine (sorry its sideways):



Since your finding, I've changed the float back to what boost and equalize are:



This profile above is basically Renogy's suggest Li (LFP) profile, BUT I trimmed the top end a bit...and I now may further modify a bit by changing the high-voltage disconnect to 14.6 V (default is 16.0V).

Just curious, can you rule out your batteries, could be fishy with unstable voltage?

EDIT: I should also mention that my history in the BT app, shows only min of 13.1 volts and max of 14.0 volts in the time period that I've changed the charging profile. If that is true and accurate, than I can say I don't think I've hit the High voltage disconnect. You may wish to check your history too, to confirm how long this has been happening.

 

[Bob142]

This is disappointing, and I cursed a little upon reading your post. I really don't know what is going on here.

I haven't seen a high-voltage disconnect, but then again, I haven't really been monitoring it 24/7. For me, it just seems to be either in boost or MPPT charge mode (or charge not ready in the night). This behavior is the same even with Renogy's default lithium settings (i.e. either its in boost for MPPT charge mode). Setting a boost time to x minutes and a (lower) float voltage, neither of these parameters are met, and you've confirmed that.

What date/lot number rover to do you have? I think that V030001 could be firmware? This is mine (sorry its sideways):

View attachment 65706

Since your finding, I've changed the float back to what boost and equalize are:

View attachment 65708 View attachment 65710

This profile above is basically Renogy's suggest Li (LFP) profile, BUT I trimmed the top end a bit...and I now may further modify a bit by changing the high-voltage disconnect to 14.6 V (default is 16.0V).

Just curious, can you rule out your batteries, could be fishy with unstable voltage?

EDIT: I should also mention that my history in the BT app, shows only min of 13.1 volts and max of 14.0 volts in the time period that I've changed the charging profile. If that is true and accurate, than I can say I don't think I've hit the High voltage disconnect. You may wish to check your history too, to confirm how long this has been happening.

Here’s my Rover info:



The batteries have been rock solid. They are two Lion Energy UT1200's. No issues whatsoever with them so far.

 

[SolarShed]

thanks, Bob i'll keep an eye out for mine and report any funny business here.

Another Rover user I spoke to, reported that using the default Li (LFP) profile, he experiences the same: its either in boost or MPPT when in the sun. No mention specifically about over charging or mis-charging. Sometimes these Rover's need a restart/reset.

Hopefully you find the solution to this and hope its trivial.

 

[Bob142]

thanks, Bob i'll keep an eye out for mine and report any funny business here.

Another Rover user I spoke to, reported that using the default Li (LFP) profile, he experiences the same: its either in boost or MPPT when in the sun. No mention specifically about over charging or mis-charging. Sometimes these Rover's need a restart/reset.

Hopefully you find the solution to this and hope its trivial.

I thought about this some more last night. When I get some time (probably early next week) I'm going to run a test using Gel mode (boost of 14.2V). The boost duration is too long for my liking (2 hours) and the float is too high to be useful (13.8V) but I'd like to see if this unit ever gets into float mode. I've got a spare Lion Energy UT1200 that I was trying to sell, so I'm willing to let it take that beating to further our investigation.

 

[Bob142]

I registered and spent time on the Renogy support forum this afternoon. There's not a lot of info, but I found the same complaints and nobody there can get their Rovers to go into float when in User mode either. Renogy support seems to assert that their default lithium settings are correct and don't see an issue with holding the battery at boost voltage indefinitely.

I'm going to give up on this and do one of the following:

• Only do attended charging of the crate system so I can manually terminate charging like I do with my jump starter system
• Replace the Rover with a Victron if I can find a reasonably priced used one

I'm calling this case closed. I believe it's a lost cause.

 

[SolarShed]

Thanks, @Bob142 for doing some leg work on this.

I started to look at other charge controllers to see what they use/do for Li batteries, but then I stopped. Victron definitely has a float in their Li charge profile (and its available in all their manuals) and as we know, Renogy does not have a float for their Li profile. Even Renogy's newest charge controllers (the Rover Elites), have the same charge profiles. The fact that we can't get USER to float a Li battery, may not be a bad thing unless lithium batteries need a float.

I was looking at Outback's documentation, but was unable to find what they would use for Li, are there other companies out there? I'm sure they are and I want to determine if Renogy the only company that does this and if they are going Rogue.

When I had my lead acid battery, definitely I know it floated, but as you stated, its not USER mode.

I'm ok with my Lithium battery being constantly boosted at a lower voltage (14.0 max), because if you think about it, I believe that's how lithium batteries are charged in devices like your phone, computer etc. for example, it just hits 100% and stays there until you unplug it.

Any thoughts?

 

[SolarShed]

Wondering if I should change the profile to this:

High Voltage Disconnect: 14.2
Charge Voltage Limit: 14.0
Equalize: 13.8
Boost: 13.8
Float: 13.8

All else the same.