Swapped out MPPT and don‘t get any W or A (but get V)

[Cat-Sam]

So after replacing my MMPT to a Victron 150/45 to replace my previous 100/50, this as I’d increased my panels, but having set everything up i get volts but now watts or amps ?



So no charge going to my batteries it seems.

Nice bright sunny day here in Copenhagen so thought it worth having the solar running but obviously I’ve made a mistake somewhere…..

I did make sure to connect in the right order, battery terminals and then PV terminals. Ran a MM over the terminals and get the same result as above so what‘s wrong ?

 

[Bluedog225]

Check charging settings?

 

[BentleyJ]

The charge controller is in absorption mode, what is the voltage setting? The battery is showing 14.2V, its fully charged already.

 

[Brucey]

Check polarity of your PV cables.

 

[mikefitz]

Put a load on the battery. It could have reached fully charged, and if lithium, the BMS may have detected high cell volts and disabled the charge parh.
What is the Voc of the panels, and how many in series? The Input volts seem high, and may not leave enough margin for cold weather.

 

[Cat-Sam]

The charge controller is in absorption mode, what is the voltage setting? The battery is showing 14.2V, its fully charged already.

On the Victron BMV 702 it shows the batteries at 80% and depleting and certainly not recharging. The load on it is small.

 

[Cat-Sam]

Put a load on the battery. It could have reached fully charged, and if lithium, the BMS may have detected high cell volts and disabled the charge parh.
What is the Voc of the panels, and how many in series? The Input volts seem high, and may not leave enough margin for cold weather.

Yes it‘s lithium, 3 x 100ah (Victron)

 

[Cat-Sam]

Check polarity of your PV cables.

Checked that, and all OK.

 

[Cat-Sam]

Here the battery settings:

 

[McKravitts]

Try Dumbing it down. Set to standard lithium. Sometimes smart chargers and BMS's don't get along well.

 

[GXMnow]

Yes, the charge controller is set to 14.2 volts so it has gone to absorption mode. Once the batteries discharge a bit, you will see current again.

You could change it to standard lithium and push it a bit higher, but for practical purposes, the charge controller is right, 3.55 volts per cell is fully charged.

 

[McKravitts]

Yes, the charge controller is set to 14.2 volts so it has gone to absorption mode. Once the batteries discharge a bit, you will see current again.

You could change it to standard lithium and push it a bit higher, but for practical purposes, the charge controller is right, 3.55 volts per cell is fully charged.

Fully charged should report float mode (13.5). If it's in absorption there should be a small current.
There may be a timer on the absorption that hasn't timed out yet and the battery is fully charged.
The BMV might be confused because the batteries haven't had a recharge cycle since he upgarded.

 

[Cat-Sam]

So should i leave this as is and see how things develop over the next days ?

Sun looks good although we‘ll be driving (RV) and the B2B will kick in as soon as we start up in the morning. As I’ve sat all day starting with 100% on the Victron BMV and only seen that steadily deplete (now reading 74%) and so far I’ve not seen any solar going in to the batteries

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Try Dumbing it down. Set to standard lithium. Sometimes smart chargers and BMS's don't get along well.

You could change it to standard lithium and push it a bit higher, but for practical purposes, the charge controller is right, 3.55 volts per cell is fully charged.

Victron only has ONE LFP setting called "Smart Lithium (LiFePO4)" and it has nothing to do with smart chargers or BMSs. By selecting this, it appropriately sets various other parameters appropriate for Lithium. Regardless of the name, this is "standard lithium."

You can also change the voltage settings at will after selecting this preset.

@Cat-Sam

14.17 = 14.2, so charger has nothing to do and is sending 0A.

Are you 10000000% certain you have not bypassed the shunt with your charger, i.e., all charges and loads are on the "system" side of the shunt, and ONLY the battery (-) terminal is connected to the battery side of the shunt with NO other connections to the (-) battery terminal?

WHAT BMS ARE YOU USING?

 

[Cat-Sam]

Victron only has ONE LFP setting called "Smart Lithium (LiFePO4)" and it has nothing to do with smart chargers or BMSs. By selecting this, it appropriately sets various other parameters appropriate for Lithium. Regardless of the name, this is "standard lithium."

You can also change the voltage settings at will after selecting this preset.

@Cat-Sam

14.17 = 14.2, so charger has nothing to do and is sending 0A.

Are you 10000000% certain you have not bypassed the shunt with your charger, i.e., all charges and loads are on the "system" side of the shunt, and ONLY the battery (-) terminal is connected to the battery side of the shunt with NO other connections to the (-) battery terminal?

WHAT BMS ARE YOU USING?

Yes correct, i could only find the “smart lithium“ option in the drop down, there was no “standard lithium“

In terms of what i have done: it was to add to more PV panels which in turn then needed a more powerful MPPT and so i swapped the existing 100/50 to the new 150/45, cable for cable, nothing else was touched. When I originally installed the 2 additional PV panels i did fry the 100/50 (most likely) as it was a cold morning and I’m pretty sure it was over voltage, least i got that warning (lesson learnt). Could that have anything to do with it perhaps ?

Re the BMS it‘s also Victron 10R - 05 4003

 

[Suijkerbuijk]

Your bms is the problem.
It tell you its 80% but its really a 100 % .

I have the same problem with it.
The float its to low you have to set it to 14 volts.
Than you see a stupid jump from 80 to 100% on the bms bluetooth
Wel nothing is charge
It happens sometimes
That the bms is just way of with a calculation.
After that you can set it back to 13.8volt float .
And than the problem is gone. (Or lower of you wish for it )

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Yes correct, i could only find the “smart lithium“ option in the drop down, there was no “standard lithium“

In terms of what i have done: it was to add to more PV panels which in turn then needed a more powerful MPPT and so i swapped the existing 100/50 to the new 150/45, cable for cable, nothing else was touched. When I originally installed the 2 additional PV panels i did fry the 100/50 (most likely) as it was a cold morning and I’m pretty sure it was over voltage, least i got that warning (lesson learnt). Could that have anything to do with it perhaps ?

Re the BMS it‘s also Victron 10R - 05 4003

150/45 is actually a lower power MPPT. 150 means 150Voc. 45 means 45A out to the battery.

The 150/45 can only output 650W to a 12V system.
The 100/50 can output 700W to a 12V system.

You could likely have added panels in parallel rather than series and retained your old controller. Furthermore, if you have more than 650W on your 150/45, you could split panels from it and connect them to the 100/50 and fully capture all your solar.

Are you using these?

Lithium SuperPack 12,8V & 25,6V - Victron Energy

The SuperPack batteries are extremely easy to install. The internal switch will disconnect the battery in case of over discharge. Find a dealer nearby.

www.victronenergy.com

If so, an external BMS is not needed.

How is the 10R - 05 4003 connected to the system?

 

[Starex]

So the Victorian smart battery is not really smart?
It just has a cable that can be connected to an external brain?

 

[sunshine_eggo]

So the Victorian smart battery is not really smart?
It just has a cable that can be connected to an external brain?

Depends on your perspective. Their original smart lithium line allows you to select the BMS that works best for your system. Some value that flexibility.

The one I linked has an integral BMS.

 

[McKravitts]

So the Victorian smart battery is not really smart?
It just has a cable that can be connected to an external brain?

Are the brains (BMS's) also from the victorian age?

 

[Starex]

Can’t be dumber than my phone. It changed victim (eviction) victor eviction. It’s doing it again but I hope you get the picture.

 

[GXMnow]

If you still have decent sun today, and you want to test this out, here is one safe option.

Turn off the disconnect from the solar panels. Then also turn off the disconnect between the charge controller and the batteries. This will make it think it is a new day when you turn it back on.

Turn on a load and watch the battery voltage. When the battery drops below 14.1 volts, turn on the battery side disconnect from the charge controller. Make sure you can connect to it and see that it is showing no solar power coming in, and the battery voltage is under 14.2. Leave the load on so the voltage does not rebound. Then turn on the disconnect between the solar panels and the charge controller. Then you should see the power ramp up in Bulk mode until the battery hits 14.2 volts again. If that does not happen, then something is wrong with the system.

 

[mikefitz]

In terms of what i have done: it was to add to more PV panels which in turn then needed a more powerful MPPT

From an earlier post you had 4 series panels, Voc 25 and 26 volts feeding the 100/50 and having issues, thus changed to a 150/45 to handle the higher volts. If its still the 440 watts of solar that's well within the controller limitations, maximum output on a RV will be less than 30 amps.
To evaluate that the panel string is working, disconnect from the controller and measure Isc, short circuit current. Use a meter set to measure current on the 10 amp range, expect 3 to 5 amps.
What type of panels are on the roof, if MC4 connectors check for contamination, some of the lower cost panels use poor quality connections. It's possible to measure a voltage but have no current flow on load, hence the short current test.

 

[pollenface]

14.17v is still good

Using "smart lithium" you still have 2hrs of absorption.