Trophy Batteries

[SkyMo]

The reason I went with these was that they seem pretty well built and have good cells. I was thinking worst case I could just swap out the BMS for one that works well (so far I haven't found one I trust) and have a really good system. Or perhaps get a firmware upgrade for this one.

Mine stayed fairly balanced until I started putting real world loads against them. Do you have your batteries setup with the master/slave cable and settings?

 

[SkyMo]

As a follow up, are there BMS's out there that are rock solid? The communication part is so very important to me. I need to be able to monitor every aspect of these as they are powering a place that is very remote and hard to get to. It's like having a set of batteries on Mars. Systems just have to work.

 

[mvonw]

As a follow up, are there BMS's out there that are rock solid? The communication part is so very important to me. I need to be able to monitor every aspect of these as they are powering a place that is very remote and hard to get to. It's like having a set of batteries on Mars. Systems just have to work.

I don't have mine connected with the comm ports at all. Just connected electrically in parallel via big cables of equal length and bus bars. Remote monitoring isn't critical for me, although I'd love to have it. I can monitor it somewhat through my SolArk. This week I plan to up the load on mine and I'll find out if I have a problem, perhaps. All I really care about is that I can get full rated capacity and they will recharge fully via solar. If a battery lags, I'm not going to sweat it. That's why I bought more than I need. I only bought trophy because they were the only ones with built in heaters, which IS important to me. If these don't work, I'll just bite the bullet and buy some that are certified to work with my Solark (at 2x the cost). Like all things in life, you get what you pay for.....

I'm sorry you're having such a frustrating experience!

 

[mvonw]

Just an update. I finally got my 6 Trophy 110ah batts connected to the Sol Ark 12k/generator and a temporary panel array (off grid) and everything tested our flawlessly for the last 5 days running my deep well (500 ft, 1hp) pump, TV, starlink, routers, cameras, espresso machine. I purposely tried to discharge the battery down and recharge it to see how each battery performed. All cycled evenly up and down as reported by the BMS/displays on each battery. Never were they more than 1% discrepancy in SOC between them. I was actually surprised how consistently they charged/discharged. I have no comms connected either to batteries or inverter..
I did use very heavy cable, very large bars, crimped carefully, and tightened everything very tight. So far, it’s a dream setup for my off grid cabin.

 

[SkyMo]

My solar charge controller doesn't have a default for Lithium Batteries, it's "user specified". What values should I use and/or are these reasonable for a Trophy?

 

[mvonw]

I assume you have already seen the information on this page:

Info | Trophy Battery

About Trophy Batteries We ship within the United States and Internationally We will ship our Trophy Batteries internationally.We will prepare a free, no obligation, custom shipping quote for you.Our shipping quotes are normally DDP, Delivery, Duty Paid. Other terms are available upon requestWith ...

trophybattery.com

Under the “ Battery Charging…. “ rollout? My SolArk setting were listed there, I used those ranges a guide. I would write Dan and ask him what setting for your charge controller.

I don’t know if there is such a thing as a generic lithium battery profile. It’s definitely important to get the high/low voltage cutoffs set to reasonable values and make sure the charging amps are set appropriately for the size battery bank you have. I have 6 Trophy 110AH batts, and I set my Sol Ark max charge rate to 125 amps, but that would be too much if you you had a smaller number of batteries.
My understanding is that the temperature compensation isn’t relevant for LiFEPO4 batteries, only lead acid. The BMS handle the temperature.

BTW, my Trophy batteries have been flawless.

 

[SkyMo]

I didn't see those settings, I did get the battery manual and used those as best as I could translate. I assume that the BMS takes care of most of that. Unlike yours, my batteries do not draw down evenly and do not charge equally. Like I noted above, they all go to a 1/4 thick copper busbar with equal length cables. Since they are equal I can move the cables around and the battery state stays the same. Fast cycle batteries stay that way and the battery that stays at 97% stays there.

I am not too worried as I rarely drop below 80%.

 

[mvonw]

You have mixed provenance batteries, correct? Everyone I have talked to (actually know) who have mixed sets have issues with unbalanced charging/discharging.

 

[SkyMo]

No, I have four Trophy Batteries all purchased at the same time. I am thinking my charging voltage may be too low? Float charging is 55.20 volts.

 

[mvonw]

No, I have four Trophy Batteries all purchased at the same time. I am thinking my charging voltage may be too low? Float charging is 55.20 volts.

My float stage is set at 54v per Trophy's recommendation, so yours might be a bit high, if anything. One thing to note, I temporarily tried to daisy chain my batteries through the com port to try to get the software to read the bank, and my batteries immediately started going out of balance. It took several days after I pulled out the ethernet cables for the batteries to equalize. I'm not going to try that again!


I currently have very small, temporary solar array (700w) , so I'm not pushing very many amps into my batteries quickly.
Just got this erected to have some real amps pushed to that that battery...

 

[SkyMo]

How far is your run from the panels to the batteries? Mine is 175', not that it has anything to do with my battery issue, but the cable costs were not something I am super happy about...

I do not have them all interconnected, each one is independent.

 

[houseofancients]

As a follow up, are there BMS's out there that are rock solid? The communication part is so very important to me. I need to be able to monitor every aspect of these as they are powering a place that is very remote and hard to get to. It's like having a set of batteries on Mars. Systems just have to work.

you could check out the seplos ones, so far they have been rock solid for me , and to have supported and tested comms to inverters.
there is a topic here on them..

I've been using their RS485 200A version with my voltronic inverters with great success, and i know there folks using the with Deye/Sunsynks and victron gear

 

[mvonw]

How far is your run from the panels to the batteries? Mine is 175', not that it has anything to do with my battery issue, but the cable costs were not something I am super happy about...

I do not have them all interconnected, each one is independent.

Yeah, my run is 300ft.. I have four strings, so the cable cost is huge I've about $10k in wire and conduit on this project. Way more than I anticipated. PVC Conduit is crazy now too...

 

[mvonw]

you could check out the seplos ones, so far they have been rock solid for me , and to have supported and tested comms to inverters.
there is a topic here on them..

I've been using their RS485 200A version with my voltronic inverters with great success, and i know there folks using the with Deye/Sunsynks and victron gear

Yeah, I considered those. The trophy batteries are the only ones (server rack format) with heaters built in. I regularly get to -20F. My bank is in an unheated, but super well insulated shed. A lot of folks who live in warmer climes really don’t understand the challenges of extreme, prolonged cold…

 

[SkyMo]

I'm the same, I have to deal with very cold weather as well. I considered building an underground battery bunker, that might be my next move. I just wish these batteries behaved better, I lose faith in them when one sits at 92% and the others are down in the 60% range. And now a couple do not want to charge fully, they get to 90% and then stop charging.

 

[mvonw]

Do you have the batteries connected via the communication ports? I would not have much confidence either, if mine behaved as you described.
I accepted that buying from a new company with a new product was a risk. I just hope in a few years, I don’t have to replace these.

What does Dan say about your charging balancing between packs problem?

 

[SkyMo]

After lots of photo's of every part of my system he was at a loss and said basically to not worry about it. He did want me to swap cables around again but I only get down to where its all at every month or so. I monitor everything remote. I'll get down there in a couple weeks and work on it some more.

 

[mvonw]

Oh, that would be frustrating. All I know it that the second I connected comms between my batteries, I started getting imbalance issues just like you are reporting, so I I just disconnected them.

 

[SkyMo]

At first, Dan had me connect them all up, I wonder if the BMS is somehow confused. Perhaps on the next trip I will reset them (power of for a bit) and then charge them one by one.

 

[mvonw]

I think there is something wonky with the BMS. I charged each of mine up to 100% with an ac 48 volt charger before I connected mine to my Sol Ark. Worth a try. When you are there next, I would disconnect all cables and see if they balance out. I know you really like the comms, but perhaps it’s just not to be with these batteries….