Trophy Batteries

[MeadMountain]

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!

We are having the same issue. Thanks for suggesting removing the ethernet cables -- I will try that.

 

[mvonw]

We are having the same issue. Thanks for suggesting removing the ethernet cables -- I will try that.

Let me know how that works out. I'd be curious if that is a repeatable issue.

 

[MeadMountain]

Let me know how that works out. I'd be curious if that is a repeatable issue.

I will definitely update. I expect it'll take several days as it did in your case, especially since we'll not have much sun for several days.

 

[RV10flyer]

I can't charge over 55.7V or Cell#10 shuts it down on OVP. Typical grade B cells and a Seplos BMS that does not control charge/discharge current properly. I have 9 other diy batteries with various BMS brands and none have these current restriction issues. Comms never worked with my Sol-Ark 12K's.

 

[mvonw]

I can't charge over 55.7V or Cell#10 shuts it down on OVP. Typical grade B cells and a Seplos BMS that does not control charge/discharge current properly. I have 9 other diy batteries with various BMS brands and none have these current restriction issues. Comms never worked with my Sol-Ark 12K's.

Mine seem to charge fine to 56V as a bank of 6. Time will tell. I honestly need to give these a year to know if they were a good purchase or not. By then, there will probably be more stability in the market for off the shelf batteries.

 

[SkyMo]

I will definitely update. I expect it'll take several days as it did in your case, especially since we'll not have much sun for several days.

Did it help?

 

[MeadMountain]

Did it help?

I don't know yet. I had to have surgery so I haven't stayed on top of the batteries very well this week. They were nearly all fully charged when I checked in on them tonight so I'm hoping to pull together useful data the next several days.

 

[mvonw]

I don't know yet. I had to have surgery so I haven't stayed on top of the batteries very well this week. They were nearly all fully charged when I checked in on them tonight so I'm hoping to pull together useful data the next several days.

Hope its nothing serious and you recover quickly.

 

[MeadMountain]

Hope its nothing serious and you recover quickly.

Thank you. FWIW, it's not looking promising so far. After being fully charged last night, this morning they had SOC ranging from 46% to 99%. We keep finding that if the batteries reach a full charge, some of them go to sleep and then won't wake up to participate in sharing the load as draws are needed. Last night we had to manually "wake up" 6 of them, and this afternoon it happened again with 2 more.

I'm extremely frustrated at this point and not sure what we need to do, or if there is anything we can do, to get the batteries to charge and discharge evenly and to not randomly stop participating in carrying the house load. This wildly huge variance in SOC can't be good for the batteries' long-term longevity, and it's also frustrating on just a daily basis because we can't realistically figure out what % of battery life we have left in the bank without taking out a calculator to add them all up and divide for the average.

We had one known bad battery out of the 16 installed and the replacement is supposed to be here Tuesday, so we'll top balance them yet again then and see if they can start cooperating, but I'm not hopeful.

I feel like this is probably a BMS problem but I don't know that for certain.

 

[niktak11]

Thank you. FWIW, it's not looking promising so far. After being fully charged last night, this morning they had SOC ranging from 46% to 99%. We keep finding that if the batteries reach a full charge, some of them to to sleep and then won't wake up to participate in sharing the load as draws are needed. Last night we had to manually "wake up" 6 of them, and this afternoon it happened again with 2 more.

I'm extremely frustrated at this point and not sure what we need to do, or if there is anything we can do, to get the batteries to charge and discharge evenly and to not randomly stop participating in carrying the house load. This wildly huge variance in SOC can't be good for the batteries' long-term longevity, and it's also frustrating on just a daily basis because we can't realistically figure out what % of battery life we have left in the bank without taking out a calculator to add them all up and divide for the average.

We had one known bad battery out of the 16 installed and the replacement is supposed to be here Tuesday, so we'll top balance them yet again then and see if they can start cooperating, but I'm not hopeful.

I feel like this is probably a BMS problem but I don't know that for certain.

Are the ones going to sleep hitting overvoltage protection?

 

[MeadMountain]

Are the ones going to sleep hitting overvoltage protection?

Yes. To clarify, it makes sense for them to stop charging when full, of course. What doesn't make sense is that they will then not resume participating in carrying the loads until we discover the problem and manually reset them.

 

[mvonw]

Thank you. FWIW, it's not looking promising so far. After being fully charged last night, this morning they had SOC ranging from 46% to 99%. We keep finding that if the batteries reach a full charge, some of them go to sleep and then won't wake up to participate in sharing the load as draws are needed. Last night we had to manually "wake up" 6 of them, and this afternoon it happened again with 2 more.

I'm extremely frustrated at this point and not sure what we need to do, or if there is anything we can do, to get the batteries to charge and discharge evenly and to not randomly stop participating in carrying the house load. This wildly huge variance in SOC can't be good for the batteries' long-term longevity, and it's also frustrating on just a daily basis because we can't realistically figure out what % of battery life we have left in the bank without taking out a calculator to add them all up and divide for the average.

We had one known bad battery out of the 16 installed and the replacement is supposed to be here Tuesday, so we'll top balance them yet again then and see if they can start cooperating, but I'm not hopeful.

I feel like this is probably a BMS problem but I don't know that for certain.

What charge controller/inverter do you have? I have Sol Ark 12K and use a setting on it called “Activate Battery” that sends a small charge to the batteries to wake them up. When I first got my batteries, I attempted to charge them with an AIMS 48volt charger to test that they would all take a charge and charge and charge to 100%. The AIMS charger would not always charge unless I reset the BMS, but if I used another generic 48volt charger I have, it worked fine. I’m not at all sure what this all does, I just know that my batteries charge up and down very evenly, usually with 1 or 2% SOC, and eventually always equalizing at 100%.

 

[MeadMountain]

What charge controller/inverter do you have? I have Sol Ark 12K and use a setting on it called “Activate Battery” that sends a small charge to the batteries to wake them up. When I first got my batteries, I attempted to charge them with an AIMS 48volt charger to test that they would all take a charge and charge and charge to 100%. The AIMS charger would not always charge unless I reset the BMS, but if I used another generic 48volt charger I have, it worked fine. I’m not at all sure what this all does, I just know that my batteries charge up and down very evenly, usually with 1 or 2% SOC, and eventually always equalizing at 100%.

We use 2 Xantrex XW6048-120/240-60 inverters and a Xantrex XW-MPPT60-150 solar charge controller.

 

[mvonw]

We use 2 Xantrex XW6048-120/240-60 inverters and a Xantrex XW-MPPT60-150 solar charge controller.

Is this a total DIY install? I'd contact the installer or Schneider first.

I use top quality 4/0 cables for all DC connection and equal length cable with stout busbars. I also make double sure my crimps are solid and everything is tight .

I went with Sol ark because it seems they are much more diy (support and install) friendly. So far it's been flawless

 

[mvonw]

You guys jinxed me. Just this week my battery started going out of balance significantly with two batteries going to 0 and the rest at 90%. I think this was because I started using heavier loads. I don't know if this is typical with other batteries in parallel like this or not. Or if it's a problem with this particular battery. I expected it's probably the later from your reports.

 

[MeadMountain]

Is this a total DIY install? I'd contact the installer or Schneider first.

I use top quality 4/0 cables for all DC connection and equal length cable with stout busbars. I also make double sure my crimps are solid and everything is tight .

I went with Sol ark because it seems they are much more diy (support and install) friendly. So far it's been flawless

It started out as a professionally installed system in 2008 using a lead acid battery bank. The DIY came into play when our batteries reached the end of their lifespan and our installer was several years into being mostly unresponsive to anything.

Dan from Trophy Batteries knew what we had for pre-existing equipment before we bought the batteries and said it would work. He also personally assisted with the installation of this battery bank and oversaw all the connections, so I don't think that's the problem. Schneider has also been contacted but had no solutions.

If it were just me, I'd be more inclined to think it's a problem on our end, but with the same issues arising for other users, I'm pretty convinced it's the batteries.

 

[MeadMountain]

You guys jinxed me. Just this week my battery started going out of balance significantly with two batteries going to 0 and the rest at 90%. I think this was because I started using heavier loads. I don't know if this is typical with other batteries in parallel like this or not. Or if it's a problem with this particular battery. I expected it's probably the later from your reports.

Well, crud. That is not encouraging to hear.

 

[mvonw]

Well, crud. That is not encouraging to hear.

Yeah. Seems like Dan needs to address this.

 

[Mrgulabull]

Based on a few months of use now, and lots of monitoring, I’m fairly certain these issues are simply a matter of the BMS incorrectly reporting the SOC.

Background - I have 3 of the 105ah 48v EVE batteries in my bank along with a couple other LFP batteries I bought a few years ago.

I’ve been noticing the 3 Trophy batteries report wildly different SOCs from each other as well as my Victron Smart Shunt. Today for instance, one battery read 40%, another 60%, and another read 66%. Meanwhile my Victron Smart Shunt was reporting the entire array had just hit 100%! This was at 55v, so it should have been very close to full.

I closely watched the batteries over the next few minutes as the system voltage peaked at 56.5v. Suddenly, all 3 trophy batteries jumped to 98% SOC, almost perfectly matched to each other with a deviation of only .01%.

So what to take away from this? I’ll just completely ignore what the trophy BMS reports for SOC and trust the Victron Smart Shunt instead. As long as the voltages are all close to equal I think we’re safe to assume they are in fact balanced.

I took a few videos of this but they’re far too big to upload here. I emailed Dan about this and included the video documentation. I’ll report back here if I hear anything.

 

[mvonw]

Th

Based on a few months of use now, and lots of monitoring, I’m fairly certain these issues are simply a matter of the BMS incorrectly reporting the SOC.

Background - I have 3 of the 105ah 48v EVE batteries in my bank along with a couple other LFP batteries I bought a few years ago.

I’ve been noticing the 3 Trophy batteries report wildly different SOCs from each other as well as my Victron Smart Shunt. Today for instance, one battery read 40%, another 60%, and another read 66%. Meanwhile my Victron Smart Shunt was reporting the entire array had just hit 100%! This was at 55v, so it should have been very close to full.

I closely watched the batteries over the next few minutes as the system voltage peaked at 56.5v. Suddenly, all 3 trophy batteries jumped to 98% SOC, almost perfectly matched to each other with a deviation of only .01%.

So what to take away from this? I’ll just completely ignore what the trophy BMS reports for SOC and trust the Victron Smart Shunt instead. As long as the voltages are all close to equal I think we’re safe to assume they are in fact balanced.

I took a few videos of this but they’re far too big to upload here. I emailed Dan about this and included the video documentation. I’ll report back here if I hear anything.

Thank you for posting that info. That’s consistent with what I’ve been seeing as reported by my Sol Ark inverter, which effecting acts like a monitoring shunt. Under light loads, my batteries all float around the same reported SOC on the Trophy display, but under heavy, prolonged loads, I will see different batteries in the bank go to zero or much lower than the others report at 100% all while the inverter SOC estimates are much different. Clearly seems the BMS have some significant issues and were not tested in real world, prolonged way. Hope it can be fixed with firmware, since we all need some way of reliably knowing the true SOC.. I truly hate being a product tester