diy solar

diy solar

Valence U27-12XP red LED flashes every five seconds.

J

JacoTaco

New Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2020
Messages
18
Hey maybe you can help me out please? I have one of the valence batteries like yours. I’ve had it for about 4 months and it’s been working fine. Until now. I have it installed in my truck, in the bed. It’s enclosed in a camper shell and weather tight. I charge it with a Renogy Rover 20 amp MPPT with two 100 watt panels. I have two fridge/freezer DC compressor coolers running 24/7. Usually I park my truck in it’s normal spot where it gets great sunlight daily and according to renogy software I get 60-70 ah a day. So everything should be fine. But recently we got our 2nd vehicle back from the shop and my wife took my parking spot. So Ive been parked in the shade. This morning I checked on my coolers and they weren’t running. My inline battery meter was showing 10.8 volts and the battery was blinking red every five seconds. I disconnected the load side of the battery and hit the road. I was in a hurry to get to the airport and didn’t have time to trouble shoot things. While driving I monitored the Rover and the battery voltage rose to 13v in about 45 minutes of 180watt charging from the Rover.

When I got home the battery was still blinking red with 13 volts and I started googling. I can’t find ANYTHING about the red LED accept for a different blink pattern, not once every five seconds. I’ve since removed the battery from the truck and it sits with an open circuit on my garage floor. I’ll note that it was hot today, about 103F. So maybe it was hotter in the camper shell although the Renogy temp sensor I have placed on the side of the battery never got above 40C.
Any input would be greatly appreciated. Is my battery toast? I hope not :/
 
One of mine did that, I forgot to remove the inverter off the battery over a weekend (still draws power even when inverter isn't running anything and just ON), and arrived on a Monday to find blinking red light. I didn't even bother to measure, and immediately threw on the charger (in my case a NOCO Genius 10 AMP) and fully charged it up. Went right back to green light and full power, so I was relieved. I do recall (this was a few months ago) checking in software and seeing the new 'low cutoff' figure that was hit during that episode, but it appears to have minimal if any effect on the battery as a whole. Now I'm getting more serious about Inverters with configurable LVD, which seem to be few.
 
I had one of mine hit the LV cutoff and turned the light red. Put it on the charger and it charged fine. I had the software hooked up during the charge. I watched it for a little while, didn't see anything worrisome so went on to do other things for 40 minutes. Came back and the green light was now back on, so all is well. Wasn't sure if it was just the charge that reset the light or having the software connected. Fuzzmunky415 notes that just charging reset the light, so now we know. Also now only buying inverters with adjustable LVD. I'm finding that a setting of 12.5v works pretty well. At that voltage, I'm right around 15-20% SOC, so I could press further if needed in an emergency. During my test runs with my 21cf fridge/freezer, the cells were within 6mv of each other the entire time (18 hours)
 
fuzzmunky415 said:
One of mine did that, I forgot to remove the inverter off the battery over a weekend (still draws power even when inverter isn't running anything and just ON), and arrived on a Monday to find blinking red light. I didn't even bother to measure, and immediately threw on the charger (in my case a NOCO Genius 10 AMP) and fully charged it up. Went right back to green light and full power, so I was relieved. I do recall (this was a few months ago) checking in software and seeing the new 'low cutoff' figure that was hit during that episode, but it appears to have minimal if any effect on the battery as a whole. Now I'm getting more serious about Inverters with configurable LVD, which seem to be few.
Click to expand...
I use the NOCO Genious10 10 as well. After some advice last night I threw the charger on it and I woke to that nice little green flashing light again.

Ive got the adapters coming from amazon and will be downloading the software as soon as I get home.
 
FWIW -- it is right here in the user manual for these batteries:

redBlink.JPG
Just need to get all cells back up to 3.3V -- or assuming they're relatively balanced -- about 13.2V. I'm glad this is the case -- I had a red dead battery and definitely didn't give it the .5A charge treatment to get it back to Green.

Got it on the 5A charger now -- hopefully I wake up to a green LED!!
 
Well apparently it isn't that simple -- my charger ran through an entire cycle and the battery is still blinking red. It definitely went above 13.2V -- even took the boost charge at 14.4V.

I really hope my battery isn't locked -- or that I have to wait until it goes completely dead again to try the <.5A charge -- especially since it is seemingly fully charged (that could take months or even years at open circuit).

Getting some hardware in the mail next week so I can connect to the BMS to view individual cell voltage -- perhaps one is just dead? Would be a huge bummer since when I got this battery it was blinking green when I bought it and I genuinely have done nothing with it since then -- it sat in my house for three months.

Anyhoo -- seems weird.. but I guess reading the BMS will let me know if it was a temperature or cell voltage event as opposed to a over discharge.
 
WinnieVan said:
Well apparently it isn't that simple -- my charger ran through an entire cycle and the battery is still blinking red. It definitely went above 13.2V -- even took the boost charge at 14.4V.

I really hope my battery isn't locked -- or that I have to wait until it goes completely dead again to try the <.5A charge -- especially since it is seemingly fully charged (that could take months or even years at open circuit).

Getting some hardware in the mail next week so I can connect to the BMS to view individual cell voltage -- perhaps one is just dead? Would be a huge bummer since when I got this battery it was blinking green when I bought it and I genuinely have done nothing with it since then -- it sat in my house for three months.

Anyhoo -- seems weird.. but I guess reading the BMS will let me know if it was a temperature or cell voltage event as opposed to a over discharge.
Click to expand...
Let me know how that goes please, the red light came back for me last night and I’m not sure why
 
I'd recommend charging it at .5A -- that's the "factory way" to get it out of red... I'm guessing they assume you are charging this battery while on a BMS -- so I'd imagine some logic might not be internal and needs to be triggered by the U-BMS?

This is what we get for messing with propreitary technology -- can't figure it out!!

Sucks so much of their troubleshooting is -- "Call Us"...
 
Well -- I hooked mine up and it looks like it has a dead cell... what a huge bummer....

It does appear it is attempting to "cell balance", which is promising -- so maybe I'll let it charge for awhile while plugged in and see if it can awaken that cell. I doubt it though.

JaclTaco -- if you're around PDX -- I'd happily bring by my laptop and plug your battery in -- we can see what is happening -- hope yours is not like mine.

As an aside -- does anyone know what the blue shading around the cell voltages means? Does it mean those cells are or aren't charging? Curious because the low cell isn't shaded and the higher cells are...
 

Attachments

  • valence2.png
    valence2.png
    262.6 KB · Views: 66
  • valence1.png
    valence1.png
    290.2 KB · Views: 58
I actually got mine sorted out. I made the adapter and watched the cell balancing. Bummer about the dead cell.
 
Nicely done -- I put mine on a power supply at 13.6V and it seems the dead cell is taking a charge. Fingers crossed it works out!!
 
Good stuff. I think the blue shade has something to do with the balancing? I know that my battery only had active balancing for a small fraction of the time through its entire charge. The cells kept the spread below 10 all the way up to the final minutes of charge. I had to disconnect the charger and shelf it. I’m still trying to figure out why it failed.
 
I think you're correct -- good catch!

I may need to discharge and recharge this battery to get it to work -- but I'm happy that cell isn't just sitting at <1V now. My guess is I can salvage it -- who knows though -- I'll cycle it a couple times while connected to the PC -- assuming I can get it working.
 
The min cell voltage of 283 is concerning. Too bad you can’t charge each cell separately.
 
Yeah -- I suppose I could open it up and try that way -- but... that's a bit scary sounding...:confused:
 
you can open the side cover and figure out which cell is dead. And if the cell is dead, you’ll have to open the case anyways. Maybe you can find the same batteries and rebuild that cell? otherwise you’re stuck with a dead battery...
 
Well -- I'll wait to see... for now, I'll see if I can get this cell up in another way... my guess is this battery is dead -- so if I start from there, I can't be let down :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

C
Help Diagnosing 12V Parallel Valence U27-12XP Bank
Replies
2
Views
266
Cloroxbottle
C
A
Neey 10A balancer red LED flashing?
2
Replies
29
Views
902
AshleyL
A
A
REnogy 3000W inverter red light
Replies
6
Views
340
JamesRich
J
NorthTown2022
EBC-40L only worked for 20 seconds?
Replies
5
Views
302
NorthTown2022
NorthTown2022
F
JK BMS - Wake up from sleep takes ~90 seconds?
Replies
0
Views
130
fstop
F
Back
Top