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Victron Orion DC-DC charger not charging at full output?

sduser

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I recently built a 210Ah battery system for my vehicle using 105Ah EVE cells. I am using a Victron Orion-Tr Smart Isolated 12/12-18 charger and SmartShunt.

Now that I am testing the system, I notice the charger is not producing its rated output, even in bulk charge phase. The charger is rated for 220W (~18A @ 12.8V nominal) however I rarely see more than 10A of charge current while monitoring the shunt. I am using the default LiFePO4 profile in the configurations, and have setup the shunt for LiFePO4 appropriate values.

The charger is mounted about 2 feet from the battery. It is about a 20 foot run of 8ga wire from the vehicle starting battery to the charger and about a 2-3 foot run of 8ga wire from the charger to the aux battery.

Not sure what is going on but I am hoping someone may be able to take a look at the screenshots or setup and see anything amiss?
 

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Charger:
 

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Shunt:
 

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What loads are on the batteries? (Obviously, the Smart Shunt current is showing the charge current minus any loads). Does the Orion run hot? Does the Orion have more output when it's first turned on, in a cool state? If you were to first run your batteries down below 13.2V, what kind of charge currents would you see?
 
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Victron current ratings are usually at 25*C, anything above this and max current may be lower.

However I see some other possibilities (disclaimer I have no experience with this product or with troubleshooting alternator charging).

Where in the charge/discharge cycle are you in these screenshots? Could the charger be in float? Your smartshunt is showing the battery is 93% full.

I see the input voltage says 12.9V, isn't this a low input for alternator charging or am I mistaken? Looking at your settings I see that 12.9V is the 'engine shutdown voltage detection' and 12.8V appears to be he "input voltage lockout" limit.
 
What loads are on the batteries? (Obviously, the Smart Shunt current is showing the charge current minus any loads). Does the Orion run hot? Does the Orion have more output when it's first turned on, in a cool state? If you were to first run your batteries down below 13.2V, what kind of charge currents would you see?

No loads on the battery. The charger does feel warm while charging but I wouldn't say it runs hot. I can test it again after it cooled down for a bit.
 
Victron current ratings are usually at 25*C, anything above this and max current may be lower.

However I see some other possibilities (disclaimer I have no experience with this product or with troubleshooting alternator charging).

Where in the charge/discharge cycle are you in these screenshots? Could the charger be in float? Your smartshunt is showing the battery is 93% full.

I see the input voltage says 12.9V, isn't this a low input for alternator charging or am I mistaken? Looking at your settings I see that 12.9V is the 'engine shutdown voltage detection' and 12.8V appears to be he "input voltage lockout" limit.

Temps were very close to 25 C today, if anything slightly lower.

Charger is in Bulk phase so I would expect full output unless something is limiting it.

The SoC reported by the shunt is not accurate as it hasn't had a chance to synchronize. Ignore that number.

Vehicle was idling when I took those screenshots so voltage was lower. I do agree that is close to the shutdown voltage, but the charger clearly indicates it is charging. I can lower the shutdown voltage a bit more to keep it below the idle low voltage level. The input voltage lockout is 12.5V active / 12.8V release which is not in play here.
 
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Temps were very close to 25 C today, if anything slightly lower.

Charger is in Bulk phase so I would expect full output unless something is limiting it.

The SoC reported by the shunt is not accurate as it hasn't had a chance to synchronize. Ignore that number.

Vehicle was idling when I took those screenshots so voltage was lower. I do agree that is close to the shutdown voltage, but the charger clearly indicates it is charging. I can lower the shutdown voltage a bit more to keep it below the idle low voltage level. The input voltage lockout is 12.5V active / 12.8V release which is not in play here.
I've had the 30A version of your unit for nearly a year. It charges at 28-33A until it gets hot to the touch, at which time the current folds back. The lowest I've seen it was 16A on a very hot day. The Orion has inadequate cooling, in my opinion. If you're only seeing 8-10A output with the unit not hot to the touch (on the front of the blue case), then I suspect that something is wrong and you might contact Victron for a replacement.
 
Thanks for the replies. I will reset to default settings and do some more rigorous testing this weekend. The battery has a resting voltage of 13.34V (>90% SoC?) right now so maybe I'll discharge it some overnight.

Do the settings shown above at least look reasonable / correct?
 
I would be interested in charging current when you are actually driving the vehicle. Alternators are not able to deliver much power for long when the engine is idling (less airflow to cool the alternator).
 
I would be interested in charging current when you are actually driving the vehicle. Alternators are not able to deliver much power for long when the engine is idling (less airflow to cool the alternator).

Good point. I will test that. I hadn't considered the alternator being the issue, but I suppose it's possible. The alternator is rated at 180A (Toyota 5.7) so I would imagine it would handle standard vehicle loads plus 18A at idle no problem.
 
The power available at the 7-pin may be a lot less than the alternator's rating. Do you have a dedicated line run from the engine compartment to the trailer? Or are you using the 7-pin power?
 
The power available at the 7-pin may be a lot less than the alternator's rating. Do you have a dedicated line run from the engine compartment to the trailer? Or are you using the 7-pin power?

Dedicated positive and negative 8ga wire from the starting battery to charger. About a 20 foot run. This is all contained in the vehicle, no trailer.
 
I did a quick test by disabling low voltage lockout and engine detection and allowing it to charge for a few seconds without the engine running.

I was able to see full charger output looking at the shunt.

I need to dig a little deeper why I am seeing low output while the engine is running.
 

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I also need to figure out why the reported voltage is different between the charger and shunt.
 
I'm wondering whether the Orion is switching in and out of low voltage disconnects. In our case, we ran a wire directly from the starter battery terminal with #2 wire (w/MBRF fuse ). It's really important to have a stiff input supply to the Orion, with minimal wiring losses. With 10.8V input, it sounds like you either have a 1. weak starter battery, 2. wired to a point other than right at the battery, and/or 3. have excessive wiring losses ahead of the Orion. What's the voltage at the starter battery terminals, vs the input voltage at the Orion? It shouldn't differ more than about 0.2V.
 
I'm wondering whether the Orion is switching in and out of low voltage disconnects. In our case, we ran a wire directly from the starter battery terminal with #2 wire (w/MBRF fuse ). It's really important to have a stiff input supply to the Orion, with minimal wiring losses. With 10.8V input, it sounds like you either have a 1. weak starter battery, 2. wired to a point other than right at the battery, and/or 3. have excessive wiring losses ahead of the Orion. What's the voltage at the starter battery terminals, vs the input voltage at the Orion? It shouldn't differ more than about 0.2V.

The 10.8V was from the battery sag condition drawing 18A with the engine not running. After the charger was shut off the battery immediately recovered to 12.5V. With the engine running I am at 13.4A at the engine battery and 12.8 at the charger input while pulling 18A.

Not sure that 0.2V (1.5%) is practical. Is that what the Victron wants? With a 13.4V source, 20A and 25 foot run, voltage calculator shows 12.8V with 8ga wire (5%), 13V with 6ga wire (3%) and 13.15V with 4ga wire (2%).
 
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