Voltage spike read on SCC, inverter shutoff, voltage drop and inverter back on

[acdoctor]

I helped a guy a couple of weeks ago with very similar scenario. Factory packs, 1 pack bms was disconnecting in varying degrees from out of balance and 1 very high cell. Lots of back and forth I would skip to the last few pages.

Sudden battery voltage drop, only when epever connected

Recently switched from a 40amp BN series to the 8415 AN on Thursday night after my 40amp was possibly borked due to user error. My current setup is four 320w panels (2s2p), the Tracer AN 80 amp mppt, two 100ah SOK batteries in series for 24v, and a 2000W Samlex inverter. On Friday (first day...

diysolarforum.com

 

[Browneye]

I can post more detail later, but Tracer default setting is 200A, YOU set the capacity in the program.
I don’t think they self-select voltage with lifepo.

 

[WYtreasure]

I can post more detail later, but Tracer default setting is 200A, YOU set the capacity in the program.
I don’t think they self-select voltage with lifepo.

Thanks Doc,
For our reading enjoyment in the meantime.

epever tracer 4210an problems

4210an shows 1.6 amp load with nothing connected on load also will not retain settings from phone or mt50, it also informs me on the android app its a triron 4210 not a tracer 4210, its doing my head in, label says tracer 4210 12v 24v li, is the firmware the same for triron and tracer or is the...

diysolarforum.com

and

Struggling with basic LiFePO4 settings in Epever Tracer

Hello all. I am struggling to justify some basic LiFePO4 charging parameters, and relate them to how to set up my Epever Tracer 2215BN. The Epever has many charge parameters geared toward charging older chemistries. This is very confusing to apply to LiFePO4, and the fact that terminologies and...

diysolarforum.com

 

[Solarhelpe]

I helped a guy a couple of weeks ago with very similar scenario. Factory packs, 1 pack bms was disconnecting in varying degrees from out of balance and 1 very high cell. Lots of back and forth I would skip to the last few pages.

Sudden battery voltage drop, only when epever connected

Recently switched from a 40amp BN series to the 8415 AN on Thursday night after my 40amp was possibly borked due to user error. My current setup is four 320w panels (2s2p), the Tracer AN 80 amp mppt, two 100ah SOK batteries in series for 24v, and a 2000W Samlex inverter. On Friday (first day...

diysolarforum.com

So a week ago I got a bit frustrated and bought a new inverter for 12v to just bring it down so I can put the batteries in parallel. Ready to just try that out. As I think this might be better.

Your emp suggestion is a good wartime thread idea. Haha.

 

[Browneye]

Well there are lots of posts here but can't really tell what the actual question is.

I'm well familiar with the 3210AN, I have a XTRA3210n. If you're going to use it with a 24V battery pack - 8 cells 4S2P, then you do need to connect it to 24V with the cable and LiBattery Parameter control to set the charge parameters. If you select 24V, and Lifepo4, all you really need to change from the default settings is the equalization which should be zero, and the boost and float voltage that suits your battery bank.
The default is 14.5V for 12, so would be 29V for 24, which is a little high, I would set boost at 28.2 or 28.4 with a duration of 10 minutes - that is the shortest duration it will let you set it. Once the batteries reach 3.5Vpc they are at 100% SOC, so you don't really get anything more after that, but cells will go into overvolt and your bms will shut everything down.
Float should be 26.8V to 27.2V, the higher value if you have loads to service. If it's just idle then 26.8 is good.

If you're connected with a PC it will show if the controller is in boost or float, and will track input volts and amps from PV, as well as battery volts and amps indicated. NOTE: the Ah capacity does not show on the Tracer display, but whatever you set it it at for total battery capacity and voltage, it will show as a percentage of SOC. Which isn't very accurate, a shunt meter is much more valuable for this.

Anyway, not sure about the spikes, but your max charge voltage should be just a volt or so more than the boost voltage you set, with a reconnect a volt lower than that. The program won't let you put values out of whack, they have to be stair-step up from boost reconnect, to float, to boost, it will auto-set equalization but duration is zero so just the value is there.

Oh, you do need to select the parameter for control as the LiBattery - that turns on the settings for lifepo4 charging.

Let me know what's next. If your battery is fully charged then the controller is not going to put any more current thru - it will show PV as zero or very low, same for battery - it will shut down charging if it's reached the controller voltage settings. And it does measure battery voltage with the charge current on top, but the battery never actually reaches those charging parameters, the controller switches to float and will just maintain the battery voltage level and step up current when loads are turned on.

 

[Browneye]

Here are the charge control parameters I use for active daily use of the system - you would double the values for a 24V battery pack.
One thing that is not spelled out in the instructions is the boost duration - it does not start the countdown until your indicated battery voltage reaches the boost charge voltage level. If you set this too high you will have cells that reach 100% and spike up in voltage at high knee and your bms will shut down charging.

You do need to set the 'rated voltage level' here in the parameters for a 24V battery pack.
If you're getting a high-voltage charge spike then I would lower the value for Charging Limit Voltage to be equal to or a volt higher than your boost voltage value:

 

[Solarhelpe]

Here are the charge control parameters I use for active daily use of the system - you would double the values for a 24V battery pack.
One thing that is not spelled out in the instructions is the boost duration - it does not start the countdown until your indicated battery voltage reaches the boost charge voltage level. If you set this too high you will have cells that reach 100% and spike up in voltage at high knee and your bms will shut down charging.

You do need to set the 'rated voltage level' here in the parameters for a 24V battery pack.
If you're getting a high-voltage charge spike then I would lower the value for Charging Limit Voltage to be equal to or a volt higher than your boost voltage value:

Thanks for all this. I think my first test will be switching to manual battery settings. One question. Where it says batter capacity. I have two 100ah batteries in series. Should my battery capacity setting be set to 100 or 200?

 

[Browneye]

100A. Same as four 3.29V 280A cells in series are a ~12V 280A battery.
When volts double so do watts. Or 10A at 120V is 1200W.

 

[Browneye]

For a 500W inverter, if your wire and fuses are sized for 50-60A or more,12V works fine. I built a 12V 120A system, for example. A 600-1000w inverter works fine here.

For high watt inverters, the current draw can also get very high, creating a challenge to the current carrying of the whole system. A 2000W inverter can pull 200A+ at 12V, but half of that at 24V. And why the trend is to higher 24 and 48V systems.

Watts = volts X amps. Watts is an easier way of measuring energy because it is independent of system voltage. This concept is what trips users up with high energy use 120V appliances powered by low voltage systems, like air conditioners and heating elements. A little ceramic space heater will draw 1400 watts. So will a hair blow drier!

 

[mikefitz]

The Epever controllers may have issues when working neat their maximum input voltage.

You four 100 watt panels is series will have an OC voltage over 85 volts, more in cold conditions.

Alternatively the charge voltages maybe too high, causing a BMS shutdown. Consider a maximum of 14 volts for a 12 volt system and 28 volts for a 24 volt system with a short boost duration.

Mike

 

[Stiffmeister]

I'm having this problem on an OutBack FM80 using Overkill solar 16s. I had to watch the LED display and for some reason it is hitting like 60v or something....which shuts off my BMS. To fix, I just kept dropping the charging voltage (not on it now) at increments of .1 till it stopped. I've used OutBack FM80's before till they died and bought this one used. Now switched over to Victron 150/100's.

 

[WYtreasure]

Here are the charge control parameters I use for active daily use of the system - you would double the values for a 24V battery pack.
One thing that is not spelled out in the instructions is the boost duration - it does not start the countdown until your indicated battery voltage reaches the boost charge voltage level. If you set this too high you will have cells that reach 100% and spike up in voltage at high knee and your bms will shut down charging.

You do need to set the 'rated voltage level' here in the parameters for a 24V battery pack.
If you're getting a high-voltage charge spike then I would lower the value for Charging Limit Voltage to be equal to or a volt higher than your boost voltage value:

Nice, Thanks Chris AKA Browneye AKA Dr. WattSon

 

[Solarhelpe]

Nice, Thanks Chris AKA Browneye AKA Dr. WattSon

Yep thanks a ton on this. Really helpful.

 

[Trkarl]

I'm having this problem on an OutBack FM80 using Overkill solar 16s. I had to watch the LED display and for some reason it is hitting like 60v or something....which shuts off my BMS. To fix, I just kept dropping the charging voltage (not on it now) at increments of .1 till it stopped. I've used OutBack FM80's before till they died and bought this one used. Now switched over to Victron 150/100's.

I just recently switched my battery bank to Lifepo from a 48v 546 a/h Surrette 6cs17p. I also switched my FM80 for a Victron scc for this very issue. My Surrette bank while absorbing 58.4 would shoot up to 60+ volts many times when the FM80 would restart periodically throughout the day. I didn't want to chance the over voltage shutdown of the batteries when the charge controller would recalibrate it's mppt.

 

[WYtreasure]

I just recently switched my battery bank to Lifepo from a 48v 546 a/h Surrette 6cs17p. I also switched my FM80 for a Victron scc for this very issue. My Surrette bank while absorbing 58.4 would shoot up to 60+ volts many times when the FM80 would restart periodically throughout the day. I didn't want to chance the over voltage shutdown of the batteries when the charge controller would recalibrate it's mppt.

Welcome to the show Trkari.

What is a FM80?

 

[Trkarl]

Outback Flexmax 80 charge controller

 

[Solarhelpe]

Outback Flexmax 80 charge controller

I noticed that the load is switching on sometime during the night. I think this is some setting for grid power? Like on the epever controllers the main display shows solar panels arrows and battery when charging but if you press enter the arrows also go to the light bulb with a W in it. Maybe I am reading too much into it but with my setup I don't think this should ever be on.

 

[Solarhelpe]

So, I uploaded the battery config that was suggested above. Seems to have saved. That said on my battery monitoring main screen the max and min voltages are something different. Is this just like the max and min of the day?

 

[WYtreasure]

So, I uploaded the battery config that was suggested above. Seems to have saved. That said on my battery monitoring main screen the max and min voltages are something different. Is this just like the max and min of the day?

I can't answer your question at all the moment, because I don't know.

Please explain, in simple easy to understand terms, how your system is connected to the grid.

Edit: see correction above

 

[Solarhelpe]

I can't answer your question at all the moment, because I don't know.

Please explain, in simple easy to understand terms, how your system is connected to the grid.

Edit: see correction above

I am not connected to any grid. Just the panels.