Relion 100HP 3 years later!!

[alwaysared]

One great (or really not so great) feature of the Victron BMVs are if they lose connection to the battery, when it is re-established, the SOC is reset it 100%. This can be very misleading, like possibly in your case if that happened. I usually change the behaviour in the settings so instead of resetting to 100%, it resets to "- -". At least that way you know the SOC is no longer accurate and needs attention.

I've stopped looking at the percentage and now look at the volts whcih I assume is always correct even after losing the connection with the battery
Going back to the SOC, if I plug into EHU and charge my batteries overnight is safe to assume that they are fully charged? If I put a meter across the battery what should I expect to see?

Regards,
Del

 

[wildebus]

Just to point out that the photo of the Victron was taken hooked up.
It is very strange as the percentage has been showing zero for days

it shows a small current going in which is odd if the battery is not near full charge. With Lithium you would expect a charge at around whatever the charger is rated for.
The voltage given there is a charger attached is no indication of charge level so ignore my previous comment on that - that was assuming no charging.

How do you change the setting to - - -?

In the VE.Connect App, tap on the Gear icon top right, tap on "Battery", and then lower down in the options there is a slider toggle on 'Battery starts sychronised'. Default is ON, so whenever the BMV looses connection (usually on the 12V signal), the battery SOC jumps to 100%. Personally, I much prefer having that off so at least you know something odd is occuring when you see the "- -" in the display instead of numbers.
Then to set a value there, you either tap the 'Sychronise OC to 100%', or you tap on the option above that - 'State-of-Charge' - and manually enter a value (you can leave it at the manual default of 100%, or you take a guess based on what you last remembered, or you just put in a number. If you have no idea what the battery SOC is, I'd stick in 50%).

 

[Alshymer]

One great (or really not so great) feature of the Victron BMVs are if they lose connection to the battery, when it is re-established, the SOC is reset it 100%. This can be very misleading, like possibly in your case if that happened. I usually change the behaviour in the settings so instead of resetting to 100%, it resets to "- -". At least that way you know the SOC is no longer accurate and needs attention.

The voltages look pretty good and would suggest a pretty well charged battery and not a near-dead one.

PS. Ref the charger and it running with a battery that might be dead/0V, if you have a Victron IP22 Mains Charger, that is one smart charger that will run regardless of whether the battery is very low or not. You can also, if it is a Blue smart (Bluetooth enabled) version, go into the app and set it to be a Power Supply rather than a Charger. This can be useful sometimes as it will act as a 12V power source (so doing the same job as Admin was suggesting by connecting a 12V battery in parallel). The other Victron Mains Chargers probably will do the same thing but I can't say for sure as not tried them.

I am just using the original charger that came on my Rapido.
It has always worked well with the Lithium battery!!

it shows a small current going in which is odd if the battery is not near full charge. With Lithium you would expect a charge at around whatever the charger is rated for.
The voltage given there is a charger attached is no indication of charge level so ignore my previous comment on that - that was assuming no charging.


In the VE.Connect App, tap on the Gear icon top right, tap on "Battery", and then lower down in the options there is a slider toggle on 'Battery starts sychronised'. Default is ON, so whenever the BMV looses connection (usually on the 12V signal), the battery SOC jumps to 100%. Personally, I much prefer having that off so at least you know something odd is occuring when you see the "- -" in the display instead of numbers.
Then to set a value there, you either tap the 'Sychronise OC to 100%', or you tap on the option above that - 'State-of-Charge' - and manually enter a value (you can leave it at the manual default of 100%, or you take a guess based on what you last remembered, or you just put in a number. If you have no idea what the battery SOC is, I'd stick in 50%)

 

[Alshymer]

I am just using the original charger that came on my Rapido.
It has always worked well with the Lithium battery!!

Thanks very much for all your replies.
The photo shows current settings which have been in place for some time.

 

[wildebus]

I've stopped looking at the percentage and now look at the volts whcih I assume is always correct even after losing the connection with the battery

With Lithium, that doesn't really work. Yes, the voltage would be correct but the difference in voltage between 99% full and say 35% full is fairly small, and a load on the battery will cause a voltage sag greater than that difference. It is only when the SOC starts to get pretty low the voltage noticably and consistantly drops.
As an example, the voltage on my battery when it is 99% full and the fridge is running (so around a 5A load) is lower than if the battery was down to 35% with no load. So to use the voltage as a charge indicator on Lithium, you need both a good and accurate voltmeter (and we assume the BMV fits that bill) AND you need to make sure ALL loads are off (tricky, especially for anyone full-timing).

Going back to the SOC, if I plug into EHU and charge my batteries overnight is safe to assume that they are fully charged? If I put a meter across the battery what should I expect to see?

Regards,
Del

You would hope so. The key indicator is current, not just voltage for Lithium. if the charger is on, the [lithium] batteries will suck up as much as the charge can give, and then when full, the current will plummet.
A full Lithium off-charge is around 13.3V more or less.

 

[wildebus]

I read the earlier reply as you having a Victron Mains Charger. my mistake.

Thanks very much for all your replies.
The photo shows current settings which have been in place for some time.

So that toggle is off, which would suggest BMV has always had 12V power (otherwise you would get the "- -".
And it was reading 0% SOC and is now 97% (time of screenshot) - which would also suggest the charger must not have been doing anything in reality if it was on and the battery was at 0% at the same time?
Or the charger was on but the battery was refusing a charge - quite possible at this time of year when the battery could be below 5C and its internal BMS cutting the charge circuitry internally to prevent damage. And once battery warmed up, charging allowed again.

 

[Wooie1958]

The top. No worries.

Thank you, just checking because the Victron video shows it on the top but the user instructions say put it on the side

 

[exwindsurfer]

Thank you, just checking because the Victron video shows it on the top but the user instructions say put it on the side

Mine has always ben on the side .