Victron, lithium and 12v

[Nabsim]

The Bulk/Absorption/Float info will be on the Charger Screens - so when you go to the MPPT Controller or the Multiplus Smart-BMS unit you will get info on that. The Open/Close is on the BMV-712 and is for the relay on the Shunt, as Neil says above.


You can indeed programme the relay on the BMV to activate and deactivate at different voltages and can be quite handy in fact. On my last camper, the Stripey Clarence, I used to activate the relay at a high SOC in order to turn on the electric water heater and then when the SOC dropped to a certain lower SOC, turn off the water heater.
Annie, you aren't using the relay for anything in your setup I think. (I would think at the very most 5% of BMV users have the relay connected).

Sorry that was an autocorrect typo, it should have said you CAN

 

[wildebus]

Sorry that was an autocorrect typo, it should have said you CAN

I thought it was and in my original reply said "think that is a typo" and THEN when I pressed 'post' I thought you had corrected your post and so removed my "think typo" bit of the message and left the rest as just extra info

 

[campervanannie]

Aaaaaaaarrrrrrggggghhhh it’s fecking done it again left home after the van been on EHU and all reading 100% drove 200miles Lecky great for 4 days and last reading showing batteries at 68% Ben running lights a small kettle 700w small portable fridge just went back to the van for a drink and all 12v off inverter off just can’t work out what’s going on but it’s 6.45 dark so there’s nothing I can do until tomorrow any advice

 

[Boris7]

Sounds like the inverter is drawing power even when devices are off Annie. Or the fridge drain maybe too high for the batteries, if the heating is on the fridge will be working hard.

How many Ah’s of battery ?

 

[campervanannie]

Sounds like the inverter is drawing power even when devices are off Annie. Or the fridge drain maybe too high for the batteries, if the heating is on the fridge will be working hard.

How many Ah’s of battery ?

350 lithium no heating on and it’s b just a small 12v fridge as my 3 way fridge is not working at the moment and was looking at changing it for a compressor fridge but until my 12v is sorted nothing I can do.

 

[YeoBlade]

Only I can suggest is if you've got beer in the fridge drink it, because it might warm up. And block @wildebus & @merl

 

[campervanannie]

Only I can suggest is if you've got beer in the fridge drink it, because it might warm up. And block @wildebus & @merl

We are one step ahead of you on the beer front

 

[YeoBlade]

On a more sympathetic note, start engine , can you switch to Engine bat for a temp solution?

 

[campervanannie]

On a more sympathetic note, start engine , can you switch to Engine bat for a temp solution?

Yes I will run the engine tomorrow as we are fine for tonight with our torches and even though it’s p!ssing it down we are toasty.

 

[wildebus]

350 lithium no heating on and it’s b just a small 12v fridge as my 3 way fridge is not working at the moment and was looking at changing it for a compressor fridge but until my 12v is sorted nothing I can do.

Be aware that a non-compressor 12V is a real power-hog. Even with 300Ah of Lithium Battery, it may not run it (along with your other general loads) for more than a day.

 

[campervanannie]

So this morning I get up and the battery monitor was flashing so checked everything make sure nothing plugged in switched the whole system off big red switch in near the inverter switched back on and after a few seconds the 12v all came back on this is the reading.

 

[merl]

Hmm, something dodgy going on because a LFP battery sitting at 12.8v is getting close to flat and definitely not 76%. It'll be ok powering lights etc but dropping a high inverter load on it would probably cause a shut off due to voltage sag.
As has already been mentioned the Victron shunt has an Automatic reset to 100%, this reset gets activated under specific charge conditions and if these parameters aren't set correctly it'll reset to 100% when it shouldn't and therefore lead to the symptoms you're experiencing.
If I were you I'd Google it, there's lots of people suffering the same thing and several videos showing how to adjust the settings. Either set the trigger voltage abnormality high (like David does) or turn the auto reset off altogether. Recharge the battery fully on mains overnight, Reset the BMV to 100% if it's not already showing that. Crack on and see what happens.

 

[campervanannie]

Hmm, something dodgy going on because a LFP battery sitting at 12.8v is getting close to flat and definitely not 76%. It'll be ok powering lights etc but dropping a high inverter load on it would probably cause a shut off due to voltage sag.
As has already been mentioned the Victron shunt has an Automatic reset to 100%, this reset gets activated under specific charge conditions and if these parameters aren't set correctly it'll reset to 100% when it shouldn't and therefore lead to the symptoms you're experiencing.
If I were you I'd Google it, there's lots of people suffering the same thing and several videos showing how to adjust the settings. Either set the trigger voltage abnormality high (like David does) or turn the auto reset off altogether. Recharge the battery fully on mains overnight, Reset the BMV to 100% if it's not already showing that. Crack on and see what happens.

I’m home tomorrow so I’ll put it on EHU and see how it goes this morning the van battery was flashing red on the original van panel as in one of the photos above so fingers crossed the van starts.

 

[REC]

I am not techie at all...(a lot of the words used earlier are lala in my head) but...we had similar issues and it was the leisure battery was not charging when we were driving...the chap replaced the part and it was immediately ok. Not that it helps really, but feel your pain! Hope it gets sorted.

 

[Nabsim]

12.8V with a small drain on the shunt reading tells me that isn't flat at all. I know nothing about the Address ria systems but could that low battery light be the engine battery Annie?

I realise that wouldn't cause you to lose had power but I don't know how that make does things. More a question for David or Merl but could this be an earth problem?

 

[merl]

As I mentioned previously Neil, 12.8 v isn't flat but it's probably no better than 20% charged and could be considerably less. At that kind of discharge level it'll drive lowish power devices ok but if Annie tries to use the inverter to boil a kettle then the voltage sag on the battery and system wiring COULD cause the cut out she's experiencing.
WRT a poor earth somewhere.....maybe and indeed any undue resistance (including poor connections) in the circuit will cause voltage drop/sag to any device which sees the resistance, the inverter will be particularly vulnerable to this because they are generally a high current device, thus the inverter COULD be susceptible to cut out but the cut out issue seems to be with the PDU, in a previous picture the PDU display showed the battery voltage at less than 11.5v which is clearly wrong because the battery was actually 12.5 v, it looks like there's possibly two issues going on.
The PDU voltage is inaccurate by about 1v and hence is cutting off prematurely.The PDU is a Shaudt electroblock and the cut off voltage isn't adjustable. It's annoying because the PDU cut off isn't required with lithium and the fix is easy, just solder in a link across the relevant relay contacts on the PCB, alternatively simply by reconnecting the leisure battery positive to the SW+ contact on the PDU? I'd gladly do it for you Annie but I'm out of action for the foreseeable due to a property renovation and house move.
If you can get the inaccurate BMV issue fixed then that will help you a lot, you'll be aware of what you've actually got left in the battery and act accordingly rather than keep getting caught out.

 

[campervanannie]

So here’s a thing that has been suggested if the new victron stuff and lithium battery is wired through the vans original system and that system thinks I have gel batteries and so is turning everything off because it thinks my battery is too low would this be possible and is there a solution just putting it out there as it’s all gobbledygook to me.
While driving home the van charged the battery back up to 100%

 

[Robmac]

So here’s a thing that has been suggested if the new victron stuff and lithium battery is wired through the vans original system and that system thinks I have gel batteries and so is turning everything off because it thinks my battery is too low would this be possible and is there a solution just putting it out there as it’s all gobbledygook to me.
While driving home the van charged the battery back up to 100%

Sounds feasible Annie.

But then what do I know!

 

[merl]

So here’s a thing that has been suggested if the new victron stuff and lithium battery is wired through the vans original system and that system thinks I have gel batteries and so is turning everything off because it thinks my battery is too low would this be possible and is there a solution just putting it out there as it’s all gobbledygook to me.
While driving home the van charged the battery back up to 100%

Yep, I fink vat's wot I said
I just took the scenic route rather than the motorway

 

[merl]

Annie, do you know what PDU you've got? (It's where all the spaghetti wiring goes to, it also has the 12V fuses on the back). Probably an EBL208, it's printed on the rear.