Strange battery behavior

[rockbender]

Thoroughly enjoying the battery banter, guys - thanks! I need to calibrate my Victron monitor a bit more as it seems to be on the conservative side for sure regarding efficiencies of charging.

Shouldn't we just ditch all these fancy displays and just get the 4 LED monitor that tells us when we are at 100%, 2/3, 1/3, and 0?

[Scalf77]

Originally Posted by rockbender

Shouldn't we just ditch all these fancy displays and just get the 4 LED monitor that tells us when we are at 100%, 2/3, 1/3, and 0?

Actually the Smartgauge Battery Monitor is supposed to do just that, kind of set it and forget it.



-greg

[boywonder]

Originally Posted by jony101

From what I'm understanding is if the solar controller reads 14.4 volts (my controller has a lcd), the battery should also read 14.4 volts?
I put a multimeter on the actual battery and it was reading about 13.98 volts. I have an led meter inline between controller and battery and that reads 14.1 volts.
I have to do more troubleshooting, but I did notice if I crank up the bulk/absorb voltage to 15 volts, I do get 14.4 volts on the inline LED (which is close to what the battery actual voltage is).
I had the same solar system almost 5 years and the inline led always reads 14 volts, I suspect I been undercharging my batteries for years.

Sounds like you may have a .4V drop when putting out lots of amps. Here is an interesting thought.......it would seem that as the battery charges and it's resistance increases, the current drops...as well as the voltage drop....it would have to. Certainly when you get to float the current is small, so there should be negligible voltage drop.

[boywonder]

Originally Posted by rockbender

Shouldn't we just ditch all these fancy displays and just get the 4 LED monitor that tells us when we are at 100%, 2/3, 1/3, and 0?

Great idea ...a man with two watches never knows what time it is......

[boywonder]

Originally Posted by ShuttlePilot

So, it sounds like your still not ever seeing the LinkPro Auto Synchronize.

Correct....sitting in the driveway anyway...

I've been out camping since last week and with lots of sun the LinkPro is returning to "full" the last few charge cycles/days. Of course I re-synchronized before I left for this trip.

Originally Posted by ShuttlePilot

Boywonder, everything you describe seems on the surface to be fine. My next direction of thought would be to question the behavior of the solar controller. Have you seen the controller get to your absorb voltage of 14.3?
Is it holding the Absorb voltage for the 1 hr Samlex says it should be?
When it's in absorb, is the 14.3volts getting to the battery(voltage drop), is the linkPro detecting the 14.3V at the batteryor is it a tad bit lower?

Yes.....gets to bulk regularly .....one blink on the controller.....and it's getting to absorb...5 blinks.....and float..steady green.....

The Samlex acts totally normal..

Originally Posted by ShuttlePilot

This is to be confident that the LinkPro has identified Absorb has taken place(full battery).
Then I would look for the conditions that satisfy F1.0, F1.1, and F1.2 and see if it Auto Syncs. I've seen controllers and monitors miss trigger voltages by 0.1 of a volt and cause problems. My caution with all this is to make sure changes aren't made just to satisfy the LinkPro and get the behavior we would like. The priorities of importance should always be, What dose the batteries need, the charge controllers behavior should be serving the batteries and lastly the monitors behavior shall be giving good data. Never the other way around.

well....seems like when I'm out and about I'm getting back to "full".....in the driveway, different story. My driveway is on the north side of my house but has a clear view of the sky and the only thing on when parked is the CO/propane detector...