Need help configuring Outback charger/mate/mppt to new ReLion Lithium batteries

[john61ct]

Originally Posted by seahag

No shore power available. We are anchored off an island with no marina.

Ouch.

Well, that makes doing all the work that should have been done when commissioning the LFP bank more difficult.

Have you got a DMM and/or ammeter?

What is your AC generator capacity? What mains charger?

What about your alternator(s)?

[h2ojunke]

Do you have an ampclamp on board? I would start at you solar array and check amperage across all connections. Switches, bus bars, after each MC4 connector etc. Just to ensure you have anough juice going in and that it is more than your usage. Our relions are awesome, when our array is functioning well. Our bank is only 225amphr with 600 watts of solar and we are typically topped of early in the morning or by noon on days we make water. We also have a shore power charger that was reommended by Relion to use with our honda Generator if/when we fall behind (which has only been when we have issues with the array and/or any inline connections). Also, we found there customer support to be excellent, even arranged shipment of charger and trouble shooting when we were in the Bahamas. In the end all the issues turn out to be ship side on our part and not the batteries. And before any armchair QBs jump in, we are not affiliated in any way with relion. Hang in there, once you isolate the issue, you'll be sitting pretty with your set up.

[seahag]

First, thanks to all. It's been a wild few days here including wife's birthday so I'm late t respond. I did get some great help to get the charging working in the right direction. I have been able to get the batteries up to a resting voltage of 13.54 but am advised to be careful about going a lot higher right now as there are still a few bugs to work out. One is the Mate on the Outback system which has lost its abilities on the monitoring, several are just reading blank. That needs to be reset and I haven't figured out how to do that safely yet. Another is finding some additional voltage drop somewhere, and finding out why the port engine battery is being charged by this setup, which may also figure for the voltage drop issue.

As for the wind charging, I have not located an actual controller. There is a breaker/meter/switch, and a fuse, and a Blue Sea case which I don't know what it does. This is small, about 1 1/2" x 6" and doesn't appear to be a controller.

I ordered a Sperry amp clamp because the one I purchased in the Dominican Republic does not work. Unfortunately this one got goofed up in a shipping mistake and is not coming to our location in Puerto Rico so I will head back to the mainland and try to shop for one there. I think we will seek out shore power and get the batteries to a full charge before I install the victron bmv monitor which Did arrive.

I'm glad to hear about ReLion supporting you H20junkie. Is there a contact person you would care to share? I left a message on their system for a tech person and their engineer Called so late he woke me up! I did learn a few things from him too. What charger did you get?

[seahag]

Originally Posted by john61ct

Ouch.

Well, that makes doing all the work that should have been done when commissioning the LFP bank more difficult.

Have you got a DMM and/or ammeter?

What is your AC generator capacity? What mains charger?

What about your alternator(s)?

Hi John, see my other response about ammeter story. The ac generator is a 6.5 kw Northern Lights, which coincidentally has been acting up for the first time right as we need it most with the charging issues. I'm getting some erratic ac supply from it although for the most part it worked well today. Sometimes the volts read at panel and at outlets will go down in the 90's range but mostly it puts out about 123-125. New problem, just started a few days ago in the midst of working all the battery situations.

The charger is limited by its own system of putting out 14.0 amps dc.

[john61ct]

Well that limit would be a fatal problem for an expensive lead bank, but actually great for the longevity of your LFP.

I would plan on some time onshore in a well-serviced location, find a well-recommended low-voltage electrician, and IMO first thing is to get a detailed schematic drawn showing all the details of your system, like Maine Sail's drawings.

Then go through each component, testing wiring infrastructure, confirm how well each bit works.

Don't just accept your professional's design opinions, you keep control over that, verify / sanity check here, but hopefully his implementation skills will be reliable.

[john61ct]

When talking about bank voltages, make sure to distinguish between resting V after 24 hours' isolation, and what you are recording from the live system, either during charging or while feeding loads.

All three contexts will be different.

[seahag]

We've been on the run for the last month, gone from Puerto Rico to Grenada. Along the way have gotten on top of this whole thing and the ReLion batteries have been flawless and we are always left with a solid charge. I think the only way we would run them too low now is if we kept serious loads on them for several cloudy days in a row without paying attention to charging, but the victron bmv makes everything so simple. I really like both of these products. The batteries have made our cruising life much more worry free, and allowing us to use more power without concern, and the victron shows all the important details and keeps track of all our usage and charging data. So neat and simple. I have a whole new storage area available without the extra batteries too.