Help with settings for Victron Smart Shunt monitor, non-solar

Hello, I'm using a Victron Smart Shunt on a 2018 TAB 400. 
AGM Battery Info:
- Brand is "Vision Group"
- Manufacturer appears to be Shenzhen Center Power Tech. Co., Ltd.
- Model no. EV4D-240A-AT (12v 240ah)

I want to make sure my Victron app has the correct info in it so I can correctly monitor the battery. Here's what I have currently:
- Battery Capacity: 240Ah
- Charged Voltage: 13.2V
- Discharge Floor: 50%
- Tail current: 4.00%
- Charged detection time: 3m
- Peukert exponent: 1.25
- Charge efficiency factor: 95%
- Current threshold: 0.10A
- Time-to-go averaging period: 3m

I have the alarms set as:
- Low SOC alarm: on 50%, off 60%
- Low voltage alarm: on 12v, off 12.2v

I've been doing a test run for about 18 hrs so far running the fridge, fan, and some lights. Right now the monitor is telling me:
- State of charge: 67%
- Voltage: 12.07V
- Current: -6.58A
- Power: -79W
- Consumed Ah: -94.0Ah
- Time remaining: 7h 20m

Thoughts or advice on changing any of the above?
Pretty soon I'll start charging. I want to check the charge voltage/amperage using the house current and using just the tow vehicle connection...

2018 T@B 400

Comments

  • Dutch061Dutch061 Member Posts: 765
    edited June 2021
    I would use a lower tail current setting, mine is set to .5% but I have Solar.
    I would raise the Charged detection time to 5 minutes
    With an AGM Battery, you could go higher on the Discharge floor; as high as 80%
    I would set the Low voltage alarm to 11.8
    I would also consider setting the Charged voltage to 13.6

    There is a calculator available for peukert effect

    All of this is to prevent you from false synchronizations and resetting to Zero Amps. Depending on how you use your camper would determine actual settings.

    Example, if you use full connections 100% of the time, none of this really matters but if you boondock it becomes much more important.

    Brad
    2020 400 BDL aka "Boonie"
    2022 Black Series HQ19 aka "Cricket"
    2021 F-250 Tremor with PSD aka "Big Blue"
    Concord, NC 
  • Sharon_is_SAMSharon_is_SAM Administrator Posts: 9,760
    @SeaLaVie - battery monitors are basically calculators that get out of wack at intervals and must be synchronized.  Although they are more reliable during discharge, rely on the SOC not the Ah depletion.  Monitors get out of sync when multiple forms of charging are used (converter, TV, solar).  If using your battery daily/regularly, make sure to fully recharge back to 100% every 2 weeks, otherwise the BMV variance compounds over time and your monitor readings will be inaccurate.  The TaB converters are really designed for owners who always use electric hook ups with regular lead acid batteries.  If you dig into the WFCO manual, you will learn that the battery has to be very depleted before the converter goes into bulk charging.  As a result, batteries can be left undercharged if you don’t monitor.  Knowing the WFCO is not the best charger, we make sure to isolate and fully charge our battery using an independent charger prior to storing or letting the TaB rest between trips.  After charging we do a manual sync.  
    Our battery manual offers settings for a programmable charger, so I took cues from that and validated my settings by following the charge readings.  

    How old is your battery?  Ours is 4 years old and we adjusted our efficiency to 85%.  Also, Ah capacity declines with age, so take your best guess.

    Peukert # - Check your battery manual or online resource for the battery specific #.

    Charged Voltage - if you are not going to use solar, this value should be 0.1 to 0.2 less than the float value.  If using solar, base it on the absorption value.

    Tail Current - we set ours at 2%, so anything less than a current of 3 A will be noted as 100% SOC.  Although it was recommended to set it at 0.5%, that would probably not be attainable with our aging battery.

    Battery starts synchronized - Turned off.  In case battery power is interrupted (say you remove the battery fuse), you don’t want a false synchronization when power resumes.

    Sharon / 2017 T@B CSS / 2015 Toyota Sienna Minivan / Westlake, Ohio
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