Sadly my two battleborns died.

blueangel

When I bought my 2021 Tab 320s Boondock it seemed like a simple decision to have the dealer install two Battleborn Lithium 100 Amp batteries.  Little did I know that the electrical system really wasn’t designed for them.  Now they have died an untimely death.  After looking at the new factory lithium option for the latest Tab’s I decided to go with a simple though expensive alternative.  I decided that the single rooftop 100 watt solar panel would never really work with the installed Victron 75/10 and my lithiums because the solar voltage does not easily get over the 5v required threshold for recharging.  What is needed is a more robust higher voltage solar panel arrangement. To accomplish this I will augment my two new battleborns with a Jackery 1500 Solar Generator and two Jackery 200 watt panels.  In addition, I am doing a direct replacement of the Victron 75/10 with a Victron 100/15.  I also added the Victron shunt to more easily monitor what is going on with my batteries.  All of this requires little expertise or rewiring.  By using a few Anderson Powerpole connections I will be able to connect the solar panels directly to the Victron MPPT controller or to the Jackery 1500.  There are many advantages to this system.  The Jackery 1500 acts just like shore power when connected to the trailer, so the outlets, tv and microwave can be run while boondocking.  In addition the Jackery is almost equivalent to a third Battleborn battery.  Finally, I can easily position the two panels for optimum sunlight. This is my keep it simple system.  We will see how it goes.  BTW, Jackery is offering some great Prime deals for a few more days.  Check them out at the Jackery website.

pthomas745

Why do you think they have "died"?  I would agree that maybe a simple 100 watt panel may be a little small to get decent charging to the battery, but that panel should still be able to push charging to the batteries, given decent sun.  Even a simple portable setup would work for you. You are spending quite a lot of cash for a big setup, when checking what is up with your Battleborns you have currently (and your solar controller setup) might be a better course. 

blueangel

A Victron PWM solar controller would have been a better combination with the rooftop solar and lithiums since it can change at lower levels.  Lithiums provide strong voltage until they are almost depleted so the 5v requirement is not met until they are almost fully discharged.  The 2021 Tab just was not equipped to handle lithiums as it was then configured.

pthomas745

Plenty of owners seem to be able to.  Can you show us your Victron solar controller battery settings page?

blueangel

https://nucamprv.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/44002010684-lithium-pre-2022-model-year

AnOldUR

To add onto @pthomas745 question, did you or your dealer change the Victron to lithium settings when the original lithium batteries were installed? Did the dealer balance the cells before installation? My guess is that the cells were not balanced and by never charging to 100% this imbalance damaged the batteries.

"The absolute best way to balance cells is connect cells in parallel that are at 80 % SOC or less, and then use a power supply (3.6 V for Phosphate cells, 4.2 V for LiPo or Cobalt cells) to slowly bring all the cells to 100 % SOC."


edit to add that the quote above is for battery builders and refers to the individual cells used in a single battery. If you have two or more 12V LiFePO4's, each battery should be brought to 100% individually before connecting them in parallel. Sorry for using a confusing quote.

elbolillo

I never had any problem with the Victron 75/10 MPPT charger on my previous '21 Tab 320. The solar charger worked without a flaw and topped off the batteries perfectly. I think there was something amiss with the actual install of those batteries.

Kiosk

We have 2 lithium batteries for our 2021 tab, my husband installed with advice from forum and they have worked perfectly. Last trip was to wa state to Minneapolis, to Boston, to Tennessee to visit kids and home again, jiggy jog! Something sounds amiss? I would contact battleborn, they were so helpful and it is an expensive addition!

SLJ

I'm betting the Battle Borns are in sleep mode. Check Battle Born's web site for ways to wake them up safely.

dragonsdofly

@blueangel what @SLJ said 2X. 

We have a large solar charging system on our permanent, full time trailer, a 30' Keystone Laredo travel trailer. The heart of our system is 6 100ah Battleborns. We have never been plugged in and totally depend on the sun. Right now we are in a tree covered site in Michigan for the entire summer and we are still good.

Your batteries have a safety setting in the bms and will shut down at 10% state of charge to protect themselves from damage.

Our system has an additional safety programmed in for shutdown at 11% state of charge that actually puts our entire battery bank to "sleep" before engaging the internal BattleBorn bms programming. We are taking this fact on faith as we have never discharged our batteries to that point.

But like @SLJ suggested your batteries may very well be in sleep mode waiting for a proper restart(recharge) sequence. Please check it out.