Solar not charging (Victron Multiplus

bstex61

What does code L1 mean as the reason for not allowing Solar to charge?
works fine on shore power.

pthomas745

We are guessing you have a 2023 trailer with a "lithium package?" We really would need to know exactly what battery setup you have.

Your solar input is over in the "Smart Solar" page you show on the right.  You have 115 watts of power coming in, 24.5 volts.  Your battery voltage is 13.62 volts (still charging) and the "current" is a positive number of 8.3 amps going to the battery.  (which is a lot!).  The battery charging "state" is bulk mode.

So, your solar is working fine.  Sounds like (depending on what battery setup you have...so we really need to know exactly what battery setup you have) you might have used a lot of power recently and the battery (or batteries) might have used a lot of amp hours.

So...your solar is fine.

On the left is the Victron Multiplus.  Are you connected to shore power? Can you show us your App section of what the Multiplus is set up to do? 

We are still learning about the Multiplus and the settings, but there are several owners here who have things narrowed down a bit.

bstex61

2023 400amp system with the battle born batteries. My charge is 85% and hasn’t changed in 4 hours in the sun. Not on shore power. Not by my camper so not able to send more screenshots 

Marceline

*wild guess alert*

Do you have the inverter (DC to AC power) in your camper turned on? I don’t have a 400 but my understanding is that the inverter draws a lot of power even with nothing turned on. Maybe even enough that the solar would struggle to keep up. Your bottom screenshot shows that the solar controller is sending power to the battery (during daylight hours). 

The L1 message at the top just says that there’s no “AC input” which I think just means that it’s not connected to shore power. I would think that the “AC output” below that is your AC output from the inverter. But as I said, this is just my guess as I haven’t used Multiplus. 

bstex61

Only draws 2.4 amps standing still.

Marceline

bstex61 said:

Only draws 2.4 amps standing still.

If you’re talking about the inverter, that’s quite a high steady draw. Maybe even worse than the fridge. If you don’t have a battery monitor like a SmartShunt I suggest you get one. In any case, the second screenshot shows that your controller is sending power to the battery. 

bstex61

I do have the smart shunt, I have no idea what it’s telling me I just know my batteries aren’t charging properly from the solar panel. Camper has been in direct sunlight for 5 hours.

MuttonChops

Seems you have something (several somethings) turned on in the TaB which are drawing more power than the Solar Panel is producing - - - 'SmartShunt' picture is reporting a net negative drain on the battery.

You should consider getting to the trailer and confirming what is On and what is Off.

RTWCTS

Edited on 9/5- The Screenshots below are from the Trends tab, not the History tab I previously stated...

@bstex61 I haven't mastered all of this yet, but here is a thought. Flip to the History page on the Victron Smart Shunt app. Maybe you can better see what the batteries are doing. I believe you can scroll the timeline by pinching in and out.  Below is an example of 20 days from ours on a recent

trip (combined dry and hookup nights).

  
Here is a closeup screenshot...

The biggest dips are with the fridge on and 1200W inverter running all night (300AH of batteries). Maybe knowing what is happening over time will help determine what is going on with your system. Hope this helps somehow...

Marceline

bstex61 said:

I do have the smart shunt, I have no idea what it’s telling me I just know my batteries aren’t charging properly from the solar panel. Camper has been in direct sunlight for 5 hours.

It would really be best if you would take screen shots of all three screens (solar controller, multiplus, and smart shunt at the same time). It's really hard for us to assess what's going on from readings taken at different times. 

This SmartShunt screen shows that you have a negative draw of 2.07amps from your battery. That means that the loads on your battery from the trailer are 2.07amps bigger than whatever power is going into the battery from the solar controller. That means your state of charge is going to keep going down. Try turning off the inverter to see how that affects your power consumption. Try the same with your fridge. What else are you running off the battery? 

From the SmartSolar screenshot in your first post, I'm 100% sure that your solar panels/controller are working and sending power to the battery. But the solar power isn't keeping up with whatever is drawing power (fridge, inverter, etc.) in your T@B. Keep in mind that you only generate solar power about half of the day, so during your daylight hours you need to generate enough power to both replenish the battery from the night before and also power whatever you have running. I'm fairly sure that the general advice is to keep the inverter turned off except when you're actually using it to power something, and when you are using it, be mindful of how much power you're drawing.

bstex61

Nothing is running but the CO2 detector and the light on radio. No fridge or lights. It’s just parked in my drive. Screenshot 1 inverter is now off, 2 you can see that it is still drawing negative 2.06amps

MuttonChops

Is everything really 'off' . . . .

Your solar is ON, yet with everything Off the trailer is drawing 2+ Amps from the battery.

It just does not seem that everything is off.

You might try removing all the sub-circuit** Fuses from the Power Center.
What is the battery current then - - - should be positive.

**All fuses except those that feed the Solar Controller, Victron Shunt, Victron Dongle (if installed)  ____ and of course don't remove the two battery fuses ____

Your Parasitic Current Drains will be:
  - - CO2/Propane detector
  - - Solar controller
  - - Multi-Plus logic
  - - Victron Shunt
  - - Victron Dongle (if installed)
  - - Television if 12VDC and you have not added a power-off switch
  - - Alde and Coolcat Control Panels/boards
  - - Fridge Control Panel
  - - Jensen Radio

2-Amps parasitic current seems high.  {{ Don't recall any 400 owners reporting their parasitic load }}
My 320S is < 1-Amp with the Jensen radio & television power disconnected.

Marceline

Page 49 of the T@B 400 manual says:

The button on your right will allow you to change the Multiplus operation mode. By default, this will be set to ON which means both the charging and inverting functions are active. However, you may want to change this to Charger Only in some circumstances to save battery power. This will temporarily disable the inverter, which pulls 1-2A on average while powered on.

 

If you’ve changed this to “charger only” (turning off the inverter function) and there’s still a 2amp draw I think maybe it’s time to contact Victron. 

I don’t know how many T@B owners have a Multiplus. In the past I’ve found the tech support at Victron to be very helpful and they also have their own forum. Maybe someone there can provide advice. I think you need to figure out that 2amp draw. 

https://www.victronenergy.com/support

pthomas745

The other thing that can draw power like this are the "battery heaters" for the Battleborns.  An amp each per hour. There is apparently a switch somewhere that turns them on and off. Find that switch and make sure it is off.

The FB groups are filled the last few days with questions and comments just like yours.  Asked to show their solar controller or shunt setup pages, we found a great percentage of the setups are just...completely wrong.  Wrong battery type selected in the solar settings, wrong amp hour settings in the shunt.  Several owners have claimed (after talking to Victron) that there is a whole extra range of settings in the Multiplus that cannot be reached from the Victron apps.  Meaning a whole computer program, an expensive "special" cable, and spendy software.  This "setup" has been brought up here in the past.  There would appear to be no way for an owner to determine if the Multiplus has these "hidden" settings correct.

I would urge everyone with the built in lithiums from NuCamp to go through their settings pages for both the SmartSolar and SmartShunt and look closely. 

Battleborn has a nice step by step process on how to set up your Solar Controller here:

https://battlebornbatteries.com/programming-a-victron-smartsolar-charge-controller/

For the SmartShunt, this page.

https://battlebornbatteries.com/faq-all-about-bmvs/

RTWCTS

A couple of observations from my T@B to help add to the general knowledge base...

pthomas745 said:

The other thing that can draw power like this are the "battery heaters" for the Battleborns.  An amp each per hour. There is apparently a switch somewhere that turns them on and off. Find that switch and make sure it is off.

The battery heater switch is in the cubby by the bed, right next to the inverter switch. It is the one labeled "Battery Heat". Note the LED above the switch. It is lit when the heaters are running.

MuttonChops said:

2-Amps parasitic current seems high.  {{ Don't recall any 400 owners reporting their parasitic load }}
My 320S is < 1-Amp with the Jensen radio & television power disconnected.

The current draw in my factory non-lithium upgrade package T@B, with the battery turned switch on (and everything turned off) is .43A

When the battery switch is off my SmartShunt currently shows zero current draw (no need to post that screen shot).

MuttonChops said:

Your Parasitic Current Drains will be:
 
  - - Television if 12VDC and you have not added a power-off switch

My 2023 T@B 400 has a 120VAC television. It will run from an outlet powered by the inverter. It is my understanding this is now standard.

This info is ONLY posted to help those without this model trailer help those that do and are trying to figure them out.

bstex61

Finally got to the dealer, turns out I have a bad solar panel. Replacement on its way, they gave me a portable unit to use until then.