Solar Charging and Battery use

Alive

Hello all! Bought a 23 tab 400 almost a year ago. Everything has been great.

Came to do a weekend boondock, anticipating just using the Fan and fridge.

We arrived yesterday, and turned on the fridge, and had the fan on, as well as some of the blue lights. That is it however. No inverter, no water pump except a quick #1.

We got in bed right around midnight, and 5 minutes later the trailer went completely dead. This morning I tripped the glasgo breaker and the power came back, however it is extremely low. I’ve had the fridge on for days at a time at my house with no issues, but within 6 hours here everything died.

I’m posting the Victron app screenshots, although I don’t really know what they mean. Right now it’s fairly shaded so I get why it wouldn’t be charging quick, but I’m at a loss as to why it died with just the fridge and fan on. Do I need a new panel? Did I somehow ruin the batteries this past year?

any help appreciated, and you can explain it like I’m a 5 year old, I just can’t wrap my head around electric.

thanks so much.

edit - I know the nucamp panel isn’t super accurate but it did say full when I left for camp yesterday - which is only an hour away.

AnOldUR

What battery, type and size, do you have? At 10.71 volts with solar connected it could be shot. Have you clicked on the settings gear with the "!" on it?

Alive

AnOldUR said:

What battery, type and size, do you have? At 10.71 volts with solar connected it could be shot. Have you clicked on the settings gear with the "!" on it?

That was a firmware update. I have the BattleBorn heated100ah lithium. BB10012H

pthomas745

This is the same discussion as the FB thread....you need to examine your power use for the last two days, where the history says "Yesterday and Today".  Somewhere during that time period, which could have gone back to where the battery was last charged into the "Blue" area two days ago, something apparently used quite a lot of battery power.  If the fridge has been running for two days, that could account for about 70 of your batteries 100 "amp hours'.  There has been some solar charging coming in, but somehow not enough to prevent this big drop. 

Check to make sure nothing else is running in the trailer: check the inverter.  Check the battery heater switch, etc. And, try to get more solar input during the day today, or your battery may switch off again overnight.

Your Battleborn batteries have what is known as "low voltage disconnect".  When it reaches 10V, it will shut down.  The good news for you is apparently the battery is still working, has not gone into "hibernation" mode, where the battery will have to be "jump started" to do anything, including take a charge.

One more thing we should check: we have seen dozens of solar controllers that are not configured properly for lithium battery charging.  Yours seem to be correct, but it would be nice to see the Settings page on your solar controller.

This link goes to a Victron "explainer" page.  Scroll down til you find the images of the MPPT controller that shows you basically what all these displays are trying to tell you.  Unfortuneatly, Victron expects all their users to be Nuclear Power Plant Qualified!  It does take a little practice, but it will eventually make sense.

https://faroutride.com/victron-review/

Alive

pthomas745 said:

This is the same discussion as the FB thread...rs seem to be correct, but it would be nice to see the Settings page on your solar controller.

This link goes to a Victron "explainer" page. 

Thanks for the help, will dive into that page tonight.

had to come home since I couldn’t stop thinking about it as well as not having a good camp space for sunlight. Will do some testing at home and read what you suggested.

thanks again

pthomas745

Well, that is too bad.  Let us know what you find out.

Alive

pthomas745 said:

Well, that is too bad.  Let us know what you find out.

re:solar settings - currently as the first photo shows. 

I assume I should change the battery type to smart lithium lifepo4, correct?

and the setting I can change it to 

pthomas745

Good for you for getting that far...but, there are some standard settings for the Battleborns that you can find on the link below, with a good rundown of how to set them correctly.  Lithium batteries usually are pretty close on "standard" parameters, so the "Smart Lithium" will be close, but look over this link and see how to set things up.

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

Sharon_is_SAM

@Alive - did you pre-cool the frig on shorepower?  Sounds like you initially turned it on at the campsite.  That and the fan use may account for some battery drain.

elbolillo

@Alive did you have the inverter on?

Marceline

Sharon_is_SAM said:

@Alive - did you pre-cool the frig on shorepower?  Sounds like you initially turned it on at the campsite.  That and the fan use may account for some battery drain.

Cooling from ambient temperature to 40deg can consume a lot of power when the ambient temp is high. If I can’t cool the fridge from shore power, I’ve thrown a chunk of dry ice in the fridge.