Solar not charging battery

SusanD · July 2021

I forgot to change the settings on the Victron app for my new Battleborn batteries so this morning I did it. When I left the morning it showed that the charger was off but I assumed it was because it's pretty shady here. When I came back tonight, I see it's still not on and clearly hasn't been all day. Not sure why. The Victron box is flashing blue which presumably means it's got power. The camper has power from the battery. I've attached screenshots of my settings. Any idea what's going on? (Fyi, I moved the camper from storage to a camp site Wednesday so I'm not sure if it was ok prior to the move or after...) Help!

pthomas745 · July 2021

Your battery appears to be fully charged, and no extra solar is needed. Crank the fan on or some lights and see how the solar input reacts. Is the battery switch on?

SusanD · July 2021

I hope that's the case, it's just funny because I was getting readings when it was in storage, it just stopped after I moved it. And it was charged into the 14's in storage. Here are my readings before and after lights, fan and fridge.

pthomas745 · July 2021

Your battery (ies) are fully charged. The panels don't have anything to do. Note all the "max/min" numbers on your history screen. All of them indicate a battery that is "connected to a power source." All batteries and battery monitors will show a readout like this when a charger (in this case the solar panel) is connected.

Wait til the sun goes down, no power to the panel. Run the fan for a while and watch the voltage react without a power source connected. Run it for a while,turn it off, and wait for sunrise and see what your solar panel is doing.

Click on that little "why is the charger off" question mark and there will be some other answers, but like most things Victron, the explanations are for people who are running nuclear power plants or something. Might help, though.

https://www.victronenergy.com/blog/2020/06/19/victronconnect-v5-26-why-is-the-charger-off/

Same question on the Victron forums: https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/18415/no-watts-no-amps-but-batteries-are-ok.html

XenanMe · July 2021

Susan, are your new Battleborn batteries lithium? If so, then you are correct that you would expect to see the a higher voltage when fully charged.

CrabTab · July 2021

@SusanD

I believe the voltage on your solar needs to be 5V greater than the battery, otherwise the charger will be off (thus the message you're getting). Your panel should be much higher than the 8.3 to 7,5 Volt range your screenshots are showing.
As a first troubleshooting thought, are your panels in shade or cloudy weather? Second troubleshooting thought, are all the electrical connections good if you're in full sun and have such low voltage (been there/done that) or is there any visible damage to the panels?

My setup is a home install, so I can't give your exact numbers for a factory panel. Here is a screenshot of mine from a few minutes ago. You can see the panel voltage is more than 5V over the battery and the battery is in float mode (meaning the charger is on).

Hope this helps you figure things out...

KCode · July 2021

We bought a T@B 320S last year and had the same inexplicable problem until we checked the wires into the monitor and realized the polarity was reversed during the initial install of the solar panels. It was a quick fix of just reversing the wires at the blue tooth monitor box. Good luck!

SusanD · July 2021

So day 3 and in still getting nothing. The fridge was on all night so you can clearly see the battery depleting.

Despite being 30 degrees, sunny and hot here, I am in heavy trees, it's BC, and this is typical of our campgrounds. When I'm home, I'll go on youtube and figure out how to check for reverse polarity. In the meantime, I'm tempted to believe it's the trees and that I'm not getting enough voltage here.

pthomas745 · July 2021

Turn the fridge off, if this reading was taken with the fridge running, it is a "false reading". See if the voltage number recovers with the fridge off.

It was mentioned above, but as we discuss this there is the possibility your solar panel is not wired correctly to the solar controller. A picture of the solar controller wiring would be pretty useful.

SusanD · August 2021

So I left the fridge on through the day, pretty confident with my 11.36 volts. Came back tonight with no power. I checked the fuse in the Victron box and it's fine. I've attached a picture of the box. Not sure how to check for reverse polarity - I can't really figure out how it's wired.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

BrianZ · August 2021

@SusanD,
Wiring looks normal to me, with colored wires on positive terminals, white on negative. It looks pretty clear in your last two SmartSolar displays that your panel is functional & putting out over 8 volts, just not enough to turn on charging to the battery. Add 5 to whatever the battery voltage is, and that's how much voltage your solar needs to generate to turn on charging to the battery. After turning on, then it will need to stay at least 1 volt higher than the battery voltage to avoid turning off again. It appears to confirm what you already suspected - that you don't have enough sun.
PS: Typically, at least for lead-acid batteries, one should not run their battery down below 12V, and that number is after resting the battery for, say, an hour, with nothing running that uses any significant battery power. You might also want to double check your settings for your particular battery with the manufacturer's info, and with Victron's guidance in their software manual.

SusanD · August 2021

Thank you @pthomas745 @CrabTab @XenanMe @BrianZ @KCode! Really appreciate the help. I sat at the campground this morning, recharging from my car battery. Fridge now off unless it's a couple of days away or I'm plugged in. When I'm eventually allowed into the US, I may have enough 🌞 for solar but clearly not here in BC. Never thought I'd be grumpy about all the trees here.... I'll keep experimenting and hopefully get better at understanding electricity, my nemesis for now.

SusanD · August 2021

My wonderful trees...

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021717/uploads/editor/9y/82n43fsogxb0.jpg

pthomas745 · August 2021

If you can find someone with a multimeter, it would be very easy to check the solar input to the controller. Just touch the probes of the meter on the screw heads there on the "PV" inputs on top of the controller. If you get any readout, that could mean the wires are simply in the wrong inputs, and switching them will solve the problem. If you still get a "0" readout from the meter, that would mean there is a wiring problem between the controller and the panel. In the last year we have seen wires simply not connected, etc. And, with the strange wiring conventions on the trailer it wouldn't surprise me to find the green wire is simply misapplied. No matter, though, a multimeter would tell you a ton of info if you can apply one.

SusanD · August 2021

@pthomas745 I have a multimeter I just don't quite know how to use it yet! I put the probes in the PV and got 74 which I'm guessing corresponds to the MPPT75, and I put them in the battery and it read 13 which is correct. Should there be any wires coming from the "load" area? If not, I'm thinking it's properly wired, just insufficient light. I have to go away for a week but I'll test it out before my next camping trip on the 22nd. Thank you so much for walking me through this.🙏

pthomas745 · August 2021

The load area is just a separate power line for small devices...it really has no relevance here.

Not sure what meter you have. Here is a photo of an "ordinary" meter. The dial is pointed at "20". So, this would be the proper configuration for measuring the 12V from the battery. Just put the probes on those screws in the controller. Was the panel reading "7.4" or 74? Anyway, sounds like you have plenty of info, but it all seems a bit scrambled. Maybe just bump it up to the "200" range and see if the decimal changes to 7.4, etc.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021717/uploads/editor/v4/8gykouc57i8w.jpg

SusanD · August 2021

I must have got the decimal wrong - it was late! This morning it's 8.4 and the battery is 12.79 which matches the Victron readings on my phone. So at this moment, my solar won't turn on until the PV reads more than 17.79 - 5 more volts than my battery. Thanks for the lessons.

ColoradoJon · August 2021

Your Victron monitor has a little info exclamation point note -(i) - why is the charger off? Maybe you can tap that and it will tell you why it is not charging? It looks like you aren't getting enough sun. At only 7-9 volts incoming from the panels it is not enough to convert to any kind of usable current.

BrianZ · August 2021

Panel works, but just barely not enough light to get started in 2 of 3 days with low light..

SusanD · August 2021

Thank you so much everybody for the explanations. I'm good with numbers but I have a hard time with electricity. I read the manuals but I don't really comprehend what they're telling me. When I was travelling back, it did turn to bulk charging status so I feel better but I can see that this is going to be an ongoing problem in my favorite camping spots.

Dutch061 · August 2021

@SusanD, we like to camp in shady sites also and it is very easy to find them in the mountains of NC. It is because of this that I upgraded our converter that charges the batteries and relocated it so that if necessary I can use our generator to charge them from nearly discharged (we also have 2 100 Ah Battleborn batteries) to fully charged in 3 hours. Otherwise it takes 24 to 36 hours to recharge.

Brad

XenanMe · August 2021

@SusanD I feel your pain. I too live and camp in BC. Generally when camping my trailer is parked under trees so my rooftop panel doesn’t get much sun. I added a Renogy solar suitcase to my collection of useful items this year and that has made all the difference. I can place it is a sunny spot on my site. I also find that I am now scouring the campsite pictures when making reservations looking for one with more sun (which is opposite of my normal instinct). Happy camping.

SusanD · August 2021

@Dutch061, I think that's a mod for another year and different TV given the weight of generators. On the other hand, I did buy a Jackery power station and solar generator for my small electronics. I haven't used the solar generator yet but, you're right @XenanMe, I think I need to do a better job of picking my sites! Sadly it still won't keep my fridge powered. What a learning experience this has been!

ginsbuj · September 2021

I've had a battleborn for almost 2 years. Never had a problem or ever getting close to need charging beyond solar however I was camping in Colorado last week and in a spot where I only got parcel sun 3 hours a day. After the sixth day the battery shut down when the voltage dropped tp 11.75 even though the indicator lights in the TAB showed 3/4ths I was able to jump start the battery with a car emergency battery and then moved to an electric site to fully charge.

AZGal · September 2021

I thought that the lithium batteries could go lower that the 2 6V deep cycle AGM batteries that came with my 2021 TAB 400 Boondock. I tracked my battery levels while camping in CO & NM forests. They went down as low as 10.40 with low sun but still kept my refrigerator going. I know this was shortening the life of batteries...couldn't help it. But you said the battle born shutdown at 11.75?!

dragonsdofly · September 2021

@AZGal, Battleborns can easily be discharged by 90%. That means, with a 100 ah battery, 90 ah can be used before battery depletion is out of the safe zone. We have 6 100 ah in a battery bank. The internal bms (battery management system) stops power flow out at that point. We have a main interrupt programmed to stop our power outflow at 89% depletion, or 11% charge remaining, before the internal, bms begin to shut down the batteries individually. I cannot explain what happened to @ginsbuj, but at least one of his readings had to be off. How or what or why is, at this time, above my pay grade.

One theory might be it is not the LiFePO battery that shut down, but the equipment running off the battery, which has different operational limits, that shut off.

@AZGal, if you are considering the change to LiFePO batteries, as long as you make considerations for the external temperature operating range, they are great. Marvels of scientific engineering that make camping easier, more worry free and more convenient.

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