Lithium Charging Question (Newbie)

fay_anderson · May 15

Hello, I brought my new Tab 360 Black Canyon home on Monday. The question I have, should the state of charge reading on the Smart shunt go higher that 55%? I towed it for 2 1/2 hours on Monday and parked it. It was in full sun on Tuesday and I plugged into house electrical Tuesday night and left it plugged for 36 hours. After all this the state of charge reading was 55%. I did start running the fridge Tuesday night when I plugged into the house so I’m not sure what affect that might have.

Was I being too impatient and it will take longer to charge? Or is 55% the most I can expect?

TourDeForth · May 15

You probably should check the voltage of the battery directly with a volt meter to confirm the accuracy of the shunt. At zero percent the battery will be at 10 volts and a fully charged resting battery will be at 13.6 volts. While the battery is being charged you should see 14.4 volts

fay_anderson · May 15

This was the reading this morning after 36 hours on house power.

TourDeForth · May 15

13.3 volts is about 90% charge state. I’d guess the shunt settings are incorrect for your battery.

elbolillo · May 15

@fay_anderson what is the battery setup on your 360? How many batteries do you have? Do you a Victron inverter?

RTWCTS · May 15

@fay_anderson In the upper right-hand corner of your posted screenshot is a gear icon. I believe the red dot with an exclamation point means you have updates to run on the Smart Shunt. Tap on the gear icon to see.

Also, your current reading of -4.78A is odd. Do you have something turned on in the trailer (maybe the inverter and/or fridge)? If you aren't sure, turn off the red battery switch and see. You should be able to charge the trailer with the battery switch off.

fay_anderson · May 15

elbolillo said:

@fay_anderson what is the battery setup on your 360? How many batteries do you have? Do you a Victron inverter?

I have one lithium battery but do not have the inverter.

fay_anderson · May 15

RTWCTS said:

@fay_anderson In the upper right-hand corner of your posted screenshot is a gear icon. I believe the red dot with an exclamation point means you have updates to run on the Smart Shunt. Tap on the gear icon to see.

Also, your current reading of -4.78A is odd. Do you have something turned on in the trailer (maybe the inverter and/or fridge)? If you aren't sure, turn off the red battery switch and see. You should be able to charge the trailer with the battery switch off.

I’ve done the updates since that screen shot was taken this morning. I have the fridge running but that is all. Currently the shunt says 22% state of charge with 13.16 voltage. Current is -3.77A

we we’re going to test the battery voltage as a previous poster suggested but couldn’t find the battery. It wasn’t under the bed where I thought it would be.

pthomas745 · May 15

Have a look at your SmartShunt and SmartSolar "settings page". I'm willing to bet the settings in the Victron devices are wrong: set up for lead acid charging in the Controller, and set up with the wrong battery capacity or wrong "Discharge Floor".

This is the Battleborn page that describes how to correctly set up your Solar Controller for lithium charging.

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

This is their page for setting up the Shunt.

https://battlebornbatteries.com/configure-victron-bmv-700-bluetooth-dongle/

Check these settings and let us know if how yours was set up, and we can go from there.

fay_anderson · May 15

pthomas745 said:

Have a look at your SmartShunt and SmartSolar "settings page". I'm willing to bet the settings in the Victron devices are wrong: set up for lead acid charging in the Controller, and set up with the wrong battery capacity or wrong "Discharge Floor".
This is the Battleborn page that describes how to correctly set up your Solar Controller for lithium charging.
https://battlebornbatteries.com/programming-a-victron-smartsolar-charge-controller/
This is their page for setting up the Shunt.
https://battlebornbatteries.com/configure-victron-bmv-700-bluetooth-dongle/
Check these settings and let us know if how yours was set up, and we can go from there.

Thank you! This was kind in the back of mine too since I have a lithium battery but not the battleborn package it made me wonder if something was crossed. I looked at the settings but had no idea if they were correct so I left them alone. I will check in the morning and report back!

Horigan · May 16

Even with the correct battery type on your Victron Smartshunt, you'll need to do a few of things. 1) Make sure the Smartshunt has the correct battery capacity loaded. 2) Make sure your chargers, solar and shorepower charger, are set to Lithium so they provide the correct charge profile and voltage. 3) Turn off all loads and fully charge the battery so the Smartshunt resets to 100%.

Sharon_is_SAM · May 16

I am not sure if the shunts are synced at the factory or if the owner needs to do that. I would charge it without a load as Horigan suggested and then sink the shunt to 100%.

NMSunshine · May 16

With all loads switched off the Smartshunt should tell you voltage and how much current it thinks is flowing in, current at -3.77A with the fridge running means whatever charger you have running (solar, shore power or otherwise) isn't delivering enough to overcome the fridge load so it's discharging rather than charging. I'd expect to see a positive value here if it's plugged into working shore power, otherwise there's no point in shore power converter... I would figure that out (could be a blown fuse, though that is more common on the MPPT charger than the shore power) before messing with the shunt settings. But otherwise the advice ppl have re: syncing full state of charge and checking charger settings is correct.

fay_anderson · May 16

There are lights on the charge controller flashing yellow/green which the manual says it means “charger of pv over voltage”. Light is steady green now that I’m plugged into shore power.

pthomas745 · May 16

We need to see your "Settings" page.

fay_anderson · May 16

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021717/uploads/editor/m7/dmzycrbcphzc.png

fay_anderson · May 16

Still plugged in to house elec with everything turned off. Microwave display is lit but I can’t reach the plug to disconnect. SOC has dropped from 16% this morning to 14%. Current readings:

Sharon_is_SAM · May 16

I suggest turning off all loads and let your battery charge. If you have a portable lithium compatible charger, isolate the battery and let it charge. When it is full, sync to 100%. In the meantime I would change the Peukert to 1.05 and set the battery SOC to “Clear”. You don’t want to sync to 100% in case of a battery disconnect.

pthomas745 · May 17

Your battery voltage on both devices is perfectly normal for a charged battery. Looking at the SmartSolar history, it has reached "Float" stage every day for the last month. (The darker blue areas on the history page).

There are some minor differences in what you show for your settings, and what Battleborn shows for what they say (suggest) the settings should be.

In any case: what you are not getting is a "synchronization" , apparently. There is one more thread about this exact same thing in the group from a couple of days ago, where the WFCO is reaching the "charged voltage", but not staying at that voltage before dropping off to "float" voltage. In theory, this would not allow the shunt to "sync".

You are also telling us the trailer has been out in the sun. Your solar controller settings seem to be correct. I would: disconnect from shore power and let the solar charge the battery. Find the "trends' page on the shunt, which will show you the battery voltage climbing as the battery reaches that magic charged voltage number.

Once it reaches that voltage, the shunt is "supposed" to sync itself. If this doesn't happen...you may need to look closely at the battery voltage to see it is at the "charged voltage" level, and manually sync the shunt.

Edit: try the solar with the battery switch off, if convenient.

fay_anderson · May 17

pthomas745 said:

Your battery voltage on both devices is perfectly normal for a charged battery. Looking at the SmartSolar history, it has reached "Float" stage every day for the last month. (The darker blue areas on the history page).
There are some minor differences in what you show for your settings, and what Battleborn shows for what they say (suggest) the settings should be.
In any case: what you are not getting is a "synchronization" , apparently. There is one more thread about this exact same thing in the group from a couple of days ago, where the WFCO is reaching the "charged voltage", but not staying at that voltage before dropping off to "float" voltage. In theory, this would not allow the shunt to "sync".
You are also telling us the trailer has been out in the sun. Your solar controller settings seem to be correct. I would: disconnect from shore power and let the solar charge the battery. Find the "trends' page on the shunt, which will show you the battery voltage climbing as the battery reaches that magic charged voltage number.
Once it reaches that voltage, the shunt is "supposed" to sync itself. If this doesn't happen...you may need to look closely at the battery voltage to see it is at the "charged voltage" level, and manually sync the shunt.
Edit: try the solar with the battery switch off, if convenient.

Following your advice this morning I have disconnected from shore and switched off the battery. Unfortunately no sun in the forecast for a week.

pthomas745 · May 17

@fay_anderson Ah, well. Best laid plans and all that. Wait for the sun, let us know what you find out.

fay_anderson · May 17

Mother Nature took pity on me and the sun was out just enough to charge my system and I now have 100% on the shunt readout! I’m still not sure I understand why this happened but I’m very relieved to have my readings in alignment. Thank you Thomas and everyone for taking the time to help me problem solve. This community really is the best of humankind.

LauraC · May 18

@fay_anderson ...You're fortunate you were able to get it synced to 100 percent. Mine still won't sync, although I'm seeing that the voltage is at 14.2 or above for 16 minutes on the trend page. (when on solar) I haven't disconnected my battery (battery switch off) while charging on solar. Anyone available to explain the benefit of doing that?

fay_anderson · May 18

LauraC said:

@fay_anderson ...You're fortunate you were able to get it synced to 100 percent. Mine still won't sync, although I'm seeing that the voltage is at 14.2 or above for 16 minutes on the trend page. (when on solar) I haven't disconnected my battery (battery switch off) while charging on solar. Anyone available to explain the benefit of doing that?

You might want to try the battery disconnect like I did. I had had tried shore power and just solar without the battery shutoff but nothing was working. I disconnected the battery, went to town for a couple errands and it was at 100% when I got home about an hour later. Good luck!

LauraC · May 18

I'm trying that now. Thank you!

Cliffs · May 18

fay_anderson said:

Mother Nature took pity on me and the sun was out just enough to charge my system and I now have 100% on the shunt readout! I’m still not sure I understand why this happened but I’m very relieved to have my readings in alignment. Thank you Thomas and everyone for taking the time to help me problem solve. This community really is the best of humankind.

Fay is it still working? I note in the screenshots that your SOC on reset is set to 100%. Switching the battery on/off should trigger that I think. I have the same problem, ours never auto syncs and it always displays negative current even when charging.

Cliffs · May 18

I have the same/similar problem that Fay has. We've had our 360 since last summer and the SOC never will increase despite the battery being fully charged. I've tweaked the settings several times times with no luck. After looking into the shunt manual, I'm starting to think it's not synching because the shunt is always reading negative current no matter what. I suspect the cause perhaps is the negative side of the solar controller (arrow) is connected to the wrong side of the shunt ( it bypasses it). Does anyone know what the proper connection should be?

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021717/uploads/editor/48/awvucdmzi0dx.jpg

NMSunshine · May 19

Cliffs said:

I suspect the cause perhaps the negative side of the solar controller (arrow) is connected to the wrong side of the shunt (bypasses it). Does anyone know what the proper connection should be?

I DIY'd adding a smart shunt to my TAB320s a year or two ago and you are right, the only thing that should be on the "to battery minus" side is a wire running to the battery negative terminal, all of the negative loads should be connected the other "to system minus" terminal.
That way the shunt is able to read current flowing in and out of of the battery for all loads and charge inputs. What you have right now is bypassing the charge current reading.
Be sure and confirm that all the wires are what you think they are before you move anything around, or just let your dealer handle it.
Since it's been calibrating on an odd setup, if you fix things you if it doesn't auto sync after the battery has been fully charged, you may need to force a sync when you're sure it's at 100% SOC

elbolillo · May 19

If this is the way that NuCamp is wiring the systems from the factory, then they are in real need of additional training for their installers. The only wire connected to the "To Battery" side should a single cable running to the battery. Hook that wire up to the "To System" side and let the battery draw down some. Then allow it to fully charge and then everything should be in sync.

Gomers2 · May 19

This is Absolutely the issue - the shunt is miswired, as mine was. The OPs battery is getting charged, but that is not getting measured bc the neg lead from the charger and/or solar controller is on the wrong side of the shunt. Those need to be moved to the System Minus side. As stated above: the ONLY wire on the shunt 'to batt Neg' side goes directly to the battery negative. I told nuCamp tech support these were being sent out incorrectly eight months ago.

LauraC · May 19

Yes! I read about the possible mis-wiring elsewhere online, and took a good look at my Smart Shunt which looks just like the photo above. I thought it wouldn't sync because the WFCO wasn't getting the voltage up high enough for long enough. But then I saw voltage above 14.2 for about 16 minutes while on solar - which should have been plenty long enough for syncing to occur. But it didn't. I still think I want a Victron IP65 for more steady charging on shore power - and will get that installed at the dealer. While I'm there I'll have them fix the mis-wiring - and then it should sync on shore power and solar. That will be such a relief!

Howdy, Stranger!

Quick Links

Categories

Lithium Charging Question (Newbie)

Comments