Lithium battery info

[regis101]

I apologize for coming off like a stuffed shirt

Balderdash !!

We're a gonna almost need a sticky for these new fangled batcheeries.

 

[Giuseppe Hardblast]

Yinz are funny

 

[Giuseppe Hardblast]

If you don''t have a coulombmeter, you need one. Lifepo4 voltage is almost always at the 13.1 volt area except when its fully charge or near empty. That way you never take it down to empty. Because of the heat I been using my swampcooler 24/7 and thought I was fully charging my battery every day but when I checked my 2 lifepo4 (110ah each) they are both down to 49ah,without the coulombmeters I would think they were full, since they read 13.1 volts. I use the tk15 (cost about 25 dollars) it handles up to 50 amps in/out, but they sell ones that can handle over 100 amps.
tk15 coulometer


With lithium and solar you need a solar controller you can adjust. With voltage drop 14.4 volts aint going to cut it. Lifepo4 voltage is close to what a 12 volt battery reads when its full, so the controller will either switch to float or reduce amps to the battery. I have to set my mppt controller bulk setting to 15.5 volts (highest it will go) just to get a full charge. When set to 14.6 volts, the controller always goes into float and charges at less then 4 amps, at 15.5 volts I get close to 12 amps of charging current. If your pwm controller has no display showing volts/amps, you need to get a 90 volt 30 amp combometer and place that between the controller and battery, that will show what the controller is putting out, next measure the voltage on the battery terminals, if they differ then you have voltage drop, you need to increase the bulk voltage to compensate. Lifepo4 you can hit them with maximum amps till they are almost full, its a waste to trickle charge them because the controller thinks they are full. 

90 volt 30 amp combometer
 
I think I'm running into this problem. My display says 13.6v which is the float charge. I'm going to have to look into this. 

 

[MotorVation]

Here's a YouTube video by Will Prowse (that Battleborn sponsored) about determining state of charge.

Will Prowse

Please read the comments underneath the video. He recommended two different meters that will determine state of charge once hooked up to other devices. I ordered the second one. It was about 15 bucks. I haven't installed my batteries yet due to the fact that it's still pretty hot here in Florida and I don't see the need to subject the batteries to the heat when I have access to shore power, so I can't comment on how well it works.
Bottom line, the battery voltage will read one thing standing alone but changes when it's hooked up to other devices.

I wish there was more info available on this.

 

[Giuseppe Hardblast]

Yea. Tricky stuff. Like, when are my batteries never going to be charging or have a load on them? Never.

 

[whitewolf]

I feel obliged to mention one other problem that I have with my setup with my lithiums. We installed a nice Magnum charger/inverter under the dinette bench seat. We did cut a vent in. I've found that the charger will overheat and shut off in the summer when on shore power. So I just turn the charger off when plugged in. Let the solar handle the charging. Still annoying. I'm thinking about installing a fan on the under seat vent for the charger. I'd like everything to just work without having to think about it.

Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk

 

[Giuseppe Hardblast]

Would an automatic transfer switch help?

 

[Giuseppe Hardblast]

Anybody have experience with this cell balancer/meter
https://www.amazon.com/ISDT-Battery...fd2be1ee8c8738d64ece06e7f834ca&language=en_US

 

[tripper]

I've been running LiFePo4 for years now with a Victron controller set at default LiFePo4 setting, it has been working flawlessly. My batteries are similar to battleborns, only I bought them straight from China. Default Victron is 14.4 bulk/absorb and 13.6 float and a programmable low temp shutoff. The only reason I could see for someone using much higher voltage to bulk charge would be if the solar controller was too far from the battery allowing a lot of voltage drop in the line and/or way too small diameter wire gage from the controller to the battery.

 

[billy.turnstile]

To know the different from Lithium-ion and LiFePo4 batteries, can read this:
https://coremax-tech.com/differences-lithium-ion-battery-lifepo4-lithium-polymer-batteries/