Victron MPPT (and a blinking LED)

[tx2sturgis]

So...based in no small part on the glowing recommendations from many members here, I bought a small Victron MPPT charge controller for my current modest solar project. I normally prefer the Morningstar line, but hey this was less than half the price, and will be used in a non-critical situation.

It's the 75/10, which will handle 200 watts, in series input, for a 12v battery bank.

In my case, I will be using this as a portable power setup for some HF Ham Radio events, for now at least...but it may find its way to the future van 'build' I am planning.

The question is, during 2 days of testing on a 6 month old flooded battery, the little 'power on' green LED is now blinking all of the time. At first the LED was steady on, the first night. I assumed this meant, all is good. But now I wonder if blinking means all is good.

Or does it mean the Victron is not happy with the life of the battery?

On the Victron website and on youtube I cant find any reference to a blinking green LED.

On the front panel, the wording says:

Green LED:  on         Power
                  blinking  Battery Life

Does anyone know exactly what it means?

 

[tx2sturgis]

Here is my panel pair (2x100). I installed a 'piano' hinge and two sturdy rope 'handles' for easy handling at the remote site.

 

[rvpopeye]

What lights mean on different devices can be a cluster figuring out without a good manual or?? help from the mfg. Got their cust service #?

 

[CautionToTheWind]

Yellow LED: signals charge sequence
Off: no power from PV array (or PV array connected with reverse polarity)
Blinking fast: bulk charge (battery in partially charged state)
Blinking slow: absorption charge (battery charged to 80% or more)
On: float charge (battery fully charged)

https://www.victronenergy.com/uploa...er-MPPT-75-10--75-15-EN-NL-FR-DE-ES-SE-LU.pdf

 

[tx2sturgis]

The manual doesn't seem to say what the blinking green LED means, other than "battery life algorithm"...this is during no sun...overnight.

And there is no 'figure 2' that I can see anywhere in the hard printed manual I have or the online manual.

I think it means all is good...

But maybe not.

:huh:

 

[tx2sturgis]

Yellow LED: signals charge sequence

The yellow one is easy...its the overnight blinking green LED I wonder about.

 

[John61CT]

Load output management set to BatteryLife algorithm rather than fixed LVD

 

[tx2sturgis]

Ok...there is a jumper to change that...hmmmm.....

But I wont be using that LVD in my portable operations.

I will mess with it tomorrow and see what I get.

Thanks!

 

[tx2sturgis]

Well dang...

John you got me wondering so I lugged that whole package inside.

Tipped that big sucker up and looked under there and WTH?!?!?

That little jumper was nowhere to be seen! I know I saw it in there when I wired it all up, and it must have been there the first night, cuz I remember the light being steady on overnight.

But I was moving things around and I guess its like the jeezus clips we have on motorcycles....now its long gone.

 

[tx2sturgis]

Turns out that NO jumper means, duh....battery algorithm for LVD.

So.....I happen to have a small pile of old hard drives...the SCSI/IDE types from old AT PCs....

I found one and pulled a plastic jumper....but you know with my luck this aint NEVER gonna work....

Well guess what? It worked! It's a loose fit but it works! 

Steady green light again...jumper on pin 2 and 3.

I'm gonna have to find a way to make it stay in there....probably a small drop of hotglue will do it!

 

[tripper]

The Battery Life Algorithm which was denoted by the flashing power light only affects the load output terminal. If you are just running off the battery terminal than there is no difference between algorithm on or off. I have three Victron controllers 75/10 75/15 150/85 and am very familiar with them if you have any other questions ask me. BTW you need the Bluetooth dongle if you want to adjust the the bulk/absorb/float and equalization charges, otherwise the controller is set to a basic agm battery profile of 14.4 volts, too low for a flooded lead acid battery.
Below is from Victron concerning the battery life algorithm, it is really cool the way it works if you use the load output terminal instead of the battery out to power you devices.

Battery Life: intelligent battery management
When a solar charge controller is not able to recharge the battery to its full capacity within one day, the
result is often that the battery will continually be cycled between a ‘partially charged’ state and the ‘end of
discharge’ state. This mode of operation (no regular full recharge) will destroy a lead-acid battery within
weeks or months.
The Battery Life algorithm will monitor the state of charge of the battery and, if needed, day by day slightly
increase the load disconnect level (i.e. disconnect the load earlier) until the harvested solar energy is
sufficient to recharge the battery to nearly the full 100%. From that point onwards the load disconnect level
will be modulated so that a nearly 100% recharge is achieved about once every week.

 

[SoulRaven]

Turns out that NO jumper means, duh....battery algorithm for LVD.

So.....I happen to have a small pile of old hard drives...the SCSI/IDE types from old AT PCs....

I found one and pulled a plastic jumper....but you know with my luck this aint NEVER gonna work....

Well guess what? It worked! It's a loose fit but it works! 

Steady green light again...jumper on pin 2 and 3.

I'm gonna have to find a way to make it stay in there....probably a small drop of hotglue will do it!

TX2,

This MAY help,  I sometimes will do a really light crimp on a loose fitting connection like that.  Just might work for you. 

Pat

 

[John61CT]

This is a little jumper over two pins. Actually spreading the pins a little may help keep the jumper in place.

Or a piece of electrical tape.

Don't solder dude!

You may actually want to use the LVD feature in future.

Also resale vale.

 

[tx2sturgis]

Don't solder dude!

{snip}

You may actually want to use the LVD feature in future.

You nailed it...it was the jumper. Yeah no soldering...although my propane torch would probably make it stay put.......just sayin!


BTW the HF ham radio equipment pulls about 20-25 amps on voice peaks so the LVD wont work...all I'll be using is the charge function...for now anyway.

 

[tx2sturgis]

I sometimes will do a really light crimp on a loose fitting connection like that.

Good idea...it could rain on this thing or even get some dust blown on it....so good electrical contact is key.

The blinking light won't bother me now, since now I know what it means....but since the Victron is new to me, I really didnt know that jumper was kinda 'loose'...so I never even looked under there after I mounted it on the battery box and moved things around.....stuff happens!


Arrghhh.... :dodgy:

 

[tx2sturgis]

The Battery Life Algorithm which was denoted by the flashing power light only affects the load output terminal. If you are just running off the battery terminal than there is no difference between algorithm on or off. 

{snip}

BTW you need the Bluetooth dongle if you want to adjust the the bulk/absorb/float and equalization charges, otherwise the controller is set to a basic agm battery profile of 14.4 volts, too low for a flooded lead acid battery.

Thanks for all the good info!

I had seen something about the dongle but now I know why they sell it...

I did notice yesterday during some full sun that the battery electrolyte was very lightly bubbling, and my voltmeter was showing about 14.3 across the terminals during absorb...so I assume it will all be ok for a few weekends of use here and there.

Normally this battery sits on a Samlex charger, on standby, in my cargo trailer...and I admit...I was a bit neglectful and had to top off the electrolyte levels....I will buy a new battery hydrometer this week. My old one is NOwhere to be found!

This is kind of an 'experiment'...it will be used to power some ham radio gear at a remote site...my other remote power system is all mounted in the cargo trailer which will not be with me on my next trip.

Later on I will likely pair this Victron with a good AGM battery...in other words, put the 'dongle money' into the 'AGM account'...

Thanks again...

 

[tripper]

The Bluetooth dongle is what really makes the Victron's awesome! They are beginning a newer line that has the Bluetooth built in, my last controller is that way. I use an old cell phone as a semi permanent solar monitor. Attached are pics showing the live readout and also of the history menu. The battery setup menu is impressive too, you can even set bulk = absorb = float for CC/CV charging a lithium cell if wanted. Other good points are they allow some good size wires to be attached relative to their size, it accepts 2 gage output wire on the 85 amp model for example, and on the larger models you can have multiple MC4 inputs or standard wire. Also the 75/15  (75 volt max / 15 amp max) model is always under $100.

A really important item to me is you can set the charge current to what you like, from 0 to whatever your controllers max is. I like that as my lead acid battery should not take the full solar current so I can limit it to say 20 amps to better charge the battery.

BTW you can also just borrow a Bluetooth dongle to reprogram your unit. It plugs in the same place as the jumper you used, it also has the further ability of allowing you to get software and firmware updates, which Victron does occasionally

 

[tx2sturgis]

Cool!

I learned a couple things there....one, that's a lotta info!

And two...dude...you gotta lotta Facebook stuff going on!

 

And yep...if I end up keeping this for a more permanent installation later, I will sure look into buying a BT dongle for it....

 

[rm.w/aview]

Thanks Tripper for the Victron info and thanks Sturgis for this thread, I just bought a Victron BMV 700 monitor that was on sale and was considering a Victron Solar Controller thinking that the two devices would talk to each other more efficiently than a mix & match, though I was looking at the Morningstar Controllers too.

 

[frater secessus]

A really important item to me is you can set the charge current to what you like, from 0 to whatever your controllers max is. 

I've seen that option before and it interested me. Some controllers are able to handle overpaneled situations by moving the power point away from Isc (ie, toward Voc). Does anyone know if this is how the Vic limits current to the setpoint?

If so, is there a functional difference between using a hypothetical 20a current limiting Vic in your situation vs a larger Vic with the charging current configured down to 20a? Other than the larger one has room for expansion (and costs more)?