Do we need a new battery? ☹️

[Jcloughie]

Wow that is a real list of issues all stemming from the battery explosion. Can't you put in a claim for the rest of the damage i.e. mover as PCB may now be shot?

That's something under consideration.

John

 

[otherclive]

Sorry to hear that your away break was spoiled as a result of the battery explosion. Hopefully you now have a full scope on the secondary effects and it is a matter of patiently sorting them out one by one.

 

[Jcloughie]

Sorry to hear that your away break was spoiled as a result of the battery explosion. Hopefully you now have a full scope on the secondary effects and it is a matter of patiently sorting them out one by one.

It seems that way. We will not be using it til spring so have a long time to sort the mover out.

John

 

[Jcloughie]

Another update.

I went to the van today, it’s been left for about 3 weeks with the solar panels on.

This is the new controller.



Note the wire coming from load neg only goes to the chassis. No load connected to load pos.I have no idea why the diplay shows readings for the load.

When I got to the van I was disappointed that it showed a batt voltage of 14.8 (high just like my old controller), and a charge rate of only 1 amp max but very overcast.

See; https://share.icloud.com/photos/0zZb1tBbR9KPj0mjD84NoEemA

The same voltage was shown on the van panel and a multimeter on at the battery.

I turned on a few lights and the controller shows minus 1.1 amp. Over 10 mins the voltage went down to 12.8

I then turned off the solar panes and the lights. The battery recovered to 13.0.



And see: https://share.icloud.com/photos/0Fgl8qGC4EhAWOoIIaeZgHqzQ

So I have concluded that the controller was in a charge mode when I first checked. The true battery voltage after settling down was closer to a little over 13.

When I used the old controller I had a Phantom tracker so could see that the voltage was constantly around 14.5. This controller is, I hope, more sophisticated and switches between modes on a program. I have set it for Gell battery as it is now an AGM battery fitted.

Despite this, the battery graphic on the controller only shows a half full battery. But others have said that that is a waste of time in reviews.

I turned the solar back on and left it like that, just hoping all is good.

John

 

[JTQ]

John,
Just an immediate thought:
Can you readily recheck the controller is set to a sealed battery, not a "flooded"?

That 14.8 and even the 14.5 is into a "boost charge" area, and it is only flooded batteries that ought to be boost charged, typically every 28 days.
Sealed not at all.
My Morningstar controllers feature that boost phase once every 28 days, when set onto Flooded.

 

[Jcloughie]

John,
Just an immediate thought:
Can you readily recheck the controller is set to a sealed battery, not a "flooded"?

That 14.8 and even the 14.5 is into a "boost charge" area, and it is only flooded batteries that ought to be boost charged, typically every 28 days.
Sealed not at all.
My Morningstar controllers feature that boost phase once every 28 days, when set onto Flooded.

Thanks JTQ. I will check. It should be set to Gel. But I could not check on site as I didn’t have the app on my phone and no data link. But that was what I had it set to.

This is the table for this controller.



The full instructions are here.

Tracer AN Series (10~40A) MPPT Charge Controller

EPEVER Tracer-AN adopts MPPT(Maximum Power Point Tracking)technology. This mppt solar charge controller capacity range from 10A to 40A.

www.epever.com

John