snail Posted July 16 Share Posted July 16 Hi, does anyone know if the above units can be set to your battery bank max amps and if you can read battery levels and charge rates in AMPS on the remote display Thanks Brian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeF Posted July 16 Share Posted July 16 (edited) Could you clarify the model of MPPT you are considering. I dont think Victron market a dual output MPPT. Votronic and Epever offer such units. A link to the item would be useful. Victron do market a dual output PWM controller. Edited July 16 by MikeF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snail Posted July 16 Author Share Posted July 16 Thanks Mike, I am getting confused been looking at votronic and Victron, have epever at the moment but not happy with it Which is the best and which can I read levels in amps, volts mean nothing to me after 15 years with a hymer, I finding it hard to adjust to these other systems Thanks Brian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeF Posted July 16 Share Posted July 16 (edited) Hi Brian, most of the MPPT controllers available will display current, amps, flowing Into the battery . The display will be a LCD screen on the unit, and/or a remote display via cable or Bluetooth. Setting the charge current limit in the unit is not normally available, although all Victron Smart controllers have this programmable feature . The charge limit is usually decided by the solar panel power or the rating of the unit. For example a Victron 75/15 , cannot deliver more than 15 amps into the battery, no matter how powerful the panels connected to it. With the panels themselves there is a maximum limit. Under ideal solar conditions, a 100 watt panel, with a 12v battery and a MPPT controller, will charge at a maximum current of 8 amps, although in practice with horizontal mounted panels, 5 or 6 amps is a typical maximum. I am not a fan of dual output controllers and my preference is a battery maintainer connected between starter and leasure battery. The ideal is, https://www.roadpro.co.uk/product/02e02-battery-maintainers/ablemail-amt12-2-trickle-charger-c8450/C8450 Thus regardless of leisure battery charge source, solar or mains charger, the starter will be maintained . The solar controller that works well and has no issues, is the Victron Smart range. With many great features, 5 year warranty, and a recent price reduction. For any battery system, a battery monitor or 'battery fuel gauge is worth fitting. The Victron Smart Shunt communicates via Bluetooth app. For example screen shot of my system showed the battery state of charge, how full, 94%, how much current was flowing In/ out, in this case -4.66 amps, how much power since charged, 12.7 Ah, and how long the battery could supply this , 1 day 16 hours. If you could supply more details of your system, solar panel details, details of battery pack Ah and battery type, then I could advise on a suitable solar controller. Mike Edited July 16 by MikeF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snail Posted July 16 Author Share Posted July 16 (edited) Thanks for the reply We have inherited this system when buying the van the dealer had fitted 100watt dual out put panel, I would like a 150watt Epever duotrace mppt controller which I'm sure doesn't have a present to control with my two 75 amp varta AGM batteries, the controller was alarming originally and was told to use another preset but cant remember which, its in such an awkward place with no spare cable to drag it out to see the screen Also they spliced into the original battery cables going from the Sargent charger, instead of going direct Think I need to start again, we are off grid from April to November usually, this last April I was concerned using the blown air heating up in Scotland, I have contacted a few solar fitters but seem to be reluctant to look at it, they all say theirs is the best Who can I trust? I can't fit bigger batteries as both under drivers seat they are less than 12 months old In our Hymer we had single 130 panel with 2 x100 amp lead acid running through the elektroblock and read out on dt panel simples never let us down, now we have English and Chinese s.....! I dont really understand this Bluetooth app stuff just want a screen to look at, seems a lot to ask? Edited July 16 by snail Extra words Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeF Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 (edited) 22 hours ago, snail said: Epever duotrace mppt control, If this is fitted to your van, then the default for sealed lead acid is OK for AGM. There is an optional display, Epever MT11 that plugs into the duotrace. This has all the features of the display on the unit. The lowest power duo is good for 10 amps output and will be suitable for panels up to 150 watts. I am still not clear as to what you want to do to the system. Get the existing setup working with a display you can see, or start again with all new components. If the latter, then from your comments, this work will be carries out by 'specialists'. Edited July 17 by MikeF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snail Posted July 17 Author Share Posted July 17 Thanks for your perseverance I have seen the mt11 but no one could tell me that it reads amps I will check setting it's on If there is something better I would prefer to have it, I'm not really bothered about cost What do you think about the splicing into other cables from the Sargent is this acceptable practice? Thanks Brian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spirou Posted July 18 Share Posted July 18 Rather than changing the controller just to see what it's outputting, I'd set up a victron smartshunt to see what's actually going in/out of the battery no matter what is providing or consuming power. https://www.victronenergy.com/battery-monitors/smart-battery-shunt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snail Posted July 22 Author Share Posted July 22 UHi, apologies for the slow response been away and talking to roadpro amongst others Firstly my solar panel has two cables coming from it but are connected to the same terminals on the controller why two cables? Secondly the battery type selected is sel 1, according to book is sealed which somebody said should be ok for my AGM batteries Today hot and sunny hab batteries at 14v starter 12.5v What I want is to be able to read AMPS not volts on a separate display like the mt11 but even those selling them can't tell me they will? Apparently epever are notorious for bad inaccurate readings? So should I buy a votronic dual mppt solar controller and swap it over, together with there display meter which will read amps, is there a way of telling what 14 volts would be in amp hours? Fully charged my 2 x 75 amp AGM batteries should give me 150 amp hours to use? Do you think votronic are the best? I've tried to take photos not good light for it What's your thoughts now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted July 22 Share Posted July 22 Could it be whoever fitted the panel never had the right size cable so fitted two lengths of twin cable? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted July 22 Share Posted July 22 BTW I added a Voltronic battery maintainer to my system as one came up for sale on eBay cheap, seems to be working quite well, keeping the engine battery charged. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spirou Posted July 22 Share Posted July 22 ? Don't see anything inherently wrong with your cables. +&- from panel and 2x twin cables going to each battery (starter and hab). Might be useful to replace with thicker cables but I can't really tell from the photos. I'm going to guess this epever is prioritizing the hab battery and only diverts a small current to starter which also explains your voltage reading. Again, as it should be. Your 2x75Ah hab batteries will give you at best 75Ah going with the accepted rule of thumb on 50% discharge considered as max. Deeper and faster discharges significantly reduce battery life. And you cannot tell how many Ah are available from V. Not that it really matters as the batteries will care how low you go in V, not how many Ah you got out of them as that depends on discharge current, age etc. Batteries are usually rated at C20 (full discharge over 20h), but if you plug in a large load that number (150Ah in your case) will give you a lot less. A 120Ah (C20) battery might be rated as ~105 @C5, and ~135 @C100. Point being, there's not too much reason to look at Ah or A coming from the solar panel beyond curiosity and there certainly is no reason to change the controller if you just want to see how the panel is doing because it won't tell you anything more about the battery, which is what you might actually care about. If you want to track energy going in/out of the battery from any source then your only option is a (smart)shunt as I suggested above. It will tell you about voltage, current, SOC etc. at 1s intervals if you so wish, but in the end, if you don't know what you're really looking at, is not much more than a toy. I find the SOC readings are very misleading even after a lot of parameter tuning. What they are good for is tracking trends over a longer period. If a battery gave you (useful) 50Ah when new, it might be giving only 30 after a few years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snail Posted July 22 Author Share Posted July 22 Thanks Colin and Spirou, the installation was done by a dealer, Don't understand why two separate cables come from panel then joined at controller? Yes the epever sends a trickle 1 amp supply to starter battery So leave it alone? Maybe bigger batteries or bigger panel 150 watt? Both hab batteries are under drivers seat so to go bigger would mean going into the bed box, don't really want to, they are less than 12 months old, even so they do seem to loose voltage overnight/ after dark even with no load, we can be fully charged at 14v at dusk and only showing 12.5 v in the morning? We only use 12 volt appliances, led lights, no inverters, water pump biggest demand when showering but during day light hours, Our last van hymer the dt 201 panel showed amp hours you set max value and it monitored it showed you what was used and left, I can't feel confident in seeing volts two volt drop means what in usable amps hours? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spirou Posted July 23 Share Posted July 23 If it's still showing 14V when the sun sets then your batteries were still being charged i.e. in bulk or absorption phase of the charge cycle. Batteries are mostly charged when the voltage goes back down from 14.2+ to 13.2-13.8 (depends on charger/profile). They're then held in that range for several hours before they are considered fully charged. 12.5V in the morning is not particularly low at all. Resting voltage at 100% SOC depends on several factors but in general it's between 12.6-13.0V If you want to know the baseline for your specific batteries then plug them into EHU for at least a day, possibly 2. Then disconnect everything!, let them rest a few hours, and then measure what your 100% SOC voltage is. My guess would be 12.6-12.8. Anyway, you can genuinely worry about things when your low readings are 12.0 or lower under no load. Not sure I understand the issue with 2 wires from the panel. One is +, the other is - and they both go in their respective socket from what I can tell in the photos. All in all, I don't see a reason to do anything about all this as long as batteries last. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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