Magnum inverter and 6 Battleborn Lithium batteries. It seems like I don’t have near the time I would expect before batteries are drained when boondocking. Ok, so as some of you know I’m still electrically challenged but here is what I’m seeing.
As soon as I come off of shore power or generator my inverter controller reads 13.0 to 13.1. From what I could gather from looking around online it seems like they should be closer to 13.6 if fully charged? On the chart I have it shows 13.0-13.1 to be around 35% capacity?
My battleborns bulk charge at 14.4V and finally float at 13.8V. Do you have the charge parameters configured for your Battleborns? And most importantly, do you have a “start of charge” device? Battleborn has them, mine is a Victron BMS712 and rely on it heavily.
There are several Battleborn users among us and Richard is extremely knowledgeable, maybe someone else can offer more help!
EDIT: Sorry -- Gordon and I were posting at the same time!
Does your inverter/charger have a Lithium profile and, if so, is it set properly? Takes higher charge voltage to top off Lithium than lead-acid so you may not be getting a full charge on them.
Brad,
I worked with Bill to set up the charge profile. It was set to maximize the life of the batteries with a low float voltage, and cautious low battery cutoff. The profile in the ME-ARC is custom. The one huge to be aware of point is that the profile was intended for pedestal to pedestal use. It was not intended for boondocking or maximizing the amp hours in the battery bank.
I am going to assume that profile is still loaded into the ME-ARC. If you want to use that profile for boondocking, you must put the charger into CHARGE mode to completely fill the batteries before a boondocking excursion. They will not fully charge with that profile if left in float mode.
All that being said, let’s quantify how much use you are getting out of them boondocking. Charge them fully before boondocking. When you come off charge and start the battery use, RESET the amp hour meter on the ME_ARC. Then when you discharge them, record the amp hours used before the batteries recharged. That’s a 600 amp hour bank, so you should get 500 amp hours easily.
If you want to use the bank more aggressively, the ME ARC can easily be changed to more aggressive settings such as FLOAT at 13.6 to 13.8, and lowering the battery cutoff and recharge voltage to extract more juice from the bank.
There is no perfect setting. A lot depends on how you want to use the bank.
To Hexspeed, the setup he has does not have a Lithium setting per se, but it does have almost infinite capability in setting a custom profile for any type of battery.
Brad, if you want your eyes to spin, read this post.
http://newellgurus.com/showthread.php?tid=1124
And to further add to Richard's excellent explanation, the absorb rate (where the charge current drops low and the voltage stays around 14.6) is done to allow the BMS to equalize the individual cell's voltage. This will give you the most available amps to use.
Thanks for all of the info. Makes total sense in that Bill's setup was for post to post vs. me at the polar opposite as I'm 100% boondocking or I'm plugged into to 50 amp at storage. I'll check back in when I get ready to make some adjustments before our next trip.
360 Wrote:Magnum inverter and 6 Battleborn Lithium batteries. It seems like I don’t have near the time I would expect before batteries are drained when boondocking. Ok, so as some of you know I’m still electrically challenged but here is what I’m seeing.
As soon as I come off of shore power or generator my inverter controller reads 13.0 to 13.1. From what I could gather from looking around online it seems like they should be closer to 13.6 if fully charged? On the chart I have it shows 13.0-13.1 to be around 35% capacity?
Ben, do you connect all your 6 lithium batteries in parallel?
I am thinking to replace my 6 house lead-acid batteries with Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4), and started to make some inquiries. I was told by a supplier that their LiFePO4 batteries support a maximum of 4 in parallel or 4 in serial. Any more quantity in a group would be problematic.
I didn't understand why, so I googled a little bit. I found this discussion below, it might explain why so:
https://diysolarforum.com/threads/why-ca...lel.32910/
Brad, IIRC the float voltage is set somewhere around 13.4 on that setup right now, so your voltage coming off float of 13.2ish makes sense.
In the short term, there is a solution in this particular setup, that will fully charge the batteries.
Go to CTRL, it will say MultiStage, rotate knob until it says Start Bulk, press knob. This will force the batteries to go into a full charge cycle. When the cycle is complete, the charger will revert to float.
The charger logic was setup to be the best of both worlds. Conservative while on the pedestal to maximize battery life, with the option of fully charging for boondocking. You just have to manually initiate the full charge cycle.
I was concerned about a post in this thread about the number of Battleborn batteries that can be paralleled so, I asked Battleborn. Here is their reply:
Good evening,
Battle Born batteries do not have a maximum parallel limit. With appropriate sized wires, you can parallel indefinitely. At a certain point, you would want to parallel sub-banks of batteries together.
Thank you,
Brandon Newman
Technical Sales Specialist
[email protected]
Phone: 775-622-3448 | EXT: 131
1190 Trademark Dr. #108
Reno, NV 89521
www.dragonflyenergy.com
www.battlebornbatteries.com
From: Gordon Jones
[email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 7:12 AM
To: Kayla Parton
[email protected]
Subject: Parallel
Would you please answer a question for me? I read on a forum that multiple batteries in parallel should be limited to four. I have nine battle Børns all paralleled with 4/0 cable. Is this an acceptable method?
Gordon Jones
Very interesting and shows that BB has developed a superior BMS than other brands.