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Post by bupkis on Sept 1, 2018 15:26:56 GMT
There is likely not enough info to diagnose remotely, these things are dynamic.
One feature of your controller is it stays in equalize mode until it accumulates enough time at eq voltage to time out (2 hrs?) I can only assume that if not held at eq voltage long enough on day 1 it starts day two trying to accumulate that time. Why it never got there may always be a mystery, hope it doesn't happen again!
IMO, a good mppt LCD display should show PV voltage/amps in, battery voltage/amps in, charge mode all on the default screen, maybe even max/min daily batt v.
One of the features I like on the app is that I can show up at my brothers RV, display daily min/max for up to year in the past. This does not show how long it stayed at the max but withing a few moments I can determine how low his batteries are being discharged to and if it made it to his charging voltage daily or not. This also shows the time it takes his 400ah bank to recover after not being fully recharged on any camping trip.
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Post by bupkis on Sept 1, 2018 15:29:34 GMT
After thinking about it the first thing I checked was the Voc.... I did that first because I thought I might have a panel going out... The upper bank of panels were 75.6 and the lower bank was 75.4 in full sun.... Thanks for asking that question... That indicates that when your controller shows that high of a PV voltage that current is being limited to almost nil.
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Post by tattoo on Sept 1, 2018 15:35:40 GMT
That indicates that when your controller shows that high of a PV voltage that current is being limited to almost nil.
So does that mean the CC isn't working properly? I think I understand...
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Post by tattoo on Sept 1, 2018 15:44:02 GMT
One feature of your controller is it stays in equalize mode until it accumulates enough time at eq voltage to time out (2 hrs?) I can only assume that if not held at eq voltage long enough on day 1 it starts day two trying to accumulate that time. Why it never got there may always be a mystery, hope it doesn't happen again! It's funny you said that.....
I've seen it take two days before but that was because it was raining but it still finished even on a cloudy day in the rain....
All of the other times when it went to equalize mode it still had my little amount of draw on the system and it finished in about 4 hours in full sun...
I have never done it before but on the 28th I decided to unhook all the load so it would finish quicker... It never came out of EQ and the most voltage I seen in the batteries was 13.6 for 2 days.....
I knew right then I had a problem...
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Post by bupkis on Sept 1, 2018 16:29:37 GMT
It got stuck. In float? maybe! Indicating it is in eq and not eq-ing, that seems to be the problem, I'll stick with lost its mind.
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Post by tattoo on Sept 1, 2018 17:07:19 GMT
It got stuck. In float? maybe! Indicating it is in eq and not eq-ing, that seems to be the problem, I'll stick with lost its mind. LOL Yea that's a good analogy..... Well lets see if Renogy agrees....
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Post by Admin on Sept 1, 2018 22:09:15 GMT
This why I like posting on here rather than calling Renogy tech.... Plus the answers will be here just in case someone else has the same problem in the future...
Now what do you think Administrator? Is it the CC?
While the batteries were fine according to your hydrometer, we were asking questions about it in the event that the charge controller experienced a mishap if the battery chemistry was different than rated on the charge controller side. For example, charging/equalizing an AGM battery under the Flooded setting by mistake. As mentioned earlier, temperature, insolation, and other factors have an effect on the power output of the panels. Despite ambient temperature being 90dF, you witnessed just how much hotter these components can get and as a result plays a role in charging your batteries. We have recommended the loads not be connected when the battery is equalizing, it seems the controller might have experienced some kind of glitch when you disconnected the load as it was trying to equalize. The controller is supposed to equalize under the duration of 120min but perhaps it never thought it reached the stage and got stuck. Since your system is running normally, we would recommend to keep monitoring it, and when it's time to equalize again, keep the same procedure you had initially and observe if there is any changes. -Renogy Team
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Post by Admin on Sept 1, 2018 22:12:49 GMT
Tattoo, some of us appreciate that,. Its a shame the original forum isn't archived somewhere on this one. You guys have a treasure of usable information out there but it seems to have vanished. I hope you find what was causing your glitch We are currently working on bringing the content of the old forum onto this one which is why it will be locked September 3rd. It will either be reposts of threads entirely or if we can streamline a process, we will do that. It will take some time and as a result the old forum is still and will remain live just for viewing, not posting. -Renogy Team
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Post by tattoo on Sept 2, 2018 1:23:06 GMT
While the batteries were fine according to your hydrometer, we were asking questions about it in the event that the charge controller experienced a mishap if the battery chemistry was different than rated on the charge controller side. For example, charging/equalizing an AGM battery under the Flooded setting by mistake. As mentioned earlier, temperature, insolation, and other factors have an effect on the power output of the panels. Despite ambient temperature being 90dF, you witnessed just how much hotter these components can get and as a result plays a role in charging your batteries. We have recommended the loads not be connected when the battery is equalizing, it seems the controller might have experienced some kind of glitch when you disconnected the load as it was trying to equalize. The controller is supposed to equalize under the duration of 120min but perhaps it never thought it reached the stage and got stuck. Since your system is running normally, we would recommend to keep monitoring it, and when it's time to equalize again, keep the same procedure you had initially and observe if there is any changes. -Renogy Team You might know this and you might not but I didn't want to say anything before now........ I unhooked the controller during Eq after 2 days in direct sun light with NO load...... because your tech at Renogy told me to do it when I called them on the 30th... So don't put it off on me... I know how to set up the controller just like I told your Tech that was obviously reading questions out of a book that the batteries were set on flooded correctly not something else... I even went through the monitor settings with him at that time....
I could go into other things he asked me but I'm not going there right now....
Now the small loads have been working just fine through Eq for roughly for 6 months with this CC and almost a year with the 40a CC that I swapped out... so that's not the problem here either.... So what your saying is you want to get people to unhook there entire house or what ever on the 28th for it to Eq? That makes no sense and I bet NO one does despite your suggestions...
I'm going to set the date on the CC to the 27th tomorrow to get it to go into Eq on Monday and see what happens...
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Post by Admin on Sept 2, 2018 2:20:13 GMT
While the batteries were fine according to your hydrometer, we were asking questions about it in the event that the charge controller experienced a mishap if the battery chemistry was different than rated on the charge controller side. For example, charging/equalizing an AGM battery under the Flooded setting by mistake. As mentioned earlier, temperature, insolation, and other factors have an effect on the power output of the panels. Despite ambient temperature being 90dF, you witnessed just how much hotter these components can get and as a result plays a role in charging your batteries. We have recommended the loads not be connected when the battery is equalizing, it seems the controller might have experienced some kind of glitch when you disconnected the load as it was trying to equalize. The controller is supposed to equalize under the duration of 120min but perhaps it never thought it reached the stage and got stuck. Since your system is running normally, we would recommend to keep monitoring it, and when it's time to equalize again, keep the same procedure you had initially and observe if there is any changes. -Renogy Team You might know this and you might not but I didn't want to say anything before now........ I unhooked the controller during Eq after 2 days in direct sun light with NO load...... because your tech at Renogy told me to do it when I called them on the 30th... So don't put it off on me... I know how to set up the controller just like I told your Tech that was obviously reading questions out of a book that the batteries were set on flooded correctly not something else... I even went through the monitor settings with him at that time....
I could go into other things he asked me but I'm not going there right now....
Now the small loads have been working just fine through Eq for roughly for 6 months with this CC and almost a year with the 40a CC that I swapped out... so that's not the problem here either.... So what your saying is you want to get people to unhook there entire house or what ever on the 28th for it to Eq? That makes no sense and I bet NO one does despite your suggestions...
I'm going to set the date on the CC to the 27th tomorrow to get it to go into Eq on Monday and see what happens... This right here is why things should be discussed on the forum rather than calling Renogy..... There is a record of it...
The intent was not to blame, it was to draw inferences based on the information presented. The recommendation to disconnect loads when the battery is equalizing is to protect potential loads that cannot handle the higher battery surface voltage and risk damaging other electronics. We look forward to seeing your results to determine what other inferences can be drawn from your scenario. -Renogy Team
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Post by tattoo on Sept 2, 2018 2:29:45 GMT
The intent was not to blame, it was to draw inferences based on the information presented. The recommendation to disconnect loads when the battery is equalizing is to protect potential loads that cannot handle the higher battery surface voltage and risk damaging other electronics. We look forward to seeing your results to determine what other inferences can be drawn from your scenario. -Renogy Team Thank you for that, I didn't start using solar last week and I understand how they work.... I'm kind glad this happened because it's a HUGE learning curve.....
I will let you know what I find out, Hope it was a one time glitch....
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By the way when he asked me to unhook the cables it was only at 13.6 so that's by no means high voltage...
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Post by bupkis on Sept 2, 2018 13:36:46 GMT
just for info, what voltage have you set for equalize?
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Post by tattoo on Sept 2, 2018 14:00:58 GMT
just for info, what voltage have you set for equalize? I'm not sure I can change it... But the default is 15.2 I believe for flooded, I will check and see...
I set the date to the 27th this morning so it should go to Eq tomorrow....
Today is the first day that the batteries were at 12.7 by 10:00am and the low v of the day was 12.2 with my normal load at night.... That's back to normal and the way it's always been....
So it might have been a glitch, Let's see what happens today and see if it goes to float as it hasn't done that since the 27th...
Fingers crossed....
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Post by bupkis on Sept 2, 2018 16:14:51 GMT
change nothing if you believe your hydrometer.
manual shows 14.8v eq / 14.6v charge, not much different and not likely to mess up anything!!!
Consider the mt remote display!
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Post by tattoo on Sept 2, 2018 16:24:00 GMT
change nothing if you believe your hydrometer. manual shows 14.8v eq / 14.6v charge, not much different and not likely to mess up anything!!! Consider the mt remote display! Got ya thanks for checking.... I have a different hydrometer, I will check them again in a day or two after it Eq....
I will consider it.... Do you have a link for one that will work with my CC?
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