Question LiFePo4 Charging

[Texas Clodhopper]

I have 4 - 230 AH LiFePo4 batteries.
Victron Energy Smartshunt 500amp
LI-Bim
Magnum ME-ARC 50 Remote

Questions:
1. When on shore power, my batteries only charge to 85% SOC. If I turn the master battery switch off and back on they will charge to 100% and then go to float.

2. I started driving yesterday with the batteries 56% SOC, 13.09V. After driving 7 hours, the batteries were at 68% SOC, 13.33V. They charged only to 85% overnight and stopped charging on the Magnum display.

Whats going on? I think I must have a setting on the ME-ARC wrong. What say y'all?

 

[Richpatty]

I would look at the magnum…

Here are the settings I use for my Lithoium, but each manufacturer may be slightly different.

To set for lithium battery charging in a 12VDC system:

• Press the SETUP button;
• Turn SELECT knob to 03 Charger Setup, Press the Select knob;
• Rotate to 03C Battery Type, press Select knob;
• Rotate to Custom, press Select knob;
  • Absorb volts = 14.4VDC;
  • Float volts = 13.2VDC;
  • EQ volts = 14.4VDC;
  • EQ Done Time = 0.1hrs
• Rotate to 03D Absorb Done Time, press select knob;
• BattleBorn wants this set for 0.5hrs per parallel battery string, if you have 8 12v batteries then this would be 4hrs.
• Rotate to 03G, press Select knob;
• Rotate to Silent, press Select knob;
• ReBulk volts = 13.2VDC

I will say I also have times ,when I don’t get back to 100% SOC when charging off the magnum, but usually get over 90%. My solar (Victron controller) always gets it back to 100%, so I have not thought about it too much.

 

[Texas Clodhopper]

Thanks Rich.

 

[Texas Clodhopper]

@Richpatty, I had a couple of settings that were different than yours. After I had installed the new remote, I called Solar Energy, and they walked me through the setup.

 

[Richpatty]

Cool. What did they have you change?

 

[Texas Clodhopper]

I changed to your settings from what they had instructed last week. Their EQ done time was 4 hours, and the rebulk volts were 12.8. I changed it to 13.2 done time of 0.1, it immediately started bulk charging.

We are on shore power but will be doing some overnight boondocking beginning Friday and I will get a better idea if this fixed my issue.

Thanks again for you help and I'll let you know how it works out.

 

[Neal]

Do your batteries have anything to tell you such as via bluetooth what the BMS thinks the state of charge is?

Does your shunt need to be calibrated?

It's odd that you have a mix and match, i.e. how does your ME-ARC50 know the SOC? Does it work with the Victron shunt? All I know of is the ME-BMK that works with the Magnum inverter for SOC. I'm guessing you have the no shunt version? It may need to be recalibrated, I had to do that a time or two. I think disconnecting power to it and then reconnecting will put it back into sync mode.

 

[Texas Clodhopper]

The battery's BMS agrees with my Victron Smart Shunt, and my Smart Shunt agrees with the ME-ARC 50L.

 

[Neal]

With my install, I was told to discharge them monthly. It helps keep cells balanced, etc. I'm in the middle of my monthly discharge now, takes about 4 days. Consider discharging yours to 20% and then let them charge up from there and see how it goes.

 

[AbdRahim]

I talked to them (SES) about running them down and they told me that would just wear them out prematurely.