Solar Victron - charging? app? issues?

[Legin]

Has this issue been resolved as Im thinking maybe going for the Epever instead although Victron would suit my needs better ie the bluetooth for iOS

 

[Bramco]

Has this issue been resolved as Im thinking maybe going for the Epever instead although Victron would suit my needs better ie the bluetooth for iOS

As I think we said, we didn't have the problem, just a faulty panel. Since the van came back from the roof repair I've fitted a new panel and everything is working fine.

We're enjoying the wall to wall sunshine and 25+ in SW France and the panel and the controller are behaving perfectly.

Not sure of course how max Felix is getting on..

 

[Legin]

I took max felix last post to mean the replacement controller also wasnt working, maybe it was a different fault. Good to hear yours is now working fine.

 

[Max-Felix]

I never got to the bottom of it - spent a month with it over summer and it was on/off working OK/not working.

(following the last reply from Mike at bottom of this post) I removed the panel a week ago and left it simply connected to my old Landy battery for five days or so and it worked faultlessly. I can only surmise that maybe after all the solar/cabling/panel/controller were all A1 and indeed the Cali itself (batteries/wiring loom) was causing an issue??

Regardless - I am told that Victron are certainly the most reliable controllers - certainly the back up has been excellent and they have a five year g'tee. I would not be without the BT/iPhone app set up - it is superb.

Whatever - I'll copy in the conversation flow with the supplier as it might help someone...

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Hi Mike,

Just thought I’d update you following a month with the camper (and solar).

Sadly it did not work properly most of the time and was not putting charge in properly.

Same issue really – see sample pics – this is just one pair of many I took on various days but they all show similar - VW control panel shows actual voltage and amp draw on the system (this I verified many times with a separate volt meter) yet screen shot of Victron app take at same time shows totally inaccurate voltage. In short the controller seems to think it is putting voltage in when it is not.

As before to the very best of my knowledge all wiring is perfect and the panel undamaged and nothing unchanged from 2017 (bar the software updates) with the exact same system when it performed faultlessly.

That (being that you tested the older controller and supplied a new one and both perform the same and were tested fine) leaves the software but Victron say it’s fine!

Max

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Hi Max,

Good to hear from you. The charge controller you returned has been working perfectly on our test rig for the last couple of months so I'm still not convinced it's a software issue - at least not a fault.

The draw (load) current isn't shown on the Victron pic you sent - though it shows the system charging correctly. The charge controller cannot monitor the current draw of your vehicle. Your dedicated VW battery monitor will not show the same charge/discharge current as the Victron charge controller.

Nearly always, where the battery monitor shows a different voltage to the charge controller, there is a weak wiring link somewhere - often a melted fuse holder or a loose/dirty lug connection which increases the resistance and causes a dodgy reading. Another customer had been having a similar issue for a few months and they finally found the problem the other day - a melted contact in the in-line fuse holder was causing intermittent connection which affected the voltage reading.

Whatever the problem is it probably lies with the panel or the wiring of the vehicle. The panel is still generating so it's not a consistent fault. If the contacts inside the panel have come loose/damaged (due to excessive heat or flexing) then there may be an intermittent connection but this would probably require some flexing of the panel to notice, which it shouldn't be able to do. The fact you can re-trigger the controller to start charging by disconnecting/reconnecting from battery and it doesn't automatically keep charging below Float voltage I can't explain.

If you'd like to try a different charge controller, rule out the Victron unit altogether, then we can swap it for an EPsolar Tracer. Bit cheaper as well.

Kind regards,

Mike

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Hi Mike,

I want to keep the Victron option to be honest.
I follow all that – I will pop the panel on a spare battery and see how it works in a very simple set up then.

The load terminals are un used on my set up.

However, I am 99.9% sure all wiring is fine (I am very careful with that sort of thing and nothing is under strain and all connections are very clean and soldered if necessary and all wiring runs are protected and very carefully routed) – I will double check it again though. The VW factory wiring itself is A1 and working fine to the best of my knowledge.

The panel is very securely mounted (Sikaflexed) to aluminium angle each side and this is bolted in four places to the factory rails – all is super solid and flex free.

As I say it was the exact same set up last year that was faultless.

Issue I have pointing the finger at hardware is that if you remember the set up was on my driveway for a week or so when we first noticed this and thus un-moved or subject to any vibration etc and yet the Victron showed not a random pattern as such (as you’d expect with connection/wiring issues) but more the same behaviour each day – OK in the morning and then come afternoon stopping passing current or whatever?

Max

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Hi Max,

Without testing other controllers/panels there's not going to be a way to narrow down where the issue lies I'm afraid. My tests that I do here are usually just a simple panel-controller-battery setup to minimise all variables, so if you're able to do so that'd be really helpful. It might be the panel, I'm just not sure without more testing.

Mike

 

[Andy]

Max-felix
"The panel is very securely mounted (Sikaflexed) to aluminium angle each side and this is bolted in four places to the factory rails – all is super solid and flex free."

My panels were equally we'll fixed, however they both failed due to flex or vibration. The flexible panels are not very tolerant of vibration or regular flex. They have small trace connection between the cells, which you have probably seen, these broke on both of my panels after a couple of years.
Talk of this problem on various forums including t4 forum.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[Bramco]

My panels were equally we'll fixed, however they both failed due to flex or vibration. The flexible panels are not very tolerant of vibration or regular flex

I thought ours was pretty well fixed when I first put it on but had to do some bodging early on to stop vibration. So it was almost certainly the flex/vibration that caused the panel to fail. This time round, I've put thin ali bars front to back on each side to give it more support and we've not heard any vibration like we did with the 1st panel.

Max Felix, when you say the software is showing 0A, we also see this but I can see it's a function of the way the app works (I think). As far as I can tell it only shows what is used as opposed to what is generated. So on this trip I can see the days we've not been on hookup and all of the output has been used. On days on hookup of course not a lot is used, in fact it's probably only when we're parked up shopping.

Are you on the latest version of the app?

 

[Max-Felix]

I'm 99.9% confident the panel (and solar wiring) is not faulty especially as in discussions with Mike the fact it never fails to output the correct voltage consistently and the fact it misbehaved when static (ie van not moving for many days) only misbehaving at pretty much the same time or so each day and I'm really, really confident it is fixed securely and as unable to flex as can be - PU bonded and riveted to the strong angle - firmly bolted down with M8 bolts to the rails and supported along the roof rails under the angle too. Obviously I did wiggle test after wiggle test throughout this time to check all wiring/panel/connections etc - nothing was ever affected by wiggling or induced movement.

The app only shows the charging current it is supplying to the battery - it cannot measure the draw from the battery (unless you use the load terminals on the controller). Obviously if the battery is full and nothing on (fridge, lights etc) then the supply will be low but issue was when it was misbehaving and a load was applied then the app/controller/draw did not change.

All the time I had it on the Landy as a 'control' test it worked fine - put on lights = up goes the amp supply etc.

Yep, app and BT unit on latest software.

I think it was the Cali electrics in the end not the solar...

 

[MattBW]

If you ever are near the midlands feel free to try my panel with your setup, or indeed my controller with your panel.

 

[M&J]

HI Max did you ever get to the bottom of this as I seem to be experiencing the same issues and as per your case confident that the wiring is not the issue?

 

[kp64zl]

Sorry i"ve not read the whole thread but my Victron controller failed & had to get a new one.

discussion and troubleshooting steps here:

Viktron 100/20 solar controller not charging leisure battery

It seems like my MPPT100/20 has stopped charging my leisure battery in my campervan, so I am asking for some advice as what to do next. The solar controller is new (installed early April 2019) and is running firmware version 1.39 (not updated since installation). As you can see from the images...

vwcaliforniaclub.com

 

[M&J]

Thanks for the update. Your diagnostics are very helpful for comparison purposes as I am running the same kit with just 1 panel so should be able to compare the history. I need to do some more testing.

 

[Max-Felix]

No, I think it was just that vehicle as both fully tested controllers showed the same result (I only ever buy a Cali for a couple of months each summer) so that one went and currently looking for this year's so as soon as I get one I'll whack the solar set up on and see how it goes this time!

I'd advise contacting Graham at Midsummer as he was very helpful.

 

[MattBW]

Hmm, clucking bell...

View attachment 35521

I've had one time where its showed no input after a cable got pulled out slightly. I just disconnected and reconnected the cable and it reset it without issue. Could it be a bag connection somewhere?

 

[M&J]

Happy to say its a not an issue. Put the fridge on to Max just before it got dark and checked the next morning first thing. Panel charging batteries from 90%. 19Watts registering and 1.1 Amps being drawn. Checked SOC later and batteries fully charged.
Mistake I made originally was that I just got far too excited with the app showing a lot of zero values but it was actually correct. I think because it was sunny I was expecting something to be off the scale without actually applying any simple logic to it - V x I = P. My batteries were fully charged at the time, fridge and all gadgets off so there was nothing drawing current(just back from holiday). Voltage from the panel was about 21 volts but with no current draw, the amps reading was zero and therefore 0 Watts displayed as it should be. The controller will only do what's needed. Victron Controller readings and Cali display figures match up. Bulk, Absorption and Float seems to be working ok but I've decided not to dig any further into this and just let the kit do what it supposed to do and forget about it.