Caught the voltage spike in real time!

Still don't know what it means exactly, but there it is
Entire charging system to date:
Solar charging station components:
Victron energy smart charge controller MPPT 75/15:amzn.to/3OFHlX0
Newpowa 12v 100watt monocrystalline solar panels:amzn.to/3u3kLjf
ALFFAA 1500 watt pure sine wave inverter:amzn.to/3QMTyel
Breakers:amzn.to/3OEGDt6
Fuses:amzn.to/3yovdVb
Battery monitor:amzn.to/3ykezWu
2 awg battery cables:amzn.to/3QRDtnC
Filmed with gopro hero 10 black:amzn.to/3u4orRX
REDODO 12.8V 200AH PLUS LIFEPO4 BATTERY:www.redodopower.com/?ref=P6pi...
Battery discount code: Aloha
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases
As a REDODO power affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases

[@windpowerandmore6310]

You should lower your charging boost voltage to 13.7 v . I have done many tests with lifepo4 Prismatic cells it's way too easy to overcharge them with that set voltage especially when they are in a pack of 4 or more like that battery is. The BMS cuts it off because of a high voltage situation and those high voltage spikes will easy kill any inverter that is hooked to them. I seen way over 16 volts in your video which will definitely hurt your inverter sooner or later.

[@ProjectsinParadise808]

copy that brother...mahalo!🤙

[@windpowerandmore6310]

@@ProjectsinParadise808 keep up the good work!

[@paydrodavila1679]

@@ProjectsinParadise808 Sir, Now thanks to you and your page I am looking into making my own portable LifePO4 system. I'm not needing more than a 12v system for camping and fishing. What setup would you suggest ? I'm interested in the Chins 12.8v 1280 Wh 100Ah, but I'm not sure which solar powered charge controller and inverter to go along with it. Ideally I would like 2 100W solar panels and a decent size inverter (usually for a small 12v cooler to keep food and drinks cold for about a week) I also use a LifePO4 battery for my trolling motor and I'm hoping to charge it infrequently, if possible. I plan on buying a mini Freezer/Cooler so I can keep freshly caught fish frozen for up to a week.

[@devonhallassociates9524]

@@paydrodavila1679 Paydro, my suggestion is that you purchase a DC fridge/freezer designed for automobiles. There are several of them on Amazon. If you use a DC fridge/freezer you will not need an inverter and you will also not have efficiencies inherent in converting DC to AC through an inverter.

[@hanshansen384]

BMS is disconnecting, only 1cell is at 100%(3,65V), 1W is Not charging at 14,2V because BMS is disconnected, BMS connecting again at 13,75V it is charging again with 27W, BMS is disconnecting again and is Not charging at 1W 14,2V. You must lower absorb Voltage so you can charge at 3-4W or more for longer time, use only 1 solar panel to get slow charging to give Balancer more time before disconnecting. Disconnect the inverter so it do not get the spike.

[@ProjectsinParadise808]

Have made all the adjustments as you and others have so kindly spent the time explaining what is happening. Mahalo and aloha!🤙

[@rsshaggy]

Set your charge controller to do 14 V even

[@Superacerc]

I just charged my new chins 300ah 12v and right at the end it spiked to 16/17v. The charger shut off and slowly came down to 13.8. I was just using a cheap charger from Amazon on the 10a setting.

[@ProjectsinParadise808]

Must of just been that final pulse to finish off the charge...I've seen similar right at the end🤙

[@OffGridBasement]

I believe everyone is correct in saying the BMS in the battery is to blame. It's most likely a balancing issue. If I were you I would change the settings of the MPPT to: Absorption voltage: 13.9v Float voltage: 13.4v Absorption duration: Fixed Absorption time: 2 hours Tail Current: 1.0A I believe 13.9v is right at the peak of the charge curve before it shoots up to over 14v. If you keep the absorb duration fixed it will either keep charging at a lower voltage for 2 hours or stop when the charging Amps goes below 1amp. Either way, you are getting a full charge.. it just takes longer and you probably won't that sudden voltage spike. Take care!

[@ProjectsinParadise808]

Got up this morning before sun started hitting the panels and made all the parameter adjustments just like you and others suggested! Mahalo for all the detailed information! Interestingly, REDODO team reached out to me in email last night, and said what I was experiencing is a normal function, and no cause for alarm. I will feel better not allowing the spike though. aloha 🤙

[@mleidlein]

I'm having a similar problem with an MPPLV2424 and a Big Battery Max 24v. Randomly, after battery is fully charged I will come out to see the charge controller off and only showing 2watts from the PV (4 - 200w panels). End of winter so not getting strong sun yet. Happened today around 10:30 am. If I turn off the PV breaker, wait for inverter to go into battery mode and turn it back on everyting runs normal.

[@robertmeyer4744]

interesting, and it only on that battery. may want to try a voltmeter on battery at same time. looks like something with BMS and top balance . may have one cell out of balance and the BMS switching modes. causing a voltage spike at charge controller. this only happens at full charge . I wish I could see the cell voltage of each cell . after a few cycles this may stop or just something with BMS does . now give that battery a good load and run it down checking the watt hours of amp hours see if has the rated capacity .

[@ProjectsinParadise808]

Appreciate your feedback Roberto...I'll be patient and watch closely, and see if it resolves. Always paying attention buddy...mahalo plenty 🤙

[@ProjectsinParadise808]

and definitely going to employ the multi meter...i was under pressure!🤣

[@christopherbailey7453]

It looks to me like when your system filled your battery it went from bulk to absorb, which allowed the voltage in your pv System to build after the charge controller stopped accepting power

[@christopherbailey7453]

If you put a load on your inverter the battery will drop and you will see the wattage increase on your charge controller

[@ProjectsinParadise808]

🤙

[@jimmybrad156]

Good job catching the BMS cut-off (I guess that's what happened.)

[@ProjectsinParadise808]

Mahalo! It took some obsession to catch! Aloha! 🤙

[@TheYammerHammer]

I set everything at 13.5v and it keeps my redodo battery at 13.58 v.....Perfect 👌

[@ProjectsinParadise808]

That's fantastic to hear! Yeah man mine working fantastically here too. On every system that I'm running I've had to lower my charging parameters regardless of what battery controller inverter etc etc. I'm learning the longer I use these batteries. And from everybody else who knows way more than me we're all dropping the voltage some to make everything Cruise right along. Glad you found what works for you. Aloha! 🤙

[@TheYammerHammer]

@@ProjectsinParadise808 I'm going to try your 13.8 13.8 13.5 settings..... but what concerns me is that somebody mentioned that these are 3.5 volt cells. So charging it over 13.6 is doing damage to the battery? I don't know you tell me. I'm just a confused deadhead from the 90s. That smokes to much pot

[@jimmybrad156]

@@TheYammerHammerI spent quite a few hours looking into the best voltage to float a lifepo4 12v battery at, and decided on 13.4v. 13.5 to 14v is okay for a full charge if you must, just don't hold it up there.

[@freeranger1677]

In my opinion batteries don't jump up a couple of volts instantaneously and then quickly drop down. What I believe you are seeing is a momentary erroneous reading in the Victron. This could be some kind of bug in the firmware or a hardware fault. I suggest you contact Victron about this, maybe they could shed some light onto it.

[@sNEAKYnIGHTmUPPET]

so the BMS is most likely disconnecting due to high cell voltage. 14/4 is 3.5 per cell. if they have set the max cell voltage to 3.5 that would make sense. if they have it set higher than 3.5 then your cells are extremely unbalanced. I want to reiterate that it is NOT the charge controller going into absorption that is causing this, it is switching to absorption BECAUSE the battery is saying it is too full. Absorption is not magic, it is just a voltage that the controller supplies so that loads will run from the controller instead of discharging the battery. If this makes sense, great. if you need further explanation I would be happy to do a deeper dive into charging modes for you. Aloha my friend PS, lower your charge voltage to 13.75 BULK, and 13.6 Float. absorb for say 1 hour. pps, to diagnose this, you would have to open the battery and test each cell with a meter. unless it has bluetooth

[@ProjectsinParadise808]

As usual Michael I'm going to read what you said a few times,let it permeate, then absorb. Mahalo so much...all rings true what you say. Guaranteed in the morning I reset parameters to what you said. Aloha brother 🤙

[@Sylvan_dB]

Once you find a voltage where the controller can hold the battery without the BMS disconnecting, and if the battery has balancing active at that voltage, then after a day or two you can increase the voltage by 0.1v. Keep repeating until you can hold the battery at 14.4 volts. 3.6v/cell should be a perfectly acceptable peak voltage when the cells are balanced.

[@Sylvan_dB]

@@ProjectsinParadise808 The key part is that the voltage spike is causing the charge controller to go into absorption, not the other way around. It appears like the BMS is disconnecting, which means the solar panel voltage is not being dropped by the load of charging the battery so the voltage at the controllers battery terminals rises rapidly. The controller sees this voltage increase as completing the bulk or boost charge phase, causing the transition to the absorption phase and the BMS reconnects the battery. I suspect one cell in the battery is reaching the critical high voltage limit of the BMS (usually 3.7v to 3.8v) and the BMS has a balancer so it quickly drops below the critical level when the charger isn't trying to charge above the 14.2v pack level. If that is correct, then while the battery is 14.2v the highest cell(s) will be bled down by the balancer, and the lower cell(s) will gradually increase from the charge controller. Once better balanced you should be able to increase the hold to 14.3v and let it balance at that level for a time, then 14.4v, etc. I've been able to nurse several batteries like this up to where I could hold them at 14.4v (3.6v/cell) or even 14.6v (3.65v/cell)

[@sNEAKYnIGHTmUPPET]

@@JR-kk6ce no offence taken JR. Many believe that charge controller perform some kind of magic. the truth is that MPPT charge controllers are just DC to DC converters. they convert the high input voltage into what the battery needs to allow current to flow. Simply put, current always flows from HIGH to low, never the other way around. when you are in BOOST or BULK (CC) it simply boosts the voltage way over battery voltage to allow current to travel to the battery quickly. Once reaching full VOLTAGE, or close to it) it switches to ABSORPTION (CV) which will just hold the voltage to the max voltage so that a little current will flow to allow the battery to reach full naturally. the FLOAT charge is a voltage that is just below full, but above where the battery will REST. Rest is the slight discharge that happens when the charge is removed. There is no charging in Float, unless the battery voltage drops lower than a set value, then boost/bulk starts over again. I will be making a video about this in the future, just busy now. I hope this sheds some light on things for you, and everyone reading learns a little something. Yes, this is a simplified version of charging, but it is accurate. I wont get into PWM in this reply.

[@sNEAKYnIGHTmUPPET]

@@Sylvan_dB there is NO need to hit anything over 3.45v/cell. it is pretty well known that there is less than 1% capacity over 3.45v/cell. If you want to see this, charge a cell to 3.65v and make sure it is fully absorbed. then put any load on it and watch the voltage drop to 3.4v near instantly. seriously, there isnt anything that high other than a shorter lifespan for your cells. Just charge to 13.7v and you are 99% full

[@Mark-hb5zf]

It would be interesting to add scope and set it to trigger at a voltage slightly higher than what should be the max voltage. Scopes are very cheap nowadays.

[@ProjectsinParadise808]

I can see I need one of those! mahalo 🤙

[@WCO3]

The problem with these "Budget " Chinese sealed lithium batteries is you don't know what the BMS is, or what the balancing voltage is, Or when the balancing takes place. Or if it's even balancing at all..We basically don't know Jack, Unless you bust out the power tools and open it.😂🤙 You might think it's prismatic but it's just a ton of cylindrical cells Or pouches. Lol

[@davidanstice]

Auto correct- my post should start with “I’d say…..”

[@rudivandoornegat2371]

Just like the rest, I think the most likely cause is the battery combined with the charge setting for the end stage. If you got the time, and want to be sure, you could put another battery of another brand to see if you get the same. If it's solely the Redodo that is causing the spike, then you won't see the spike with the other battery. If it's also the setting, you'll see the spike. You could also put the Redodo on another charging station. If it creates a spike there at the later stages of charging.

[@ProjectsinParadise808]

I'll definitely be testing other batteries as you suggest to better understand this phenomenon. Mahalo as always...aloha 🤙

[@TheYammerHammer]

I read some where you cant have more than 4 panels in parallel together

[@ProjectsinParadise808]

im only running 3 in series for one system, and 2 on the other...aloha 🤙

[@TheYammerHammer]

@@ProjectsinParadise808 but when you had that Spike you had more than 450 Watts going two days previous

[@ProjectsinParadise808]

@@TheYammerHammer only a 200 watt string into the REDODO with the spike being recorded 🤙

[@ProjectsinParadise808]

Copy that brother 🤙

[@ProjectsinParadise808]

Just an f.y.i. , I changed the charging parameters to 13.8v bulk, and 13.5 float now, and working perfectly...no spikes! I'll follow up with a short video on that pretty quick 🤙

[@kennethwilson8633]

No idea unless it’s just a quick spike as the battery hits maximum and the controller catching up. The battery bms isn’t turning off is it? All magic to me. Have fun be safe.

[@ProjectsinParadise808]

The magic is starting to seep into my gray matter...what's left of it anyway! aloha 🤙

[@Sisoszone]

Your BMS balances and wants to sit at 13.6V or there abouts which is 100% full and idle. You're charge controller obviously (as did mine) tries to bring that voltage back up to what it is told is full around 14.1V or so. I guess you have the float at 13.8V or at least above 13.6V. So the BMS wants battery at 13.6V and Charge controller wants it higher. Conflict. BMS turns off charge, spike on charge controller. Then BMS settles voltage and charge controller goes to bring volts back up, cause of spike and the increases in watts during float. Set float at 13.6V or 13.5V and no conflict. Set upper charge to maybe 13.8V before dropping to float and spike should go too as you won't be stressing the BMS. I only found out due to BMS having bluetooth and could watch the conflict happening in real time on both.

[@ProjectsinParadise808]

Appreciate your feedback in easy to understand basics for me. You all help me immensely...mahalo for that! aloha 🤙

[@TheYammerHammer]

Hey bro, I'm having voltage surges from 17-18.7 volts on my Redodo battery. How did you fix the problem? I hear it's the BMS not balancing out the cells

[@ProjectsinParadise808]

On recommendations from several people here, I set the bulk/boost to 13.8v and absorb for 1 hour, and float to 13.5 Not a single spike since then, and getting fully charged every day. I'm working on a follow up video on this as we speak,as well as comment from the manufacturer about this. Will publish in a couple days. But those changes worked out well for me. Aloha 🤙

[@ProjectsinParadise808]

Actually have float set to 13.4...fat fingered earlier response. Got mine days of logs so far to share with no spike on these settings.🤙

[@ProjectsinParadise808]

Nine days*

[@TheYammerHammer]

@@ProjectsinParadise808 these are the following settings that I have on my Renogy40 amp Boost Voltage Float Voltage Equalization Voltage Boost Duration 10-300mins Low voltage Reconnect Low voltage warning ⚠️ Low voltage Reconnect Please Help!

[@TheYammerHammer]

@@ProjectsinParadise808 I have it set at the following Boost 13.8 Float 13.4 Equalization 13.8 Boost Duration 60 mins Low Volt disconnect 10.8 Low Volt Reconnect 12.4

[@davidanstice]

Is day this is being created from a switch/relay inside the charge controller. Might be a sign of it going bad. I’d start with manufacturer of the charge controller. Next time it happens put a volt meter on the battery and see if the battery actually sees the 16v spike.

[@sNEAKYnIGHTmUPPET]

no, this is the BMS disconnecting the CHARGE due to reaching an internal limit.

[@davidanstice]

The screen our friend is displaying o.n his phone is coming from the battery Bluetooth? I thought it was coming from the charge controller.

[@davidanstice]

Based on a prior video, I believe what he is showing on his phone comes from the charge controller. No way the BMS could produce any signal that the charge controlled volt meter could pick up.

[@jimmybrad156]

probably uses a mosfet to do the switching.