EpEver MT-50 Remote Display - User Battery Type

How to set up custom battery charging parameters using the MT-50 remote display on an EpEver/EpSolar charge controller.
This video is at the request of viewers of previous MT-50 videos who wanted to know how to change the built-in battery charging parameters.
I had been using the EpEver 2210AN MPPT Solar Charge Controller in my garden shed for the last few years. The solar panels have been on the shed since spring 2017 and the charge controller since the spring of 2018, so a slight correction on the time frame mentioned in the video.
There's a 12AH AGM battery in my backpack sprayer and a 26AH AGM battery in my jump start pack. I had been using the Gel battery charging profile as it's close to what the AGM batteries should be charged with, as it lacks and Equalization charge cycle.
However, I noticed the boost charge voltage was a bit low with this setup. So decided to create a User battery profile with some updated charging parameters. The charge controller had a 14.2V boost charge setting and PowerSonic recommended 14.4 - 14.7V.
Sample charging parameter file: USERbattery.txt
drive.google.c...
This one has the Gel battery parameters listed in the last column, change those as you see fit.
MT50 Remote Display:
amzn.to/3YI43Tf
I have the 4215BN (40A) and the Tracer 2210A (20A) controllers:
EpEver Solar Charge Controllers:
amzn.to/412O9oP
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And as always, thanks for watching
Intro:
Louisiana Fairytale by Austin Rogers
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[@davybondohome8460]

I've searched and searched for information on how to do this the manuals are useless as far as I'm concerned I know if I keep looking I'll find somebody like you, thank you so much, and then you gave us a text file too wow Thanks for the great video

[@The4Crawler]

Glad the information was helpful. Agree, it's pretty well hidden, but between a bit in the manual and then using the Solar Station Monitor program, which is where the text files came from, it started to make sense.

[@eagz2898]

Yea, the chinese aren't very good at relaying info in english

[@TheBirdandEagle]

Well R.Brown, I took the back cover off of the EPever 40 amp and saw no damage or fuse's burnt. So, I put it all back together. Then proceeded to the panels outside, they're on ground easy to get too. After examination of the wire from the PV panels, I found one wire that was really loose. Replaced the connection and boom EPever working like a charm now. I have another one ordered, I'll just keep that for back up. Just like to thank you for all your advice and directions. Couldn't have done it without you. Sir thank you.

[@The4Crawler]

Glad you found the issue. I had a batch of 5 solar panels I bought a while back and every one of those had flaky MC4 connectors. They all started out fine but one by one they would go bad. But they were hard to find as a voltage check would read fine. Likewise, if I stuck meter probes into the ends of the connectors and did a short circuit test, again normal readings. But plug that bad MC4 into a good MC4 and then very little current would flow, like a few hundred mill-amps. I think I've finally got all the bad connectors replaced.

[@TheBirdandEagle]

@@The4Crawler Good advice. I will have to replace all the MC4's has well soon. It appears they only last about 2 years. Again, thank you my friend.

[@The4Crawler]

@@TheBirdandEagle Yes, at least the MC4s that come on many panels seem to be garbage. All the ones I've replaced are holding up much longer. Part of the issue is there seems to be minor variations between one mfg. and another in the MC4 fit. I found the failed connectors had slightly shorter center terminals and just barely fit into the connectors on my cables. But if I changed out the connectors on the panels with the same connectors I used on the cables I built, they all fit much better. The problem is there's no easy way to tell what style MC4 was used on the panel so that a well fitting one can be used on the cable you connect to it. So it's just easier to chop off what's there and replace it with the same connector used on the connecting cable. I guess those are a type of things that an outfit that does solar installs every day would have sorted out, but us mere mortals have to learn the hard way.

[@ponkuna]

I like to appreciate the pain you take to answer each and every question up to your level. This service I did not see with other ytubers. Thank you and keep it up.

[@The4Crawler]

I appreciate that! I also learn a great deal from those questions. Maybe reminds me of something I encountered in setting up the controller but neglected to put in the video. Or might spur a follow-up video on that topic.

[@lawrence100sailing]

Thanks very much for this. It really saved me a lot of confusion in programming my AGM’s into it.

[@The4Crawler]

Glad it helped! Yes, it's not very clear in the manual that this is the only way to make changes to any of the settings.

[@mikethespike2643]

thumbs up. finally i found a demonstration of how to change the parameters. thanx.

[@The4Crawler]

Glad it helped! Yes, it's a bit convoluted to figure out. My old controller with the MT-5 display, you could change some of the charging parameters in the pre-set battery types. But with the MT-50, all the pre-set types seem to be read-only and the User type is the only editable one.

[@mikethespike2643]

@@The4Crawler its difficult enough in the user-mode :)

[@The4Crawler]

@@mikethespike2643 Agreed!

[@TheBirdandEagle]

Forgot to say thank you for all your kindness and information. Your the answer to many important questions. THANK YOU> 😉

[@The4Crawler]

You are so welcome!

[@TheBirdandEagle]

Wow! Thank you for your speedy reply. The batteries are now at 12.85. I have had the charger on for about an hour. No blinking light on the controller but its says 3.2 from the PV's to batteries on the MT50? No PV green light. Its off.

[@The4Crawler]

Not sure on the 3.2, is that volts or amps? Sure sounds like the charge controller is messed up somehow. Maybe there's a way to do a factory reset, I've seen that in the MT-50 menu someplace.

[@TheBirdandEagle]

Sorry, 3.2 volt from the PV's. I tried one reset which was to cover up the 3-100 watts panels and disconnect the battery and PV lines. It didn't work! I sent another email to EPever, lets see what happens. I thank you again for all your help. Starting to believe it's the charge controller.

[@The4Crawler]

@@TheBirdandEagle You might want to0 try the Factory Reset, Esc button on MT-50, scroll down to #9 and then enter the password (000000 is the default). Maybe some of the parameters have been messed up and this will reset it to the default settings. I've never tried this myself.

[@TheBirdandEagle]

@@The4Crawler Yes, I tried that. But, still no positive results. Guess I'll be buying another controller. I thank you for all your help. You are very kind. Do you have any suggestion as to what controller is best. It appears EPever died within two years, can it be trusted????

[@The4Crawler]

@@TheBirdandEagle I've have 3 of the EpSolar/EpEver controllers and all those are still working. One advantage of getting another one is you can re-use the MT-50 display on it. Might also check out some of the repair videos on KZbin for these, there seem to be some common problems that are fairly easy to fix.

[@bizim_eller]

Wonderful job sir thanks for helping us understand. 👍

[@ivecamperbuild_thomas4084]

Thanks for your video and the link many thanks a great help

[@The4Crawler]

Glad it helped

[@ivecamperbuild_thomas4084]

R Brown thanks again

[@oldtimeengineer26]

Thanks for showing good info

[@The4Crawler]

Yes, I should have done this long ago. I think I've been slightly undercharging the batteries. Now that the boost voltage is increased, I'm seeing them charging later in the day.

[@benkanobe7500]

Thank you so much for this KZbin! I am not your typical Subscriber or Viewer as I am not nearly as technical. I have owned an MT50 & Tracer4215BN for two weeks (Amazon) and am trying to figure out if one or both are defective (before my 30-day return is up) or if I just can not figure them out. You just solved one big problem for me! My first Problem: (I was unable to get the "Sealed" parameters to change so that I could match them to my batterie's Owner's Manual (1200Ahour 12 Volt AGM X 4). My second problem: My panels ( 4 X 100 watt, 12 Volt, paired parallel with each pair in series) charge my batteries per the "Sealed" parameters each day. The battery icon shows fully charged by 2:00PM and the Charge Controller goes into "Float" which is 13.8volts. Once the sun sets and the panels stop producing enough for the charging to continue, the green "PV" light goes out on my charge controller (which I think is "normal"). BUT, then over a very short period of time like less than an hour, the battery Icon diminishes in "bars" down to as little as one to two bars. My calibrated Fluke DVOM tells me the batteries are at 13.2 Static charge and so the icon should show full. It does not. I recheck in the morning after a cool or hot night and the semi-resting voltage is 13.1x but the battery icon remains at or near the minimum. We the sun comes up it does not change. The charge cycle starts all over again and before noon (if I did not use the batteries that night) the icon indicates "full" (all black bars) and the charge controller goes back to "float" of 13.8volts. What is wrong with my system that the battery icon does not match the actual battery charge after the panels are disconnected from the batteries by the charge controller???

[@The4Crawler]

The state of charge (SOC) icon is pretty much a joke on these controllers, has been for a long time: www.solarpaneltalk.com/forum/solar-panels-for-home/solar-panel-system-equipment/15921-ah-setting-on-charge-controller If you want an accurate SOC reading, get something like a Trimetric Battery Monitor: kzbin.info/www/bejne/a33GimB7prSJa7s These type of meters measure amp hours in and out of the battery and use that to determine SOC instead of some mystery battery voltage reading. If at least they had an external voltage sensing connection to the actual battery bank it might do better.

[@benkanobe7500]

@@The4Crawler Thank You! OK, so based on my observations and explanations, my system is not malfunctioning as it works perfectly otherwise (?? my batteries charge each day and I use them at night) I just have a crapy SOC display. I will just ignore it. Like your second link, I do have a shunt on the load side of my battery bank going to my 12VDC -120VoltAC inverter and I monitor total Ahours consumed by combined loads with a sufficient and conservative margin to protect my battery bank. I just manually take note of amphours consumed and always disconnect the load if it gets near 20% of total bank amphours consumed.

[@The4Crawler]

Yes, it sounds like your SOC display is working like all the other EpSolar/EpEver displays. When I got my first controller with the MT-5 remote, it had the same SOC indication and at first I would panic each time it dipped down to one bar. But a check with the volt meter and it was normal. I later added the Trimetric and used that instead. But yet, AH-in vs. AH-out is the best way to handle SOC. It's kind of like those pressure gauges on propane tanks that have lever readings like empty and full on them. Those will read full up until the last few minutes of gas in the tank then they drop to empty. What you really need is a liquid level reading inside the tank.

[@benkanobe7500]

@@The4Crawler Great analogy regarding Propane tanks. I had one of those gauges and used it for scrap brass after it did as you describe. Thanks for all your help. I am glad to now know my AH in vs AH out is a good way to monitor.

[@marvinspeedperformance4316]

thanks . and i just wondering about boost charge when it is happening? any time setting? thanks again

[@The4Crawler]

Details on that should be in your charge controller user guide. In general I cover some of that in this file: docs.google.com/document/d/1d9_xY2VXxfvdMjktqGuXgE6Jua3ntDGoQIO7cqKLyjE/edit?usp=sharing

[@davexstuntman]

Thanks this has been the most helpful video on the MT50 setup. One question for AGM batteries should I run sealed or user or Gel? Cheers, David

[@The4Crawler]

I settled on Gel over Sealed and then periodically switched to Sealed for a day every month: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n4OqdWujqbmSntk Main difference between the 2 settings is equalization. Sealed/AGM may not benefit as much from EQ charging like a flooded battery does. So running EQ once a month or so seemed like a good solution.

[@davexstuntman]

@@The4Crawler thanks so much for your help brother

[@davexstuntman]

@@The4Crawler Thanks again it all makes sense now.

[@colleenwaddell8306]

Hi we have an Epever in our caravan - no MT50 or cable to connect to PC. Our lights have started going out at weird times and the water pump - all 12 volt power - Main is fine. Could this be a Timer issue and how do we adjust it please.

[@The4Crawler]

Likely the built-in load timer. Look up in your unit's user manual for the procedure for setting the timer (might be called "load work mode"). That will vary from unit to unit. On my older unit, that is mode 17, which is always on or off controlled manually by the load button (on the right of the controller). The other modes are combinations of on and dusk or dawn and off so many hours later (mainly used for street lighting).

[@ponkuna]

Very clear lessons. I followed and using my MT50. Now I built a battery pack 7s 18p and on full charge getting 29.6v and unable to connect to my epever controller and MT50 I couldn't find out a way to tell my epever and MT50 that I have a 24v battery. When I connect MT50 reports BATT. OVD and blinking in red. Please advise me

[@The4Crawler]

It's likely that the controller is seeing the battery voltage is too high (Over Voltage Disconnect) for what it's currently set to. Either discharge the current pack to 26-28 volts and see if the controller will recognize it and go to the 24V setting. Or hook up a pair of 12V lead acid batteries in series temporarily to use to power the controller. Then enter your user parameters for the 7S pack and switch to that setting before disconnecting it and reconnecting to the 7S pack.

[@ponkuna]

R Brown Thanks for your quick reply. I was advised by powerwall experts to pre charge the batteries to 4.2v before assemble the powerwall. So when I fully charge a 7s become 29.6v. This is my position. Thanks again.

[@The4Crawler]

@@ponkuna Well then do the 2nd option with a separate 24V battery to change the parameters to allow up to 29.2 v max. It's probably on a battery setting where that's too high a voltage and the controller is shutting down. If you discharge the cells equally to 4.0v then you'll be at 28.0 and it should work with that.

[@ponkuna]

@@The4Crawler Thanks Brown, but failed. I contacted Epever and they told me that I have to buy a cable to connect my laptop to the epever and download a software and then only I can increase the parameters to 24V. I have to do that.

[@The4Crawler]

@@ponkuna OK, good to know that. I only went up to 16V on my lithium batteries. You can get their cable or find an RS485 to USB cable on eBay (same thing) or get the WiFi or BlueTooth adapter. I know you can connect with their application over WiFi.

[@TheBirdandEagle]

Hello, its me again. The batteries are being held at 12.5V and not higher? Do you think it's the MPPT or batteries? The batteries are about 1 year old. They used to work great, I don't know what happened. I still have not received any information from Epever or the battery maker?

[@The4Crawler]

If possible, try some A-B testing. Try another 12V battery, say out of a vehicle, and see if that'll charge on the MPPT controller. Or try putting the batteries you have on another charger, like a regular 12V battery charger and see if they'll go above that voltage. Should be able to isolate where the problem is that way.

[@TheBirdandEagle]

@@The4Crawler Thank you, again and I'll give that a try.

[@TheBirdandEagle]

Hello, I connected a battery charger to my batteries and the batteries are charging. Must be the MPPT? Please advise.

[@The4Crawler]

Sounds like that's the case. Acid test would be to put a different battery on the charge controller and see what happens. Could try charging the batteries for an hour or so then return them to the charge controller and see if anything changes. Also, try the other battery types, if not already tried, Sealed and Gel.

[@19SmokeyJoe94]

Gday from Australia. Would you know whether 'boost' charge is the same as 'bulk' charge? My boost charge is set to 14.4v, and float is set to 13.6v. On the manufacturer's website, there is mention of bulk, absorption and float charge, but no boost. I am confused because I thought that the batteries would not need a time limit for bulk charging,. It then again I am not very experienced in the area! p.s - I have 2 220ah 'pure energy' agm batteries in parallel, 4x 160w panels and a 60a charge controller.

[@The4Crawler]

Boost = Absorb = Topping Charge, basically different names for the same stage: chargetek.com/basic-information.html I usually keep my boost time at the default and it seems to work OK.

[@19SmokeyJoe94]

@@The4Crawler legend! thanks for the reply. Im having an odd problem with my controller now, you may have experienced this problem before, or have some insight. My batteries have been feeling like they are a bit flat lately, which is what prompted me to look into the settings. Turns out that when the controller begins bulk charging, the voltage has been spiking above 15v 30a for a very short period, which then triggers the over voltage disconnect. I've tried lowering the charge limit, raising the voltage disconnect, and just tweaked a few other settings, but keep arriving at the same outcome. It triggers over voltage then goes back to 12.9v 0.5a for a minute, works it's way up, then the cycle repeats. I've sent an email to the manufacturer, will be interesting to see what they say. The batteries are under a year old and have always been together in parallel, never discharged below 12.2v

[@tanhvan1]

I need some help. Mine doesn't seem to charge. I have 2 amg 100ah 2 100watts solar renogy...

[@The4Crawler]

Start by disconnecting everything and then start reconnecting first the battery and make sure the controller works that way and reads the voltage correctly. Then connect the PV and check that that's all OK. If the battery is fully charged, you may need to discharge it a bit to get the controller to start charging. If you have a DC ammeter, connect it in series (or clamp the probe around a PV wire) with the solar panels and see if there's any current flowing. You can also use that to test the solar panels separated from the controller, check the short circuit current and make sure it's close to the panel rating in full sun. If all that fails, it may be a bad charge controller. If new, contact the seller or tech support with the mfg. and see if they have any other suggestions.

[@orlandoprieto978]

Great video, by the way I'm new in solar systems and I want to create my own system (400 to 600w) I bought the EPEVER Tracer 5415AN but I'm stuck in how to measure the power coming from the PV and how to connect the load to this controller. I think is no way to connect the load due this controller doesn't contain any terminal related to the load, but at the same time is showing me on the screen the load voltage and KWh but I don't know how to get those values. Could you give me some advise how can I connect a 12v load and get the data from the load? Regards

[@The4Crawler]

Without a load terminal, your load will need to connect right to the battery bank. You could install a meter something like the PZEM-051: amzn.to/2NZSDJH In series with the load and it'll record power flowing from the battery to the load.

[@orlandoprieto978]

R Brown, thanks for reply, I was researching a little bit more and I found that could be maybe because is a +40A load and this is dangerous to be handled by the controller. Like you said before I have to connect the load directly to the battery bank. I bought a dc power meter (100A). Thanks for the advice. Regards

[@The4Crawler]

Yes, that may be the case. Both 40A Tracer charge controllers I have only support 20A of DC output. One option you can do with a controller like that is use the DC output to turn a high current relay on and off. That way, you can set the controller's low disconnect voltage to a particular value and have it turn the DC load relay off if the battery is discharged too far. But you would need an external meter for that to measure power.

[@chriscorpe8268]

Thanks for all the info, my Trojan battery says boost should be 14.8, I have switched to user & when I change it to 14.8 (anything above 14.4) is says Para error. One more question, when you put boost time for 180 minutes, will it quit when it is fully charged? Thanks again

[@The4Crawler]

I find I often have to go through the MT50 user battery settings a few times to get the complete change entered. Why? Because there are settings later in the menu that can affect/limit earlier settings. If you have the Solar Station Monitor program, you can see all the settings at once. But in the MT50 display, cycle through the settings and see if there is any of the later settings that are set to 14.4 and bump those up, save the setting then re-enter the settings menu and change the earlier one. Not totally sure on the boost charge cycle. According the the manual. that setting is the time it remains in the constant voltage boost charge stage before switching to float.

[@marvinlaw3671]

I would like more information about the battery icon on the MT-50. On mine the black are is a small bar at the bottom. On one of your videos your battery image is all black. Help me understand that and the face image above it. Thank you.

[@The4Crawler]

That typically is a crude state of charge display. I think there are 3 or 4 segments of that icon, if all are black, full charge, if one is black ~25% charge. This is not accurate at all as there's no separate battery voltage sensing leads and no way to calibrate the state of charge to the voltage read inside the controller.

[@ManWander]

is there a way to change temperature from celcius to fahrenheit?

[@The4Crawler]

I've not run across anything like that in the settings. Maybe another viewer will have and can respond to this comment with the "trick".

[@loveu2222]

Thanks for the video, I already learned a lot,my question is, what would be a good set up for lithium battery, I do have 200 amp lithium,my set up : 14.5 charging volt,16v disconnect,,no equalization time,flooring 13.6v, should I change anything or this is Ok,thanx

[@The4Crawler]

Here's what I used: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oIa0gHltptd-gqc this is a bit different than your numbers, but try it and see how it works.

[@harrrytoool1391]

Can I change the 4 cell parameters of a 16v lithium battery pack on the MT50 remote as I’m off grid here. Also Could I change the parameters on my Mac computer with the Epever Tracer controller by connecting my battery only and then disconnecting from the computer. Thanks Harvey

[@The4Crawler]

Sure, no problem setting the voltages via the MT50 remote. Just a bit more tedious as you can only see a few parameters at a time and there are some that depend on others. I show how to do this with the Solar Station monitor program starting with this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oIa0gHltptd-gqc Same parameters can be used on the MT50. Should be able to connect the controller to a battery and a computer to run the setup program (Windows or Android). When I connected mine, I used a long Ethernet cable from the controller into the house then plugged in the RS485-USB cable which was connected to my PC. I believe the controllers save those parameters in non-volatile memory, although I've never tested that feature myself.

[@harrrytoool1391]

Oh god another cable I’ve got to buy. Have you got a schematic for the electrodacus plus your Epever tracer combination. And is the charger software compatible with a Mac computer?

[@The4Crawler]

You only need the data cable if you want to use a PC to program the charge controller. You can do the same from the MT50. No real schematic of the charge controller and SBMS-120 connection, they are just in parallel across the batteries. I have a main + and - bus bar and both controllers connect to that. Here's a link to the Epever software download page to see all the versions they have: www.epsolarpv.com/downsoft.html

[@bizim_eller]

@@harrrytoool1391 hi harvey, the manual for epever says you can only use windows on your pc or android on your handheld device, so no apple products I guess.

[@edyoung6573]

Question, I have the 30amp EPever Charge controller and same MT-50 charging a Duralast Deep Cycle Group 29 65 Amp Hour Battery, Where I change the battery type to Flooded under that setting it says 200 AH should I change that to a lower value?

[@The4Crawler]

It probably won't hurt to set it lower. I'm not sure what affect that parameter has on the controller. I suspect it might affect the transition to float charging, such as if the current reaches 0.01C or some figure like that. So a 200AH battery would need to drop to 2 amps charging, while your 65AH battery might be 0.65 amps. That said, I've tried close to correct numbers and higher than actual numbers for the AH setting and I don't see any noticeable differences in charging. Not to say there aren't any and maybe I just don't know what I'm looking for.

[@edyoung6573]

@@The4Crawler thank you very much for responding! I set it to 100, I'll keep an eye on it and see if anything drastic changes. I'm coming from a cheap renogy wanderer, and am loving the Epever 30 amp and Monitor! Over kill for the little solar panel on the roof of my old Lance truck camper and 1 battery but can expand to more panels and a extra battery if i want to.

[@N2Stooges]

It sure would be super if someone would make a video actually explaining in detail what each of these charge controller settings do rather than glossing over them. There are plenty of videos on how to use an MT50 control panel to change the charge controller settings but none that I have found that explain ALL the settings themselves IN DETAIL. Even people who sell these things don't know how all the setting work. Crazy huh? I have a Tracer 4210A charge controller with MT50 currently in use with SLA batteries but am interested in knowing if this charge controller can be safely used with Bioenno LiFePO4 batteries by using the "User" profile setting of this charge controller. There is no clear information for suitable charge controller settings for this configuration. Bioenno wants to sell you a different charge controller that is "LiFePO4 compatible" but what about my Tracer isn't compatible? LiFePO4 batteries expect a constant current (CC) bulk charge followed by a constant voltage (CV) boost charge. The charge controller when in bulk charging phase is essentially current limited by the size of my solar array (100W) so it seems like setting the "Boost Charge" voltage and "Float Charge" voltage to somewhere between 14.4V and 14.6V should suffice. Equalization time would be set to zero to disable equalization cycles. Solar panel capacity would need to be sized so that the maximum charge current available during bulk charge cycle would be less than the maximum battery charging current spec. For 30Ah Bioenno battery, the specified charging current is 6A (I assume that is a max spec) thus a 6/30 (0.2) charge rate max. With my current SLA battery setup, I have never seen the charge controller push more than 5A of charging current. I think I am safe using this charge controller with the 30Ah LiFePO4 battery or am I missing something here? Thanks for the helpful video.

[@The4Crawler]

I go into some detail on Li-Ion settings with these controllers starting in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oIa0gHltptd-gqc Basic idea is to pick the volts/cell you want to use for the various charging states and then multiply by the number of cells in series and that's the user voltages you enter into the controller. Then some tweaking of the numbers is needed taking into account the controller's 0.1 volt increments, no voltage sensing ability and also if you have any external loads that are sensitive to the actual voltage. For example if you have an inverter that can't go above X volts or a BMS that needs to see Y volts, etc. And yes, I pretty much set all the voltages near the same, "float" being maybe 0.1 volt below "boost".

[@Homemade-Adventure]

great vid

[@TORDesign]

Thanks for this video. I just installed this type. Please tell me the meaning of the middle value on home screen, the current value of amperage. Mine says 18A under the battery voltage but my battery is 200AH

[@The4Crawler]

Middle figure is battery capacity (very crude value), battery voltage and battery current, + is charging, - is discharging.

[@TORDesign]

R Brown I did some other research and I think the value is the current going into the battery from the solar panel.

[@adamlcwlimo]

Hi, how do you turn off the remote MT50. Mine stays on all the time, and I am afraid its a drain on my battery when parked in doors, especially the little Green LED on top.

[@The4Crawler]

Never have run across a "Display Off" setting, you can change the back light on-time. Only option would be to unplug the connector at the charge controller. Or get something like a manual switch for an RJ45 connector and that way you could turn it on and off without unplugging (these are usually sold as a 2-way switch).

[@adamlcwlimo]

@@The4Crawler Thank you for the quick reply. I looked everywhere and can not find a way to turn off the MT50 controller either. Do you know how much of a draw the little green led on the MT50 controller without the back light on? Maybe I am worrying for no reason.. Thank you again..

[@The4Crawler]

@@adamlcwlimo An example of a manual switch: www.showmecables.com/2-way-rj45-manual-switch-box Power/current consumption from the MT50 manual: Self-consumption Backlight and acoustic alarm ON < 65mA Backlight ON < 23mA Backlight OFF < 15mA That would equate to about 1 Amp Hour every 3 days. Suppose one might be able to open up the unit and remove that green LED to save a mA or 2.

[@TheBirdandEagle]

Now, the green PV light is on but the charging from the PV to the batteries is not working on MT50, you know that > sign. Also, the battery charge is staying at approximately 12.45 volts on my battery meter. The PV green light is not flashing. Checked with multimeter and the batteries are at 12.53 and not go any higher. Please advise. Thank you.

[@The4Crawler]

Hard to say what's going on. 1. Try unplugging and re-plugging the MT-50. 2. Try disconnecting the PV input for a minute or so then reconnect it. That will trick into thinking it's morning. 3. Disconnect the PV and then disconnect the controller from the battery for a minute or so, then reconnect the battery and then the PV. 4. Try using the Gel or Sealed battery type if you've been experimenting with the User battery type. If all that fails, maybe there's a problem with the charge controller. Contact the EpSolar support folks and see if they have any ideas.

[@TheBirdandEagle]

@@The4Crawler Excellent advice. I'll do that and if I get an answer I will reply back here. Forgot I did contact support and they will be getting back to me. Thank you.

[@orvillewright548]

I've been trying to figure out a setting under 4) Control Para If I have two 200ah 6 volt batteries in series for 12 volts, do I set the AH at 200 or 400?

[@The4Crawler]

In series, voltage doubles but current and AH stays the same. So 2 x 6V/200AH = 1 x 12V/200AH.

[@orvillewright548]

@@The4Crawler Thank you.

[@Ray-cw8ms]

Hi, I have one of these mt50 monitors and in the 2nd menu or the device info it states 24v but I’m only using 12v system. Can you tell me how I can change it to 12v please? Thanks

[@The4Crawler]

That's just the name plate/rated specifications of the connected charge controller. It can handle battery voltages "up to 24V" and same for the charge and discharge current ratings. The actual battery voltage is set in the #4 Control Parameters / 2nd screen and the default value is Auto, but you can set that to 12V or 24V if you wish.

[@Ray-cw8ms]

@@The4Crawler thanks but how do you do that? I don’t have a computer or laptop btw

[@The4Crawler]

@@Ray-cw8ms No need to do anything, the default setting is "Auto" battery voltage. But if you want to set it, go to the menu (Esc key), arrow down to #4, arrow down to the second screen, arrow over to battery voltage / Auto and then click through to 12V / 24V / Auto and save your preferred setting. I always leave mine on Auto and it seems to work fine that way.

[@Ray-cw8ms]

@@The4Crawler ok, give it a go next time I’m in my van👍🏻 thanks

[@skokomurliak]

Hello!Hope someone help me with this.I`ve just set up my electrical system.Renogy solar pannel 160W with 20A MPPT Epever charge controller with Victron 125Ah SuperCycle leisure battery.When i got my leisure battery delivered i dry test fited everything to make sure its all good.My first question is:Why the MT50 remote meter shows my battery is fully charge (14.1V) with the "smiley face",but the actual load in the battery is just 11.7V (just received and still did not make the first 24 hours charging).The seccond question is even if a put a load i can not see the AMPS in and out on the remote meter,it shows just 0.00 i guess this is because if i dont put load via solar charge controller outputs i am not going to see the amps flow on the MT50,am i right for this or not?If so i guess i have to install a separate "battery meter" where i can get the correct load and condition on the battery.Also there is a option "Charging energy history" u can check daily and monthly how much power you getting,but after 4 days mine still shows 0 on everything,thanks in advance

[@The4Crawler]

You'll only see the Load amps and energy history if you connect your load the the DC load output of the charge controller. I don't believe the meter will record charging history, only the DC load history. You can hook up your DC loads like I did in my shed: kzbin.info/www/bejne/enKzpKefgbJ6i6M Not sure on your battery voltage issue. It may be that the battery voltage is below the charge controller low voltage cut-off point. Maybe try charging it up to something over 12 volts and see if that helps. If a brand new battery is at 11.7 volts, something may be wrong with the battery. Connect the battery first, then the solar panel then the load.

[@TheBirdandEagle]

Another question. What are the settings/parameters for 8-35 ah batteries. Does your video cover the parameters for sealed batteries? Again, thank you.

[@The4Crawler]

You can use either the Sealed or Gel battery type, main difference is Gel has no equalization cycle. I have the default Gel battery settings in the file below: drive.google.com/file/d/1YLkDxzVhe1K59uIcgupZUs0qFpNo6JrV/view?usp=sharing Or you can go through the Sealed and Gel settings in the controller and pick and choose which ones you want to use, say based upon the battery mfg. charging specs. and set up a user battery type of your own. I only used my 35AH AGM batteries on my older c/c and it didn't have a user battery type, so I set it to Gel and then once every month or so switched to Sealed for a day to get an EQ charge: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n4OqdWujqbmSntk

[@TheBirdandEagle]

@@The4Crawler Again, great informative videos and instructions. I am learning something every time I watch your videos. Thank you. 😂

[@TheBirdandEagle]

MPPT shows the solar panel led green light is lit on the 40 amp, 3-100 watt panels connected to a MPPT, but there in no more than sign icon > is not on the screen moving! MT50? HELP!

[@The4Crawler]

Maybe try unplugging the MT-50 from the controller and plugging it back in again. If that doesn't help, see if you can try that meter on another controller or try another meter on your controller and see if you can isolate where the problem is. Maybe contact EpSolar support and see if they have any other ideas.

[@TheBirdandEagle]

@@The4Crawler Thank you. The green light is off, but the battery meter shows 12.46 when not in use. Would the smoke from all the fires stop the green led from lighting up? I washed off the panels and unplugged MT-50 to no avail. Green led still off. I am in Northern California. Thank you.

[@The4Crawler]

@@TheBirdandEagle The smoke obscuring the sun might be the issue. Apparently if the controller doesn't see enough PV current, it may not start charging. I know my MPP solar charge controller was struggling last week. With 4 x 335W panels it pretty much just held the battery voltage constant for 2 or 3 days when the smoke was thick. Unless I could see the disc of the sun through the haze, there was almost 0 charging going on. Might also try disconnecting and reconnecting the solar panels. I found with my old EpSolar charge controller that would sometimes trigger it into re-checking the PV power curve and it would fire up.

[@TheBirdandEagle]

@@The4Crawler Thank you, you confirmed that the smoke which is really thick here in Northern California to be a major factor. Thank you for your time and great information. Strange, I am not getting any alerts/notifications when you reply?

[@The4Crawler]

@@TheBirdandEagle Good old KZbin notifications. Yes, get them sometimes and not other times. Sometimes will find several year old comments in videos that I never knew about.

[@rocklabelle8637]

Can you explain in more detail what is exactly the equalization time? Thanks.

[@The4Crawler]

As far as I know that's the time the controller spends at the equalization voltage during the charging cycle. I think that happens just before the charger goes into float mode where it runs at the float voltage.

[@N2Stooges]

Equalization time setting control how long the charge controller will set the voltage to the battery at the equalization voltage (which is normally set to be slightly higher than the boost voltage setting). On my Tracer 4210A MPPT charge controller, an equalization cycle is only performed once per month on the 28th of the month and the interval between equalizations is not adjustable. An equalization cycle is a deliberate overcharge of the battery and is used to condition lead-acid batteries to help remove sulfate crystals that build up on the battery plates over time thus extending their lifetime.

[@The4Crawler]

@@N2Stooges Good information. Had not run across the every 28 day cycle in the manual I have. On my older controller, with the MT5 display, it seemed to run an equalize cycle every day (on the Sealed battery type) from what I could tell. Maybe they changed that on the newer controllers.

[@notreallyhere7719]

How do you access user? I dont have password but still dosent work

[@The4Crawler]

Check out at 3:20 in the video

[@notreallyhere7719]

@@The4Crawler got it! Thanks. Now that I'm switching to lithium I want to lower float voltage. I was thinking of switching over to victon. But, just going to stick with epever. Btw any way to change settings on older tracer, it's 6 years old, it's all silver and has mp5. Not 50. Tried mp 50 dosent work with it. Thanks for quick response!!

[@The4Crawler]

@@notreallyhere7719 The older controllers with the MT-5 display are fixed, they have flooded, sealed and gel battery types, only.

[@notreallyhere7719]

@@The4Crawler yah, I'll be buying a new epever.

[@swedensy]

This is BS. I decided to increase efficiency of my system by going lithium ion battery. 16.8v battery. Custom charge settings can not be completed to finish. It is possible to set charging voltage to 16.8v but when you enter overvoltage reconnect to 17.1 its error and when you move on next settings it says 12 or 24 or auto system voltage. Retardation, this is custom (User) system voltage.

[@The4Crawler]

A few things to consider. One is that 17V is the maximum on any of the settings. Not sure if that means 17.0 or maybe even 16.9. I've only used up to 16.8 when I was setting up my 4S battery. The other issue is that there are some settings that other settings have to be at or below. I found it took a few cycles through the menu screens on the MT50 to bump everything up. I think I mention that in the video, that being there's a setting later in the USER menus that affects a setting earlier.