Poor Man's Solar

[booster]

As Marko described, the PD does a bunch of stuff other chargers don't, like the 13.6v long "finishing" charge. It can be debated whether this really finishes the charge as well as taking it to full at absorption voltage, but my guess is that it probably isn't quite as good because of the extra time required and lower voltage. It is still better than many other automatic chargers, though.


The 14.4v "equalize" stage for 15 minutes kind of baffles me as it is at the absorption voltage and too low for a real equalize stage. I think I would call it a mini rebulk stage. Really just an extra 15 minute charge at absorption which certainly could help out, though. I think this may be a marketing type thing to address the Trojan, and I think some other manufacturers, that are now recommending a mini equalize at the end of the normal charge cycle. But the Trojan recommendation is much higher voltage and with controlled current so not really the same thing, IMO.



I don't know how far through the PD would get in an overnight charge situation as the 13.6v finish charge takes quite a while.


Again as Marko stated, the PD on it's own may not get you to the battery manufacturer specs for tail amps, but it will do better than many other chargers, and if you chose to do an operator intervention to get the batteries to 100% specs during absorption it will do as well as the very best chargers out there.

[eric1514]

My PD charger does a better job of bringing my batteries to 100% than my Victron does of informing me about it.

[GeorgeRa]

Originally Posted by eric1514

My PD charger does a better job of bringing my batteries to 100% than my Victron does of informing me about it.

Can Victron be reset manually with known fully charged battery to mitigate auto reset parameters of voltage and current?

[booster]

Originally Posted by eric1514

My PD charger does a better job of bringing my batteries to 100% than my Victron does of informing me about it.

I don't understand how that could possibly happen. Could you explain what you are seeing?

[eric1514]

Originally Posted by GeorgeRa

Can Victron be reset manually with known fully charged battery to mitigate auto reset parameters of voltage and current?

Yes, yes, yes. Word limit.

[eric1514]

Originally Posted by booster

I don't understand how that could possibly happen. Could you explain what you are seeing?

Maybe it’s my understanding of how things are supposed to work, but I thought it took 3 things to trip the 100% full status. 1) Charge voltage at or above the set point 2) Tail amps at or below the set point and 3) An amount of time that those 2 conditions need to be.

I haven’t documented anything yet because I’ve been busy but on more than one occasion the meter has reset at a voltage lower than my set point of 14.3 while the charger is still in boost or bulk or whatever the hell PD calls it when it’s working it’s way up to 14.4. The tail amps were ok at those times if I remember correctly. Practically speaking, the batteries were probably full, but the meter should not have reset itself, I think.

[booster]

Originally Posted by eric1514

Maybe it’s my understanding of how things are supposed to work, but I thought it took 3 things to trip the 100% full status. 1) Charge voltage at or above the set point 2) Tail amps at or below the set point and 3) An amount of time that those 2 conditions need to be.

I haven’t documented anything yet because I’ve been busy but on more than one occasion the meter has reset at a voltage lower than my set point of 14.3 while the charger is still in boost or bulk or whatever the hell PD calls it when it’s working it’s way up to 14.4. The tail amps were ok at those times if I remember correctly. Practically speaking, the batteries were probably full, but the meter should not have reset itself, I think.

Those are the items that Victron lists as needed to get to so you are correct. What can happen is if the setting is right at the max that the charger will get to it will not read it a "higher" than the voltage setpoint. Same is true for the tail amps, but it has be "lower. If the charger gets to 14.4v, the setting should probably be 14.3v. If the tail amps is 3.2a it should probably be set to 3.4 amps. Victron also calls out that they be met for 3 minutes, which is quite a while in a van that is getting used as you could turn something on that would drop the voltage for a short time if the charger didn't react fast enough.


It does appear that the Victron resets on the charge cycle, which is different than some other monitors that don't reset until the batteries are starting to discharge, which would mean the charger was off and van on the batteries.


Victron also gave a 4th reason for no reset and it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Not occasionally fully charging the battery

I don't see how that would make a difference unless the batteries needed to be equalized or had lost some capacity.