Shore Power Charger Settings for Lithium Iron Batteries, or ...

john61ct

Adventurer
To date, once I got a bad lead on one of the BMS's fixed, I have never seen a difference in voltage of greater than about 0.015v, so the cell to cell balance appears to be very good. Nor have I noticed the BMS go into balance for over a month.


That is likely to change as the SoH declines over time, but

since you now know how to vastly slow that process down, maybe not until someone else inherits your rig

> The next step will be to continue to monitor the solar controller. I had some interesting problems with it reporting a higher voltage and thus dropping to absorb or float too soon.

Lead thinking again! Yes in that context (only) "PSOC abuse" will drastically shorten a lead bank's cycle lifespan.

Happily, since you are now in the LFP metaverse,

where NO CV/Absorb stage is required at all in normal daily cycling, that "early" termination now is transformed into

A. Good. Thing!

In fact, that is one of the key advantages going to LFP, no need to ever fuss about getting to high SoC again!

Unless you've undersized your bank vis-à-vis your loads' Ah needs per cycle.

Aircon for example, will definitely do that, ideally one should carry a little inverter genset for that use case, even if you only use it a few dozen hours per month.
 

DiploStrat

Expedition Leader
To polish a brick is an old expression that means to take an extra, unnecessary step. ;)

That said, this thread has been useful. Two useful concepts you have mentioned:

-- The voltage that your charger puts out is only loosely related to the voltage at the battery terminal. Ignoring resistance, the charger typically has to put out a higher voltage to raise the battery to a lower voltage. (See also PWM battery chargers.) Assuming that the charger voltage is not so high as to cause immediate damage, the number that really interests us the the final voltage of the battery. In my case, looking at the BMS logs, only one battery has ever exceeded 14v since they were assembled. The other two peak at around 13.9v.

-- The other is a bit more challenging. In the lead acid world, the need to achieve and maintain a high SOC corresponds well to the classic overlander/survivalist mentality. Never pass a gas station, or water pump, or food store, and never miss an opportunity to bring your batteries to full charge and keep them there, even in storage. In the Lithiumverse, this reverses a bit. While you may need to be sure you have a full charge every night before you start cooking, etc., when parked between trips, you actually need to let the SOC drop to around 50% between trips. Mentally, this is HARD!

I knew these, but it is always useful to see them repeated.
 

john61ct

Adventurer
The voltage that your charger puts out is only loosely related to the voltage at the battery terminal.
As you state there are several separate issues there.

First off, and most important, is the distinction between

the voltage of the battery itself:

A. isolated and **at rest**. Which can take 24+hours for real accuracy after high C-rate activity whether charge or discharge; usually an hour is enough for rough

versus

B. voltage while being charged, at the posts, the data point used to track the progress of the charge cycle from low SoC up to the CV setpoint (Bulk stage)

The relationship table between SoC% and this 'latter B measure' will vary enormously depending on the C-rate for a given specific cell.

While the relationship between SoC% and 'A the former' is more useful for a given bank of a given age,

it does vary enormously between different LI chemistries, even if all are the same nominal voltage

and will still vary widely by brand/model and wear-level age, even within the same chemistry.


_______
Now we come to the distinction between the source charger's setpoint / VOC / unloaded voltage

versus the voltage of the charging circuit, as soon as it is closed with the target load, in this case a depleted battery.

This is "negotiated" between those two, ends up somewhere between the setpoint and A above, depending (again) on the C-rate.

The resistance of the wiring is only involved with the (hopefully very slight, within 1-2%) difference between "B" and now "C", voltage at the charger output terminals.

Better quality chargers have a battery V sensor circuit, separate from the fat power leads. BMS and RC hobby balance chargers use the outermost pair of the balance leads.


______
Finally, the delta between the charge termination voltage setpoint "B" and "A"

This is a property of the specific chemistry, and LFP's gap is much larger than that of LiPo or the other li-ion at nominal 3.6-3.7Vpc

So after charging the latter to say 4.15Vpc for longevity, the resting Full voltage will be quite close to that

while, as I stated above, whether LFP is charged up to 3.65V (stressful, too high) or 3.45V (good) the bank V will then "settle down" to resting Full voltage at 3.33 - 3.35Vpc.

Any higher than that does **not** represent any significantly higher actual stored energy or capacity utilisation, it is just "surface charge" dissipated by even the tiniest load, maybe 0.001% of capacity.

Note when testing over time to detect any calendar life self-discharge, while isolated in storage, the starting point should not be at a high SoC, but somewhere around the 50% point.


>While you may need to be sure you have a full charge every night before you start cooking, etc., when parked between trips, you actually need to let the SOC drop to around 50% between trips. Mentally, this is HARD!

As are all paradigm shifts, overriding long ingrained habits

Once you have gotten intimate with living in your rig off grid for long periods, observed your usage patterns in various conditions, things get more intuitive.

When you know your consumption will not bring SoC much below half way by the next charge cycle, then only charging to 80-90% still leaves a nice cushion for exigencies.

The exception is attempting to go solar-only, especially with an undersized bank. At any time, insolation may become poor, possibly for days at a time, while there is no need for a run into town when the alternator could be used to top up.

Having a quiet little inverter genset, in effect energy on demand, takes all the pressure off.

This lets the owner-designer start small, minimalistic and frugal, both on panel wattage and bank storage

and only expand either/both as proven necessary by observed experience.
 
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DiploStrat

Expedition Leader
Gotta go reread this tomorrow! G'nite!

EDITED TO ADD: Lots of gems in this one.
 
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