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stuvo

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Everything posted by stuvo

  1. I could post a series of pictures, but it's wired correctly. The meter worked beautifully and accurately for about 3 years. I haven't changed anything it just started giving false top / bottom alarms a few months ago. I would get out the meter and there was no difference in top / bottom battery bank voltage. That was when I noticed that the bmv voltage did not match the voltage shown on my charge controllers or my multimeter. At this moment, the bank is floating at 56V. The bmv says it is 47V with a 3% difference between top and bottom. All 4 batts are at 14V as measured with a multimeter.
  2. I've changed both the b1 and b2 inline fuse holders and replaced the fuses with new 1 amp fuses. This did nothing to fix the erroneous voltage readings on the BMV-702. The voltage readings are even more inaccurate. I cleaned the dust out of the shunt. This did not help. My 702 is basically worthless except it seems to accurately track amp hours in and out.
  3. My BMV-702 is showing a voltage that is about 5V low as measured with both my charge controllers and a voltmeter. It is also giving me top / bottom balance alarms (was set at 2% raised to 3% still happening near top of charge,) but when I put a meter on the bank the top and bottom are the same voltage. Full disclosure, I'm pretty sure I do have one bad battery (4 12V in series - 48V bank) and there are 2 HA-02 balancers on the bank. Other functions of the 702 seem to be accurate. Amps in and out and SOC look good. Thanks
  4. I reached out to Victron Solar and a very helpful local (Philippine) representative got back to me. He recommended the EasySolar model. After looking at the spec sheet, I agree. It is an amazing piece of kit that fits my needs perfectly. I expected a big price difference ( X1.5 or double), but it's 4 times as expensive as a replacement Axpert clone. Axpert clone: USD 1132 Victron Solar EasySolar 48V: USD 4245 WOW, big difference. Now, I have just spent USD 60 for shipping and another USD 10 for a part that in a normal market should cost less than 1USD, and when it gets here may not even fix my inverter. In hindsight, I would buy quality Victron in the beginning, but right now I am living my learning curve. Best case, the varistor replacement gets me another couple of years or so. I think the lesson here is, the further from civilization you live, the greater the quality your equipment should be for long-term use.
  5. My next search - "Victron Solar"
  6. Upon researching the above mentioned BiTEK hybrid inverter a google image search http://bitek hybrid inverter 4kw/5kva shows a bunch of Axpert clones. I don't mind spending some money, but I just want a decent inverter charger that will last for more than a couple of years. I know I live out in the ass end of the Philippines, but M*&^%$# @%$#^R PLEASE! Seriously, does anyone know of a reliable dealer I can work with?
  7. If I can't get it fixed, my solar tech (A smart guy I trust. He didn't sell me my initial setup. I messed that up all by myself.) is recommending a BiTEK 4kw/5kva for 59,000 pesos (USD 1,135.) Do any of you have thoughts on this model?
  8. UPDATE... The first problem they found was a varistor protector 471KD20 clearly burnt (it melted part of a plastic shield, sorry no pics.) The part is not available anywhere in the Philippines, but I've managed to order a set of 5 from China via Alibaba.com ($10 + $25 express shipping.) Hopefully, they will arrive soon and then we will see if that is the only problem or are other components damaged. By the way, I paid USD $634 for this inverter. EST-000285.pdf
  9. I'm pretty sure it was made elsewhere. Thanks for the advice. I'll pass it along to the technician.
  10. My 5kva Axpert clone died last night. We were on grid power at night time so no PV in. I got a beep no error code and I could smell burning electronics. After turning everything off, I checked the battery voltage (good 50V) and tried to turn the inverter back on. The 3 front indicator lights all flashed rapidly in sync. This was accompanied by a rapid clicking noise (relay?). My plan is to just take it to a local electronic tech and see if they can find a damaged component unless someone has a better idea. The item is less than two years old.
  11. My Axpert 5kva clone is giving me an 04 (low voltage) error at around 50.3V regardless of the value of program 12 (back to grid) I can set program 12 to any value 50V and below and I still get error 04 at just above 50V. What determines a low voltage error? Also, the inverter will not revert to battery after exceeding the threshold in program 13 (back to battery) unless I turn off the grid circuit breaker. Help Please.
  12. stuvo posted a topic in Batteries
    I just received a couple of HA02 balancers and the wires are not long enough. Is there any issue with lengthening them? Do all wires need to be the same length? I just need to insert one foot (30cm) into the negative lead on the right side and one foot into the positive lead on the left side.
  13. This worked great for me. Six of my eight were at 12.3V. Two of them sitting next to each other in a string are at 12.6V and 11.9V. What do I do now? Note: I recently ran an AGM RECONDITION cycle on each individual battery with a CTEK 5amp smart charger. I put the bank back together this morning. Everything seemed to equalize out fine. Mid-point voltage looks good on the 702, but this evening I checked with the volt meter and found the above discrepancy. I hooked my CTEK charger up to the low volt battery while it is in the bank. Thinking this will maybe act as a balancer.
  14. Would this be appropriate? Carplan/Carlube Mullti-Purpose Grease Copper 20g https://www.lazada.com.ph/products/carplancarlube-mullti-purpose-grease-copper-20g-i120057417-s124749710.html?spm=a2o4l.searchlist.list.7.25027cccXRCKYf&search=1
  15. Are battery ring terminals and the like really necessary? It seems like twisted copper and a couple of flat washers should do the job just fine. Please crucify me now.
  16. I have 12 260W. I wish I had 3 more on cloudy days.
  17. I had the same problem when I first joined, but several users responded to my requests with private links to the files I wanted. powerforum is the best. @Chris Hobson axpert guide should be the first thing you download as a new axpert owner. https://www.dropbox.com/s/udzwb3gi7rza9z5/Axpert Settings 1.1.pdf?dl=0
  18. I have some more info which may be relevant. The resets only seem to happen when I am operating at nearly full PV capacity. Since I can't sell my excess back, I bought an air conditioner. My battery bank gets to full charge around 1100 to 1200. Then on hot days I turn on the AC. The input watts go from around 900w to 2200w or greater (3.12kw max array). I'm still getting a 2amp trickle charge to the batts, and everything is fine on a full sunny day, but if it's partly cloudy, that's when the MPPT reset occurs. edit: Did mouse wheel scrolling stop working on only this site, or is it just me?
  19. @pilotfish I do see a correlation between mppt resets and pv input voltage sometimes. My pv voltage drops to around 80V or lower with cloud cover. My array is 12 x 260 watt in 4 parallel strings of 3 panels. I don't have the exact figures handy right now but, it's something like 91V nominal. DURAFLEX-SRP-6PB-4BB.pdf
  20. Just to follow up: I've been experimenting and I don't believe it was any load turning on that was causing my MPPT to reset. Today was completely sunny, not a cloud in the sky and I had no resets. I think it was intermittent cloud cover that caused the resets.
  21. I have a 3/4 hp water pump that is activated by a float switch, maybe that is it. Now that I think about it the wife may have been watering the garden causing the pump to trigger several times this afternoon. The MPPT resetting causes the PV in to drop?
  22. My SMKSOLAR Axpert MKS 5kVA 4000w 80A Inverter will be humming along at about 2.2kw PV watts in, charging the batteries with 2 or 3 amps float with a 35% load. Then all the sudden my PV watts will drop to about 200 and the BMV 702 shows a discharge of around 30A. This is not in relation to a cloud or anything I have noticed. After a minute or three the PV watts in will slowly start climbing until my full house load is met and I am again putting a charge on the 200ah AGM battery bank. This seems to happen every 10 minutes. Over the course of the afternoon, this reduces my charge percentage from 100% to about 80%. The solar energy is there. Why won't my inverter use it. PROGRAM: 1 Output source priority SbU 2 Maximum charging current 40A 3 AC input voltage range APL 5 Battery type AGM 16 Charger source priority OSO 31 Solar power balance SbE My array is 3.12kw
  23. @Chris Hobson, I think I've got my set up about right, but I really don't want to mess up my batteries and was hoping you would take a look at my settings. I've got 8 12V 100ah batts in two parallel strings of 4 (data sheet Rocket ESC100-12.pdf) attached to an Axpert 5kva. I'm using a bulk charge rate of 58V and a float rate of 54.8V. My BMV has program 2 set to 54.6V with a 3% tail current (program 3) and a 10 minute charge detection time (program 4). I set it up based on advice from this video My 3kw PV array has no problem getting the bank to full charge daily. The temperature around my batteries is often up to 35C. I'm charging OSO solar only at 30A (the max current on the data sheet.) I'm leaning toward staying on inverter program 1 SOL which switches me to grid, but only takes my batteries down to about 85%. I can go all night on SBU, but I drop to a SOC of about 55%. That's a bit lower that I want to go. Thanks.
  24. I finally heard from SMK Solar. "Thanks for your enquiry. The software can not upgrade by customer. Otherwise the chip will blocked. For software upgrde, this software upgrade version may not suitable for our product. Since it is working good, no need to change the setting by end user. " So I guess that's that.
  25. @Coulomb I only have a 200ah bank so I've got my max charge set to 20A. Anyway @flltech here are some (poor) pictures of the interior.

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