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Old 08-05-2022, 12:47 PM   #11
rmihalcin
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Default Battery charger needs to have Lithium capability

Not sure what WFCO unit is installed. There are lithium models available. IE WF-8740-AD. Lithium batteries have a different charge profile from Lead Acid. They will go like 14.6volts to start. Additionally, a lithium battery will take as much current as you can give it to charge. You may need to look at wire size.
I bought a Renogy 100ah battery and I needed to change the wiring to #6 to be able to charge my battery within 2hrs off a Honda generator. (NP dry camping)

I schematic would help us help you.

My guess is the BMS in the battery is defective or not limiting the charge current.

Bob
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Old 08-13-2022, 05:48 PM   #12
Wavery
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Casey Freswick View Post
So here is a summary of events. Related to my TM electrical problems on this trip.

I have a 150 AMP lithium battery. I have tested it and it is really a 100 AMP battery but I bought it from china, not here on the forum. I have several days to try to fix a problem here in MT before I head back to MI.


1. I had 2 30 amp fuses on my 12 volt board burn out.

First, here is a link to the web page of my Converter which tells about the 2 30 Amp Fuses that blew: Reverse battery protection fuses.

https://www.bestconverter.com/PD-465...l#.Yt2dhi9MFvI


I replaced the two 30 AMP fuses on my 12 volt panel and have tested a number of different electrical configurations and they have not blown. They now stable. I have not been able to duplicate them burning out.

2. I blow my brothers 110 GFI in his garage outlets each time I have all 120 volt circuits on. When I have main, microwave and airconditioner circuits on there seems to be no problem.

3. I bypass a GFI outlet and turn on all 110 circuits and there is no problem with the 110 circuits on my TM panel blowing.

4. I turned the 80 AMP breaker off, disconnecting the battery to the converter, converter works: it is putting out 14.5 volts to my 12 volt panel. All 12 volt lights, fans, etc work. There is 14.5 volts going to both the 12 volt system and the battery. With 80 circuit breaker to the battery off/disconnected the converter continues to work.

5. I turned the 80 amp breaker (which is in between the positive wire between the battery and converter). BMS system on battery registers charging, Battery monitoring system you recomened recognizes charging. I switched to 13.2 volt output on my converter and it was putting out 57 AMPS (my charger as you can see is a 55 AM charger). .

6. After about 90 seconds the 80 AMP fuse blew. (This is what was happening. This is now a consistent problem.

7. I put a regular charger at 10 Amps to charge my lithium batter for a short time. Neither the battery BMS or my installed Battery monitoring system are registering a charge.

ANY SUGGESTIONS?

Is my breaker bad?

Is my batter bad? (It holds a charge and I used it without a full charge before the BMS shut it down.

Is my converter bad?
I recently built a LiFeP04 system quite similar to yours. I had all sorts of issues like yours with my WFCO converter so I put in a PD 55A charger with charge wizard (like yours) and wired it as the original was wired and had similar issues to yours.

I discovered that the circuit board on the WFCO converter could not meet the demands of the LiFeP04 batteries sucking constant 55A from the charger.

That's when I discovered the Go Power TS-30 30 Amp Automatic Transfer Switch that I mentioned earlier. By installing that switch, it allowed me to run 6G wires directly from the output of the PD 55A charger to the batteries, instead of running that power through the WFCO converter board. Then I ran 8G wires from the battery to the WFCO power board to supply 12V. The 110V is supplied through the transfer switch, either from the 110V shore power cable or the inverter (if no shore power is present).


Once I installed that switch, all of the problems went away..... plus..... my inverter is now automatically protected from getting back-feed from the shore power cable (which can destroy the inverter).

Watch this video:

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Old 08-17-2022, 03:34 PM   #13
Casey Freswick
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Thanks for the information. My battery is not damaged. Will check on this option for my converter. All other issues fixed.
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Old 08-18-2022, 07:29 AM   #14
rickst29
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Default A typo? (or a clarification from me)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Casey Freswick View Post
Thanks for the information. My battery is not damaged. Will check on this option for my converter. All other issues fixed.
The PD transfer switch is concerned with 120-VAC (from an Inverter versus the grid, or a generator versus the grid). It is a "one or the other, not both" device, and nothing downstream should be aware of the power source.

If you meant to say that you'll look into this option for your inverter, I strongly approve - but that's not what Waverly was talking about. If you really mean to re-wire the Converter in connection with the Transfer switch, that can be used to create a handy and automatic additional feature of great value, which I'm writing this post to highlight for you:

One issue with running a "downstream" converter, with or without a proper transfer switch, is the fact that the converter will try to use any available 120-VAC from to try and charge batteries which have fallen low. In the case of 120-VAC supplied by a battery-powered Inverter, this quickly becomes a death spiral:
  1. The Converter pulls 120-VAC from the Inverter and converts to 12v, losing 5-20% of the input power in that conversion.
  2. The Inverter pulls 12-VDC from the batteries (and the converter!) losing 8-20% in converting to 120-VAC.nverter
  3. Every watt-hour which goes through that 'round trip' is taking 15-40% more power from the battery pack than it returns.

Right now, you have to remember to shut off the converter's breaker (at the WFCO panel) before turning on the Inverter. But, with a transfer switch in place, you could avoid that issue. Simply disconnect the circuit breaker which feeds the Converter from the transfer switch "output", and connect BOTH LEGS ("hot" and "neutral") to the grid input leads - before the transfer switch chooses between power sources.
- - -
It's great to hear that everything you now have is working well. Please add that transfer switch.
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