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Charge controller won't stay in float


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#51 Vic Harder

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Posted 22 October 2018 - 12:35 AM

Well, as the saying goes, if it's too good to be true....

 

Pulled camper out of garage this AM, and it went back to its cycling thing.  

 

Hard to figure, as yesterday it performed flawlessly for hours after I replaced that wire.  I changed settings in the controller on the fly, it responded perfectly.  No problems.  Today, back to square one. 

 

Has to be 1)a battery is bad, though they both checked out fine, or 2) the controller just doesn't like dealing with 2 6V batts in series.  

 

When you replaced the wire, you disconnected that battery power from the system.  Seems to me that this has happened before, no?  Disconnect and it works fine for a bit?  


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#52 Happyjax

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Posted 22 October 2018 - 04:16 PM

You have electrical gremlins.....lol


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#53 radarcontact

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Posted 25 October 2018 - 02:21 AM

 

After ignoring the whole damn thing for the last 5 days I took a look at my system again today, and did a few things:

 

1)  hooked up the controller again to my 12V truck battery, just to make sure it performed well like it did the other day - it did.

2)  went to auto store and borrowed 2 6V batteries identical to mine, but a couple years old, and hooked them up in series to see if they did the same thing as my brand new 6Vs....they worked well with the controller, just like my 12V truck battery.

 

Hooked my 6Vs back up to the controller and did some adjusting of the controller.  Noticed a couple things today:

 

1)  Verified w/the battery manufacturer that my set points for absorption and float were correct - they were, 14.5V and 13.5V, respectively.  Checked settings in controller.  Batteries did their usual thing, got to absorption set point and went to float, no amps out once it went to float.  That part doesn't necessarily bother me, as there's no load on in the camper, and the controller wants to let the battery voltage drop to 13.5, which it does over a period of a minute or two.  The difference between my camper batteries and my truck battery, for instance, is that when 13.5V is reached, the controller will float my truck battery, but won't float my camper batteries.  Voltage will eventually drop to 13.4 bec. no amps in, and then the controller switches back to absorption.  However......if, say, I set the float setpoint in the controller to a lower number, say 13.3V or 13.2V, the battery takes longer to drop to that voltage.  That increase in time seems to make a difference to the controller, bec. more often than not the controller will float at the lower setpoint.  So, I'm thinking there's some time period required to make this adjustment - but, that flies in the face of what I get when I connect to the truck battery (float is set at 13.5V when connected to my truck battery), so it probably doesn't mean anything.

 

2)  After the controller reaches its absorption setpoint of 14.5V, it switches to float and the voltage starts dropping to 13.5V.  When the voltage is dropping slowly and it's, say, around 13.7V for example w/no amps out, I apply a load ..... turn on the frig, which takes at least 5A, the controller will STAY IN FLOAT, as long as there's enough sun coming into the panels.  It never goes out of float to absorption, and shows 5.2A out, which would be 5A for the frig and 0.2A for the LEDs on the controller, and to float the batteries at 13.5V.  If I then turn off the frig, the amps out will drop, but more often than not it WILL STAY IN FLOAT....?!?!  Why would it float in that scenario, when a load was previously applied, but not float when there's virtually no load?  

 

Only thing I can conclude is that the programming of the sensors on the controller don't account for floating new, highly charged batteries.  Maybe with time things will improve, after the batteries break in...but I'm not hopeful.

 

Don't know if any of this info is helpful to anyone out there - I'm venting more than anything.  But, if it's useful, I'm glad.  

 

 


Edited by radarcontact, 25 October 2018 - 02:25 AM.

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#54 radarcontact

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Posted 19 November 2018 - 06:20 AM

Final update on this thread, for anyone interested....

 

Was in S. California this past week camping on the beach, and I stopped by Blue Sky in Vista and spoke with Ryan, the head techie I've been dealing with.   We went into his lab and set up conditions that replicated my camper setup.  Initially, we weren't able to repeat my results.  After stressing that my controller acted up when my batteries were fully charged (i.e., 100+%), we applied a charge to his test battery which took the voltage up to a full charge, then connected PV input.  The controller did exactly what mine does, cycled between absorption and float continuously.  Ryan is certain it's a firmware issue, and will have his software engineer correct the coding.  Once that's done they're going to send me an updated controller.

 

Happy ending, and glad to find out I wasn't losing my mind LOL.   Blue Sky is happy I've helped them improve their product.  Their customer support is outstanding, and I wouldn't hesitate to purchase products from them in the future.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!


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#55 Wallowa

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Posted 19 November 2018 - 04:24 PM

Final update on this thread, for anyone interested....

 

Was in S. California this past week camping on the beach, and I stopped by Blue Sky in Vista and spoke with Ryan, the head techie I've been dealing with.   We went into his lab and set up conditions that replicated my camper setup.  Initially, we weren't able to repeat my results.  After stressing that my controller acted up when my batteries were fully charged (i.e., 100+%), we applied a charge to his test battery which took the voltage up to a full charge, then connected PV input.  The controller did exactly what mine does, cycled between absorption and float continuously.  Ryan is certain it's a firmware issue, and will have his software engineer correct the coding.  Once that's done they're going to send me an updated controller.

 

Happy ending, and glad to find out I wasn't losing my mind LOL.   Blue Sky is happy I've helped them improve their product.  Their customer support is outstanding, and I wouldn't hesitate to purchase products from them in the future.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

 

Glad you nailed it...question is whether all of us if we have the same circuits need the "firmware update'...FYI my two FWC AGM 12 volt batteries go to float and stay there for a very long time, with '16 Hawk in my shop on 110.  Never have actually 'caught' it in absorption once it dropped to float while in shop storage...

 

Please let us know how this all resolves....thanks.

 

Phil


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#56 rando

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Posted 19 November 2018 - 04:37 PM

Glad you got it figured out, and happy that it was a problem with the charge controller, and not your set up.   While BlueSky will likely make this right in the end - it is a bit worrying that they seem to have a major firmware bug and that it caused you so much work.   I wonder if they will issue a recall on all controllers with this version of the firmware, or just hope most users don't notice?


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#57 Vic Harder

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Posted 19 November 2018 - 09:26 PM

Awesome news.  I second rando's question.  A recall notice would be the "right thing" to do.


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#58 Wallowa

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Posted 19 November 2018 - 10:12 PM

Awesome news.  I second rando's question.  A recall notice would be the "right thing" to do.

 

 

Yes, but exactly what year FWCs does this affect?


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#59 rando

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Posted 19 November 2018 - 11:55 PM

None.  This was an aftermarket charge controller, not a factory charge controller. 


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#60 radarcontact

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Posted 20 November 2018 - 04:33 PM

Glad you got it figured out, and happy that it was a problem with the charge controller, and not your set up.   While BlueSky will likely make this right in the end - it is a bit worrying that they seem to have a major firmware bug and that it caused you so much work.   I wonder if they will issue a recall on all controllers with this version of the firmware, or just hope most users don't notice?

 

Can't say for sure, but thinking they will fix the problem for anyone who's experiencing it.  They have 3 controllers they market, and as far as I can tell, only my model (SB3000i) has the performance issue.  We hooked up their lower end model while I was in CA, and, interestingly, it performed fine under the same test conditions.  So, the coding issue is probably unique to the 3000i.  

 

Wanted to stress again, particularly for anyone that has this controller - the cycling issue only happens when batteries are fully charged.  There is a work-around to break the cycling...just apply a small load.  Lights, whatever.  The controller will normally float fine once that happens.  The problem is more of an annoyance than anything else, since you usually have at least a small load on when you're camping, and everything works as it should.  It's only when the batteries are charged up and the camper is sitting idle with no loads that you get the problem.

 

They told me it would be several months before they had a definitive answer.  I will post any updates.  


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