[The Badass Blonde]

Hi!
I just bought a 2018 fully converted ford transit van and seem to be having an issue with my battery.
I run my van off of my alternator and solar panels, in which run through my inverter and shoe on my battery monitoring system up front. I have not had any issue until today when I noticed that while driving (4+ hours) my Renogy battery monitor was not charging off the alternator or solar panels (i.e., 13.2v + .5A) even while I was not using any electricity except my fridge. Unsure of what happened and hoping someone can help!

 

[Intruder]

Sounds like your battery were fully charged and only accepting .5A in the Float stage for a trickle charge. Which batteries do you have?

 

[harryn]

Which exact monitor are you using and battery configuration?

Some of them are voltage based and some are columbs based.

The renogy monitor relies on fairly exact data being input into the system, and it is fairly easy to fool.

ALL battery monitoring systems are based on "change" rather than " reality".

For 12 volt based systems, this is especially true as you can have literally hundreds of amps to measure in some modes and a few amps in others. The info is also non linear.

There simply isn't any monitoring system in existence that is perfect over this very large range.

All electrical measurements are "indications of what is going on, not an absolute.

Renogy is an econo brand / quality of electronics, so don't get too concerned with trying to get exact numbers.

 

[The Badass Blonde]

Sounds like your battery were fully charged and only accepting .5A in the Float stage for a trickle charge. Which batteries do you have?

Two Renogy LiFePO4 100 ah batteries

 

[The Badass Blonde]

Which exact monitor are you using and battery configuration?

Some of them are voltage based and some are columbs based.

The renogy monitor relies on fairly exact data being input into the system, and it is fairly easy to fool.

ALL battery monitoring systems are based on "change" rather than " reality".

For 12 volt based systems, this is especially true as you can have literally hundreds of amps to measure in some modes and a few amps in others. The info is also non linear.

There simply isn't any monitoring system in existence that is perfect over this very large range.

All electrical measurements are "indications of what is going on, not an absolute.

Renogy is an econo brand / quality of electronics, so don't get too concerned with trying to get exact numbers.

My apologies and I don’t know a lot about this but i have two Renogy LiFePO4 100 ah batteries and the Renogy Battery Monitor version 2.0?

 

[Boondox]

Have you tried resetting the battery monitor? As noted above they drift off and need to be reset periodically. Is the system charging the batteries? That is of far more importance than accuracy of the battery monitor.

 

[Intruder]

In my first reply I was assuming your batteries were possibly AGM's because of the 13.2 stopping point on the charging but since they are LifePO4's that is different. It is possible that the batteries are full and the Renogy meter needs to be reset to 100% but without more info there is no way to know what is going on. Could also be a bad connection somewhere. How long have you owned the van? Maybe if you describe your charging system in depth we can all figure this out for you. There are a lot smarter solar guy's than me on this forum to help you with this.

 

[Mobileempire]

Get a multimeter , do some testing to see what exactly is going on .

 

[harryn]

My apologies and I don’t know a lot about this but i have two Renogy LiFePO4 100 ah batteries and the Renogy Battery Monitor version 2.0?

No need to apologize - we are all just a big happy family of van enthusiast.

It is very helpful to eventually own a volt meter, perhaps even a clamp meter, but that isn't critical yet.

Can you check if you system is being charged by a direct connection to the starter battery / alternator of if there is an actual DC - DC charger involved?

Half of the fun is just becoming acquainted with the system. Some things that help:

• 1 or 2 x a day, write down
• Battery voltage
• Current flow
• If it is easy to find on the monitor, the solar panel input voltage
• the state of charge reading

If it is easy for you to do, you can also just take some photos various parts and post them.

 

[harryn]

One way to tell if the batteries are completely full is to use a 120 vac - 12 volt LiFe charger.

Plug it in overnight and it will definitely be full.

Click the "100%" setting and then that will become the "full" default.