MultiPlus giving low battery warning and shutting down. 93% SOC 12.1V ????

[Yoda]

Vacation off to a dismal start. Truck showed 0 oil pressure at idle when we stopped for a short break an hour from home. Oil pressure came back off idle so limped to the Farmington Ziems Ford. This was Sunday at about 10 AM. Camped overnight at lot and got them to take a look this morning. Still checking out what's wrong.

But that's not the reason for the post.
Last night battery's were over 13V 100 SOC. We ran 2 CPAPS over night and this AM we were at 12.4V at 93% SOC. I thought this was great as my old 2 12V in parallel would be about 1/2 of that and that was with just 1 CPAP - now 2) Went to use the inverter on my new coffee maker (900W). After about 30 seconds inverter shut off with low battery voltage alarm 12.1 I thought I had shut down set at 11.6V I cant figure out if or how to lower the alarm setting using the Touch 50. I do have my smart phone with me, but can I change settings using blue tooth?. I have the connect app installed.

As battery's are new I am assuming I have something messed up on the settings. Is there a way to adjust with what I have available and what should I change. Battery's are a bank of 4-6V in series parallel (520AH total)

Thanks Keith

PS Please keep your fingers crossed it is an easy and quick fix.

[howson]

Vacation off to a dismal start. Truck showed 0 oil pressure at idle when we stopped for a short break an hour from home. Oil pressure came back off idle so limped to the Farmington Ziems Ford. This was Sunday at about 10 AM. Camped overnight at lot and got them to take a look this morning. Still checking out what's wrong.

But that's not the reason for the post.
Last night battery's were over 13V 100 SOC. We ran 2 CPAPS over night and this AM we were at 12.4V at 93% SOC. I thought this was great as my old 2 12V in parallel would be about 1/2 of that and that was with just 1 CPAP - now 2) Went to use the inverter on my new coffee maker (900W). After about 30 seconds inverter shut off with low battery voltage alarm 12.1 I thought I had shut down set at 11.6V I cant figure out if or how to lower the alarm setting using the Touch 50. I do have my smart phone with me, but can I change settings using blue tooth?. I have the connect app installed.

As battery's are new I am assuming I have something messed up on the settings. Is there a way to adjust with what I have available and what should I change. Battery's are a bank of 4-6V in series parallel (520AH total)

Thanks Keith

PS Please keep your fingers crossed it is an easy and quick fix.

Yes, it's a setting, Keith. Just saw your post so give me a few minutes to do some research in my files to see if I have a picture. You have to go into the Multiplus' programming to set the voltage levels. Be right back...

[howson]

Yoda

See https://gdrvowners.com/forum/operati...battery-charge It's a very similar situation and issue.

Unfortunately I can't bring up the configuration of the Multiplus since I'm not near my trailer...but the thread does show the screens and should give you an idea of the issue.

Please capture the current Multiplus' Inverter page settings and post them (the page shown in post 17 of the linked thread.)

Howard

[Yoda]

Yoda

See https://gdrvowners.com/forum/operati...battery-charge It's a very similar situation and issue.

Unfortunately I can't bring up the configuration of the Multiplus since I'm not near my trailer...but the thread does show the screens and should give you an idea of the issue.

Please capture the current Multiplus' Inverter page settings and post them (the page shown in post 17 of the linked thread.)

Howard

Thanks
Keith

[Yoda]

Yoda

See https://gdrvowners.com/forum/operati...battery-charge It's a very similar situation and issue.

Unfortunately I can't bring up the configuration of the Multiplus since I'm not near my trailer...but the thread does show the screens and should give you an idea of the issue.

Please capture the current Multiplus' Inverter page settings and post them (the page shown in post 17 of the linked thread.)

Howard

No joy with the cell phone. It sees the 712 and the two solar controllers, but not the Cerbo GX or multiplus. I went through the touch 50 and nothing there too. I also found I cant turn the inverter on from the touch 50 with the switch set to charger only. I have not tried with the switch set to inverter yet to see if I can turn it off from the touch 50.

Looks like I need to use DW's laptop and the connection brick (mk3) - which I did put in the trailer - just need to find it. I now have victron connect on her laptop too. Will try to plug in when I get time.

I was going to set the low voltage alarm and shut down to 11.8 as I have the led acid battery's. Does that sound correct? I need to have enough power to run the fridge on propane Solar currently has them charged back to 13.6 to14V give or take (100% SOC).

They did find the problem with the truck. High pressure oil pump. They may get us out of here tonight or first thing in the morning. Its starting to be one expensive trip.

Keith

[howson]

No joy with the cell phone. It sees the 712 and the two solar controllers, but not the Cerbo GX or multiplus. I went through the touch 50 and nothing there too. I also found I cant turn the inverter on from the touch 50 with the switch set to charger only. I have not tried with the switch set to inverter yet to see if I can turn it off from the touch 50.

Looks like I need to use DW's laptop and the connection brick (mk3) - which I did put in the trailer - just need to find it. I now have victron connect on her laptop too. Will try to plug in when I get time.

I was going to set the low voltage alarm and shut down to 11.8 as I have the led acid battery's. Does that sound correct? I need to have enough power to run the fridge on propane Solar currently has them charged back to 13.6 to14V give or take (100% SOC).

They did find the problem with the truck. High pressure oil pump. They may get us out of here tonight or first thing in the morning. Its starting to be one expensive trip.

Keith

Keith--refresh my memory on your battery profile. Lead acid? So is 12.2 the 50% SoC that you shouldn't go under?

bertschb and/or ncitro -- are either of you guys near your Multiplus and can talk Keith through this?

[dsimmons]

Hey Howard and Keith, I’m Neil’s wife! He’s on a dive boat at Isle Royale with no cell service at the moment, and won’t be back until late Thursday. I’m monitoring his email and saw this tag; I didn’t want to leave you hanging. I’ve read through the thread here and I won’t be much help, but I could be near our Multiplus tomorrow if there’s anything I can get for you.

[howson]

Hey Howard and Keith, I’m Neil’s wife! He’s on a dive boat at Isle Royale with no cell service at the moment, and won’t be back until late Thursday. I’m monitoring his email and saw this tag; I didn’t want to leave you hanging. I’ve read through the thread here and I won’t be much help, but I could be near our Multiplus tomorrow if there’s anything I can get for you.

Thank you for responding and welcome! Also for your willingness to help but at this point we'll just wait for Yoda to provide an update (he may have figured it out himself). First thing is getting his truck back on the road.

[Yoda]

Thank you for responding and welcome! Also for your willingness to help but at this point we'll just wait for Yoda to provide an update (he may have figured it out himself). First thing is getting his truck back on the road.

Good morning Howard
I am running 4-6V Crown CR260 battery's in series/parallel. I have them set in two separate 12V banks tied to the power in bar. They are flooded lead acid. Crown said not to discharge past 11.5V if I remember correctly. Notes are at home. This morning we were at 12.6V 94% SOC so I tried again on the coffee maker. Ran for about 2 minutes then shut off with a power warning at 12.2 volts. I did notice the booster being on for the tv last (little green light on ceiling) night and shut it off - it was drawing several watts.

They estimate they will be done this morning and we will be on the road by noon. Maybe we can get to Amarillo tonight. It was the high pressure oil pump. Some staked internal ball had come loose allowing oil to bypass internally. We were lucky to get to the dealer.

Thanks for the help. Ill be doing a bit of reading on the MultiPlus manual this morning if I get time. Need to repack the trailer to be ready to go.

Keith

[bertschb]

bertschb and/or ncitro -- are either of you guys near your Multiplus and can talk Keith through this?

We're in Leavenworth, WA packing up to leave for a new spot right now but I'll be around later this afternoon if Keith needs me to check anything with my system settings.

[howson]

Yoda
I know very little about lead acid batteries so did some reading. First off, the charge profile for your Crown is very specific and documented in Crown's documentation. I've never tried to program the Multiplus for the three phase profile required by the Crown, so no joy there in helping you out.

For the voltage...according to everything I can find (Crown doesn't publish any voltage levels?) when the battery voltage is at 12.06 volts that equals a 50% SoC. To get maximum life from the battery pack that's when it's time to recharge--using the three stage profile. (Lead acid takes it's charge slow and long, so no inverting while it's charging.) 11.5v is about 20% SoC from my reading. Certainly possible, but that SoC will shorten their lifespan (according to all the reading I've done).

Since you're stating the warning is coming at 12.2 volts, that's below the actual 50% SoC of the battery bank. (I think the BMV isn't reflecting the SoC correctly.) The warning is a programming issue. Easy enough to have it warn you at the 30% SoC (~11.75v) and then shut down the inverter at 11.6 (just above the 20% SoC mark).

Uploading the spec sheet below. All the other information was derived from reading multiple sources...you can easily find the same info with good 'ol google.

Howard

P.S. I've done my best to be accurate with the information posted above, but please take everything with a grain of salt. I'm not a lead-acid battery expert and most certainly didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night...

[Yoda]

Yoda
I know very little about lead acid batteries so did some reading. First off, the charge profile for your Crown is very specific and documented in Crown's documentation. I've never tried to program the Multiplus for the three phase profile required by the Crown, so no joy there in helping you out.

For the voltage...according to everything I can find (Crown doesn't publish any voltage levels?) when the battery voltage is at 12.06 volts that equals a 50% SoC. To get maximum life from the battery pack that's when it's time to recharge--using the three stage profile. (Lead acid takes it's charge slow and long, so no inverting while it's charging.) 11.5v is about 20% SoC from my reading. Certainly possible, but that SoC will shorten their lifespan (according to all the reading I've done).

Since you're stating the warning is coming at 12.2 volts, that's below the actual 50% SoC of the battery bank. (I think the BMV isn't reflecting the SoC correctly.) The warning is a programming issue. Easy enough to have it warn you at the 30% SoC (~11.75v) and then shut down the inverter at 11.6 (just above the 20% SoC mark).

Uploading the spec sheet below. All the other information was derived from reading multiple sources...you can easily find the same info with good 'ol google.

Howard

P.S. I've done my best to be accurate with the information posted above, but please take everything with a grain of salt. I'm not a lead-acid battery expert and most certainly didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night...

I know I was able to program the charge profile for both in the multiplus and MPPT units. Continuous Resources walked me through that over the phone. Your probably correct on the 712 so I need to read up and reset it once I get to the long stay and know they are fully charged.

The two CAP's running all night should use about 50 to 100AH as the wife does use some heat and with the fridge on gas running at about 35-40watts the 94 to 96% SOC in the morning is about correct. However the voltage this morning was 12.6V so could I possibly have a battery issue? The fast 0.4 voltage drop with the inverter on is puzzling? but the coffee pot is a large draw. I did experiment running the fridge on AC and it was about 350 - 400 W if I remember correctly - higher than the solar output at the time. However the inverter stayed on. I forgot to look at the voltage when I tried that. Was looking at running the fridge on AC to save propane while on the road. However the truck was not plugged in.

More reading and checking to do.

Good news all the parts are here, so hopefully in an hour or so we will be back on the road.

Keith

[ncitro]

Yoda Just jumping in to confirm you cannot change the inverter settings via Bluetooth, either laptop or I think an Android phone with a cable although I've never actually tried that.

I think you're on the right track with the voltage warning. I ran my old Magnum on four GC batteries and I recall having to drop the warning voltage due to the way the lead acid batteries work.

[Yoda]

Yoda Just jumping in to confirm you cannot change the inverter settings via Bluetooth, either laptop or I think an Android phone with a cable although I've never actually tried that.

I think you're on the right track with the voltage warning. I ran my old Magnum on four GC batteries and I recall having to drop the warning voltage due to the way the lead acid batteries work.

Thanks Neil
When we get to Georgia Ill look into it. I have DW's laptop and I brought the MK3 with me. Do you have a suggestion on the setting? Right now we are stranded in Amarillo. Truck died coming out of the campground. Sitting at Gene Messer Ford. They say some electrical gremlin. So the Force has totally left me.

More later
Keith

[ncitro]

Thanks Neil
When we get to Georgia Ill look into it. I have DW's laptop and I brought the MK3 with me. Do you have a suggestion on the setting? Right now we are stranded in Amarillo. Truck died coming out of the campground. Sitting at Gene Messer Ford. They say some electrical gremlin. So the Force has totally left me.

More later
Keith

That's rough on the truck, I saw that at the top of the post. I think I set mine to warn at the disconnect voltage. This removes any warning but due to the battery chemistry I think they drop voltage under heavy load even though you've still got capacity.