Lithium update

[Gaston aires]

In July I self fitted a Fogstar drift 230 AH underseat battery replacing 2 x lead acids. Fed by 2 x 140 watt solar panels through an MPPT controller. I changed the settings on the MPPT to lion and the Schaudt to gel settings on Fogstar recommendation. No B2B so quite a simple task for the average DIYer. Using a 1500 watt pure sinewave inverter to power up low wattage appliances proved very successful on our subsequent travels. Recently our travels away meant that no attention was given to battery charging whilst away for at least 3 months. No EHU just left on the drive.
Checked everything today and found that both the engine (lead acid) and habitation battery had maintained 100% full charge in spite of rubbish weather and lack of daylight through the solar.
I am delighted with the outcome and would recommend this sort of set up to anyone with moderate type usage.
Phil upmebattery

 

[Ian_H]

I’ll discharge it a bit via the Fogstar app. Set it around 80%
Thanks Phil

Hi Phil
How would you discharge it via the app? I think you need to put a real load on it.
Ian

 

[Gaston aires]

Hi Phil
How would you discharge it via the app? I think you need to put a real load on it.
Ian

I switched off charging on the app. Then used some energy boiled a couple of kettles etc. I’m going to do a bit a bit of work on the van tomorrow and a low wattage heater should reduce to around 60/70%
If there’s a better way id like to know.
Phil

 

[Ian_H]

I switched off charging on the app. Then used some energy boiled a couple of kettles etc. I’m going to do a bit a bit of work on the van tomorrow and a low wattage heater should reduce to around 60/70%
If there’s a better way id like to know.
Phil

I don't think there's any other way! I misread your previous post, like the app was going to magic away some charge........
Ian

 

[Cheese Monster]

230Ah li is a good system for a low demand user. We've only have 200Ah, but I am almost satisified with ours now. I may chuck another solar panel on to increase form our 240w and fit an Ablemail AMT12-2 as my solar doesn't feed my starter. We don't use any 240v appliances, but watch a bit of telly on 12v and move daily.

andysam I have had an AMT12-2 for a few years now, it worked well when I had an AGM BUT it can't detect the small voltage changes of a Lithium. I even had it re-programmed. It is now set to charge the starter battery all the time.

I wish I'd not bought it and just used the SoC from the BNV-712 to trigger so simple form of charger.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Pausim]

andysam I have had an AMT12-2 for a few years now, it worked well when I had an AGM BUT it can't detect the small voltage changes of a Lithium. I even had it re-programmed. It is now set to charge the starter battery all the time.

I wish I'd not bought it and just used the SoC from the BNV-712 to trigger so simple form of charger.

Anything relying on voltage detection is going to struggle with Lipo. In the end I gave up trying to make a battery maintainer work and fitted a 12V time clock that switched a charger on for about 15 minutes every day which worked very well.

 

[Lenny HB]

Anything relying on voltage detection is going to struggle with Lipo. In the end I gave up trying to make a battery maintainer work and fitted a 12V time clock that switched a charger on for about 15 minutes every day which worked very well.

Ablemail works well with Lithium.

 

[Cheese Monster]

Ablemail works well with Lithium.

Not in my opinion.

 

[Lenny HB]

Not in my opinion.

Statements like late are meaningless without the full information.

Depends on how you set it up, it is fully programable.

Edit:
Just seen your earlier post.

A couple of people I've helped out where a Batterymaster wouldn't do the job in Scotland in winter one of them got through 3 starter batteries. I got them to fit the Ablemail and they have not had a problem since.

 

[Cheese Monster]

Statements like late are meaningless without the full information.

Depends on how you set it up, it is fully programable.

It is fully programmable and mine went back and was reprogrammed by Ablemail to detect in 0.2 volt steps but it has so much hysteresis it can't detect small changes in a Lithium battery.

Perhaps you need to look at the terminal voltage of a Lithium battery and tell by how much it changes from say 20% SoC to 80% SoC?

If you're happy with your AMT that's good. Are you a qualified electronics design engineer?

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Russell's Dad]

Oh oh!

 

[Ian_H]

 

[BillandHelen]

It is fully programmable and mine went back and was reprogrammed by Ablemail to detect in 0.2 volt steps but it has so much hysteresis it can't detect small changes in a Lithium battery.

Living up in Edinburgh and with a Mercedes pvc which has quite a high parasitic drain through its electronics etc we needed a battery maintainer that would trickle charge even without a solar charge, solar in winter up here really doesn’t add much. We didn’t want it on all the time though in case it drained our lithium.
The helpful guys at Ablemail, they operate out of the most run down buildings but design and build all their own kit there, set ours up to charge our starter battery once it went to 12.2 (about 50%) and maintains it there or slightly higher. I know it’s not ideal but everything is a compromise. We use the van through the winter but it could sit for 3 weeks if we were away on a different type of holiday. So far worked ok over 2 winters.

 

[AdrianChen]

andysam I have had an AMT12-2 for a few years now, it worked well when I had an AGM BUT it can't detect the small voltage changes of a Lithium. I even had it re-programmed. It is now set to charge the starter battery all the time.

I wish I'd not bought it and just used the SoC from the BNV-712 to trigger so simple form of charger.

Ours works well - It is on the standard settings for Lithium/standard alternator most of the time, and the start battery has never got to a point where it probably wouldn't start the engine, which is what these devices are designed to do, nor does it deplete the leisure bank further than necessary, so hopefully the combined battery capacity will last as long as is possible. We have wired SW2 to a "relay" that operates when the solar output is good, and that turns on the Ablemail permanently, when the LifePo4 batts are up over 14v the starter battery is then getting a decent charge. Sadly in recent weeks there have been few good days for solar, but the start battery is around 12.5v whilst the leisures are at 13.3v (we have 86% left on the lithium) with this differential about 0.4v is going into the start battery - but I have just remotely turned on the relay to salve my OCD. Very pleased I got the Ablemail rather than the more simple CSB2 which I had before. By the way does anybody want a CBE CSB2 (Not one subject to the recall)?

 

[bigtree]

Ours works well - It is on the standard settings for Lithium/standard alternator most of the time, and the start battery has never got to a point where it probably wouldn't start the engine, which is what these devices are designed to do, nor does it deplete the leisure bank further than necessary, so hopefully the combined battery capacity will last as long as is possible. We have wired SW2 to a "relay" that operates when the solar output is good, and that turns on the Ablemail permanently, when the LifePo4 batts are up over 14v the starter battery is then getting a decent charge. Sadly in recent weeks there have been few good days for solar, but the start battery is around 12.5v whilst the leisures are at 13.3v (we have 86% left on the lithium) with this differential about 0.4v is going into the start battery - but I have just remotely turned on the relay to salve my OCD. Very pleased I got the Ablemail rather than the more simple CSB2 which I had before. By the way does anybody want a CBE CSB2 (Not one subject to the recall)?

Have you got the AMT set to 2 or 6 ?

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[AdrianChen]

Currently on 6, initially on 2 but changed it because the start battery is not in good nick, which made a useful difference to the overnight resting voltage. When I get round to changing the battery (which would needed to have been done without solar and AMT12 masking the issue) I will pop it back to 2.

 

[bigtree]

Currently on 6, initially on 2 but changed it because the start battery is not in good nick, which made a useful difference to the overnight resting voltage. When I get round to changing the battery (which would needed to have been done without solar and AMT12 masking the issue) I will pop it back to 2.

I’m going to set mine to 6 as 3 just isn’t enough, battery is only reading 12.3v on my tracker app.

 

[Cheese Monster]

Ours works well - It is on the standard settings for Lithium/standard alternator most of the time, and the start battery has never got to a point where it probably wouldn't start the engine, which is what these devices are designed to do, nor does it deplete the leisure bank further than necessary, so hopefully the combined battery capacity will last as long as is possible. We have wired SW2 to a "relay" that operates when the solar output is good, and that turns on the Ablemail permanently, when the LifePo4 batts are up over 14v the starter battery is then getting a decent charge. Sadly in recent weeks there have been few good days for solar, but the start battery is around 12.5v whilst the leisures are at 13.3v (we have 86% left on the lithium) with this differential about 0.4v is going into the start battery - but I have just remotely turned on the relay to salve my OCD. Very pleased I got the Ablemail rather than the more simple CSB2 which I had before. By the way does anybody want a CBE CSB2 (Not one subject to the recall)?

You paid ~£70 and then had to add a relay to get it to function as you wanted?!

 

[AdrianChen]

I’m going to set mine to 6 as 3 just isn’t enough, battery is only reading 12.3v on my tracker app.

Can't do any harm, although if it is Lead Acid 12.3 is 70% which is clear of the main risks of non start and sulphation etc. Non of these are designed to replace a proper charger that can give a full and proper charge cycle at 14.Xv, but they do stop the battery from getting to a level where it is incapable of starting the engine, they rely on the voltage difference between the two batteries which at this time of the year can be quite small without some solar which is in short supply!

 

[VXman]

We have a very similar set which also works very well. The only difference is about £500 as we used AGM's not Lithium. In my opinion Lithium is not necessary with this level of use.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[AdrianChen]

You paid ~£70 and then had to add a relay to get it to function as you wanted?!

No I had already got the relay in the system - its actually the load output of the MPPT controller which I just use like a relay - The AMT just worked out of the box, but since I had the option and it can use more of any excess solar during the storage times why not? Bit of a bonus really

 

[Cheese Monster]

The AMT just worked out of the box

So long as you are happy with the AMT's half baked functionality that's the main thing.

But in my opinion the AMT can't detect the small changes in voltage that a Lithium has. I have just highlighted my findings to make others aware.

Disconnect the AMT from your leisure battery and connect AMT input to a DC power supply. Take the PSU output voltage from say 11.5 volts to 14.5 volts and back down to 11.5 volts and monitor the AMT output voltage with a DMM (and watch the LED) you'll see what I mean.

 

[AdrianChen]

So long as you are happy with the AMT's half baked functionality that's the main thing.

But in my opinion the AMT can't detect the small changes in voltage that a Lithium has. I have just highlighted my findings to make others aware.

Disconnect the AMT from your leisure battery and connect AMT input to a DC power supply. Take the PSU output voltage from say 11.5 volts to 14.5 volts and back down to 11.5 volts and monitor the AMT output voltage with a DMM (and watch the LED) you'll see what I mean.

Thanks for your advice - but it all works just fine!

 

[andysam]

Fitted mine last night. Interesting points all around, thank you all. I have to say it looks a bit heath robinson and the lack of a terminal cover/case was a bit disconcerting. We'll see how it goes...I didn't have a starter batt issue before, this was just for piece of mind.

 

[cyberyacht]

I’m going to set mine to 6 as 3 just isn’t enough, battery is only reading 12.3v on my tracker app.

My tracker app consistently shows the battery 0.2V higher than the actual voltage across the terminals. Might be worth cross-checking to establish the accuracy of the data.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[bigtree]

My tracker app consistently shows the battery 0.2V higher than the actual voltage across the terminals. Might be worth cross-checking to establish the accuracy of the data.

This one is pretty accurate, the van control is optimistic though.

 

[1967bowesj]

Van control panel reads well low, possibly by .5v!
best check with meter then add or subtract the known difference

 

[PeteMallorca]

ATM can't even reply to a customer care email, info@ablemail.co.uk , asking about wiring and the cost of the Bluetooth module, should I find that I need it.

I won't be recommending them to anyone.

 

[AdrianChen]

ATM can't even reply to a customer care email, info@ablemail.co.uk , asking about wiring and the cost of the Bluetooth module, should I find that I need it.

I won't be recommending them to anyone.

Surprising - I've always had a response in the past