RHarries said:
Hi,
I have recently completed install of a 100 Ah Renogy LiFePO4 battery, Victrom MPPT, and Orion DC charger 12/12 - 30 in my FWC and I am struggling to understand the correct settings for my Victron BMV 712 and Orion DC charger. I have been poring over the discussions about this, and am more confused than when I started. I have started with the most reliable information that i was able to locate from Battle Born, but am hopeful that those more experienced with victron/renogy would be able to review the settings and let me know if i am missing anything.
a few pertinent data points:
1, I do not have a smart alternator
2, I have yet to upgrade the 10 gauge wire from my truck battery to the DC charger, so i expect high voltage drop there.
Thanks for reading, and please let me know if there is any additional information needed...
-RH
I suspect nobody has responded because nobody has the battery you have. However, I’ll take a shot at some feedback. Unfortunately I don’t have my camper in the truck right now so I can’t access my Orion via Victron Connect (it has no power), so I’m relying on my memory of my Orion settings.
For your BMV-712 settings, most settings look good, but:
1) You have your charged voltage in the BMV set to the same voltage as your Orion’s absorption voltage (the highest voltage it will apply). I like to set the BMV a tenth of a volt lower so my BMV syncs to 100% more regularly.
2) Your discharge floor at 5% is lower than recommended by the manual for lithium. I have mine at 10%. All this does is set the zero point for your charge remaining percentage display. More important is your low charge alarm threshold, which you didn’t show. I have mine set at 30%, but I have a 200 ah battery and never should go that low. You might choose a lower alarm point - pick what you see as an abnormally low level for the alarm point.
3) You have your tail current set to 4%, or 4 amps. That’s fairly high, which means a tail current test for syncing is effectively defeated. Nothing wrong with that, but you should have an idea why you are setting it there. One good reason would be if your charger cuts off when it hits 3 amps (the Orion doesn’t).
Your Orion settings look OK too, but:
1). You could potentially push your absorption voltage up to 14.4 or 14.6 to get a tiny bit more capacity, but don’t exceed the battery manufacturer recommendation. 14.2 is a perfectly good conservative number.
2) Your bulk time limit at 10 hours defeats the safety feature’s usage as a time limit on max current being supplied if there is some problem. 10 hours at 30 amps is 300 amp-hours. You have a 100 amp-hour battery. I’d set this parameter to 3 hours, or maximum 4.
3) I would set the shutdown voltage to be maybe 0.2 volts above the resting/shutdown truck battery voltage after the truck has run for a while and has fully recharged the truck battery. I suspect that will be maybe 13.1 or 13.2 volts rather than the 13.5 shown. That will make your engine run detection logic a bit more tolerant of undersized wire gage, and may be the difference needed to prevent the two minute engine running check cycles from being triggered. As I said, I’m unable to check my own setting on this right now.
I hope this helps. I would HIGHLY recommend fully reading the owners manuals for your Victron devices if you haven’t already. They are very thorough and clear, and you will know why you are setting things a particular way. They come with the units, of course, but are also readily available on line.
https://www.victronenergy.com/support-and-downloads/manuals