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blueh20's avatar
blueh20
Explorer
Oct 27, 2021

issues syncing controller

hi, am a newbie so looking for guidance.

My setup:
lifeline 8dl 255ah battery, 3-100w renolgy eclipse panels, 40amp commander controller.

I also have between batterys a blue sea charging relay ML-ACR. A 40amp fuse between controller and battery.
House battery is the "main battery" in my setup and the starter battery is the aux.
Have the MT50 digital solar gauge, and a Xantrex "linklite" gauge that will let me monitor the house and starter battery.

I hooked this all up a couple of years ago with the help of the folks on this site. All seems to be working well other then the solar charging the battery fully.
When charging off the panels, The house battery is the "lifeline", the MT50 shows fully charged but the Xantrex will show 12.8 and be 2 bars short of full.

When charging off of a battery tender the MT50 shows about a 1/3rd full and the xantrex will show 13.8, but still be 2 bars short of showing full.

That is the Lifeline house battery. When I hit the button on the xantrex to check the aux battery(starter battery) it will show the same volts 13.8 but the aux battery will show full bars on the xantrex.

Just seems as though the commander controller or the xantrex is synced incorrectly by me.

On the face of the xantrex it shows to push the two outside buttons to sync things, im thinking I did something wrong, any ideas.

Anyway to cancel the sync and let the controller charge higher up around 14?
thanks for your help.
  • blueh20's avatar
    blueh20
    Explorer
    Oct 28, 2021
    this setup I have is in a 2014 ford e250 conversion.
    The solar runs some interior LED lights, couple of usb chargers, a water pump for the sink now and then, a fantastic fan and an arb fridgerator.
    The only thing on for long is the arb is full time when in use.
  • blueh20's avatar
    blueh20
    Explorer
    Oct 28, 2021
    bfl13
    thanks for chiming in, all of this is real new to me, so am just going to ask a question one at a time and maybe you can help me understand this, please.
    How do I tell when the battery gets to 0.5a/100ah of my lifeline 255?

    Right now my xantrex reads---.2amps .6ah

    thanks
  • BFL13's avatar
    BFL13
    Explorer II
    Oct 28, 2021
    Ignore everything else, and just charge at 14.4v until the amps to the Lifeline AGM get down to 0.5a/100AH of rated capacity.

    That is the ONLY indicator of "Full" that counts. Once there, you can "zero" or "synch" your monitor(s) to zero amp hours, and let them run from there.

    BTW Lifeline also wants you to charge at a Minimum 20% in Bulk. 255AH means it wants a charge of 51 amps until Bulk ends and amps taper. That will be at about 75% SOC, so if you don't draw down to below 75% you can't ever meet that20% spec. Mex says that doesn't matter if you start charging at above 75% as long as you get the amps down to 0.5/100 (so with 255 that would be 1.3 amps)

    So you need a charger that will stay at 14.4v as long as needed until amps get down to 1.3 amps. Many converters and chargers won't do that. (A PowerMax LK model will though EG)
    Your solar 300w will do maybe 15 amps flat on the roof at noon for a little while so no way to meet that 51 amps spec. If all you have is solar you need to stay well above that 75% SOC by morning and have a long sunny day to even hope to get down to 1.3amps by dark and before you use anything 12v. Not likely!

    So you need a gen and a charger that can do at least 51 amps and get to past 75% before turning the job over to solar if there is any to be had that day for long enough.

    BTDT, just how it is.

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