Trimetric 2030 battery monitor

[JRRNeiklot]

I'm in the process of installing my solar setup. I have everything installed except the solar panels. I am having issues with my Trimetric 2030 battery monitor. After charging to 95%, according to my battery charger, it's showing 14.5 volts, both at the charger and the Trimetric, but the amps are showing negative .3, which is the draw of phantom loads, I assume. It shows the same -.3 when I'm not charging. It should be showing the amount of amps incoming, correct? I discharged the batteries to 12.3 volts today - my battery charger was showing 62%, but the Trimetric shows the battery perentage at 98%. Can anyone help me straighten this out?

Thanks.

[BFL13]

JRRNeiklot wrote:
I'm currently using a 15 amp battery charger until I get my solar panels mounted. So it should be okay to set it at 14.8?

What is the highest voltage the charger gets the batteries to? The charger amps size doesn't matter for setting P1.

Set P1 no higher than that or the Tri will never know the batteries are as high in voltage as they will ever get with that charger. Tri says in fact to make P1 just under what the charger can do.

Don't forget to clamp the neg side of the charger to the outer end of the shunt,or the trailer frame, same thing if you wired it right, not to the battery neg post end of the shunt or else you will not see what that charger is doing on the Tri.

[JRRNeiklot]

I'm currently using a 15 amp battery charger until I get my solar panels mounted. So it should be okay to set it at 14.8?

[BFL13]

Trojan wants to be charged at 14.8 at 77F temp. (the absorption voltage (Vabs) you should have the charger set at.)

The Trimetric P1 would not be set higher than what your charger can do though, or it will never see that P1. The Tri instructions for the 2025 say make P1 just under the charger's Vabs-- don't know about the 2030.

If all you have is a 14.4v converter as the charger, 14.3 is right according to the Tri instructions. Trojan batts won't be happy though.

The breakaway switch is on a positive wire, nothing to do with the neg side and the shunt. The "ground" wire that matters is the one that goes from the battery post neg to the frame.

That has to now go to the inner end of the shunt (it also has to be a fatter wire since it will be taking all the current from the various devices attached to the outer end of the shunt), not to the frame. Now the "ground" wire for the battery uses another wire from the outer end of the shunt to the frame.

[JRRNeiklot]

I think I fixed my problem. There was a frame ground from the trailer wiring that did not go through the shunt due to the breakaway braking system. I rewired that and I think everything is fine now. I do have one other question: What voltage should I set P1 to? I have two Trojan J305H 360 AH batteries. I currently have it set to 14.3, but the Trimetric customer service guy I talked to recommended 14.8.

Thanks.

[BFL13]

CA Traveler wrote:
The very popular 24V panels with 60 cells are about 30V+. Parallel 60 cell panels do not match up very well with 24V batteries which need 29.6V for bulk charging. This is not analogous to 12V panels which are 36 cells and 18V for 14.8V bulk charging.

2 12V panels in series or 72 cell panels would be much better.

I posted about testing a 24v 60 cell panel on 24v battery bank in 2014 was it? Anyway, I was able to get the batteries to 30 volts and keep them there, but that was it, no higher as needed for equalizing.
So you can indeed recharge a 24v bank with a 60 cell 24v panel, but that's all.

12v panels in series means your total Voc goes way up, which means you need a controller that can hack that many Vocs--some are only good for 50Voc or less. Some others are good for 100Voc or more, but these seem to cost more-- haven't looked at all the pricing for that.

[brulaz]

CA Traveler wrote:
The very popular 24V panels with 60 cells are about 30V+. Parallel 60 cell panels do not match up very well with 24V batteries which need 29.6V for bulk charging. This is not analogous to 12V panels which are 36 cells and 18V for 14.8V bulk charging.

2 12V panels in series or 72 cell panels would be much better.

Yes, Bogart says that in their Sc2030 manual. It works 24/24 with 72 cell panels not with 60 cell panels. My panels happen to be 72 cell.

[CA_Traveler]

The very popular 24V panels with 60 cells are about 30V+. Parallel 60 cell panels do not match up very well with 24V batteries which need 29.6V for bulk charging. This is not analogous to 12V panels which are 36 cells and 18V for 14.8V bulk charging.

2 12V panels in series or 72 cell panels would be much better.

[brulaz]

BFL13 wrote:
"as right now, even my Rogue can't handle all the 700W Solar."

Probably several ways to solve that by splitting the array and using two (don't have to be identical or as expensive) controllers in parallel on the battery bank.

Why not start a thread on that for yourself? Be fun for forum members to spend your money and renovate your rig. Probably get some good ideas too. 🙂

Good point, there are alternatives to going 24V.

But as we don't currently need max solar (the 700W of panels are mostly for low light conditions where we never get 30A out), and we're not yet needing a 2000W inverter (and if we did, a generator might really be what we need for low light), I'll just let it go for now.

Sorry for the thread hi-jack. But I was truly impressed by Bogart's SC2030 (with the Top/Finish charge) and Trimetric combo.

[BFL13]

"as right now, even my Rogue can't handle all the 700W Solar."

Probably several ways to solve that by splitting the array and using two (don't have to be identical or as expensive) controllers in parallel on the battery bank.

Why not start a thread on that for yourself? Be fun for forum members to spend your money and renovate your rig. Probably get some good ideas too. 🙂

[brulaz]

BFL13 wrote:
"Sounds very nice. And if I switched to a 24V system, my existing 700W of hi-V panels would prolly work well with a couple SC2030s and a Trimetric."

Doesn't the controller need the batts to be the same voltage as the panels, per PWM, no buck converter? You can do 24/24 or 12/12, but not 24/12.

You are allowed to have 24/24 in the rig if you can get 12v out of it all for running the 12v rig. (various options for that)

Yes, I was talking of going 24/24 with a single SC2030 and Trimetric. Sounds like it would work well. Currently am 24/12 with my Rogue.

If we ever decide to use more Ah, like buying a 2000W inverter, I would seriously consider the upgrade, as right now, even my Rogue can't handle all the 700W Solar. But that would be an expensive upgrade (24V inverter, 24-12V converter, new batts that don't V sag so much at 70A inverter draw, etc.) and ain't goin to happen any time soon, if ever. But I do like to day-dream.:)

[brulaz]

Almot wrote:

brulaz wrote:

My Rogue (and PD charger) only does 2 stage.
But at least the Rogue allows me to set the amps cut-off for absorb stage as well as the time.

If this is the Rogue I know - it is a 3-stage controller.
Bulk - amps and volt rise, Absorb - volts are constant and amps are tapering slowly, and Float.
...

Yes that's the one. But some (e.g. US battery) don't consider float as a charging stage, so would call the Rogue a 2-stage charger. Others, like Bogart, do, so they call their controller a 4-stage. A bit confusing ...

EDIT: oops, I see BFL has already answered.

[BFL13]

I will put those un-necessarily fancy controllers in the same category as I would an electric toothbrush---oh wait, people actually buy those! 🙂

[Almot]

BFL, you should familiarize yourself with MPPTs over $99 :)...
Yes, stages in controllers are (normally) described by voltage, and so they are in batteries.
But this is not the end of it. Controller with a good firmware will have voltage-based transition, current-based transition, going back and forth btw Float and Bulk if needed, periodic sweep etc etc. Bogart controller is using Bogart monitor firmware and data for this purpose.

Staying awake wouldn't help me even with a gallon of coffee and a healthy doze of uppers, since there is no way to tell what my black box of AGM is actually doing on each one of its respective stages. I'm satisfied with the net result and with the fact that I don't have to take much effort to make sure that controller does what it's supposed to. In difficult sun conditions it would be different.

[BFL13]

Don't forget that a single voltage charger does two battery stages: Bulk and Absorption.

When Absorption is done (battery full), you shut the charger off, or it quits by itself if an "automatic", OR, if voltage is adjustable, you manually lower the single voltage to the proper Float voltage, and it stays there until you change the voltage.

A "three-stage" charger is a distortion of the true meaning of the terminology for "stages." They only mean three different "single voltages." You have to stay awake when playing this game! 😞

[Almot]

brulaz wrote:

My Rogue (and PD charger) only does 2 stage.
But at least the Rogue allows me to set the amps cut-off for absorb stage as well as the time.

If this is the Rogue I know - it is a 3-stage controller.
Bulk - amps and volt rise, Absorb - volts are constant and amps are tapering slowly, and Float. It would switch to Float when either a) amps hit preset value (user adjustable), or b) timer expires (also user adjustable). The timer is allowed to override the current-based transition.

IIRC, Rogue can be set to allow to overshoot the setpoints, - or it won't exit the stage until the parameter exceeds preset value by certain amount, and this amount can be user-adjustable. Check the manual, it's very well written. Myself haven't read it for long time, following the rule "it works - don't fit it". The system just works.

Panel wattage is the king, normally. Never worried about +100% charge thing, or even getting a monitor - batteries go into Abs before noon. An array of 12V panels in parallel and with partial shading is a difficult scenario, something needs to be sacrificed, isn't going to be perfect no matter what.

Bogart PWM works nice when paired with Bogart battery monitor, and only when paired so. Having their monitor is a requirement.