Lithium & other advice/facts

[T1 Terry]

I will get as much info on the current equipment. I do have my eye on some cells branded Wiston.

Peter

Just be sure they are Winston and not the earlier Thundersky LFP cells, the part no. for the cells you want starts with LYP. Be very cautious buying second hand cells like ex EV cells, they may have had a very hard life even if they are only 12 mths old or less.

T1 Terry

[bob r]

hi terry the batterydirect web site has a pfd on the
xantrex top left corner click on chargers and then
xantrex
bob

[T1 Terry]

Thanks Bob,
An interesting read, the C series is either a charge controller or load controller, it can't do both. It has no battery sense wiring so it relies on the same battery feed wires to sense voltage, this will always produce an error causing the bulk charge phase to finish too early. Probably not an issue with lithium batteries as it holds that bulk voltage for 1 hr before dropping back to the float voltage stage. The voltage adjustments are within a suitable range, the absorption time isn't adjustable but that can be worked around with fine tuning so I'd say it would be suitable for solar charging lithium ferrous batteries if set correctly. There would be a bit of fiddling, the adjustment increments are 0.2v at 12v but it holds the bulk charge for an hr so fine tuning that bulk charge and not over charging the battery yet getting it fully charged…. but it's doable. The equalise charge would definitely have to be disconnected, 1 volt over boost voltage for an hr would cause a cell runaway for sure but it could be a feature that could be developed for later use when combined with another of our monitoring/control units.

T1 Terry

[bob r]

thank you terry might have to re think that one I would like to go
plasmatronics but the pl40 is a bit dear I am going 360w solar into
200amph Winston 12v cells witch maybe to much for a pl20
bob

[T1 Terry]

thank you terry might have to re think that one I would like to go
plasmatronics but the pl40 is a bit dear I am going 360w solar into
200amph Winston 12v cells witch maybe to much for a pl20
bob

quite easy to do i you use a solid state relay system, my solar feeds 130 amp plus for hrs every day into my 720Ah battery pack and i only use a PL20.

T1 Terry

[Craig]

The PL20 won't need any modification. It will handle 360 watt solar with no problem.

[KevKim37]

Hi Terry,

Does your PL20 still give all readouts of Total Amps/AmpHours used with the relay setup and is there any other settings to be changed when operating the system like this.

Thanks Kev.

[Craig]

Hi Kev

Here is the link to the mod that Terry is talking about.

http://www.plasmatronics.com.au/downloa ... pacity.pdf

But you won't need it if you only have 360 watts of solar.

[T1 Terry]

Hi Terry,

Does your PL20 still give all readouts of Total Amps/AmpHours used with the relay setup and is there any other settings to be changed when operating the system like this.

Thanks Kev.

You need a shunt and shunt kit for the PL20 to also be a battery monitor.
You can't feed 100 amps through one of the solid state relays with the set up on the Plasmatronics website, it's a copy of The Rainbow Power Companies system and that is only rated at 40Amps, RBP may have actually offered the system to Plasmatronics as one of those back yourself up ideas, "We use this extender and it Plasmatronics approved, it on their website" type of things, the resistor values are wrong as well.

T1 Terry

[Pokey]

I do differ from you Terry in the view on MPPT regulators. For me they are much more cost effective as I can use higher voltage domestic panels which are substantially cheaper and generally higher wattage then the 12v ones. The MPPT ensures that the higher wattage is more efficiently used and my reg (a Morningstar) was similarly priced to the Plasmatronic but a 60A capacity and no need for any other wiring or relays. Sure if you run 100W of panel it becomes very marginal in conversion value but once it starts to go up then the savings in panel cost alone become very significant.