Lithium question

[greid]

G'day all

Our van has a 400ah EV Power LiFePO4 pack in it with an Omegalec 40amp regulator and 4x130watt kyocera panels.

Our Toyota Landcruiser 200 has a Ctek d250s dcdc charger and 2x120watt panels in it - only running an 80litre Engel.

Questions are:

Can I use the extra amps directly from the solar panels (not from the cars DCDC charger - say approx 15amps) through an anderson lead/plug arrangement to put into the van battery and also park the car in the sun if the van is partially shaded?

Do I need to use a separate regulator for this considering the Omegalec is already at its capacity of 40amps?

If I need to use another regulator for the solar off the car can I use a Victron MPPT - will it work with the Omegalec being a PWM controller or do I have to use another PWM (dingo 20/20)?

Can I also use the dcdc charger to charge the van while travelling, through the same Anderson plug on the van that I would use the cars solar input from when parked up?

Thanks for any input!

Regards
Grahame

[T1 Terry]

G'day all

Our van has a 400ah EV Power LiFePO4 pack in it with an Omegalec 40amp regulator and 4x130watt kyocera panels.

Our Toyota Landcruiser 200 has a Ctek d250s dcdc charger and 2x120watt panels in it - only running an 80litre Engel.

Questions are:

Can I use the extra amps directly from the solar panels (not from the cars DCDC charger - say approx 15amps) through an anderson lead/plug arrangement to put into the van battery and also park the car in the sun if the van is partially shaded?

Do I need to use a separate regulator for this considering the Omegalec is already at its capacity of 40amps?

If I need to use another regulator for the solar off the car can I use a Victron MPPT - will it work with the Omegalec being a PWM controller or do I have to use another PWM (dingo 20/20)?

Can I also use the dcdc charger to charge the van while travelling, through the same Anderson plug on the van that I would use the cars solar input from when parked up?

Thanks for any input!

Regards
Grahame

First bit, be very careful with the Omegalec controller as we have had one of these fail due to the heat and pumped full solar voltage into the lithium batteries.
If you decide to go with a Dingo 20/20N then use it to drive a 100 amp solid state relay and you can connect both the roof solar and car solar via a long 6 B&S lead if required and both will work fine together to charge the battery.
As for the DC to DC charger, it requires a VSR (voltage sensing relay) at the car start battery and a dedicated min 6 B&S cable to a 50 amp Anderson plug and cabled from there to the DC to DC and then on to the battery. Remember to install a 100 amp Mega fuse at the start battery end and a 50 amp fuse at the house battery end.
What interface are you using to go between the Omegalec solar regulator and the DC to DC charger?

T1 Terry

[greid]

G'day Terry
Thanks for your reply, at this stage I will give the dcdc charging a miss.
I have looked at the Dingo 20/20 and ssr but I am a bit confused by the wiring diagram on the Rainbow Power Company website for the ssr.
To me it looks like at the Dingo the load (+) is connected to the battery (-) after the resistor and wired into position 4 on the ssr (see the attachment), am I missing something?
Regards
Grahame

[T1 Terry]

Looks strange but that is how it works. The Dingo is reprogrammed to use the load terminal the same way as it uses the internal mosfet to control the battery charging voltage. When the Dingo wants the charging to stop the load terminal is linked internally to the battery positive. This pulls the wire connected to the load terminal to battery positive voltage, the resistor stops the link to the negative terminal from becoming a dead short, it just turns the resistor into a very small heater coil. The wire to the solid state relay No4 terminal is now at battery positive potential, the same as terminal no3 on the relay, no 12v across the relay so the relay opens. When the Dingo wants charging to resume it disconnects the load terminal internally from the battery positive, the load terminal is now floating open so the battery negative can pass through the resistor coil and pull the wire on the load terminal to battery negative. This means the No4 terminal on the solid state relay is pulled down to battery negative, terminal 3 is still battery positive so there is now battery voltage across terminals 3 and 4, the relay closes. The Dingo can make this charge hundreds of times a second if needed, or simply closed or open, what ever is required to get the battery voltage to meet the voltage point set in the Dingo program for that stage of charging.
The load terminal can drive as many solid state relays as you want to wire across it, you need to use quality solid state relay and these do not come from evil bay. You need either genuine Kudom or Hongfen relays, a heat sink and if you plan to run more than around 40 amps a thermostat and fan to keep the relay cooler than 50*C. Each relay will handle 100 amps but it is advisable to limit each relay to 50% capacity as the rapid switching at high current loads produces the most heat and keeping the relay/s cool is the main objective for long life.

T1 Terry

[greid]

Thanks for that info - this will take a bit more research.
Grahame