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#71
Hawke's Bay / Re: Why does charging stop in ...
Last post by ClassicCrazy - October 04, 2026, 11:18:18 AMif you can at least find out what the parameters are set for in the bms that would help.
You don't have to change anything.
For example - what is the points that the bms starts balancing cells at ?
In some bms I had in past that was set to not balance until cells were 3.5v and at least 30mv differential.
The first lithium I had, didn't have good cells and it met that quickly , then since the cells were so out of balance one cell would go up to 3.65v quickly before the others. The bms shut off charging but kept on the balancing. So no charge would go into it but in the background it was balancing. Until the cell dropped down below the setpoint to let it out of OVP protection, then it would charge , shoot up again and shut off charging. With a passive balancer it could take long long time ( or never) to balance a cell this way. Not saying your cells are as bad as mine were , but should see what they are doing and understand how your bms works. Software that will graph out what is going on helps since you don't have to sit there watch it real time.
It is all a bit complicated to understand , especially if you don't have the history shown in a graph.
I ended up installing an active balancer in addition to the bms and that could move around 4 amps to balance instead of 150 ma . So it got things looking a lot better. They were still not very good and unmatched cells compared to what is available these days. A lot of it is how well manufacturer tests cells and matches them before they put together a battery pack in the first place.
My newest batteries have active balancing jkbms and the cells were matched and they always stay within 5mv for the most part.
You will only see any imbalance of cells at the very top or the very bottom of charge.
Lots of people have lots of different lithium charging philosophies. And battery manufacturers have different philosophies too.
I spent a lot of time watching Off Grid Garage videos of his testing cells and batteries and watching how my own batteries behaved before it all made sense. I reprogrammed my bms setpoints to what I determined were best .
You didn't say where you are getting the 80% SOC number from ?
BMS are notorious for giving inaccurate SOC numbers .
Why , because some don't count small currents, some get way off if battery is only partially filled some days.
Larry
You don't have to change anything.
For example - what is the points that the bms starts balancing cells at ?
In some bms I had in past that was set to not balance until cells were 3.5v and at least 30mv differential.
The first lithium I had, didn't have good cells and it met that quickly , then since the cells were so out of balance one cell would go up to 3.65v quickly before the others. The bms shut off charging but kept on the balancing. So no charge would go into it but in the background it was balancing. Until the cell dropped down below the setpoint to let it out of OVP protection, then it would charge , shoot up again and shut off charging. With a passive balancer it could take long long time ( or never) to balance a cell this way. Not saying your cells are as bad as mine were , but should see what they are doing and understand how your bms works. Software that will graph out what is going on helps since you don't have to sit there watch it real time.
It is all a bit complicated to understand , especially if you don't have the history shown in a graph.
I ended up installing an active balancer in addition to the bms and that could move around 4 amps to balance instead of 150 ma . So it got things looking a lot better. They were still not very good and unmatched cells compared to what is available these days. A lot of it is how well manufacturer tests cells and matches them before they put together a battery pack in the first place.
My newest batteries have active balancing jkbms and the cells were matched and they always stay within 5mv for the most part.
You will only see any imbalance of cells at the very top or the very bottom of charge.
Lots of people have lots of different lithium charging philosophies. And battery manufacturers have different philosophies too.
I spent a lot of time watching Off Grid Garage videos of his testing cells and batteries and watching how my own batteries behaved before it all made sense. I reprogrammed my bms setpoints to what I determined were best .
You didn't say where you are getting the 80% SOC number from ?
BMS are notorious for giving inaccurate SOC numbers .
Why , because some don't count small currents, some get way off if battery is only partially filled some days.
Larry
#72
Hawke's Bay / Re: Why does charging stop in ...
Last post by qrper - October 04, 2026, 10:39:48 AMQuote from: ClassicCrazy on October 03, 2026, 08:33:20 PMNot much to go on when you don't have the details of your battery voltage and charge setpoints .It's open loop. The battery state of charge was 80%, so plenty of room for energy to go. One minute I was watching 61A going into the batteries, and then went out ten minutes later and current was at 0A. Batteries still report 80% SOC.
What is the soc of your batteries when you say it needs a good charge ?
The battery voltage of lithiums hold very steady for much of it's capacity .
Need more info. I don't remember if you set it up closed or open loop ?
If closed loop you are letting the bms dicatate the charging.
Do you have software that let you see what the bms is doing , what it's setpoints are, and each individual cell voltage ? Or if what the status of the bms ? Cell differential , if it is in overvolt protection for a cell , and maybe balancing ?
I had recommended you get a different kind of battery with bms that you could use their software to change bms setpoints, and monitor every cell , and status . If you can't do that with your Ecoworthy then you have to do some guessing as to what is going on with what the bms is doing since it controls some charging even if you are open loop.
It may not have anything to do with your hawkes bay controller that you are seeing what you are.
Oh , I see in your title of post that you say the soc is 87% . Is that from Whizbang, or from bms reporting ?
If from Whizbang how did you calibrate it for 100% full ?
If from bms soc reporting , those can get way off and shouldn't always be trusted.
Larry
I have the JBD software that came with the Eco worthy batteries. I haven't poke around with it yet, no need for fingers to get into something I have yet to totally figure out.
mike
#73
The "Classic" charge controller / Re: FLA Charge current Setting...
Last post by ClassicCrazy - October 03, 2026, 08:44:43 PMHopefully the info on those links was moved here now
https://www.midnitesolar.com/faqIndex.php
Look into all the menu items
Larry
https://www.midnitesolar.com/faqIndex.php
Look into all the menu items
Larry
#74
The "Classic" charge controller / Re: FLA Charge current Setting...
Last post by Corndog - October 03, 2026, 08:36:35 PMQuote from: ClassicCrazy on August 31, 2025, 07:33:32 PMIf you have more available power and want to set the 85 amp limit - you want to set it a different way than just using the amp limit setting in the mngp or the current limit in the Local app. Because if you set it that way it would also limit the loads to that current even if there is more available power from the PV.
But there is another way to limit the current only for the battery charging but still letting the controller supply all available power to the loads if needed.
That process is explained here
https://www.midniteftp.com/support/kb/faq.php?id=37
Also I think you were also asking about how to set ending amps - there is info on that in the knowledge base
https://www.midniteftp.com/support/kb/faq.php?cid=1
Larry
What happened to the FAQ section - I cannot locate these links any longer
#75
Hawke's Bay / Re: Why does charging stop in ...
Last post by ClassicCrazy - October 03, 2026, 08:33:20 PMNot much to go on when you don't have the details of your battery voltage and charge setpoints .
What is the soc of your batteries when you say it needs a good charge ?
The battery voltage of lithiums hold very steady for much of it's capacity .
Need more info. I don't remember if you set it up closed or open loop ?
If closed loop you are letting the bms dicatate the charging.
Do you have software that let you see what the bms is doing , what it's setpoints are, and each individual cell voltage ? Or if what the status of the bms ? Cell differential , if it is in overvolt protection for a cell , and maybe balancing ?
I had recommended you get a different kind of battery with bms that you could use their software to change bms setpoints, and monitor every cell , and status . If you can't do that with your Ecoworthy then you have to do some guessing as to what is going on with what the bms is doing since it controls some charging even if you are open loop.
It may not have anything to do with your hawkes bay controller that you are seeing what you are.
Oh , I see in your title of post that you say the soc is 87% . Is that from Whizbang, or from bms reporting ?
If from Whizbang how did you calibrate it for 100% full ?
If from bms soc reporting , those can get way off and shouldn't always be trusted.
Larry
What is the soc of your batteries when you say it needs a good charge ?
The battery voltage of lithiums hold very steady for much of it's capacity .
Need more info. I don't remember if you set it up closed or open loop ?
If closed loop you are letting the bms dicatate the charging.
Do you have software that let you see what the bms is doing , what it's setpoints are, and each individual cell voltage ? Or if what the status of the bms ? Cell differential , if it is in overvolt protection for a cell , and maybe balancing ?
I had recommended you get a different kind of battery with bms that you could use their software to change bms setpoints, and monitor every cell , and status . If you can't do that with your Ecoworthy then you have to do some guessing as to what is going on with what the bms is doing since it controls some charging even if you are open loop.
It may not have anything to do with your hawkes bay controller that you are seeing what you are.
Oh , I see in your title of post that you say the soc is 87% . Is that from Whizbang, or from bms reporting ?
If from Whizbang how did you calibrate it for 100% full ?
If from bms soc reporting , those can get way off and shouldn't always be trusted.
Larry
#76
Hawke's Bay / Why does charging stop in the ...
Last post by qrper - October 03, 2026, 12:57:05 PMWith my new lithium battery bank installed, 6 of the eco-worthy server rack batteries so, about 620Ah, I've been keeping my eye out on the system a lot more than I have with the old lead-acid batteries.
I've noticed that sometimes the Hawk's Bay isn't sending current to the batteries. It's NOT A over temp shut down event! The sun is out and bright, the batteries could use a good charge, the HB reports 'bulk' and yet, there is 0 current flowing to the batteries.
The HB reports 370V from the array, and 0 current.
It sits there like that for 5 minutes,sometimes longer, while I didn't set a timer, it's not just looking for the solar array MPPT point,not for that amount of time.
Then, it will start up, slowly, ramping up. HB temps are within limits, the small fan would come on now and then, everything seems fine, except it has stopped charging the batteries.
Does anyone know what's going on?
Mike
I've noticed that sometimes the Hawk's Bay isn't sending current to the batteries. It's NOT A over temp shut down event! The sun is out and bright, the batteries could use a good charge, the HB reports 'bulk' and yet, there is 0 current flowing to the batteries.
The HB reports 370V from the array, and 0 current.
It sits there like that for 5 minutes,sometimes longer, while I didn't set a timer, it's not just looking for the solar array MPPT point,not for that amount of time.
Then, it will start up, slowly, ramping up. HB temps are within limits, the small fan would come on now and then, everything seems fine, except it has stopped charging the batteries.
Does anyone know what's going on?
Mike
#77
MNGP2 specific / Re: Battery Charging Configura...
Last post by Brucey - October 02, 2026, 12:03:35 PMQuote from: Groton Vermont on September 30, 2026, 05:00:04 PMYes, all up to date... Also did a reset...Prob worth a call to Midnite Support.
I notice that both MPPT Channels end up putting the same amount out over the day.
It seems that it switches between channels and sometimes uses both channels.
I have it set to 90A max per mppt channel.
So 180A max, which is the battery maximum.
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#78
MNGP2 specific / Re: Battery Charging Configura...
Last post by Groton Vermont - September 30, 2026, 05:00:04 PMYes, all up to date... Also did a reset...
I notice that both MPPT Channels end up putting the same amount out over the day.
It seems that it switches between channels and sometimes uses both channels.
I have it set to 90A max per mppt channel.
So 180A max, which is the battery maximum.
I notice that both MPPT Channels end up putting the same amount out over the day.
It seems that it switches between channels and sometimes uses both channels.
I have it set to 90A max per mppt channel.
So 180A max, which is the battery maximum.
#79
MNGP2 specific / Re: Battery Charging Configura...
Last post by Brucey - September 30, 2026, 04:38:12 PMQuote from: Groton Vermont on September 30, 2026, 01:42:42 PMThanks Brucey, I have adjusted to 2hrs as we are getting a lot of cloudy days right now.Do you have the latest firmware installed on mngp2, Rosie and barcelona?
I just walked past and noticed the following:
Outside - bright cloud - 13:35
Battery 72%
Barcelona
Battery 53.6V. 19.0A
MPPT1 MPPT2
371.3V 352.7V
0.0A 19.1A
0W 1024W
2.8kWh 2.8kWH
Resting Float MPPT
Why, when the battery is at 72%, is one channel 'Resting'
Any ideas?
#80
MNGP2 specific / Re: Battery Charging Configura...
Last post by Groton Vermont - September 30, 2026, 01:42:42 PMThanks Brucey, I have adjusted to 2hrs as we are getting a lot of cloudy days right now.
I just walked past and noticed the following:
Outside - bright cloud - 13:35
Battery 72%
Barcelona
Battery 53.6V. 19.0A
MPPT1 MPPT2
371.3V 352.7V
0.0A 19.1A
0W 1024W
2.8kWh 2.8kWH
Resting Float MPPT
Why, when the battery is at 72%, is one channel 'Resting'
Any ideas?
I just walked past and noticed the following:
Outside - bright cloud - 13:35
Battery 72%
Barcelona
Battery 53.6V. 19.0A
MPPT1 MPPT2
371.3V 352.7V
0.0A 19.1A
0W 1024W
2.8kWh 2.8kWH
Resting Float MPPT
Why, when the battery is at 72%, is one channel 'Resting'
Any ideas?