TriMetric 2020

[NUMNUM]

I think i have tried everything ,it seems no mater what i do my meter always goes to 100% full 90 min. before absorb stage is done.i have absorb set to 2hrs and 0 end amps on the classic.
I have 4 L16 390 amp batts.@ 24 volts.4 years old. I tried settings , factor of 80/85/88/90/94 and batt amps to  200/250/300/350/390.am i over looking somthing? i read the book 50+ times ,ya i know read it 50 more. hope some one has insight on this. thanks folks.

num

[vtmaps]

The trimetric goes to 100% when certain criteria are met.  You set a voltage (absorb) and a current (end amps).  When the voltage is held for a minute while the current is at or below the end amps, the criteria are met.   What settings are you using for your trimetric?  Remember, the trimetric has no idea what you have set (absorb volts and end amps) on your classic.

--vtMaps

[NUMNUM]

meter set to 28.6 end amps 2 all this dose is make the the led flash as it should . 100% shows way before this crytera is met

num

[vtmaps]

meter set to 28.6 end amps 2 all this dose is make the the led flash as it should . 100% shows way before this crytera is met

What current and voltage does the trimetric show when it starts flashing?   --vtMaps

[NUMNUM]

volts always over 28.6, then starts to flash when it hits 2 amps. i tried all different setings.
num

[vtmaps]

volts always over 28.6, then starts to flash when it hits 2 amps. i tried all different setings.

It is doing what you have programmed it to do.  You programmed your trimetric so that when the voltage is 28.6 (or above) and the amps are 2 (or less) it will think the battery is 100% SOC.

Why are you surprised that when your charger gets to 28.6 volts and the current is below 2 amps, the trimetric thinks the battery is full?

On your charger you set the end amps to 0 and absorb time to 2 hours.  What is happening is that before the 2 hours is up your absorb amps has tapered down to 2 amps or less.  The trimetric knows this, but your charger doesn't stop absorb until 2 hours is up. 

In renewable energy applications, every day the batteries will need a different amount of absorb time.  That is why end amps exist... so that you can stop absorb when certain criteria are met.   

Some day while your batteries are charging, measure the SG every 30 minutes during absorb, and record the amps into the battery.  When the SG gets up to spec, see what the amps is.  That number of amps should be your 'end amps' for both your charger and your trimetric.

--vtMaps

[NUMNUM]

thanks vtmaps for working on this but whats going on is when the charger hits 28.6 or any other setting i try say 29v .... at that point the amps have not started to drop yet. butt it says the batts are full.any ideas  how i might set it up from scratch.
num

[vtmaps]

thanks vtmaps for working on this but whats going on is when the charger hits 28.6 or any other setting i try say 29v .... at that point the amps have not started to drop yet. butt it says the batts are full.any ideas  how i might set it up from scratch.

In your first post you said that absorb time on your charger was set to 2 hours (no end amps).  You also said that 90 minutes before absorb was to end, the Trimetric would indicate 100%.  To me this means that you were in absorb for 30 minutes before the trimetric said 100%.  Perhaps the batteries were relatively full before you began charging them and only needed 30 minutes of absorb.

I think that there is one bit of data that you have not yet provided that will be critical to solving this problem:  What is the VOLTAGE on the battery and the CURRENT into the battery (as read by the trimetric) AT THE MOMENT when the Trimetric BEGINS FLASHING? 

--vtMaps

[Muskoka]

Num, forget the End Amps for now, it's not necessary and only confuses people.

You want to get your batteries to a state of full charge. They need to get bubbling pretty good for this to happen. Set the charge controller up according to your battery manufacturers specs for a given voltage, over a certain amount of time, nothing more, nothing less.

On my U.S. Battery 420ah L-16's they suggest Absorb of 2 hrs at 15.5v, so that is how I have all three of my different manufacturer charge controllers set up and never have an issue with the charge cycles, bulk / absorb / float. They all go to float within 15 minutes of each other, and all 4 batteries have sg's with no measurable difference, all between 1.265 - 1.270. It doesn't matter day to day what difference there is in battery state, they still need to have a full 2 hrs of absorb at 15.5v, again forget the End Amps, it's meaningless if the most important criteria have not been met, x volts, for x amount of time to get the sg where it needs to be. Leave the End Amps at 0, zero.

Now, I don't have the Trimetric 2020, I have the 2025. I have it set-up no different than my charge controllers.

P1, which is the Charged Setpoint Voltage is the same as my absorb setting in my controllers. The only difference is, the Trimetric doesn't temperature compensate, so I have to adjust this voltage manually as the seasons change because my battery room has a temperature range from 0 to 30 Celsius.

P2, is the "Charged Setpoint Off", again this is end amps, really not necessary and only complicates a rather simple matter. I have mine set to off.

P3, is the "Battery Capacity", I have that set to exactly what my battery bank capacity is, 840ah.

P14, is" Required time to meet criteria in (P1-P2)", this is the important factor for getting that light to flash when the batteries are full. Again, you want the batteries getting to a full state before this flashes, obviously, so I have mine set to the same as my controllers absorb time, 2 hrs. The batteries have to be in absorb for a full 2 hours before they are full. This works very well for my system. The amount of time your batteries need to be in absorb may be different, you can only tell by taking sg readings throughout the charge cycle. I know that after 2 hrs of absorb, mine are full.

P18, is the "Voltage Calibration", this must be set up or the meter has no idea of the true voltage of your battery bank.

So, in my system, when the batteries have been at the absorb voltage setpoint (temperature compensated) for 2 hours, the controllers will go to float. The current will have dropped right off, and the batteries are full. Again, just monitor your sg's after a certain amount of time in absorb, and see how your batteries are doing. I can tell just by looking at the current coming in, and the battery voltage, what state my batteries are in. When the 2 hrs of absorb at 15.5v has been met the Trimetric will start to flash, and my batteries are full, verified by my sg readings.

It really doesn't need to be that complicated, and too many variables only serves to do that. So, forget the End Amps. Get the batteries to their proper absorb voltage, and figure out the amount of time it takes to get there, and set the Trimetric up with those values and all will be good.

Again, for me.

P1 Charged Voltage (Absorb) 15.5v for 2 hours. Need to adjust for temperature compensation because Trimetric doesn't compensate.
P2 Charged Setpoint Amps, forget it for now.
P3 Battery Capacity, the ah capacity of your bank, for me 840.
P14 Required time to meet P1-P2, 2 hours for me as per battery manufacturer specs, and confirmed by sg readings over time.
P18 Voltage Calibration, set the voltage to true voltage of battery bank or everything else is meaningless.

If your controller is set up properly, and the Trimetric is set up to match your controllers, the light should flash when the batteries are full. My meter starts to flash after the batteries have been at the absorb voltage, 15.5v for 2 hours, it's really pretty simple. If over time you find that x amount of time is not getting the sg's high enough, you can increase the absorb time, that's all that needs to be done.

Glen

[NUMNUM]

i have tried all this ,i know when the batts are full. i just would like it to read 100% full close to going into float stage.i stared this 6 months ago,gave up on end amps 3 months ago.i would think changing batt. capacity from 100 amps to 400 amps would make some diferance. or changing the energy factor from 75 to 94 would matter .i am going to start one more time set it up as you did and see if i missed something. thanks for helping

num

[Muskoka]

Yes, I added more info than was needed, just wanted to start from scratch just in case, do tend to ramble on. Forgot the "effeciency factor", P10 on the 2025, I have mine set at 98%, which works fine for my system. I'm able to charge at close to 115 amps, or 14'ish percent, so float comes pretty quick with good sun, normally before noon.

My meter is quite often over 100% by a few percent, but it will start flashing and reset itself once the criteria are met.

Just make sure the Trimetric battery voltage is the same as your actual bank, adjust if necessary. P18
Set the absorb voltage and time. P1 and P14
Battery capacity, set to battery bank size. P3
Effeciency Factor default is 94, I have mine at 98. P10

For the most part all the other settings are not necessary to get the meter set up right.


Glen

[NUMNUM]

Glen are meters must be allot different .batt voltage not adjustable .no p18 no p1 or p14.i was told from trimetric factory some time ago to make batt capacity to 300 or 288,factor of h94,volts 28.8 ?and end amps 8.when i used my ac charger 100% full would come every time volts hit 28.8 and of course when amps came down to 8 light would flash.checked sg still long way to go.over time i could see ac charger end its charging around 4 to 6 amps so i changed it to 4 it made no diff. then changed 28.8 to 29.4 because i have 24v sys.and no diff.rember lights flash but batts not full yet but it says it is.i then moved factor to 88% and 80 at this point it seemed to work 100% full within 5 min.of ac charger ending it charge.old dr charger no adjustments. i went back changed end amps volts back to what they were before, and no diff. still worked fine.so im thinking, something i find hard to do sometimes,that end amps and volts only make light  flash.keep in mind i have tried many other combos.with same results.
So now i put it on the classic but nothing i do now seems to help.i have 0 end amps on the CC ?i will put the meter on 0 amps .batts capacity at 395 amps volts will be at 29.4 ? factor of h94 lets see what happens.I WILL TELL YOU WHAT I DO NO ,I CANT WAIT FOR MNs METER TO COME OUT.

thank youuuuuuuuuuu

num