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Great job on the switch out! I wish I had heaters in my batteries. Safe travels to you and Hutch! We're glad we had the pleasure of meeting you guys in Alaska at the rally!
I don’t think I missed it in the video, but it looks like you only needed to turn on both batteries at once using the activation button since both batteries are hooked in parallel. Besides that this is a great video, exactly what I need, just waiting for my second battery to arrive now.
Thanks for the comment, and yes you didn't miss anything. You only need to turn on one battery. Since they are connected in parallel, and connected by the communication cable, they are now one battery with twice the capacity. Good luck with your installation and let us know how it goes!
Thanks for the comment. Yes, the hub is a great tool to add to the mix, when using wired connections. The hub can be hard wired to the Core, or connected via Bluetooth. I am not sure the limit of how many BT modules that the Core can make, but for most folks it should be able to handle all of their smart components. Great bit of advice!
Have pretty much an identical setup in my van - working really well, and will be nice to have the self-heating batteries for winter camping. Still kinda getting a feel for how the charge/discharge works in a parallel setup, seems a bit uneven in my system? Maybe it will even out after a few more cycles
Cool! Let us know how thing sort out. We noticed about a 2 amp difference between the batteries until they are topped off. We love hearing about the experiences of others with similar gear. Thanks for the comment!
I have a bank of 4 of the same type as your old battery and I don't need comms cables at all to switch the whole bank on or off and it should be the same for your new batteries. I actually put a switch cable into each battery, just to confirm their status but when I press any one of switches, all of the 4 batteries go off or on in unison.; the batteries communicate with each other over the power connections and that's a major reason you can't connect these particular batteries in series. They also appear to balance cells (ie clusters of 4 pouch cells) both within each battery and across batteries and that happens through the power cables, not the comms cables. In short, I believe you should've put the comms cable aside and put a switch cable into each battery, pressed either one of them and check that both lights went bright; just using one as you did only directly showed that one battery was on (or off). Yes, the App confirmed things later but you should've checked earlier. Having coils of battery cable is not good and can only lead to trouble. You should make shorter ones. Concern that you unplugged and unplugged the leads to the solar with the battery (or batteries) switched on. Not sure if you have controllers or if you have isolation switches, the panels were covered or it was night time. But if you remove power connections from MPPT controllers with the panels providing power then that will fry many models of MPPT controllers. Did you isolate your panels first? That circuit breaker is not of a type that acts fast enough for LiFePO4 batteries (and my 100Ah mega fuse to each battery is not either btw). It seems that only something like a class-T fuse will act fast enough to protect the wiring from fire given a short circuit. That's something an electrician can check for you and, just because somebody put that circuit breaker into a kit doesn't mean it's good enough.
Hey there, did some digging and here's a response that I got to your comments/questions. Sorry for the delay, it's been a heck of a month! "None of our batteries communicate via the battery terminals. The BMS in those batteries was designed to operate on 12v only. This is the reason they cannot be connected in series. The batteries connected without using the comms cables can still work, however, having the comms cables connected makes it easier to balance the batteries and divert power equally among themselves. Removing the batteries from the controller while the panels are connected poses no threat to the controller. It is recommended however to disconnect the solar from the controller before removing the batteries. Regarding the fusing, we do recommend going with a traditional Fuse such as an ANL fuse, however, a circuit breaker will work. I've seen the opposite problem with those fuses where they pop before hitting the rated amperage(this is due to most of those breakers using heat caused by current flow to "decide" when to open the circuit). " Hope this helps.
Thanks for the comment, and question! The communication cord is simply an RJ45 cable, similar to an ethernet cable which links the two batteries, so no pins, no names. I was trying to find this on the Renogy website. It should come with some of the monitor packages that are being offered currently. renogy.sjv.io/Yg7bEJ -- Be sure to save 10% on all non-sale items with Renogy through our affiliate link renogy.sjv.io/LPEyNY and promo code "CANLIFE" at checkout.
I had the same question about the RJ45 CAT 5 cable to connect both batteries, thanks for commenting on the previous question. I could not find just the cable at Renogy but easy enough to get locally or online.@@FreedomInACan
