Links would help the OP, I know it would me.Yes use a 500 amp 12/24 volt kilovac contactor and an under charge pcb. Total cost $50.
Sorry to say it, but you've fried your BP... don't trust it anymore. As soon as reverse current is applied to a BatteryProtect, the FETs become wholly untrustworthy (welded open or shut) and the device will likely no longer disconnect your loads in an under-voltage condition.Do you mean it NEVER allows reverse current or only when the protection kicks in? My BP-65 allows me to charge the battery from the load side as long as the battery isn't below the protection voltage.
Well the problem with Victron is that they're truly professional-grade and their components were designed, from the ground up, to be sold to professional installers who already know Victron systems inside and out... which was the case for the first 40 years of their life until, what, 5 or 6 years ago when they started hitting the US markets and being sold to end-users who didn't have decades of experience with Victron products. Victron as a company is slowly adjusting to the needs of their new demographic, but everything's taking time.Holy crap that would have been nice to know. The instructions I received with the BP-65 say nothing about being sensitive to reverse current. I am extremely disappointed that Victron would sell a device that is so delicate and not put anything in the instructions (the ones included with the product) to indicate this. I see the updated pdf now has a note under #3 that warns about this but my instructions have no such note. I must say my confidence in Victron is severely shaken.
Maybe its my fault and I should just know how a battery protect works, but you would think that something this important would have been in the instructions.
Well the problem with these is there isn't a 100% positive way to tell if one of the FETs has been damaged... but the easiest test that I run (on a regular BP, the Smart BPs are far easier to troubleshoot), when I get these returned, is: pull out the remote switch plug (which should completely disconnect the device) and check for voltage at the "Out" terminal. Now, it's normal to show ~5v even when the remote jumper is pulled - this is just ghost voltage along the internal bus, but if you see more than that, it's probably bad. To further check it, (with the remote jumper still pulled), you can try connecting a very small load (like a 12v computer fan) to the "out" post and ground... if the fan budges even a little bit, that means one or more of the FETs has welded closed and is permitting some amount of current through the device when it's in a "disconnected" state... which means it's toast. There should be precisely 0 current running from "in" to "out" with the remote jumper removed.Thanks I appreciate your explanation. I have done plenty with electronics over the years but mostly microprocessors like Arduino, ESP-8266, etc. This high power stuff is newer to me. What you say makes sense but I really wonder how many of these are connected this way and may be unknowingly destroyed.
I just ran a test and it seems to be operating normally. Is there any way to tell if it has been damaged? I haven't run more than 8A @ 12V through it the wrong way. Might it be ok?
If it helps, here is how it's connected. Only the Victron 75/15 has been charging through it.
Yeahhhh sorry, I've sort of become the BatteryProtect Police but I don't always see all the threads that come up in various forums mentioning BPs, so I miss some. This thread is (I think) where I first came into this forum, and anytime I see a BP mentioned anywhere I jump in to make sure it's being used appropriately... still miss some, tho.Thanks again and to the OP - sorry for hijacking your thread! Although I think this is an important issue to surface. I posted the schematic of my connections here in a thread a while back and nobody mentioned the incorrect connection of the Victron BP. Seems like we need to get the word out.
I've looked @ their manual & I see their battery protect device as a one way deal battery >>> loads. Charging protects need a different approach.But I can't!
My RV system charges the batteries through the inverters and Battery Protect will not allow a charge voltage to feed back through it. Voltage only one way through the Battery Protect. Does anyone have a work around for this?
Unfortunately, in a system with an inverter or inverter/charger, the BP simply cannot be used - it is one-way, period. I mean, you can still use it on a separate circuit feeding your regular 12v loads, but not on the main circuit feeding your inverter/etc which is what you're going for. Any proposed workaround, unfortunately, also works around the protection logic of the device, so you kinda just shoot yourself in the foot by trying things like that.This has been a great discussion and I hope people learn from it. But the question remains, how can we make this BP work for us in a non Victron setup, using relays or whatever we need to do. I wanted the BP on a DIY LiFePO4 battery so I could set a more conservative low voltage cutoff than what the BMS is set to. Also I like the remote switch that I can use as a batt cutoff.
Always happy to help! It's worth noting that I'm sure there are alternatives to the Sterling, and likely far cheaper ones, it's just I don't recommend products that I haven't personally had either installed in my own systems or had on my test bench for an extremely thorough round of stress testing, so I can't personally speak to the alternatives.Thanks Justin for sharing your knowledge!
it's a horrible pain to program, as I mentioned (such a pain that for our customers' sake I had to write my own manual for the thing)
Hmmm the FTZ flag terminals? We have those on our site and on eBay. We're not looking into the Blue Sea ML series because we have a contract with BEP Marinco on their Pro Installer series of components, which are very similar in design and function.Justin, how soon will you have the flag battery terminals available for sale? That looks perfect for paralleling my four BYD batteries with 4/0 AWG.
Secondly, will you be carrying the Blue Sea ML series link busbars?
Lastly, is your manual for the 240A ProLatch down-loadable? Thanks so much...