9. Battery monitor settings
This chapter explains all battery monitor settings. In addition to this we also have a video available explaining these settings and how the interact with each other to achieve accurate battery monitoring for both lead-acid and lithium batteries.
9.1. Battery capacity
This parameter is used to tell the battery monitor how big the battery is. This setting should already have been done during the initial installation.
The setting is the battery capacity in Amp-hours (Ah).
Setting | Default | Range | Step size |
---|---|---|---|
Battery capacity | 200Ah | 1 - 9999Ah | 1Ah |
9.2. Charged voltage
The battery voltage must be above this voltage level to consider the battery as fully charged. As soon as the battery monitor detects that the voltage of the battery has reached this “charged voltage” parameter and the current has dropped below the “tail current” parameter for a certain amount of time, the battery monitor will set the state of charge to 100%.
Setting | Default | Range | Step size |
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The “charged voltage” parameter should be set to 0.2V or 0.3V below the float voltage of the charger.
9.3. Tail current
The battery is considered as fully charged once the charge current has dropped to less than this “Tail current” parameter. The “Tail current” parameter is expressed as a percentage of the battery capacity.
Note that some battery chargers stop charging when the current drops below a set threshold. In these cases, the tail current must be set higher than this threshold.
As soon as the battery monitor detects that the voltage of the battery has reached the set “Charged voltage” parameter and the current has dropped below this “Tail current” parameter for a certain amount of time, the battery monitor will set the state of charge to 100%.
Setting | Default | Range | Step size |
---|---|---|---|
Tail current | 4.00% | 0.50 - 10.00% | 0.1% |
9.4. Charged detection time
This is the time the “Charged voltage” parameter and the “Tail current” parameter must be met in order to consider the battery fully charged.
Setting | Default setting | Range | Step size |
---|---|---|---|
Charged detection time | 3 minutes | 0 - 100 minutes | 1 minute |
9.5. Peukert exponent
9.6. Charge efficiency factor
The “Charge Efficiency Factor” compensates for the capacity (Ah) losses during charging. A setting of 100% means that there are no losses.
A charge efficiency of 95% means that 10Ah must be transferred to the battery to get 9.5Ah actually stored in the battery. The charge efficiency of a battery depends on battery type, age and usage. The battery monitor takes this phenomenon into account with the charge efficiency factor.
9.7. Current threshold
When the current measured falls below the “Current threshold” parameter it will be considered zero. The “Current threshold” is used to cancel out very small currents that can negatively affect the long-term state of charge readout in noisy environments. For example, if the actual long-term current is 0.0A and, due to injected noise or small offsets, the battery monitor measures 0.05A the battery monitor might, in the long term, incorrectly indicate that the battery is empty or will need to be recharged. When the current threshold in this example is set to 0.1A, the battery monitor calculates with 0.0A so that errors are eliminated.
9.8. Time-to-go averaging period
The time-to-go averaging period specifies the time window (in minutes) that the moving averaging filter works. A value of 0 (zero) disables the filter and gives an instantaneous (real-time) readout. However, the displayed “Time remaining” value may fluctuate heavily. Selecting the longest time, 12 minutes, will ensure that only long-term load fluctuations are included in the “Time remaining” calculations.
Setting | Default | Range | Step size |
---|---|---|---|
Time-to-go averaging period | 3 minutes | 0 - 12 minutes | 1 minute |
9.9. Synchronise SoC to 100%
This option can be used to manually synchronise the battery monitor.
In the VictronConnect app press the ”Synchronise” button to synchronise the battery monitor to 100%.
9.10. Zero current calibration
This option can be used to calibrate the zero reading if the battery monitor reads a non-zero current even when there is no load and the battery is not being charged.