You can experiment by reducing the Max voltage, like what Marc shows. That should reduce them alarms. The cells should still be fine, they tolerate even a 90% charge well.
Groetnis
But the BMS wonât do balancing unless it goes above whatever value Hubble configured it to start balancing at, which will probably lead to worse outcomes.
Well out of balance does not happen fast. When that starts happening, bump up the max voltage until rebalance happened. Or donât go lower with Max voltage.
Groetnis
going by various forums, the newer batches of these batteries probably go out of balance quite easily.
The user manual also indicates that for balancing full charge is needed every 5 days but preferably every day (this could also have warranty implications).
Edit: charge rate likely also a culprit. When possible charge slower
Thanks guys, you are far more help than I have got from Hubble support.Yes I read that in the manual too. I have emailed all my settings with screen shots and questions to Hubble support and get a generic answer each time.
They donât seem concerned with the cell balancing stated in the manual as I was told I can just operate the battery with no cloudlink and never reach 100% SOC no problem.
If you receive High Voltage alarms that would mean your battery is not set up correctly or it has cell imbalance issues.
So asuming you have set the max battery voltage for what the battery require, you then need to help the battery to get the cells balanced. You do that by what @Sarel.Wagner suggested by lowering the max voltage to a level where you donât get high voltage alarms anymore and then slowly over a few weeks you can increase the max voltage to where it should be. This will give the balancers time to work.
Balancing works when ever 1 cell go above the threshold, so you are trying to find the battery voltage where that one cell is above the threshold but below the high voltage alarm (e.g. 3.45V - 3.65V) and then giving the balancers time to work down the high cell with the 50mA (or what your BMS can do) load it can do.
This will be much faster to do if you use the Keep Batteries changed in ESS option while you are doing this.
@Louisvdw it makes sense. I was considering lowering my settings by 0.05V at a time to see what happens. I am also thinking @Village_Idiot could be right with the Charge Rate. I only get the high voltage around the middle of the day - once a day when itâs sunny.
On my Cloudlink the battery voltage shows as 53.67V at 100% charge.
Do we change the Charge Volt Limit and MPPT Charge Voltage to say 53.65V and monitor from there?
You donât need to make any changes to the MPPT. If they are linked to the GX device then they will listen to the setting in the GX and not their own.
Drop your voltage to 53.50V and then increase it every day by 0.05V if you did not get a High Voltage alarm during the previous day (and you did reach at least 95% SOC). If you did get an alarm leave it unchanged for another day.
Do this until you get to the 53.70V
Donât want to confuse anything, nor suggest anything anyone says is not spot on, and donât want to suggest anything that can cause issues with warranties
These are my experiences, having access to each cellâs voltage, full control of the charge volts and amps, as well as access to each individual cell.
If a cell/s are out of of balance, and:
- the cells are good quality,
- in balance, just needs a wee bit of TLC,
- one cannot see each cells voltage,
- nor can one open the box to get to the cells,
⌠that draining the batt to like 15/20%, then recharging it at a lower amp, set under DVCC, back to 100%, rinse repeat, helps a lot more than dropping the volts. I had gone down to like <5amps to try and fix problem cells.
Keep this up for a few cycles, if there are no more errors, keep at it, and up the charge amps slowly with each cycle back to the recommended level.
Also, and this is where the volts come into play, one can stop the charge at like say 90%, using the volts. The higher the SOC, the more prone it gets to cell/s shooting out.
The BMSâs starts balancing at maybe 3.2v some, others 3.375v ⌠depends on the manufacturer setting. So the balancing starts when a cell hits that voltage, not at 100%. control the process sooner, than later, giving BMS more time.
If the BMS complains, discharge a bit immediately, I used to switch on the oven, and lower the charge amps some more.
Also learnt the hard way, using Keep Charged, which is a dang good idea for maintenance of a behaving bank, ideally using Eskom for consistency for a few days, can also try that, IF there is/are problem cell/s, it can exacerbate the problem because Keep Charged still adds a bit of current, then discharges a bit, then charges a bit, till it is happy. The little bit, BMS may not even register it, causes the real drama on problem cell/s with their volts shooting out.
Personally, if possible, if the above ideas are sound, you decide to try them, it is a painstaking effort I tell you, and if it does not improve within 3-5 days, stays the same or more warnings, take the bank to the supplier.
If a cell is problematic, I stood on my head, tried everything I could Google, and I can be persistent if I decide to be, there is nothing you can do to fix it.
And if you get a DC Ripple ⌠just take the bank in immediately.
Lifepo4, this is my goto ito SOC and volts - make sure of 15 or 16 cells though:
My 2 cents out of my experiences.
I am glad i read these postings now was in the process of getting quotes for the Hubble battery. Will definetly reconsider.
Remember that this is an old thread. Hubble has done a lot to improve and integrate better with Victron systems. The Hubble guy here in SA is responsive and helpful.
What I will say though, look carefully. Some Hubble models are NMC, others are LiFePO4 (or LFP for short). Definitely try to get an LFP model.
Who is this guy in SA would like to get a quote pls
Iâve dealt with someone called Nelius, but he is on the technical side. Not sales. Sorry, cannot help you with sales. Can only tell you the technical side has improved.
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