Live In The Moment
Member
I am curious to know how others have found the accuracy of the Victron Battery Monitor (BMV-712) that Escape installs. Last year was our first season of camping with our new Escape 21C, and for the most part we were very impressed with the performance of the two solar panels and two lithium batteries that our trailer came equipped with. However, on two occasions we woke up in the morning without any power. In both cases we went to bed with the State of Charge (SOC) reading about 60 – 65 % and the voltage reading about 13 volts. The only draw overnight was the propane detector and the fridge running on propane. A combined draw of about 11 watts. The Discharge Floor on the Battery monitor setup is set to 30%. Over approximately the 8 hours while we slept the SOC dropped from about 64% to 56% at which point we lost all power. During the same 8 hour period the voltage dropped from about 12.9 to 12 volts. This happened in the fall when we were getting very little solar gain, but even without much solar gain I was expecting the 65% SOC would last us a couple of more days.
My questions are:
Why did we lose power when the SOC was still reading 56% and the battery discharge floor was set at 30%? Is this the degree of accuracy we should expect from the battery monitor?
What voltage should I consider to be 100% charged and what voltage should I expect to see when I reach a 30% SOC?
Is it normal for the SOC and Voltage to drop much more rapidly when they reach about 13 volts?
Like the SeeLevel gauges, does the battery monitor accuracy improve the more you use it? If so, is all this learning lost if the batteries are disconnected?
With the loss of power, we were no longer able to use the battery monitor app to see what was going on, so I plugged the trailer into the truck and let it run for 10 – 15 minutes. As soon as I plugged into our truck, we regained power and I was able to check the battery monitor again. The SOC was now reading 100% and the voltage was back up to 13.2 volts. I wasn’t surprised that the SOC read 100% when the trailer was receiving power from the truck, but I was surprised that it continued to read 100% once it had been disconnected from the truck. The SOC charge continued to read 100% until the batteries were connected to shore power and fully charged and then it went back to giving readings that were more accurate (more closely matched the battery voltage). Is this normal operation for the SOC of charge to jump to 100% as soon as it is connected to a power source and then stay at 100% even when the trailer is disconnected from a power source?
Attached are two screen shots of the battery monitor app before we lost power and after I plugged into the truck.
I would love to hear other people’s experiences to know if this sounds like normal operation or if you think we have an issue.
My questions are:
Why did we lose power when the SOC was still reading 56% and the battery discharge floor was set at 30%? Is this the degree of accuracy we should expect from the battery monitor?
What voltage should I consider to be 100% charged and what voltage should I expect to see when I reach a 30% SOC?
Is it normal for the SOC and Voltage to drop much more rapidly when they reach about 13 volts?
Like the SeeLevel gauges, does the battery monitor accuracy improve the more you use it? If so, is all this learning lost if the batteries are disconnected?
With the loss of power, we were no longer able to use the battery monitor app to see what was going on, so I plugged the trailer into the truck and let it run for 10 – 15 minutes. As soon as I plugged into our truck, we regained power and I was able to check the battery monitor again. The SOC was now reading 100% and the voltage was back up to 13.2 volts. I wasn’t surprised that the SOC read 100% when the trailer was receiving power from the truck, but I was surprised that it continued to read 100% once it had been disconnected from the truck. The SOC charge continued to read 100% until the batteries were connected to shore power and fully charged and then it went back to giving readings that were more accurate (more closely matched the battery voltage). Is this normal operation for the SOC of charge to jump to 100% as soon as it is connected to a power source and then stay at 100% even when the trailer is disconnected from a power source?
Attached are two screen shots of the battery monitor app before we lost power and after I plugged into the truck.
I would love to hear other people’s experiences to know if this sounds like normal operation or if you think we have an issue.