Batrium LongMon issue

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Mysik

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Jul 29, 2019
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13
Hi All,

I have a question to everyone who is using Batrium Watchmon.I have a problem with one of my longmons. It is happening only when the longmon is in bypass mode. The voltage it is reading is jumping up and down. I've posted video on the youtube when you can clearly see what is happening:

To rule out wiring I've swapped this longmon to different cell and the issue followed the longmon.
The problem is that this longmon is falsely triggering under voltage error (the voltage reading is dropping to 1.9V) which is blocking inverter from discharging. Also the pack is not balancing correctly.
Anyone had or seen something like that before? Any ideas what can cause it or hot to fix it?
I've contacted Batrium with regards to this issue,I've sent them pictures, videos, and my config. They said that they don't know what is the problem. I can send them this dodgy longmon, but I will have to cover the postage and wait about 2-3 weeks to get replacement. I really don't want to put may battery pack out of service for 2-3 weeks. I've suggested other option, but they stopped replying my emails.
I've spent700 on this BMS and it is not even working correctly, the customer service isn't great, soI'm a bit frustrated and disappointed.

Any help, ideas or suggestionswill be highly appreciated.
Kind Regards
 
I have had the same issue with several longmons here.
I also moved the longmons to other positions & the issue followed the longmon.
Replacing the units fixed it.

Make sure each longmon's wiring to the cells is separate from any other wiring.
 
I don't have voltage jumps but I get 'Network Test Required' flashing on/off when I run bypass. I don't need to do anything as it clears on it's own after 2 secs but not sure why its happening. I wonder if HEAT is doing something here - causing a bad connection/voltage jump. If you turn off bypass - does the problem go away?

I keep my bypass amps/temps throttled...
Bypass Current Limit: 1.23a
Bypass Temp Limit: 55C
because I read somewhere that it might be easier on the life of the longmons.

If it's heat caused, maybe you could throttle things down or cool with a fan to get by (instead of buying new longmons)
 
I have cooling fans running on the longmons since the above replacement.
I have auto leveling enabled for SoC > 85%
I've also limited the bypass current to 1.5A & temps to 60degC (they don't hit thermal limiting, only get slightly warm)

I still get occasional voltage dropout issues but only when bypassing.
The occurrences are so brief that I can't see which cell(s) is/are having the issue.
My system actually has half longmons & half blockmons (2 different battery builds)
 
@mysik how long have you had your Batrium? was it still under warranty?

Disappointed to see there lack on customer response given the cost of the system.
I am about to drop similar money on a Blockmon8 setup and seeing a post like this gives me pause.
My expectation is that anything you buy can have issues but its the customer service that is critical to a positive experience.

I came across a YT post I believe earlier this year that highlighted new management at the company, I wonder if that helped address the customer service or some other issue there?
 
Bypass current should max be 1a. I have swapped out many longmons because of this.
 
Well after much back and forth in my mind I did finally purchase a Batrium system.
As I was running 18650s I went with the Watchmon4 with 14 longmons.

I must say other than my initial incident with 2 longmons, onereading high and one low (see my post here)

I have been very satisfied.
Once I customize the settings to fit my needs it seems to be working just fine.
Longmon Voltages are better than the expected window of error (0.05) running at 0.01V to 0.02V of difference to my Benchtop Fluke.
So far after 2 weeks in production it has been performing very well. I understand that that is a short period of time but if anything changes believe you me SLS will be the first to know and then Batrium.

Wolf
 
@Mysik, you might want to check the voltages you have set for bypassing.
Your link shows the cells are level, yet (nearly) all are bypassing.
You don't want the "charge to" voltage = the bypass voltage, the bypass voltage in the longmons needs to be a little higher or they work too hard.
Use the autobalance feature to level the pack, enable above say 80% or 85% SoC so it tends to work when the battery is near full.

I do like my Batrium system, it has a lot of clever things going on & good reporting & graphs.
I've backed off the bypass current from 1.5A to 1.24A in auto level & will see how that goes when there's more sun here ;-)
I don't see bypassing in my system other than the auto-level function "roaming across the cells".
 
Solardad said:
@mysik how long have you had your Batrium? was it still under warranty?

Disappointed to see there lack on customer response given the cost of the system.
I am about to drop similar money on a Blackmon8 setup and seeing a post like this gives me pause.
My expectation is that anything you buy can have issues but its the customer service that is critical to a positive experience.

I came across a YT post I believe earlier this year that highlighted new management at the company, I wonder if that helped address the customer service or some other issue there?
Click to expand...

I have Batrium for about 3 weeks, so it is definitelyunderwarranty. Batrium customer service is generally OK, they were responding within 1 working day.I live in UK, they are based in Australia, so considering time difference I think they were pretty good with replying to be honest. It's just when I've raised the issue that everything is pointing to faulty longmon and were discussing warranty options they went silent.
My system is 14s and I've ordered just 14 Longmons and now I know I should order at least couple spares. That is something I would strongly recommend to everyone who will decide to by this BMS to order some spares cell monitors.

I've checked how much will cost me to by 2 more Longmons and the parts cost about 31, but shipping cost additional 35. Bear in mind that postage for the whole kit was about 45, so not sure why is it so expensive for longmons only.

All I can do now is wait for the customer service to work out something cheaper that this.
 
Initial postage cost. 2 longmons is basically Same size packages as a system since it need to be protected.

Its a traceable package
 
daromer said:
Bypass current should max be 1a. I have swapped out many longmons because of this.
Or
Seehttps://secondlifestorage.com/showthread.php?tid=9173&pid=62899#pid62899
With that said if you let the BMS do its job you dont have to bother. I have my system running for many years and the only thing i have done so far is swapped our a couple oflongmonsthat stopped working. The battery bank itself is running.
Click to expand...

Um I'm confused now. :huh:
Is a couple many or many a couple :p

BTW my bypass is set to 0.86 and 65C if it ever needs it.

Wolf
 
daromer said:
Bypass current should max be 1a. I have swapped out many longmons because of this.
Click to expand...

That is another thing what I don't like about Batrium. Longmon spec says: "shunting power up to 2A (7W with fan cooling) or typically 1A of bypass without cooling". If you use default values from Batrium tools it will set max bypassto 1.74A, which is too high for "typical" scenario. Maybe it is just me, but I would expect default settings to be correct for "typical" scenario (maybe wizard should ask if youhave cooling in place or not), and having extra cooling is definitely not "typical" scenario.
Not many people are reading manuals, especially when there is no physical copy attached to the product. When you starting Batrium tools you get nice warning about how dangerous and risky it is to change the settings if you don't know what you are doing. Not sure what about You, but when I saw this warning I thought "hmm I should keep the default values unless I read a bit more to find outwhich setting are for what". So if the default values are not safe for the system or product itself, it is not great.
Luckily for me I have fan cooling in place so that doesn't really matters to me, but it is not difficult to imagine scenario when someone can significantly reduce cell monitor life (or even damaged it) by not reading instruction just using default values (and that could be quite expensive mistake).
 
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