Batrium BlockMon-8 Voltage & Temperature Issues

guittal

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Oct 5, 2020
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Hello everyone,

I've been running my Batrium system for a couple of years now and have been satisfied, until now. My BlockMon-8s are starting to fail:
  • I recently replaced 2 units due to bad voltage readings (out of specs).
Now, I have:
  • 3 units that show incorrect voltage readings (but are still within specs: -0.7, -0.5V, +0.4V from 3.32V/cell right now). A serious inconvenience.
  • 2 units that show incorrect temperature readings (out of specs: -23C, -10C from 29C right now). Critical issues.
  • All units have passed the: network, synchronization & bypass tests.
I haven't changed any hardware or made any significant adjustments to my system and rarely (but regularly) top balance. Is there any way to correct those incorrect readings or is it a case of having to replace those units? Has anyone else started to see BlockMon or CellMon failures after some time in operation?

Much appreciated!

lg
 
Have you contacted their support email with the issue?
 
Korishan said:
Have you contacted their support email with the issue?
Hi Korishan,

Yes, I have. For the first failure, they offered to RMA the unit. For the second issue, it seems that I'm on my own since the BlockMon is now 2 years old and they told me that my earlier RMA was a good gesture on their part (i.e. not a normal occurrence). On the basis of their answer for my 2nd issue, I haven't yet reached out to them yet (assuming that the answer is likely to be the same... out of warranty).

I wanted to know if anyone had experienced similar issues before reaching out to Batrium.

Thanks!

lg
 
If you run them bypassing a lot with the temp limits at default 75degC, they're likely to fail earlier.
Have you tried removing power from the affected ones, re-installing & re-syncing?
I have a had a few longmon failures & keep spares on hand.
Bypassing & inherent temp cycling is a stressful job....
 
Redpacket said:
If you run them bypassing a lot with the temp limits at default 75degC, they're likely to fail earlier.
Have you tried removing power from the affected ones, re-installing & re-syncing?
I have a had a few longmon failures & keep spares on hand.
Bypassing & inherent temp cycling is a stressful job....
I have 84 longmons and counting... so this is a key topic for me. Appreciate you sharing info on this :)
I do avoid hi-heat (bypass) by setting"Bypass Temp Limit" at 55C on the Hardware -> CellMon page (which appears to work)and I only bypass / balance when needed - literally auto-balance for only 8 days this year when adding new batteries.
 
Sorry to drag up this old thread, but I seem to be hitting this issue.

I put together a new 16s2p battery early this year. I added another 2 strings in July. In april, I had a blockmon 8 intermittently flash 0v during bypass which triggered a system shutdown. This repeated a few times. Voltmeter indicated this was not a correct voltage. I cleaned battery connections, but the problem continued. I replaced that blockmon and cable and the problem went away.
Now in September a different blockmon on the original strings has flashed 0v. This was again in bypass. I have the default thermal settings for bypass. Other than the 0v flash during, the blockmon seems to work fine. Network, bypass, etc tests all are good. I suspect the issue is due to thermal stress.

Any tips on avoiding future problems? Looks like dropping the bypass temp limit and reduce balancing is a fix.
 
Any tips on avoiding future problems? Looks like dropping the bypass temp limit and reduce balancing is a fix.
I have longmons 3yrs old now but I don't balance much. My last balance (of 84 packs) was March 25, 2021 to 40mv-60mv max diff (thru a daily cycle). 6 months later (today) I'm at 50-80mv thru the daily cycle. Since I run between 3.5v/cell and 4.0v/cell.. an 80mv max difference is not really an issue and so I fight my OCD and just let it be. At this rate - I may go a year before 100mv max diff and my next Auto-Level touch up. An Auto-Leve touchup takes 2-4 days.

In other words, I only use the balance feature (heat/stress?) of my mons a few days a year. This might work for you as well going forward.

On the other hand - seems like mons should be hardier due to the $$ :)
 
Thanks. Yeah, I've been balancing almost every day. I probably don't need to. I use the 280ah prismatic cells and typically they are off by .03v. I may try dropping the bypass temp limit. Other than that, I suppose I can move to manual balancing every couple weeks. Although I would rather the blockmons hold up better.

I sent email to Batrium today regarding this so maybe they have some input.
 
a blockmon 8 intermittently flash 0v during bypass
This seems to be an issue, I get this when bypassing as well, even with low bypass current & low temp rise.
I have 32 blockmons & 32 longmons in service.
All the wires are twisted to reduce interference.
It seems to be related to the electrical noise the bypassing process generates.

When bypassing each longmon/blockmon is switching on/off it's load resistors quite fast, eg 500Hz - 1kHz, you can hear them buzzing sometimes.
Eg like this
- switch load R off, measure volts & temp
- switch load R on for a bit
- switch load R off, measure volts & temp
- switch load R on for a bit
repeat...
While doing this it is still getting polled by the watchmon & reporting data.
Could also be a s/w or h/w bug where the longmon/blockmon can't switch & reply at the same time (or glitches)

Putting a fan on the longmon/blockmons is a good idea, I have the watchmon turn on an output to run a 12V fan when bypassing - works nicely keeping the temps down.
 
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