Programming a Victron SmartSolar Charge Controller Guide
Here, at Battle Born Batteries, we offer a lot of products from Victron. They make high quality products and most of their components are configurable to work with our lithium deep cycle batteries. In this guide we wanted to show all of you how to program a Victron SmartSolar controller.
What you will need to complete this programming –
- At least one 12 volt Battle Born Lithium Deep Cycle Battery or any 12 volt battery
- Small Set of Wiring, one for the positive and negative connection
- Victron Smart Solar 100/30 Solar Charge Controller
- Victron Connect App for Android or Apple
Steps:
1. Download the app called VictronConnect onto your phone.
2. Connect the Smartsolar controller to the 12-volt battery.
3. Next, search for the controller on the phone app, here is a screen shot to show you what it looks like on an LG G6, Android phone.
4. Once you’ve connected to your SmartSolar Controller, when you try to advance onto the next screen it can possibly notify you that the firmware needs to be updated. You will need a pin code; the default pin is “000000”.
5. Now you can select the unit and move to the next screen, which is where they ask you to update the firmware, mine asked twice (see below).
6.Moving on, you will now see the main screen. At the blue screen on the top right corner, there is a gear icon for the settings, when you click it you will come to this screen. Then, click the battery menu.
7. Once you come to this main screen, select the Battery preset menu and choose “User Defined”.
8. Lastly, inside the User Defined settings menu you need to make these changes:
- Absorption voltage: 14.6 volts (acceptable range is 14.4 to 14.6 volts)
- Absorption Time: The recommended settings for our lithium batteries is half an hour per 100ah of LiFePO4 battery (for example if you have 2 -100ah batteries select 1 hour).
- Float Voltage: 13.5 volts (13.6 volts or lower is acceptable for LiFePO4 batteries)
- Equalization voltage: 14.4 volts (you do not need to equalize Lithium ion, you will have equalize turned off, but incase it ever runs a cycle the batteries will be fine at this voltage)
- Temperature Compensation: should be disabled on Lithium Deep Cycle batteries because they do not need to be compensated, leave this off.
- Low Temperature cut-off: Our Battle Born Batteries have low temperature charging protection built into the battery, its monitored by our Battery Management system which is also built in. You can leave this off too, some other brands do not protect your battery against damage from low temp charging, we do, we have got you covered.
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After following all of these steps, your new SmartSolar controller should be all set up now! Once done, go back to the main screen and click on the floppy disc icon on the top right. It’ll be the first icon on the toolbar. This icon will save your settings, you can name it whatever you’d like, we usually go with “CS1” (Custom Setting 1). Once saved, you can back out of the unit and go back in to make sure the new correct settings have saved properly.
If you have any questions about this Victron Solar Charger controller or any other charge controller, please send us an email [email protected] or give us a call 855-292-2831. We are more than happy to help you, here at Battle Born Batteries!
Free Rein Project (Andres & Chelsea) | Jul 20, 2018 at 8:58 am
Thank you for this info! Its exactly what I needed and was very easy to follow. I just finished installing 4 battle born batteries for my new solar system in my travel trailer. We are so excited to go dry camping! Made a little video as well to hopefully help others with their set up.
Dianne F | Jul 20, 2018 at 9:06 am
Andres and Chelsea,
We are really happy that the guide was easy to follow. We appreciate your comment and if you ever have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected]. Have a wonderful day!
eric berg | Sep 9, 2018 at 1:53 pm
I just changed over to a 24volt inverter from 12volt…..
So do I just double the settings on my victron 100/30?
Could someone tell me the float,absorption, and equalization volts for a 24 volt victron charge controllers
Dianne F | Sep 10, 2018 at 8:30 am
Eric,
Thanks for the questions, when changing to a 24V system, you are correct everything would double.
Absorption Voltage: 28.8
Float Voltage:27
Absorption time: depends on the number of strings you have in parallel. Essentially 2 batteries would be 30 minutes, 4 batteries would be 1 hour.
Equalization Voltage: Doesn’t matter in this instance because you do not need to equalize lithium ion.
If you have anymore questions, please give us a call, 855-292-2831. Thanks!
Keith A Thomas | Oct 1, 2018 at 6:36 pm
I just got my battleborn battery installed with the Victron 100-30 smart controller. I set it to the above recommendations. The battery won’t charge above the 13.6 v float charge, and it only stays in float for 1 minute.
Dianne F | Oct 2, 2018 at 11:12 am
Hi Keith,
I noticed that one step was missing from this write up and that would be to save your settings. Once you input the following settings we provided, go on to the main page and hit the floppy disc icon on the top right. This will allow you to save your new settings, we usually name is CS1 for custom setting 1. But you are welcome to name it whatever you’d like. If this doesn’t help, please consider calling us at 855-292-2831. Thank you!
Kelvin McConnell | Dec 4, 2018 at 8:49 am
I had a question about the ”Low Temperature Cut-off” setting. Why can’t we go ahead and set this, but at a slightly higher temperature than the BMS is set for as added insurance that the batteries won’t be charged when they are too cold? I’ve invested a lot of money in my batteries and would rather have two safe guards setup to protect against charging cold batteries versus relying on just the BMS to protect the batteries. How can it hurt anything?
Dianne F | Dec 6, 2018 at 4:29 pm
Hello Kelvin,
If you would like to use that setting and set it at a higher cut-off that is completely fine. Go ahead and set it to whatever you feel comfortable with.
Thank you!
Stephen L | Mar 7, 2019 at 5:11 am
Am I correct to assume these settings apply for the 100/50 Victron charge controller as well?
Dianne F | Mar 7, 2019 at 9:20 am
Stephen, Yes these settings apply for all solar charge controllers when you have our batteries. Just make sure to change the absorption time depending on you how many you have. For our lithium batteries we recommend 30 min per hour.
John Foster | Mar 9, 2019 at 8:22 pm
Hi, I just purchased two of the 100ah of LiFePO4 battery and a 12 volt system from Victron. When I received the Victron system they shipped temperature sensors with it.
My question is, If we turn off “temperature compensation” why should we install the temperature sensors when using the BMV-701/712.
Dianne F | Mar 11, 2019 at 8:29 pm
Hi John,
No need for the temp sensor for compensation as you mentioned, although some customers just like to see the temperature on the battery terminals.
Thanks,
Josh R | Apr 9, 2019 at 8:40 am
I have a question about the temperature cut-off. I have the Victron Smart Solar 150/35 MPPT controller. In my Victron manual there is a connection sequence that needs to be followed – batteries first, then panels. This leads to the assumption that the controller can be damaged if the controller is receiving power from the panels, while not hooked to a battery. If the BMS shuts off the charging for the batteries, and the controller is not turned off, will this damage the controller?
Dianne F | Apr 10, 2019 at 4:59 pm
Hello Josh,
As of yet we havent heard of a controller being damaged by hooking the panels up first or by not having the batteries connected. The internal BMS of our batteries will not shut off the charging unless the internal temperature reaches 24 degrees. We also havent heard of a controller problem when a bms cut-off occurs while solar charging is taking place.
Hope this helps, thank you.
Russell Hughes | Jun 5, 2019 at 1:11 pm
What do I need to know about high temp storage and charging.It can get pretty hot in my rv during the summer in the AZ desert.
Dianne F | Jun 14, 2019 at 3:15 pm
Hi Russell, our batteries can withstand up to 135F degrees. They don’t omit heat so as long as the compartment doesn’t get higher than that, you are good to go. Give us a call if you have any other questions, 855.292.2831
Robert Garbe | Jun 14, 2019 at 5:38 pm
I don’t need to charge up so high with my application, I am looking to cut of solar at 13.8 volts. Will the Victron allow the abs voltage be set at 13.8 and no float? I have 2 BB batteries.
Dianne F | Jun 24, 2019 at 9:40 pm
Hi Robert,
For our lithium batteries you will want the absorption no lower than 14.0 volts otherwise you will not activate the passive balancing which is necessary for internally balancing the cells.
The Victron controllers cannot be set without a float voltage.
Thank you,
Ken Clay | Sep 7, 2019 at 8:15 pm
I installed 3 100 amphora battleborns and a 100/30 amp Victron smart charger.
The charger seems to work for a while but never charges for more than a few hours
400 watts of solar panels on the roof.
I checked the settings and the temperature compensation was set for .29 something .
I see the setup says temp comp off.
All the other settings are as you recommend
Dianne F | Sep 17, 2019 at 11:57 am
Hello Ken,
If your batteries are getting up to a voltage of 14.4 when charging and the resting voltage is around 13.6 then you should have fully charged batteries.400 watts of solar should produce around 25 amps and be charging your batteries nicely but this depends on how much power you have used through the night and the state of charge when the sun comes up.
If you would like to troubleshoot over the phone, we are available Monday through friday at 855-292-2831.
Thank you,
Geoff Harrison | Nov 4, 2019 at 2:52 pm
i do not see a customization for Absorption Time. i see absorption duration and maximum absorption time.
Dianne F | Nov 4, 2019 at 9:00 pm
Hi Geoff,
With the most recent update you can choose Adaptive or Fixed mode. Whichever one you choose, you will want to set the max absorption time to 20-30 minutes per battery(in parallel).
Thank you,
Ben Toews | Jan 31, 2020 at 2:27 pm
Thanks for providing this guide. Do you recommend the adaptive absorption duration option provided in the recent firmware updates?
Jesse Asay | Feb 4, 2020 at 9:52 pm
Hi Ben,
Both fixed and adaptive modes work great for charging our batteries and if you want to make sure that you get a full absorption time of 20-30 minutes per battery then you will want to use the fixed mode. The adaptive will vary the absorb time according to how long the bulk stage takes.
Thanks,
BIll Collins | Feb 18, 2020 at 8:19 pm
Prior to purchasing I want to make sure I understand this correctly as the sizing documents only talks about panel voltage. I can use this if my panels are 24volt or 48v but my batteries are 12v Is there anywhere in the settings to set the panel voltage or just battery voltage. Thanks
Jesse Asay | Feb 19, 2020 at 9:37 am
Hi Bill,
Your Victron solar charge controller will automatically adjust the battery voltage the first time its connected to your battery bank and most models allow up to a 48 volt system. The Victron connect app will also allow you to choose the voltage of your bank if you need to make any adjustments.
Thank you,
claus rupprecht | Mar 2, 2020 at 7:47 am
I am a little confused about the rotary switch settings on the bottom of the controller. Here you have it set to number 2 in the Victron manual it says set it to number 7. Does it make a difference? And another question. I have 2 Victron mppt 150/60 charge controllers and the Victron 2000multiplus inverter/charger. Naturally I would prefer the batteries to be charged by the solar power first and then and after that by shore power through the charger. Is the any way to make sure that the solar charge controller is the preferred way of charging and then the multiples battery charger
Jesse Asay | Mar 6, 2020 at 10:45 am
Hi Claus,
When we program the Victron Solar Charge controllers we never change the dial, mostly because its overridden by the internal programming.
In regards to making the system charge with “solar Priority” you will need to set this function up through the Victron software called “VE Configuration Tools” that can be downloaded from their website. You will also need a MK3 to USB cable in order to program it. I have a walk through guide for implementing this upon request, just send us an email or give us a call for further instructions.
Thank you,