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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 2 Sep 2025 04:02pm - Edited by: paulz
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Phew what a morning. Taking all the advice, i hiked down and unhooked that old Siemens array from the HF controller. Then found another Epever Tracer Mppt down there, same as the one in the cabin. Then remembered i had an unused wire cable running up to the cabin. So i jumpered the array to it and hopped in the 2wd cart i just got going again to head back up. First corner up the hill one of the rear tire chains i put on years ago rolled off the inside and locked up the brake drum, wouldn't move. Walked up the hill got in the 4wd cart with jack and lug wrench, drove down and pulled the wheel off. Drove back up, still 34v from the array. Found an old dead battery with 9v in it, hooked up the SCC for a test. Says .4 amps, array in a bit of sun.
Here from the cabin deck you can see the array down there. Also the HF panels, which i will connect to the HF controller. Guess i will connect the second Tracer scc to the cabin bank as a helper.
Still got to put that wheel back on the cart down there…
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 3 Sep 2025 10:16am
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Later yesterday that little battery fully charged so i moved the Tracer output to the cabin bank. Probably little help but two things:
Eliminating the scc and hooking the array to the existing controller a bad thing because the existing panels are serialed and put out about twice the 34 volts the Seimans are. Not going to rewire panels and Scc wont like it.
Next, both Tracers are too old and don't have LFP settings like the online manual shows for the newer ones. Upgrade firmware, doubt that would do it. The cabim tracer is set on ‘User’ with my own lfp values. The Seimans one is set on FLa. Gel and Sealed other settings.
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gcrank1
Member
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# Posted: 3 Sep 2025 02:09pm
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Take a look online for the Gel battery charge profile, it might be close enough to LFP to make it useful.
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 3 Sep 2025 03:07pm
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From Tracer book
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 5 Sep 2025 01:19pm - Edited by: paulz
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Quoting: gcrank1 Take a look online for the Gel battery charge profile
Yes the gel setting does knock off the equilization. But the boost is only 14.2, a bit low for lfp.
Ive been getting about .8 to 1.2 amps daytime out of the seimens. Never good sun for long. But even in early or late day shade it shows .4. So I guess thats the mppt. Every bit helps.
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gcrank1
Member
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# Posted: 5 Sep 2025 07:15pm
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For regular cycle charging Id be fine with 14.2v
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 6 Sep 2025 11:18am - Edited by: paulz
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Good point. In fact on the main cabin scc, set on ‘user’ setting, i think i have the boost set down to just under 14. Never gets to that, even when gone for several days with power off and solar going it will only be in upper 13s on return. So the ‘gel’ setting would be fine.
Still not sure where this extra Seimens set up will end up. Years ago i was doing a lot of shop work, had batteries and inverters going a lot. Now i tire quickly, plus so many lithium battery powered tools, drills, saws, grinders, impact gun: hardly the need for that juice down there.
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gcrank1
Member
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# Posted: 6 Sep 2025 11:39am
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Its great to see you are still involved and showing what can be done with old 'outdated' equipment 
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travellerw
Member
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# Posted: 6 Sep 2025 11:58am
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You can update the firmware on those Tracers, but its a royal PIA. It requires a special tool that you have to modify as the Tracer uses a strange pinout. Then finding the actual firmware is next to impossible unless you know someone with the file.
Frankly its not worth it and better to just set the controller to "User" and input your own settings for LFP.
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 6 Sep 2025 11:06pm - Edited by: paulz
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Thanks guys. With a bit more investigating, only the epever AN series G3 has lfp settings. Here they are, havent studied..
https://www.epever.com/product/tracer-an-g3-series-mppt-charge-controller/
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groingo
Member
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# Posted: 9 Sep 2025 12:23am
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groingo
groingo
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