Charger 2 Shutting Itself Off, Not Findable In Bluetooth

Anyone else having an issue with the Charger 2 shutting itself off after a period of time? I’ve installed two of these units in separate Transit vans, and they both appear to be having the same issue. For reference, I have two 100W solar panels wired in parallel into the PV input, and I’m connecting the alternator charging positive to the Transit’s CCP2 and the negative to a negative post in the driver seat base.

After a given period of time where the Charger 2 isn’t receiving any power input from solar or alternator charging, the unit will shut itself down (The green power light turns off). After this, when starting the vehicle or when the sun comes out to power the solar, neither of these power inputs wake the charger 2 to send the power through to my AC200L. The unit will also not be able to be found by the Bluetti app in this state, so I have no way to simply restart it. The only way to turn the unit back on I’ve found is to physically unplug the ALT negative cable, and also both positive and negative PV cables, then re-plug them. This fully restarts the charger 2 and makes it think it’s just been installed for the first time.

I’ve tried adding a D+ signal cable wired to the van ignition on, which doesn’t seem to change anything. I’ve also made sure to update all of the firmware IoT and system updates that were available for the Charger 2, but the issue persists. Hoping this is just some glitch that is going to be ironed out in a firmware update soon, but I’ve only seen one video online of someone else having this problem:

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I’m having the same issue in my Ford transit. Once I turn off the transit, the charger 2 will stay on for only about 2 minutes and then goes to sleep mode. There is no place in the app to adjust when the sleep function turns on.

This is against how they said this will function in the manual. If the charger 2 is connected to an external battery via the P090A port, the charger 2 should stay on after the car stops, but the charger 2 goes into sleep mode shortly after the car stops. When it goes to sleep mode, it cuts off power to the DC Hub.

This is an obvious bug in my opinion and we need to make a fuss to have @BLUETTI notice.

Bluetti, please push an update for the charger 2 to prevent sleep mode. We also need more settings to decide when sleep mode will occur, if it all.

Also I think you need to route directly to the battery and not the CCP2 port. I drilled I hole in the bottom of the battery box and slid the wires in. You’ll need to buy a different fuse to do this. There’s a nice write up on that here: Ford Transit + BLUETTI Alternator Chargers | Install Guide

@BLUETTI you still need to push an update for the charger 2 to be able to change when the charger 2 goes to sleep and cuts off power to everything connected to it, even when plugged into P090A port. Massive gap in functionality.

I made a video to explain the issue in having here: https://youtu.be/KqX6xqAIh8I?si=_wyjqUlYuimvO9SR

Your issue is similar but I think we have two separate problems here. I’m connecting to the CCP2 because I only want alternator charging while the vehicle is running. I’m not connected into the BAT port or DC Hub ports, I’m only sending power out through the CHG port to an AC200L battery, which handles all my DC and AC electronics in the van. In my case, I want the unit to go into sleep mode, the problem starts when it can’t wake itself despite having power input from solar or alternator. @BLUETTI Any ideas on this?

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Similar situation. Charger 2 initially works as expected with my Jackery Explorer (and two other solar chargers I’ve tested) including with the solar input. The entire reason I upgraded from Charger 1 to Charger 2 was to utilize the solar input. The issue, however, is overnight the Charger 2 apparently turns off and although I can manually turn the unit on, it won’t connect to Bluetti App by Bluetooth and does not supply power either when car is running or through connected solar panel. In order to get it working again I have to disconnect the solar charger, the solar panel, and the car battery (fortunately I’m still using the circuit breaker that came with the Charger 1 battery). I’m getting really tired of disconnecting and reconnecting the solar battery input and solar charging cables to get the system to work.

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I’m having the same problem, I have a AC200max plugged into the CHG and solar in the PV. All works great for a good few hours then seems to turn itself off!

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I’ve installed the Charger 2 on a Promaster van since this post and am having the exact same issues as the Transits, which tells me its not van specific.

I also did some testing of the individual ports, trying with only ALT input connected in one van and only PV solar input connected in the other. The Charger 2 will still shut off at night, which makes sense, because there’s no power input. In the morning neither unit will wake itself from sleep mode when receiving power in, but the ALT connected unit will at least be findable in Bluetooth to turn on for some reason (why wouldn’t it just be programmed to automatically switch on???). Leads me to believe its some firmware issue with the way solar input is handled.

I’m trying to get in contact with an engineer through the after-sales service website but haven’t gotten a response yet. The lack of any comment from Bluetti is very frustrating, but at least I’m not the only one having this issue so they’ll need to address it eventually.

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Thanks for the comment. I’m glad to know that it’s not just me that the charger 2 shuts off unexpectedly. I have tried installing it with a D+ cable and even bought a new AGM battery thinking my old battery might have been bad and causing it to turn off / go into sleep mode.

@BLUETTI you need to release a new firmware upgrade for the Charger 2 and also update the app to allow more sleep timing customization. This product is barely functioning as advertised at the moment.

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Thanks for your post. The charger 2 should automatically turn back on once alternator power or solar power are detected. In it’s current form the charger 2 sounds pretty worthless. I think I will send my charger 2 back and just go solar directly into my portable power station.

@ChonkyAudio I am so glad I found this post and your video on YouTube. I just bought an Elite 200 v2 and Charger 2 in a bundle. I wanted to be able to have solar charging and alternator charging. I am now thinking about just plugging my solar panel directly into my Elite 200 v2 and giving up on the alternator charging idea.

If the Charger 2 goes to sleep mode after a couple of minutes with no alternator charging even with solar charging active it is pointless for me. Also, it sounds like I have to buy an expansion battery for the charger 2 to work properly even though in the listing it says an expansion battery is options.

After talking with a Bluetti engineer, I’ve found a fix that is working in my vans. I know a few of you were having similar problems, albeit with different electrical setups, but this may be worth a try even if the scenarios are slightly different.

Obviously make sure your firmware is up to date first. They’ve been hot-fixing a bunch of issues with this thing since its so new. I have Iot v8036.11 and System ARM v30041.01.17 as of this post. These are two separate updates.

Then, if you go to the settings of your Charger 2 in the bluetti app, you should be able to to find an “Advanced Settings” menu. Inside there is a tab called “System Switch Recovery”. If you enable this using the password “88888888” this should cause the Charger 2 to remember it was in an ON state upon waking from sleep mode with a power input from either solar or alternator.

Very annoying that they really hide this feature, but it seems to be just for legal liabilty reasons? Anyways, I haven’t had to disconnect any wires after doing this fix and now I don’t even have to go into the app anymore to manually turn the unit on every morning.

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Thanks, comc! Found the setting, made the change using your 88888888 code, and will monitor over the next few days to see if it works. I’ll be a happy customer if the Charger 2 passes through the solar charge and supplements with the alternator charging when vehicle is operating, without constant babysitting and resetting. Reason to be hopeful, which is nice!

My Charger 2 has operated as expected following the setting change noted above for several days now. No more failures to “wake up” or resetting requirement. Yea!