Have the AC300+B300x4 connected into a transfer switch (Reliance Pro/Tran2) and cannot charge via 110AC grid due to the neutral bonding issues. Emergency backup for me, works well, just want to leave it connected so pursuing dc charge options.
.
I bought a simple AC-12V DC power converter, plugged in the cigarette plug to DC1 on the aviation plug and batteries just never charge. They always stay in Standby. Ac300 sees ~12.5v and gets ~98-100 watts.
.
Is there a min voltage/wattage needed for the car plug to be recognized /charge it?
.
Yes, DC1 is set to Other and Yes Solar panels work fine. I have the T500 on DC1 charging it now at ~500 watts but perplexed I can’t charge via Car cigarette plug.
.
Hi @anthonyris
did you try to charge your powerstation via the Car cigarette plug? So use it as a input?
This Port is not meant to be a charging port, its only for output on your powerstation. The cigarette plug should be in your car and the other end where the Solar is normally connected.
If your connection is right, you also cant charge the powerstation to the end because most of the 12V car outlets arent strong enough. So what is you SoC when trying?
@anthonyris Have you consulted an electrician for the wiring? I will send you the wiring diagram for connecting AC300+ switching power supply to the grid, so you can check it.
If there is charging power, it means it is charging. With 100W of power distributed to four battery packs, the current flowing into each pack is small.
Only when the current is above 1A will it show that it is charging. You can try connecting only one battery pack to verify.
The AC300 simply doesn’t charge on low watts via the DC1 input. It shows it is charging when above 200w or so, or if I have multiple inputs (solar + car charger).
In a previous post, @BLUETTI mentioned that the AC300 will show “Standby” at low watts “but it’s charging”. Not my experience, Sat at ~40% SOC overnight.
Appreciate it may seem that way to you, but no, I am not. I am feeding the CP2 input on the side aviation port. Pretty standard. Included a graphic that should help you understand. See Method 5.
.
That DC input can take 2 inputs, DC1 and DC2. It’s in the diagram in the manual.
.
Regardless: @BLUETTI : what is the minimum voltage to activate the DC1 MPPT controller and what are the minimum watts?
The minimum voltage to activate the DC1 MPPT controller is 12v.
Do you mean that the power drops from 100% to 40%? Please check if the BMS version is the latest version.
If not, upgrade the BMS version and do a charge/discharge cycle.
Thx for the reply. I said above “it sat at 40% SOC” just to underscore that it wasn’t charging at 12v, showing ~98w input.
.
BMS are all updated, 1 b300 is diff version due to being newer.
.
With t500 or over 200+ watts, it shows “Charging”. There’s another thread with same issue in the forums from last year.
Question is: How can we get the AC300 to accept charge at 12v w/low watts (like a car charger normally outputs)?
It will not display when the current is very small. When only one B300 is connected, it will show that it is charging. However, if four are connected, the power needs to be higher in order to display that it is charging.
Turns out, this isn’t accurate info from Bluetti Support.
Did a bunch of testing and the AC300 + 4xB300 simply doesn’t accept a charge below 200+ watts on DC1 or 2 from solar or car adapter (yes… set to PV or Other as appropriate).
I’ve been running a 100W @ 12v cigarette lighter adapter for a couple of days and zero charge added. No blinking batteries, etc.
In fact, SOC declined by 10 percentage points over the time it as generating 4kWh from the car adapter.
Has anyone successfully used Charging Method 3, 5, 7 or 9 at specified input 12-150v <200W in the AC300 manual pages 24/25?
I’ll make an example to make it clear how self-consumption, charging and efficiency works all together.
consider an AC300 + 4xB300
the system is ON
both AC and DC outputs are off
In this situation, the system is on and consumes a small amount of energy autonomously to provide a stand-by service: internal check-up logic, head-up display, bluetooth and wi-fi adapters, voltage levels check, temperature check, communication between batteries and main unit, error detection on all parts of the system.
Now, consider the internal voltage of all B300 units is > 50 V.
Then you are providing 12 V power to one MPPT charger of AC300 which is lower than the battery nominal voltage: in this situation the MPPT charger needs to increase the voltage from 12V to over 50V to ensure that the current is drawn from the battery. This process consumes more energy because of the charger conversion process, which will naturally have a lower efficiency.
All things considered: the AC300 on self-consumed energy, the self-consumed energy of each battery, the solar charger that must act as a step-up converter to increase the voltage and also the cigarette lighter adapter that will have a natural voltage drop due to the 8A of current drawn, the whole setup will be just enough to provide some energy for the self-consumption of the entire system and the power conversion losses, without being able to provide enough energy to actually store it into the batteries.
Appreciate the reply, and the detail, but that means that Charging Method 5 and 9 in the manual simply does not work and that Charging Methods 3 & 7 require more than 200w of solar panels.
And again Bluetti just telling me “it’s working”, when it’s not - despite data, screenshots, testing. Also, I mentioned I used the DC Charging Enhancer to increase voltage to 20+ to DC2. Same fail.
*** Turns out @ndwr, after more detailed troubleshooting with a support rep who actually looked at the data, listened, seems as though one of the B300s or at least the cable is causing the system to not charge. Removed suspect B300 and now we see blinking on battery and charge has gone up overnight.
So again, the info Bluetti has been giving me has been wrong - for a year. Really tired of the patronizing debate, hubris and lack of curiosity when troubleshooting by Bluetti reps. I’ve got thousands of dollars invested here and deserve a working system. Period.
