I have a ~12VDC 30A XT60 plug in my vehicle that I am going to use to charge my new Elite 100 v2 while driving.
In the Bluetti app I have set it to PV input and toggled on the higher amperage mode (which works great with my 220W solar panel) , but it still limits it to ~8.5A while driving (as the vehicle battery is below 16V).
Please add an option to enable 20A charging at all voltages (with whatever warnings / pro password protections are deemed necessary to prevent people from melting their 12V accessory sockets).
A 12V vehicle accessory socket is limited to 10A. In many vehicles with multiple 12V sockets, that 10A limit is combined for all sockets, not each.
I’ve had an Engel fridge cig plug start to melt at only 3A, due to poor connection. My personal opinion, notwithstanding design experience is that, cig plugs are the worst option for reliable power delivery. Particularly in off road scenarios, they shake loose causing intermittent contact, increased heat and possible arcing.
The first thing I did was replace the vehicle power source plug with a 50A Anderson plug, heavier 8AWG cable to either the Start battery or the preferred Auxiliary battery.
Even so, it is still 12.8V, but will allow a heavier amperage. To get a higher Wattage output to a power station, the only option is to convert that 12.8V source to a higher voltage (56VDC) at 10A. i.e. the Charger 1
It sounds like he has a non 12v socket plug 12v source available (xt60-f) just like you have a 50a anderson. Some people do get xt60 female / anderson / etc plugs installed for higher amperage 12v loads.
Pecron has a physical switch on some units that bypasses the 8a limit, and ecoflow bypasses the limit with a correctly ended xt60i cable. There is no technical reason why the DC input cannot have it’s restrictions lifted in a pro mode or whatever.
Many vehicles have accessory sockets with higher ratings, I have two in my vehicle (Odyssey) which are both independently fused at 20A and rated at 15A (180W). But I agree that it is a poor connection system - after all it was designed for cigarette lighters. However that is all irrelevant to my initial post.
The MPPT input on the Elite 100 v2 is able to take 20A. It is just software locked to ~8.5A when the input voltage is below a certain threshold (the lowest it can be currently be set is 16V). There is no hardware reason why it can not charge at 12V 20A (240W). It is just locked out in software, presumably to eliminate the chance that someone less knowledgeable will enable it when they shouldn’t and melt their wiring.
Yes, I could purchase a Charger 1, configure it for 36V output, and configure the Elite 100 v2 to limit input current so I could charge at 36V 10 (360W). But that would cost hundreds of dollars and I’d have to keep adjusting the power input limit in the app everytime I switched between car charging and my PV array (to maximize charging). It would be far simpler (and cheaper) if Bluetti introduced an option to remove the minimum voltage lock for 20A charging.
I’d be better off picking up a cheap 12V > 19V 25A boost converter and charging at 19V 20A (380W)
I see this heading down the same path as USB-C went down with the power delivery specs.
Really the industry should set up a standard with XT60i cables. I think EcoFlow is on the right track using the additional pin to enable higher current charging but it could be improved - maybe use a resistor in the cable end between the ground pin and additional “i” pin to identify the maximum charge current - maybe 1kΩ per amp. A 10kΩ resistance would tell the power station to limit input current to 10A, a 20kΩ resistance would tell the power station to limit input current to 20A, etc.
@TopSpinQuark
Currently, we only support 16V and above. There are too many 12V scenarios, and a mistake could cause the fuse to burn out or the battery to over-discharge, which is quite risky. Therefore, the feasibility assessment of this request may not be approved.