Just brought the battery back from a camping trip. I plugged it into AC and nothing happened. No charge after 24 hours. It appears to be charging after I unplug cord and plug it back and push the power button on but the screen times out and nothing happens. Any suggestions on what to do here?
@Chazzy You can try to charge EB3A via car or solar panel. If car charging or PV charging works, the AC charging cable may be defective.
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Check to see if the circuit breaker button needs to be reset (push it) which is located to the right of the AC input connector on your EB3A.
Is it already charged or is the eb3a too hot?
Not hot. But I think this is what happened. I discharged the battery completely while camping. Came home and attempted to recharge with AC cord and nothing happened. 24 hours later still no charge. So I tried to charge via DC plug using EcoFlow battery. Kept the AC plug intact and charged (DC) with the EcoFlow. Lo and behold it charged right up in a few hours. Once charged up, I plugged in the AC cord and the display lit up instantly to show state of charge (100%). So I think I’m good now. I think the problem was I depleted all power in the unit, so much so that the firmware was not functioning. Once I charged it via DC, it had enough power to run properly. Does this make sense?
makes total sense. Good troubleshooting on your end. I run my units to 0% often, but always try to re-charge as soon as possible. If you were in this situation in the future, I would recommend car charging on the trip home or charge it just a bit to get it off the 0% state of charge. This causes issues for a wide variety of manufacturers and models and I see a good amount of issues caused by running too low. The situation would be improved I think if the units had a lower SOC limit that was user adjustable so that the last 10% could be reserved so to speak.
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I seem to be experiencing what Chazzy went through but I do not have any DC charging options available. What can I do? I have the solar charging cable but I did not purchase the panels as there was no need for it at that time.
- Please provide me with the SN and the firmware version of EB3A.
- Check if the Circuit Protector on the right side of the AC input port pops up. Press it and try AC charging again.
- Check whether there is a error code (when the power is on, press and hold the AC ON and LED ON buttons at the same time to check)
- Do you have T200S? If yes, you can charge EB3A with T200S to test.
Ok. My problem was AC was not charging because I drained the unit. I assumed it was not charging cos the Display screen showed a blank even after pressing the AC on/off button. And the SOS light button didn’t work either. So, I bought the DC car charger and plugged it into my car, and the Display Screen lit up and showed 43%, which meant the unit was charging, but the screen and buttons didn’t work. I took it back inside and continued to charge the AC, which now worked.
I suppose the DC charge was just to “boot” or “awaken” the system (???). Anyway, I updated the firmware, and all seems good now. The DC charger is useful after all.
I have the same problem as the original poster, I used it camping and on the last day it was drained, I came home tried to plug it in with the AC charging cable and my screen lit up indicating it had power but it would not charge. I don’t have the 12-28 volt DC 8.5 amp charger, at least I haven’t found it yet. Can you tell me where I can buy it?
Is it possible to get a picture of the cord that I don’t have and what kind of solar panels are available for me?
Thanks in advance!
Hi @TundraMan, The EB3A comes with a solar charging cable. If you need more, you can contact the customer service for your country or region. For the US, the customer service email is service@bluettipower.com. Alternatively, you can try using the car charging cable to wake up the EB3A.
Solar charging cable: Solar Charging Cable
Car charging cable: Car Charging Cable
If you’re looking to purchase a solar panel, we recommend the PV200 or PV200D. One panel should be sufficient.
PV200D: BLUETTI PV200D Solar Panel | 200W
Thanks so much for getting back to me, I actually did get it to charge up again by leaving the AC cable plugged in, it then began to charge after about 30 minutes possibly sooner because I was not timing it. I do have the solar panel cable but I don’t have solar panels. I wondered if there was another plug with the same end as a solar panel that I could plug in to that same location? I will likely be buying the solar panel, I was even thinking of buying a couple of them but based on your recommendation it sounds like I only need the one for this small unit. I have a question I have and I can start a new topic if you wish is will the solar panel keep up to the draw of my typical electric cooler or if I added more than one solar panel would that be more likely to help it keep up or would it make any difference at all having the additional panel? Thanks for your comments and I look forward to more. Your help is so much appreciated!
Hi @TundraMan, If you purchase our solar panels, they come with built-in MC4 charging cables. When paired with the MC4 charging cable included with the EB3A, you can use them directly without needing to buy additional cables.
For detailed instructions on how to use the solar panels for charging, please click the following link.
Since the input voltage range acceptable for the EB3A is limited, we recommend connecting only one solar panel. Also, avoid mixing different models of solar panels.
If you choose to buy solar panels from other vendors, ensure they have a total VOC between 12-28V and do not exceed 28V. Additionally, they should come with MC4 connectors.
Thanks again for your help, I am actually looking at buying the solar panels. One thing I noticed yesterday is for some reason the unit is showing me the word in red Short.
Please advise what this means? It only happens when plugged into the truck. I hade the truck and cable checked the work fine? Also I can run my cooler and other appliances on the truck in the two different AC power outlets and everything is good. However the EB3A only charges sometimes and sometimes it shows the word
Short in Red?
Please advise. Thanks again.
Hi @TundraMan, Generally, when the EB3A is connected to a device with power demands that exceed its load capacity, a “Short” error may occur.
Could you please take some photos to show the situation when the issue happens? We’d like to understand how you are connecting it to the truck.
Additionally, when the “Short” error appears, please try pressing and holding the AC and LED buttons. This will display the fault code.
Hi
I’ve got similar issue, new EB3A unit, used it first time last week just to charge phone - was at 100%.
Got it out last night to use - completely discharged
Trying to charge with AC cable, I don’t have DC cable or solar panels
Display lights up it briefly starts charging then stops. Tried a different power point, switching it on/off.screen says UPS - not sure what this is but stays on whatever I press
Tried pressing the circuit breaker several times- no difference
Feel I may have a dud unit as it shouldn’t have discharged to 0 after 1 simple phone charge but happy to take advice
Hi @Juzzi, Generally, we recommend customers charge their new units as soon as they receive them. During sea shipping and warehouse storage, the power station may remain uncharged for a long period, which can lead to over-discharge. In such cases, the displayed 100% charge might be a false reading rather than the actual battery level.
If you have access to a DC power source, that would be the better option. If not, AC charging is also acceptable.
If the UPS indicator flashes during AC charging, it’s likely due to a frequency mismatch. We’d like to know your location and the grid frequency in your area. When the UPS is flashing, you can press and hold the AC/LED power button to check the error code.
If it turns out to be a frequency issue, press and hold the AC/DC power button to enter the settings menu, then tap the AC power button to switch the frequency.
Does this help?
Thank you for replying
I did charge it fully when I first received it .
The UPS was not flashing the screen just displayed UPS, no error code was displayed.
I tried my friends AC charger for her larger Bluetti and within 2 minutes my device had gone from 1% to 100%, however it did not register any input from her solar panels (her bluetti did). Neither of us had DC charger and to be honest I don’t want to buy one as I feel the AC charger provided with it should be fit for its one purpose.
I am worried have a defective power station and will email the company
I hear you completely regarding the health of the state of charge, mostly the issue of trying to avoid depleting it to near 0% always. My optimal solar configuration (rule of thumb) for solar is simple. Have double the capacity you need with the ability to recharge in HALF the time.
For example: Say you find out you consume 350Wh a day
You want something like a Bluetti AC70 because it has around 700Wh.
Now say it’s a very cloudy day and you get 25% of your rated input. For a 200 watt panel that would only be 50 watts which would take 7 hours. With a 350 watt Bluetti panel for example, you can expect 87 watts, which tops you off in 5 hours. In other words, you should be able to get SOME charge back, get very close to breaking even, or a net positive charge by the end of the day. You can also supplement recharging through a DC to DC Altnerator charger if necessary as well, but the idea is you have enough “reserve” bank to take advantage of a full sunny day to re-top back off. Unfortunately it’s inevitable you’ll likely go a long time without much Sun depending on where you are at, so backup is always best. Charge from car. Have a propane generator, etc. It’s just nice to only have to do it as an emergency.
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Hi @Juzzi, Thank you for the update. It seems your power station is experiencing an SOC (State of Charge) anomaly.
After contacting our customer service team, were you satisfied with the support you received? If you’d like us to follow up on this matter, please provide your support ticket number, and we’ll apply for priority handling of your case.
Many thanks to @sealy1986 for the insightful response — we truly believe you’re an expert in the solar field! Having extra backup power sources is definitely the smarter choice.