Jaboni SC-30A-MPPT can't connect

[UtahJohn]

Ajg617, Thank you for that info. I did have some success with the app this weekend, however even in full sun was not seeing a big amp push from the panel, think the number 10 wire they use is too small, but will investigate further later, I know that the two lead acid batteries the dealer put on my rig will not run the 12 v fridge and the furnace all night. got woke up at 2 am with an E3 error on the norcold 12 fridge, investigated the next day and when i got up around 6 batteries were at 10.2 volts. guess between the fridge and the furnace it just draws too much. had to run the generator for a few hours till the sun came up and solar took the batteries back to full. over the next few weeks i will be finishing the install of the 2 each 200 AH LI batteries, shunt and inverter to monitor a bit better. will most likely get an additional panel to compensate for the one already on the roof. Not sure i want to chase the wire from the front of the trailer to the rear to replace with a larger gauge or not, that will have to wait.

[Thorvald]

Heya John, just went through most of these headaches on my 25G including the Bluetooth issue with the Renogy clone (Jaboni). Tossed the whole setup and purchased a nice Victron SmartSolar and a Victron SmartShunt with remote display. I put the display in the bedroom right near the thermostat for easy access. Victron’ s Bluetooth is rock solid and so is their app, also nice to have the display in the bedroom so the wife can check it too.

Next step is to toss that Magnum 1000 watt inverter, far too weak to even run a coffee maker and has no remote display or Bluetooth. As a temp measure I was hoping to find a used 2000w magnum that someone had swapped out just to make the swap quick but no luck.

That is the one issue with Victron, they only make a 1000W Phoenix inverter (1200VA) and nothing bigger, you have to go straight to the Multiplus line which starts with a 1600W (2000VA) and then the 2400W (3000VA) but they are almost quadruple the price of the Phoenix but do offer more features. Just hard to justify $2000 for only 2400W for an RV.

I found the same issue as you, a single lead acid discharged to 50% cuts it close to run just the fridge until morning with other small loads. Moving to a LifePO4 allowing for nearly complete discharge will help.

I’ve since added a Cerbo GX and will be using it to auto-start the Onan generator if the voltage gets too low but that is likely a project for next spring.

Cheers
Tim

[Dale B]

Ajg617, Thank you for that info. I did have some success with the app this weekend, however even in full sun was not seeing a big amp push from the panel, think the number 10 wire they use is too small, but will investigate further later, I know that the two lead acid batteries the dealer put on my rig will not run the 12 v fridge and the furnace all night. got woke up at 2 am with an E3 error on the norcold 12 fridge, investigated the next day and when i got up around 6 batteries were at 10.2 volts. guess between the fridge and the furnace it just draws too much. had to run the generator for a few hours till the sun came up and solar took the batteries back to full. over the next few weeks i will be finishing the install of the 2 each 200 AH LI batteries, shunt and inverter to monitor a bit better. will most likely get an additional panel to compensate for the one already on the roof. Not sure i want to chase the wire from the front of the trailer to the rear to replace with a larger gauge or not, that will have to wait.

We have been off grid a couple of days now, yesterday the jaboni solar package was down dramatically in power. We cleaned the panel with no significant change, I would chalk that up the angle. This time of year the panel should be near vertical, not laying flat on the roof.

Next season I will have a portable panel for additional power & to compensate for the flat roof panel.

Last evening the batteries are down approx. 60ah. Furnace did not run, fridge is on propane it still is in the 2-3ah usage, 2000w inverter on, then whatever the balance of the house various lights & recharging of devices. No TV.

My batteries are bluetooth so I can see discharge & charge individually, right now the furnace is on I'm seeing near 20ah total draw.

The batteries also have built in heat, the will use charge current to heat prior to charging if needed.

Your 12v fridge is probably drawing around 6ah add the furnace & the balance of the house you need around 100ah to get you thru the evening.

The Jaboni panel is 36v, part of the reason is so you do not need bigger cabling to the controller. Unless it is really small I don't think you have a problem that way.

I have been cheating running the Honda in the mornings, testing the fireplace & heat pump. The rig also was delivered with wrong converter so it would not auto detect the lithium batteries, that is corrected & working as advertised.

[ajg617]

Well, I'm still struggling to understand why my Battleborns are not charging very rapidly even when connected to shore power (under 10amps). We've been out 43 days with a mix of Harvest Hosts, State Parks, and campgrounds. All good for the first 2/3s of the trip. However, since last full charge via shore power in Scottsbluff, the Battleborns simply are not charging quickly or fully. I have a 60amp Progressive Dynamics converter that is at max putting out 10amps now according to the Victron shunt. Granted, I do have the residential fridge (shore power amps don't increase with all the circuit breakers off), but I can watch the generator pump in about 30 amps - nothing else comes close.

I also don't understand why my SOC takes so long to come back up and why with a SOC at 33%, and why my battery voltage dipped to 11.2V at SOC 45% which set off my Victron alarm. That shouldn't happen with LI batteries? Last night (2nd HH in a row), SOC went down to 27% but I still had 12. 9V - enough to start the generator. So in the last 11 nights and starting with 100% SOC (2 HH, 2 shore power, 1 HH, 3 shore power, 2 HH, 1 shore power) I have not been able to get the batteries back to 100%. Tonight, hooked up to shore power starting with a SOC of 47% and 3 hours later 53%. I used to hear the fan on the PD 9160 start, but no more.

FYI, I'm on my 2nd BT module from Grand Design - both have the same problem - continual connect and disconnect and I can never get a reading. App takes about 20 seconds for a key input to appear and then shuts crashes - tried 3 android phones (new) and same results. Have not been able to get it to work since delivery in April - didn't mind because everything was working but now it's a different story. I'm seeing a lot less than 300Watts in full sun.

If you have any suggestions on what the Jaboni or GD folks have told you to improve performance, please pass them on.

[ajg617]

Might want to check my post #12 here - https://www.mygrandrv.com/forum/show...962#post450962

I was very surprised.

[UtahJohn]

Good morning all. all this is great info. I will keep an eye out. I am heading out this weekend, I did go ahead and install 2 ea 200 AH Lithium Ion batteries an inverter, and a Renogy shunt with remote display. as of yesterday about noon when i got everything installed, I was able to pull down 6 amps from the 175 watt panel on the roof. and don't get me started on the 175 W. My spec sheet says it should be a 300 W panel, but when i get on the roof the spec sheet on the bottom of the panel says 175, a discussion i am currently having with the dealer.....what happened to the panel that the sheet with all the equipment on my rig came with? anyway. when the LI batteries reached 14.3 volts the Jaboni controller went into float mode and depending on what i flipped on would charge again when voltage dropped below 14.3 V. So everything is working as it should. Even though the app is clunky, i was able to verify through the LED lights on the controller that solar was red and charging, battery was green and connected, and battery type changed from red, flooded, to blue LI. so it appears everything is working. My next step is to connect the inverter through the ATS, if it is on the rig. I think it is under the bed, but not sure, have to investigate further, and rewire the Converter to only come on with shore power. Has anyone done this? any pointers would be great. Cheers!

[Thorvald]

UtahJohn, if you've gone the Renogy route have a look at the RenogyOne controller. While not quite as nice as the Victron it's looking pretty good and even has some features Victron does not (wireless alarm sensors like window, door contacts, Relays, Motion Sensors).

For some strange reason Renogy has a terrible marketing campaign for this thing though so gathering info is rather a pain (just wait till you try the website).

https://www.renogy.com/renogy-one/

Still nice simple little unit (and one HECK of a lot cheaper than Victron initially but Renogy has optional plans that cost $$$ which Victron does not, VRM is free).