Meanwell charger opinions

[jedics]

Wondering what ppl think of them, I bought a rsp 2400-24 about 4 years ago which was only used about 20 or 30 hours a year each winter. The adjustable potentiometer was always very sensitive with a millimetre of turning making huge jumps in the amount of amps going to the sbms. The potentiometers only support is the solder it is attached to the board with which unsurprisingly made it shift from the pressure of a philips screw driver over time creating a dodgy connection.

I took it to a place to get it replaced but it still does the same thing, I fire it up and it sends 97amps to the sbms for about 5 seconds then stops sending anything all together and the potentiometer doesnt have any effect on this at its minimum or max adjustment.

I paid about $700 for it back then, now they are over $1000 which would be fine if they lasted but for the pathetic amount of hours I got out of it Im reluctant to buy another one. 

Is there anything better value? Or did I just get unlucky?

[Dacian Todea (electrodacus)]

Have you set it up correctly ?

Based on your 5 second shut down you likely did not removed the factory shortening connector on CN3 se page 5 for details https://www.meanwellusa.com/upload/pdf/RSP-2400/RSP-2400-spec.pdf

So remove the CN3 to have constant current limiting and no 5 seconds shunt down.

Voltage should be irrelevant just need to be about 1V or so above max battery voltage. So charging will happen at full current around 100A and stop when battery is fully charged. The small potentiometer are not designed for constant adjusting and there is nothing to adjust any way for this type of application.

This unit is to large for most people as they will not need to charge at 2400W and if they did they likely got an inverter charger maybe a Victron that will bypass grid to directly power their load from grid.

Seems to be about 770 CAD at digikey.ca around US $560 and same price at mouser.ca

[jedics]

CN3 is where the sbms is connected via a cable I got meanwell to make up so it was able to stop charging...I wasnt adjusting it all the time, firstly I set it to be roughly 2000w or 70amps so it would be a safe maximum to not trip breakers but I am using a very long extension cord atm which was turning pins black so I reduce it to 50amps which is when all the problems started.

Too large? Thought it the perfect size to get the most benefit of the 240v 2400w power points available in Australia?

$991au on amazon Australia is the cheapest here so far.

.

[Dacian Todea (electrodacus)]

From factory the pins  (9 OLP) and (10 OL-SD) are shorted on CN3. That short needs to be removed to get constant current limiting and not 5 second delayed trip.

Looking at your photo pins 9 and 10 are connected by a orange wire loop (maybe I'm not seeing correctly but that is how it looks in this photo and you need to cut that wire loop)

What you want to use for remote ON/OFF are pins (7 AUXG) and pin (8 AUX), pin (5 RCG) and pin (6 RC)  in the configuration shown at 3.2 and remove the wire loop at pins 9 and 10.

Seems that AUD is even cheaper than CAD. Still that price is a bit high even at current conversion rate.

[Flint Smith]

This?

https://www.meanwell.com/scripts/resource/pdfJS/web/viewer.html?f=RSP-1600&pdf=RSP-1600-spec.pdf  

(Is this a new PDF thing? I cant copy-paste from it!)

"Only" 1600 watts, but they'll work in parallel.

Remote On/Off

Current adjustable down to 20%

Thermostatically controlled fan. (Reportedly LOUD at full load)

New-in-box 24V units are $110 each with free shipping in the US
https://www.ebay.com/itm/176737306149  

[Dacian Todea (electrodacus)]

That is a good deal for those than need something like that.

[wmckeenster]

I just bought 6pcs of the 1600W version from the ebay supplier. I want to run all in parallel and use the SBMS0 to remote on/off.

I do not see the CN3 to remove the short for constant current limiting and 5sec delay...https://www.meanwell.com/scripts/resource/pdfJS/web/viewer.html?f=RSP-1600&pdf=RSP-1600-spec.pdf

Can I use as is and parallel the units together with the remote on/off to SBMS0?

[Dacian Todea (electrodacus)]

Your RSP-1600 is very different from the RSP-2400

According to spec you need CN1   pins 3 and 4 for remote ON/OFF that can be controlled by the SBMS  and   pins 11 and 14 is where you supply a voltage 1V to 5V in order to set a constant current limit and not disconnect after 5 seconds  (Maybe use around 4V for about 80% of rated output current)

Now when you parallel 6 units I do not know if the remote ON/OFF and current limit from the PSU1 is transferred to all others but I asumme it is not and you need to have all of them ON/OFF and current limit also likely connected at all units so you parallel all pins 11 on all units and also all pins 14 and then apply a single 4V supply to this.

Pins 15 will be connected in parallel on all 6 units and then connected to battery+ so all units see the same voltage and the Pin16 also connected in parallel on all 6 units and connected to battery negative.  The wires from pin 15&16 will need to be twisted.

[wmckeenster]

Thanks for the quick reply Dacian!

Sounds complicated....the power supply came with a loop for remote on/off pins 3 and 4 and a loop between 15 and 13 and a loop between 16 and all the other pins are empty so I dont have access to pin 11....does this have to be done? I understand the need for twisted wires to the battery for sense.

What is the easiest way to get a 4V reference? Not sure how to do that without using another power supply set to 4V. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Wayne

[Dacian Todea (electrodacus)]

The pin 11 is required in order to enter constant current mode and remain there so you can not use it as battery charger if you do not supply at least 1V there.

According to spec 1V is constant current set at 20% of max output current and 4.7V is 100% and if is below 1V (maybe 0.4V) it will work as a power supply providing up to 110% for 5 seconds then disconnecting so it can only be used to supply power to devices not to charge a battery if pin 11 is not connected so 0V

As for where to provide the 4V from it may be possible to use pin 3 that provides 5V at up to 300mA so you can connect a resistor there say maybe 1Kohm and then a zenner with the voltage you prefer maybe 4V to set a constant current limit of about 80% of the max output capability.

[sailingharry]

Another solution for 4V is to use Pin 3 as Dacian suggested, and a "voltage divider."  Use a variable resistor (super cheap, Amazon or eBay).  Take Pin 3 to one side, Ground to the other side, and the middle pin is variable voltage from 0 to 5V -- adjust as desired.  A 1K variable resistor will consume about 5mA, so about nothing.  This listing will get  you 5 of them for $6 delivered.  https://www.ebay.com/itm/393825725671

[wmckeenster]

Thanks for all the help! Kinds wondering why you can only parallel 6 units tho, would like more. Any other pins will require a new/modified connector as this is what came with the units (see attached)

[Dacian Todea (electrodacus)]

The reason it came with those connections is so that unit powers ON when you plug it in. Else if you cut the yellow wire disconnecting pin 3 from 4 the unit will power OFF so that is where you will connect the SBMS0 to allow it remote ON/OFF control.

The other two wire links are for local voltage sense so it senses the voltage and regulates the voltage at the two large connectors and not at the load or battery.

To sense the voltage at the load or battery you will need to disconnect the red and black wire links and from pins 13 and 14 and instead connect them to your load or battery so power supply can compensate for the voltage drop on the thick power cables.

The sense wires 15 for positive and 16 for negative are specifically important to be connected to Load or Battery so that all power supplies see the exact same voltage at a single point so that they can share the power equally.

The way it is configured now is to work as a power supply for supplying DC loads and not configured as a battery charger.

In order to convert it from what is now power supply for Loads so not constant current limiting to a battery charger so with constant current limiting you need to provide pin 11 with a voltage higher than 1V (20% of max current as current limit) up to 5V (100% of max current as current limit).

The limit to 6 is likely due to what can be handled safely in therms of load balancing between the power supplies and they have a digital connection between them.

There is also a switch under CN500 connector that will be ON for first and last power supply in the link and OFF for the others. Likely that just connects a termination resistor for the differential signal on the digital communication lines.

So that CN500 is for digital communication between the parallel power supplies and there will be 3 wires the GND (pin 5 and 6) and the two wires as differential signal lines DA and DB (pin 1,2 and 3,4) It shows you exactly how to connect 6 units in parallel on page 8 at the bottom.

 

Now the simplest way to modify this connector you already have is to cut all those 3 wire loop exactly in half.

The yellow one you extend and connect to SBMS0 EXT IOx

The red and black half's from pins 15 and 16 you connect to battery terminals positive and negative respectively so it senses the voltage there.

Then the black half connected to pin 14 remains where it is and the red half on pin 13 you just move to pin 11 so you can set current limiting to whatever value you want guessing 100% based on the fact you want more than 6 units :) so then just apply 5V directly.  You can even have a small power supply even below 500mA with 5V output that you supply from battery and connect the 5V to pins 14 negative and 11 positive.

Now for the CN500 you still need to buy a connector as I do not think you have one.   

[wmckeenster]

Thank you all for the help! Will be a fun project and will report back if I don't blow myself up lol