Meanwell RSP-500-15 remote control

[Jim A]

I'm trying to get the Meanwell RSP- 500-15 to work with the EXTIO for charging.  I have both a SBMS120 & SBMS0.  The instructions for the remote operation of the charger says the following...

"Turns the output on and off by electrical or dry contact between pin 4 (RC+) and pin 3 (RC-).  0~0.8VDC or open: Power ON....  4~10VDC or closed: Power OFF."

Does anyone know if the EXTIO set as type 1 will handle this?

Thanks for any help you can provide,  jim

[Dacian Todea]

The RSP-500 series requires external voltage in order to enable and on top of that the logic is reversed (unsafe logic as if the supply or remote wires get broken the charger will default to ON).

So what you will need to do is provide power and you can do that having a 1Kohm resistor from battery positive (same as output of that power supply so it will be close to connect there) then have a 5V zener to ( GND and also RC-)  to create a fixed 5V that you can then use then trough something like the CPC1705 pin4  normal close SSR connected with pin 3 to RC+

Then the input of the CPC1705 will be controlled by the SBMS0 EXT IOx set as type 1 you will again need a 1kOhm from battery+ to EXT IOx+ and then EXT IOx- will connect to CPC1705 pin2 while pin 1 will connect to GND (battery-).

All this circuit with the CPC1705 should be connected close to the RSP-500 to minimize the chances that wires are broken and then the power supply will never stop.

You can also use two green or blue LED's in series instead of that 5V zener to also have the advantage of a visual confirmation that the circuit is working.

[Sean Brendan Garrette]

hie everyone

i am thinking of adding a generator(primarily for pumping water) to my small 12V solar system, can this power supply be used for charging lifepo4 batteries using the generator in case of prolonged rain and cloud cover where the solar input is nil.Am not a technical person so forgive me if my question sounds silly,if so is it connected via DSSR and at what current for a 12V, 180Ah battery bank.Thanks.

[Dacian Todea]

Sean,

How many solar panels do you have ? Even when cloudy panels still produce energy maybe just around 10% of a normal solar day but still can be significant. You can use dual PV array setup to install a PV array 3x larger than typically possible and the SBMS0 can select automatically how many panels to connect to battery depending on the amount of sunlight.

Using fuel based generator is extremely expensive 50x more expensive than solar thus over-sizing the PV array is still much less expensive with alternator generate energy at around $1/kWh vs PV panels $0.02

The RSP-500-15 Jim has is to much of a trouble as you may have seen from my replay so if you want something similar get the PSP-600-15  https://www.meanwell.com/Upload/PDF/PSP-600/PSP-600-SPEC.PDF

This one seems to have proper remote ON/OFF control with the unit being off by default so all you need to do is connect the EXT IOx from SBMS to the RC and RCG

[Sean Brendan Garrette]

Dacian

i have 4*180W panels,2 parallel strings through 2*DSSR20,1*SBMS0,i need the generator for borehole pump,once a week.

i am not getting what you are saying..do i

1)double the solar array and remain with 2*DSSR2O and 1*SBMS0 or

2)double the solar array and double the DSSR20 and SBMS(8*180W and 4*DSSR20 and 2*SBMS0)

3)double everything(8*180Wpanels,4*DSSR20,2*SBMS)

thanks as always

[Dacian Todea]

 You can actually tipple the PV array size so you can have a total of 12 panels split in to two PV arrays one will be the 4 panels you have now with two DSSR20 and the other will be 8x 180W panels with 4 DSSR20 and the SBMS0 will select only the 4 PV panel array if it is sunny but is there is less sunlight like late in the afternoon or if it is a bit cloudy it will switch to the large 8x 180W panel array as long as current from that is below 40A (limit you set in the SBMS0 menu) then if is even less sun like overcast it can connect all 12x 180W panels to the battery and can still probably get at least 10 to 15A even if very dark and cloudy.

A single SBMS0 will control all this 6x DSSR20 the EXT IO4 set as type 1 will control the small PV array and the EXT IO5 set as type 6 will control the large array and the SBMS0 will select one the other or both based on the amount of current available from the panels maintaining the charge current below 40A not to charge the battery to fast when it is sunny.

[Jim A]

Dacian, As always your help is very much appreciated!  

I received the CPC1705 today and wanted to double check the circuit layout before I wired it up.

Is this what it would look like....

[Dacian Todea]

Jim,

Please do not connect based on that diagram as it is wrong.

I will try to explain better with more details.

You will have 1Kohm resistor connected to battery positive that seems OK in your diagram.

Then the 5V zener will be between the RC+ and RC-  the cathode of the zener will usually have a marking and that will be connected to RC+ together with that one end of the 1kOhm resistor while the RC- will connect anode of the zener diode and to GND (battery negative).

Now the CPC1705 pin 4 will connect to RC+ and pin 3 to RC-

When you did all the above correctly the Meanwell RSP-500-15 should be OFF if it is ON something is not connected correctly.

Once you tested that part you can now connect another 1kOhm resistor to the battery+ the other end of this resistor will connect to EXT IO4+ and then the EXT IO4- will connect to pin2 of the CPC1705 then pin 1 of the CPC1705 will connect to GND (battery negative).

[Murray Argo]

I have this meanwell unit and I have io- on pin 13 and io+ on 14. When I plug the meanwell in I just get the fans turning on and off. I do t get 15v out of the meanwell. Do I have something connected wrong?

[Dacian Todea]

Murray,

Some people reported that that particular model needs to be first connected to AC power then connected to battery in order to start charging then the remote ON/OFF will just work and enable/disable charging.  It seems that for some reason if it is connected first to battery then to grid AC it will just stay disabled.  Not quite sure why Meanwell did this and I do not have one of those to confirm but that was reported already for at least two people.

I think one of them mentioned it uses a circuit breaker or switch to disconnect the positive from battery then powers the RSP-750 by plugging in to the grid so AC input then switches the breaker or switch ON and all works fine until it removes the AC input.

[Murray Argo]

My pack was at about 50% Soc. I got the RSP-750 connected and running. It immediately got the pack to 100% and then the sbms was trigger the rsp-750 off on off on off. Could there be something wrong with my sbms?

[Dacian Todea]

Murray,

If you just connected the SBMS to the battery then it will always default at 50% SOC as it has no idea what the SOC is until it makes a full charge so is possible that battery was almost full when you connected the SBMS showend 50% as it can not know what the real SOC is based on voltage then one of the cells got to 3.55V for more than 6 seconds (assuming SBMS0 and default settings).

What do you mean by ON/OFF ON/OFF ? how fast it will switch from OFF to ON ?

I need more details like what battery do you have / capacity .

Maybe your battery is to small and can not handle 750W charging or maybe you have a bad connection between cells thus the voltage drop on that makes the SBMS to stop the charging.

Without more details maybe even a photo of the SBMS0 monitoring screen 1 when charging I can not know what happens. 

[Murray Argo]

Dacian,

The SOC was actually 54%. It has been connected for months now. My pack is only 200Ah 4s LiFePo4. The switching OFF to ON is in a matter of seconds. When it turns off it turns pv off also. I'm not sure why its not keeping everything off. I can get you a video of what is going on a little bit later. 

[Dacian Todea]

Murray,

You have 50A from the RSP-750 plus whatever else is available from PV and that should not be extreme for a quality 200Ah battery that is well connected. 

It is very likely you have one EXT IOx set as type 6 please check and if that is the case set that as type 0 as that is only used for dual PV array and may be the cause of your ON/OFF cycles. Also after you do this go to Device settings menu and push Save device settings so this settings is permanent even if you power cycle the SBMS0

[Murray Argo]

type 6 isn't turned on.
Could it be my wires soldered to the ring connectors? all connections seems tight

[Dacian Todea]

That is an SBMS40. Where have you connected the RSP-750 ? Guessing it is connected on the external current shunt. How many panels do you have connected ?

Is the problem only when both PV and RSP-750 are connected ? Do you have anything connected to Load+ ?

You should just watch in the Monitoring page with the flags to see what flag is ON when charging is turned OFF.

[Murray Argo]

I have the RSP-750 connected after a current shunt. It is only a problem with the RSP-750. PV seems to be working correctly. I have a few things connected to load+ but not more than 10a total. I will check the flags. Will they show up since the charger is only being disconnected for a few seconds?

[Dacian Todea]

You will need to watch the flags while the charing is disconnected and depending on flag it may be light up for just a second while the disconnection is happening. There are just to many reasons to be able to speculate why it disconnects.

[Murray Argo]

I'm going to check what flags are triggering while charging, as soon as I can get to shore power. In the meantime. Do all of these advanced settings look correct? I don't recall changing anything but I just wanted to check and be sure.

[Dacian Todea]

You did make some small changes to the EOC and Over voltage 3.55 and 3.58 instead of default 3.53 and 3.55

Also set the overvoltage delay to 5 or 6 seconds instead of that default 1 second.

[Murray Argo]

I am getting the over voltage flag but it still turns back on. Now it waits about 6 seconds but still off and on. 

Here is a video of the cells under load. https://imgur.com/gallery/G39iTJk

 I notice cell 2 drops more than the others. This cell also spikes when charging. Could I have a bad cell? I have ordered 8 new 280 ah cells.

[Dacian Todea]

You should check the cell connections the two nuts on cell 2 as one of them is not tight enough and there is a large voltage drop on one of those connection points.

If you have a multimeter you should be able to measure under load and see which one is the problem. (you measure voltage drop between the buss bar and the battery terminal).

[Murray Argo]

I fixed the voltage drop by tightening all of the cells. 

I brought my battery pack inside to do some tests with the meanwell power supply. It charged the battery up for a few hours then triggered the over voltage and cut the charger off. Although it is still turning back on in 6 seconds. Is there a reason for this? This is the only io on. (everything else is 0) 

https://imgur.com/gallery/U7y2vGq

[Dacian Todea]

Murray,

Based on that video the cell connection are still bad or those cells have very high internal resistance (less likely).

Dropping from 3.55V down to below 3.4V is not normal behaviour for a 190Ah battery.  Because it drops below 3.4V that is default overvoltage recovery the charging is enabled again.

Maybe move that cell 2 to another position say switch it with cell 1 to see if there is maybe a problem with the cell but my best guess is just bad contact resistance between the busbar and the cell terminal.

The other cells seem fairly reasonable so there is better contact resistance on those. 

[Philippe Damour]

Dear All

PV permanently cycling between ON and OFF !!!

Thanks to this post I found why my PV where permanently cycling between ON and OFF.

See attached videos one without load. The other one with load.

For any reason, I don't understand, my EXT IO5 ( not in use) was set up as type 6. Turning it to type 0 solved the issued.

An additional benefit is , that the continuous PV supply improves the previously poor cells balancing.

Regards

[Dacian Todea]

Sorry not sure what format is that video ? it has raw extension.

The type 6 is for dual PV array only so you should have no EXT IOx set as type 6 as the SBMS will think there is another PV array controlled by the EXT IO5 because it was set as type 6 and so that was the reason for the ON/OFF cycling as it was trying to charge at higher current by selecting the second array that you did not had.

[Philippe Damour]

Looks like the video RAW format is useless !!

Attached a new tentative in MP4

[Philippe Damour]

here the second video without load

[Dacian Todea]

Yes you need to not have any EXT IOx set as type 6 and this will not happen.

[Dacian Todea]

Also your battery is basically empty and it shows 66% so you did not set correctly the real battery capacity or you did not set the current shunt values correctly.

When you set the EXT IO5 or whatever one is set as type 6 as type 0 if not used make sure to go to device settings and push the Save Device settings button else if you ever power cycle the SBMS0 it will not remember your setting. Same for when you set the current shunt resistance values.