When my Victron chargers are running (Quattro 100A and Skylla 100A) and I start the alternator with the wakespeed WS500, we\'ve experienced an overvoltage scenario. The battery bank shut down to protect itself and we fried all the winches, plotters and some other stuff in the 24V system. We\'ve been running with the setup without any issues for the last 6 months, but then I normally never run a generator (and chargers) together with the engine.
Does anyone has experience with this? It\'s a big claim to the insurance company, but I mainly want to know the root cause and avoid it from happening again.
All the units were configured for LiFePO4 and have the same settings for bulk / float (24V). When just using the chargers, there is no issue. We have an electronics expert flewn in from the insurance company to investigate, but it seems linked to the alternator / regulator.
Is there a scenario that the wakespeed increases the voltage or viceversa that a charger in combination with the wakespeed result in a voltage runaway? I\'ve been checking all settings on all devices, but can\'t find anything wrong.
Some more information:
- LiFePO4 bank of 840Ah, full system is designed for 500A, cells are 280A, charging capacity at 1C is 840A, we max out at about 250A which is 0.3C
- Equipment: Quattro 90A, Skylla 100A, Prestolite alternator + WS500 downsized from 100A tot 75A
- There is no CANbus connection in place, so everything just runs on the voltage settings.
- There is also a Sterling alternator protection device installed.
Jan, I suggest you contact tech support at Wakespeed on this one.
http://www.wakespeed.com/contact.html
Something seems strange here as the WS500 slowly ramps up over a minimum of 15 seconds, so its not like it would just put the hammer down at startup. Your other systems should have had ample time to adjust to the new capacity.
Also, your APS should have caught the voltage spike, but that was a lot of capacity it had to absorb. In the short term you may want to consider adding a 24 conventional keeper battery in your system until you are happy its resolved.
