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Hi Troy - welcome! That is a reasonable setting for solar. Assuming your bank is balanced, bulk to 13.8v just to the start of the upper charge knee is wise. And at 13.2v for float (which lifepo4 doesn't need), that is a benign setting since essentially nothing is happening, and the voltage is well under 13.8. Be sure you have DE-activated any sort of temperature compensation!
That controller may be confused if you did not attach the batteries first, and THEN the panels. Do it the opposite way, and they can become confused. But seriously, I would not hang an iPanda controller in front of my lifepo4 bank. At this stage of the game, name brands with a history of reliability are important, but that's me.
Once balanced, you shouldn't need to rebalance them again, or risk the additional points of failure of the bms. We get these cells predominantly from the EV industry, where high-voltages, high-currents, massive series-parallel wiring infrastructure, and the desire to squeeze the last drop of blood from them frequently takes them to abusive levels.
We on the other hand are running a simple 4S bank (mine are GBS cells), with relatively low voltage, and low current needs and a simplified wiring infrastructure. Other than an HVD (your charge controller), and an LVD, the balancing function of the BMS can become more of a liability than an assett. Essentially, in a low-C environment, once balanced they will stay in balance. Just stay out of the charge / discharge knees. When I measured my capacity, I easily exceeded the capacity ratings by only staying within the knees.
Consider that your present controller will not ever take the batteries to the point where the bleed balancers operate. So my recommendation is that if you have proven to yourself that the bank is staying in balance with the controller set as it is now, (about no more than 0.050v, or 50 millivolts spread after a few hours rest after taking them to 3.55v each) you may want to remove the bms if you are solely using it for balancing, and have other measures for HVD and LVD.
Many outside our service application from the motive-power industry (be it EV, Ebike or RC modeling) spell doom and gloom unless you hang a rats nest of wiring over a simple 4S storage bank. If it is balanced, then just do sanity checks on it once in awhile, rather than letting a bms fail, and inadvertently ruin your bank.
That controller may be confused if you did not attach the batteries first, and THEN the panels. Do it the opposite way, and they can become confused. But seriously, I would not hang an iPanda controller in front of my lifepo4 bank. At this stage of the game, name brands with a history of reliability are important, but that's me.
the BMS is very configurable from its front panel display and is set for low cell = 3.0, max cell = 3.6 and balance voltage = 3.50. With these settings in this setup taking into account circuit breaker\fuses\cables voltage drops, the solar charger switches to float mode at cell voltages approx 3.55 in the region where the balance boards across each cell start to activate.
We on the other hand are running a simple 4S bank (mine are GBS cells), with relatively low voltage, and low current needs and a simplified wiring infrastructure. Other than an HVD (your charge controller), and an LVD, the balancing function of the BMS can become more of a liability than an assett. Essentially, in a low-C environment, once balanced they will stay in balance. Just stay out of the charge / discharge knees. When I measured my capacity, I easily exceeded the capacity ratings by only staying within the knees.
Consider that your present controller will not ever take the batteries to the point where the bleed balancers operate. So my recommendation is that if you have proven to yourself that the bank is staying in balance with the controller set as it is now, (about no more than 0.050v, or 50 millivolts spread after a few hours rest after taking them to 3.55v each) you may want to remove the bms if you are solely using it for balancing, and have other measures for HVD and LVD.
Many outside our service application from the motive-power industry (be it EV, Ebike or RC modeling) spell doom and gloom unless you hang a rats nest of wiring over a simple 4S storage bank. If it is balanced, then just do sanity checks on it once in awhile, rather than letting a bms fail, and inadvertently ruin your bank.
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