Community Forums

brobox · 12-24-2023, 01:23 PM

Don, following your posts, you being an absolute battery genius, it looks like still a lot of misinformation and lack of knowledge on Lithium battery change over. I know I fall in the latter category. Using Magnum inverters, (I have two) Magnums can be used using the Custom setting like I use now for my FallRiver AGM's. My problem lies with by-passing the Vega Touch if I am understanding correctly?

757driver · 12-25-2023, 11:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brobox

Don, following your posts, you being an absolute battery genius, it looks like still a lot of misinformation and lack of knowledge on Lithium battery change over. I know I fall in the latter category. Using Magnum inverters, (I have two) Magnums can be used using the Custom setting like I use now for my FallRiver AGM's. My problem lies with by-passing the Vega Touch if I am understanding correctly?

Chuck,

From all I have seen and heard of lithium changeovers on Vegatouch equipped coaches the only way to make it work successfully was taking control of the charging away from Vegatouch and installing Magnum remotes (or as appropriate to the inverter make) at the Vegatouch interface.

erald · 12-26-2023, 07:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brobox

Were Lithium batteries for RV's out back in 2005, the year you show for your coach?
I have owned 3 coach with magnum inverters that never had a problem. However I did not try to force the latest and greatest batteries at them either. Changing inverter is going to be one of the expenses to change to Lithium batteries. Back to my experience with Lithium batteries on a couple of year old coach,.....they are not plug and play if you have a Vega Touch, and not backward compatible on a coach several years older.

Oops have to update my profile seems. We have now a 2020 Newmar Ventana 4369. The magnum Inverter/charger is from 2020 and one level below the highest Magnum is offering. It is not supporting Lithium except via the custom settings, which is not ideal.
Anyway: With Victron you can use Lithium without any problems. Just Magnum is adding a lot of expense by having you to buy the ME-50ARC, the ME-BMK (which should be the ME-BMKLii, which is not yet on their site) But when you do all this you still need to upgrade the main board in the Magnum inverter/charger to have everything working correctly. Total costs probably as high as a Victron inverter/charger with a lot more capabilities and monitoring over the Internet or bluetooth. (I do have Victron for my solar panels including the Cerbo)

erald · 12-26-2023, 07:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by creativepart

Someone posted a few months ago that Magnum was abandoning the RV market. They were a pretty great option in the mid-2010s but failed to innovate or even match the competition. I have the MS2012 inverter and I installed the ME-ARC50 controller which I use with a LFP battery Bank.

It hard to believe that they still don’t offer a single inverter model with Bluetooth. And I have the BMK, too. You’re correct it’s not working with my LFP batteries.

By the way they sell a “LI” version of the ME-ARC50, too. It has a LFP charging profile. However, they don’t have any available and can’t say when or if they’ll ever be in stock again. Why their Remotes don’t have firmware update capabilities is another Magnum failure.

Magnum was seriously falling behind years before Covid was a thing. So maybe that was the final nail in the coffin, but they were 8-years behind the competition when Covid hit in 2020.

I do have the ME-50ARC with LI option and yes it has LFP settings. However the LFP setting does not work because my ME-2812 has version 5.9 and should be 6. They tell you that after buying the BMK (no BMKLI) and the ARC50
I just could through out my whole investemwnt in the BMK and ARC50 or upgrade the 2812 :(

brobox · 12-26-2023, 08:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erald

Oops have to update my profile seems. We have now a 2020 Newmar Ventana 4369. The magnum Inverter/charger is from 2020 and one level below the highest Magnum is offering. It is not supporting Lithium except via the custom settings, which is not ideal.
Anyway: With Victron you can use Lithium without any problems. Just Magnum is adding a lot of expense by having you to buy the ME-50ARC, the ME-BMK (which should be the ME-BMKLii, which is not yet on their site) But when you do all this you still need to upgrade the main board in the Magnum inverter/charger to have everything working correctly. Total costs probably as high as a Victron inverter/charger with a lot more capabilities and monitoring over the Internet or bluetooth. (I do have Victron for my solar panels including the Cerbo)

This is where posts on the forums without a signature line are almost worthless with all of the changes going on each year, especially Lithium batteries and built in GPS's.
Having lost a set of AGM battereis on a 2 year old coach, I have followed the Lithium posts with great interested ready for the "next time". I have come to the conclusion, if I don't boondock a lot, which I don't anymore. There once was a time that is all we did. I can buy a lot of diesel for what the changeover would involve on just a 3 year old coach.
If I was using a coach like I once did, I would be leading the charge on the change over, but sadly that chapter in my life has close. Now it is nice sites with plug ins, with a Walmart, or Cabala's in between. The new coaches are power hungry where 4 large L16's AGM's barely make an overnight. They are now outdated for all that is put into coaches.

erald · 12-26-2023, 09:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brobox

This is where posts on the forums without a signature line are almost worthless with all of the changes going on each year, especially Lithium batteries and built in GPS's.
Having lost a set of AGM battereis on a 2 year old coach, I have followed the Lithium posts with great interested ready for the "next time". I have come to the conclusion, if I don't boondock a lot, which I don't anymore. There once was a time that is all we did. I can buy a lot of diesel for what the changeover would involve on just a 3 year old coach.
If I was using a coach like I once did, I would be leading the charge on the change over, but sadly that chapter in my life has close. Now it is nice sites with plug ins, with a Walmart, or Cabala's in between. The new coaches are power hungry where 4 large L16's AGM's barely make an overnight. They are now outdated for all that is put into coaches.

Since we do boondocks a lot I did install solar and Lithium. However the information I got was flawed. But with the custom settings in the Magnum I manage and the solar is a big help. Am just very dissapointed about Magnum not supporting Lithium on a 3 year old charger and the misinformation I got initially.

brobox · 12-26-2023, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erald

Since we do boondocks a lot I did install solar and Lithium. However the information I got was flawed. But with the custom settings in the Magnum I manage and the solar is a big help. Am just very dissapointed about Magnum not supporting Lithium on a 3 year old charger and the misinformation I got initially.

I have been following the Lithium Battery posts on everything posted for Entegras, As stated in post #71, still a lot of misinformation and lack of knowledge being received. Even for me trying to decipher it all. I have that 3 year old charger and was very disappointed when it came time to change batteries that Lithium were not "plug and play" in a new high dollar coach. The curve thrown at me was the Vega Touch computer system that controls everything inside of the coach. A very big disappointment.