gpelectric.com | [page 9]
THE GP-BMK-50 DOES NOT SYNCHRONIZE AUTOMATICALLY
One possibility is that the battery never reaches the fully charged state. The other possibility is that the charged
voltage setting should be lowered and/or the tail current setting should be increased. See section 4.2.1.
THE GP-BMK-50 SYNCHRONIZES TOO EARLY
In solar systems or other applications with uctuating charge currents the charged voltage should be set only slightly
below the absorption charge voltage (for example: 14.1V in case of 14.4V absorption voltage). This will prevent the
GP-BMK-50 from switching prematurely to 100% state of charge.
SYNC AND BATTERY ICON ARE BLINKING
This means the battery is not synchronized. Charge the batteries and the GP-BMK-50 should sync automatically.
If that doesn’t work, review the sync settings, Or if you know the battery is fully charged but don’t want to wait until
the GP-BMK-50 synchronizes, press and hold the UP and DOWN button simultaneously until you hear a beep. See
section 4.2.1.
4.1 WHY SHOULD I MONITOR MY BATTERY?
Batteries are used in a wide variety of applications, mostly to store energy for later use. But how much energy is
stored in the battery? No one can tell just by looking at it.
The service life of batteries depends on many factors. Battery life may be shortened by under-charging, over-charging,
excessively deep discharges, excessive charge or discharge current and high ambient temperature. By monitoring
the battery with an advanced battery monitor, important feedback is given to the user so that remedial measures
can be taken when necessary. Doing this will extend battery liferesulting in the GP-BMK-50 quickly paying for itself.
4.2 HOW DOES THE GP-BMK-50 WORK?
The main function of the GP-BMK-50 is to follow and indicate the state of change of a battery, in particular to prevent
unexpected total discharge.
The GP-BMK-50 continuously measures the current ow in and out of the battery. Integration of this current over
time (which, if the current is a xed amount of Amps, boils down to multiplying current and time) gives the net amount
of Ah added or removed.
Example: discharge current of 10A during 2 hours will take 10 x 2 = 20Ah from the battery.
However, there are external components that negatively aect a battery capacities, such as rate of discharge, charge
eciency, and temperature.
4.2.1 BATTERY CAPACITY AND THE RATE OF DISCHARGE
The capacity of a battery is rated in ampere-hours (Ah). For example, a lead acid battery that can deliver a current
of 5A during 20 hours is rated at C20 = 100Ah (5 x 20 = 100).
When the same 100Ah battery is discharged completely in two hours, it may only give C2 = 56AH (because the
higher rate of discharge).
The GP-BMK-50 takes this phenomenon into account with Peukert’s formula. (See section 5.1).
4. FEATURES AND FUNCTIONALITY
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