Smart Edition Bluetooth LiFePO4 battery – Charge Controller | Power Queen

June 3, 2024 Julian OH8STN battery power, charge controller, Ham Radio, LiFePO4, maximum power point tracking, Off Grid Grid Down, Power Queen LiFePO4, Solar Power, Solar Power for Ham Radio 0

A few weeks ago, Power Queen sent over a new battery and charge controller for testing. The charge controller is an MPPT Bluetooth enabled design with remote monitoring. The new Smart Edition battery has a built-in Bluetooth BMS and shunt, both integrated directly inside the battery. These new features provide interesting possibilities for real-time monitoring and collection of historical data from battery or charge controller I/O.

Charge controller

For those who have already purchased Power Queen LiFePO4 or other batteries for their off-grid battery storage, the Bluetooth 30A MPPT charge controller might be a good fit.

The MPPT charge controller is a programmable 12/24 volt model compatible with Lead-Acid or Lithium based batteries. It has a built-in Bluetooth module which works with an integrated shunt. Combined, the charge controller can be accessed with an Android or iOS app to follow SOC, solar panel voltage, incoming watts, battery voltage, output port load, and track historical data just to name a few.

The bridge between the BT charge controller, battery and your mobile phone or tablet is the Power Queen MPPT mobile app. The app is available for both Android and IOS. The app provides a simple way connect to the charge controller via Bluetooth. Using the app allows us to monitor battery status in real-time. This includes SOC (state-of-charge), voltage, load current). Moreover, the app allows us to see historical data which can be displayed day by day, as a bar or line graph.

In the image to the left, we can see the historical data page in the Power Queen app. At the time of my testing, it wasn’t possible to zoom in to a specific hour of a day. Perhaps I’ll need multiple days or a longer running time to enable that functionality.

I had hoped this charge controller would be RF quiet. Sadly, the first tests did show noise on some HF bands. In the coming days and weeks I’ll test the charge controller with it integrated into my home stations grounding system. If grounding reduces the noise, I’ll report back later with a tutorial. For now, this is a great charge controller for none HF radio related systems, or if you primarily operate your station during nighttime hours.

Why this charge controller?

The channel and blog continues to support and recommend the Genasun GV-10L for lithium batteries. For small system using small solar panels, the Genasun is a perfect match for 24/7 radio work from DC to daylight. At the point when our solar systems outgrow our Genasun charge controllers, we need to look at other option, especially when those options offer greater voltage, and higher wattage than our Genasun. Of course there are the Victron controllers alog with other speciality brands to choose from.That said, I am simply showing another option.

Power Queen BT enabled Smart battery

The battery sent over for testing was the 24v, 100 amp-hour LiFePO4 Smart Edition. The integrated Bluetooth BMS and shunt allow battery status to be remotely monitored, using the Power Queen app for iOS and Android. Keep in mind, this is a different app than the Power Queen MPPT app used for the charge controller.

The Power Queen app for their Smart Edition batteries is quite basic. It lacks the historical data like the Power Queen MTTP app used with the charge controllers, but adds features specific to managing the LFP Smart Edition battery. Ironically, the Smart Edition battery was recognized by the PQ MPPT app, though understandinly, some of the features of that app didn’t work with the Smart Edition battery. Still, historical data did work, and is probably the only feature missing the PQ app. I’ll certainly mention to PQ the idea of adding historical data to the non-MPPT app.

Visualisations

The PQ app for its Smart Edition batteries provides are sort of quick reference look at what is happening with the battery in real-time. We can see the following data:

  • Which battery we are connected to.
  • The battery SOC (State of charge).
  • Battery level descried as a percentage of full.
  • Battery level descried as remaining amp-hours.
  • Whether charging and/or time remaining until fully charged.
  • Internal temperature of the battery.
  • The aggregate power in watts.
  • The aggregate current in amps.
  • The internal voltage of the battery.

To make the best use of the Bluetooth functionality and app, I plan on using a Raspberry Pi running Android OS, to remain permanently connected to the PQ Smart Edition battery. I will run the app at startup, connecting the PQ battery, and displaying battery information on a 7nch touch screen display. This will free up our mobile phone or tablet for other things.

We’ll come back to this when we start the ham radio caravan camper build on the channel.

Missing app features

The PQ app is a great start but IMHO, it is missing some core features to make it end-user friendly.

  • Selectable screen orientation Landscape, vertical.
  • Dark Mode to reduce eye-straing and make daytime, night time reading easier.
  • Automatically reconnect when opening app.
  • Recovery when returning to the app after a call comes in, checking email, …
  • Historical statistics showing peak load, incoming wattage, versus time of day.
  • Use app without signing up or logging in to PQ server (for off-grid use).

Random notes on HF radio

The Power Queen Bluetooth Smart Edition batteries seem to be completely RF quiet. No noise was detected on any HF, VHF or UHF band inside or outside the ham bands. There is always a risk of RF pollution, but we seem to be ok here.

Parasitic drain from bluetooth

One are of concern is parasitic drain from having BT on board. The Smart Edition integrated BT BMS didn’t seem to add much if any parasitic load to the battery pack. At least there was nothing I could measure. Naturally, the BT BMS does consume “some” current, which becomes apparent during long periods of battery inactivity. On a daily basic, It’s doubtful one would ever notice. This is especially true if your battery is constantly connected to solar power. To combat parasitic drain during storage, the battery load can be shut down from the app.

Smart Edition Power Queen links

At the moment, not every version of the PQ Smart Edition batteries and charge controller exist in each shop. For now, here are links to Europe and United States sites. Hoping PQ will generate the links for the 12.8v Smart Edition batteries when available on all their shops. For now, if you see one in your local PQ shop, you can still use JULIANOH8sTN for a discount in PQ regional sites.

Final thoughts

I enjoy being able to get real-time stats wirelessly directly from the battery. One solution to get stats at a glance might be using an inline multi-meter. Still, having a wireless headup display showing relevant battery data is a critical tool when running high power, or when operating in low light conditions on the edge of efficiency.

For me, the app is missing historical data. That is not a deal breaker since the PQ MPPT app seems to be “mostly” compatible with the Smart Edition batteries. Either way, a Raspberry Pi running the app directly could make be a great match for either of the Power Queen apps.

Regarding the batteries, no complaints at all. That’s not bull-hockey, it is brutal honesty. The PQ LiFePO4 batteries in the off-grid ham shack, and the PQ batteries on the test bench, having all functioned perfectly, since deployment. The oldest of the batteries was deployed in August of 2023. The 400ah battery storage is operating flawlessly. Any criticisms I might have are directed toward missing features in the Smart Edition Bluetooth app. PQ is quite responsive, so let’s see if they can make improvements.

Power Queen LiFePO4

Power Queen offers a range of LiFePO4 batteries for off-grid use. These batteries are available throughout the European Union, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. In fact, you can get a 5% discount using JULIANOH8STN while shopping on their various websites.

Use discount code JULIANOH8STN

Power Queen made the “Building an off-grid ham shack” project possible. Please show some love.

Power Queen selection for off-grid ham radio

73
Julian oh8stn
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