VSDR-200 Lithium Controller

Description

The VSDR-200 Lithium Controller is a Microprocessor controlled Latching Relay that is specially configured to disconnect and reconnect at pre-set voltages and is used in a Lead-Acid/Lithium Hybrid Battery Bank  (see the section “Hybrid Battery Bank – Introduction” on the website for more information).

Lithium Batteries charge at a much lower voltage then Lead-Acid batteries and installing the VSDR-200 is the key to allowing both Lithium and Lead Batteries to charge at an optimum rate to suit both technologies by taking advantage of their charging characteristics in the same way we take advantage of their different discharge styles in a paralleled Hybrid setup  (see “Hybrid Battery Bank – Concept and Theory“).

The VSDR is available in both 12V and 24V options

Some info on how the VSDR-200 Operates:

VSDR stands for Voltage Sensing Disconnect Relay.  200 stands for the current draw/charge limit of the unit i.e. 200 Amps
This relay varies significantly from the standard VSR relay you may be familiar with and maybe used as a Split-Charge Relay…. Instead of connecting at a certain voltage threshold and then disconnecting when the voltage has dropped to another threshold, it actually works in the opposite manner, disconnecting at the higher voltage and reconnecting at the lower.
It also does not get energised when closed and have to have a control signal present to keep active (and drawing current) as it is a latching relay. A ‘ON’ control pulse is sent to latch on and it will then just stay on until another ‘OFF’ control pulse is sent to latch off. This means that the relay itself uses no power whatsoever in operation and is expected to be far more reliable than a normal Coil-energised relay.
What does use some power however, is the Lithium Controller part of the unit. The VSDR Lithium Controller is a programmable device, and the electronics has a draw of 2mA which is fairly minimal.
It comes with presets to suit the typical setup requirement in a Hybrid Battery Installation.  However there is an optional Bluetooth module that connects to it and allows you to change the parameters to suit any specific requirements via the smart phone App (note the Phone App used for the VSDR-200 is not the same as the Phone App the bluetooth module uses for some other Ablemail chargers it is also compatible with).

The Screenshot shows the App that is used to change the configuration of the VSDR-200

(Please note this shows a beta version of the App and I have greyed out some settings that are currently present in the app but are not applicable to the unit)

You can see here that the Relay switches off when the SYSTEM Voltage hits 14.19V, and comes back on again when it drops down to 13.41V.   And there is a delay incorporated into the Switching On and Off.
Using the App and the optional Bluetooth plugin unit, these values can be adjusted to whatever you want.

A key feature of this device is also that is it Uni-directional in operation. A typical VSR, which you might think could be comparable in some ways is bi-directional and is activated whenever EITHER side of the relay hits the voltage threshold. This would not be desirable for a Lithium Controller as you only want the unit controlled by the Habitation side and not the Lithium Battery side.