Votronic bluetooth monitoring. (1 Viewer)

[Geo]

I chucked an old duvet on the fibreglass panel between the dash and windscreen and on tickover it took 2db off the sound level, guess what's next?

White noise generator

 

[dabhand]

250 litre black tank and if I fit supersense I can watch the levels as I sit outside with a bottle of wine watching the solar levels I will still need to manually watch the level of the red wine bottle.

M

That’s my boy, if you had a solar operated earth closet you could grow your own grapes to mate

 

[Abacist]

I should instal an external socket then you can sell your surplus power to those that would like to hookup to you Martin!

You could then monitor how much they are drawing and whether you need more solar to cope.

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[funflair]

I should instal an external socket then you can sell your surplus power to those that would like to hookup to you Martin!

You could then monitor how much they are drawing and whether you need more solar to cope.

Fair point, I never thought of charging for it last week when I was giving it away I was even going to install an extra socket in the electrics locker to make it easier to give away won't need to leave garage door open. I already have the monitoring for power going out

M

 

[sallylillian]

The app is a a bit crude in definition I am finding Martin. My best guess is a max of 48amps today at one point but the block graph is lacking. That said I think once the English version is out I might be able to understand it better

 

[James130]

Hi All

I have got my Votronic Bluetooth app working again after it kept crashing, and am now suffering the obsession of ‘just keeping an eye on’ the % battery State of Charge (SoC) syndrome. But something funny is happening on the Votronic Battery Computer S meter. I can see the % SoC count down on the display with battery usage, but it is not gradually counting back up again with no battery usage and solar charge going in. It continues to show the lowest SoC reached, and then only jumps straight back up to 100% when the battery has been charged back up to 100% for a while. I ‘know’ this because my LiFePo4 battery has a built in Bluetooth battery management system which shows the % SoC gradually counting back up to 100%. Please can anyone think why this is, is it normal, or am I doing something wrong?

Many thanks - James.

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[funflair]

Hi James

One obvious question has to be have you got the solar on the correct side of the shunt to be seen going back in?

 

[James130]

Thanks Martin.

I’ll check the solar charger to shunt connection and report back, once my twisted knee lets me in there…

Cheers - James.

 

[James130]

Sorry for the delay in providing an update to any interested parties.
My knee got better and I sat on a camping stool to check the wiring in the locker.

I started with a 123W solar panel, Votronic Solar controller and leisure battery.
I then had added the Votronic Battery Computer S meter, the supplied Smart Shunt and the bluetooth app to my set up.
But as reported above, the meter was counting the % battery State of Charge (SoC) down OK with use, but not counting back up again when charging...
I checked the wiring, and after installing the Smart Shunt, I failed to move the wire from the solar controller -ve which was connected to the battery -ve.
The solar controller -ve now connects to the load side (-ve) of the Smart Shunt.
All % SoCs now read as it should.
The % SoC now is within 1-2% of the built-in bluetooth reading from the Battery Management System (BMS).

Looking at the app has really shown me how little battery charge can be harvested when the sky is overcast.
In the UK I think it is a matter of getting as much decent charging power stored in the battery as possible when sporadic sunshine allows.
So I will get round to changing out my 17 year old 123W solar panel for a 250W one...

Cheers - James.

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[the1andonly]

The English version of the ap is now available. How useful is it. Can you see individual controllers or just a combined value. I have 2 controllers and 3 panels. One panel is tiltable so would like to see the effect of moving it. The effect would be small on the total 100w tilting versus 450w statioary. I use a victron bmv712 to monitor and control ssr feed from solar controller to lifepo4 battery.

 

[the1andonly]

funflair sallylillian
How useful is the box and the info available. Can you see individual controllers or just a combined valueHow useful is it. Can you see individual controllers or just a combined value

 

[funflair]

funflair sallylillian
How useful is the box and the info available. Can you see individual controllers or just a combined valueHow useful is it. Can you see individual controllers or just a combined value

No it combines the output from multiple controllers into one reading, it's nice to have especially if you don't already have the solar computer or any other fixed screen display.

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[the1andonly]

No it combines the output from multiple controllers into one reading, it's nice to have especially if you don't already have the solar computer or any other fixed screen display.

Thanks Does that mean you can just connect 2 mppt controllers and not have the Votronics display or shunt. The install options all seem to have more than the controllers

 

[funflair]

Thanks Does that mean you can just connect 2 mppt controllers and not have the Votronics display or shunt. The install options all seem to have more than the controllers

It wouldn't replace a shunt as it doesn't measure amps in and out at the battery so it could not work out capacity but the Votronic Solar computer wouldn't do that either, yes you could just connect two MPPT controllers and get a display on your phone of live amps and volts and when the controllers are in "cut back" or in other words when the batteries are full enough to not need all the amps that are available, you also get a historical display of Ah stored and Ah not stored due to "cut back".

 

[funflair]

As this thread has reappeared I thought I should update our installation, for some reason we had an intermittent incompatibility issue between the Votronic solar controllers and the LiFePO4 batteries and Votronic could not make them work so we got our money back and went with one big blue one which has been fine to date.

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[the1andonly]

Thanks funflair i would only need info from controllers already have a BMV712.
Have to decide is it worth £150. May just continue research on RS485 coms from votronics to an Arduino. Have got data from the Victron to an arduino mega but cant suss the error handling and obviously no collison avoidance as label and data dont always correspond.
just read your update. I have been using Lithium for almost a year, and seems to be ok with the controllers to date. Thanks for update

 

[funflair]

Thanks funflair i would only need info from controllers already have a BMV712.
Have to decide is it worth £150. May just continue research on RS485 coms from votronics to an Arduino. Have got data from the Victron to an arduino mega but cant suss the error handling and obviously no collison avoidance as label and data dont always correspond.
just read your update. I have been using Lithium for almost a year, and seems to be ok with the controllers to date. Thanks for update

Now that is getting too clever for me.

Yes I know other people are OK with Votronic and LiFePO4 and we were OK with Buttner PWM.

 

[the1andonly]

Now that is getting too clever for me.

Probably too clever for me .

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