LiFePO4 Install

[hour]

that would be safer to just tell the smart solars to stop charging.

How'd you plan to do that? I haven't read much in to the venus RPi stuff despite having a few laying around. I was under the impression that you couldn't do that stuff from the color control unit.

I just stumbled upon a thread discussing controlling the MPPT here but link won't load at the moment so I can't comment much on it. I'd give it a whirl but I can't test microcontroller -> MPPT communication because I cut that wire off the harness I built so I'm taking in TX from the MPPT only. Need to make another.

I'd be happier disabling charging on the MPPT than triggering a relay on its input, personally. Hell, if I can figure out that last hurtle then I can get rid of my BMV all together. The only thing it's good for now is telling the MPPT to not charge because of temperature, but it also sends voltage data over when sharing temperature and that works terribly. I don't have any idea what they were thinking. With my 8" wire runs from MPPT to battery + and shunt output, I have pretty much zero voltage difference between the sum of all four cells and what the MPPT sees. With the BMV sharing data the MPPT overshoots somewhat significantly every time. Completely worthless.

 

[Alloy]

yeah its got a dedicated breaker and a dedicated output that you can put a switch between.. but I'll be wiring the 48v shore charger up to that same circuit (I'm out of circuit space).. I've also got a green 120v LED I installed into the panel and its wired into the shore charger circuit.. this is my indicator that the generator is running and isint out of gas or walking away.

With Victron SmartSolar handling all the charging I'm thinking I dont need a charge relay, since I can wire em both up so a switch or the rpi will be able to cut the charge sources.. that would be safer to just tell the smart solars to stop charging.

edit, here is first draft of new overhead cabinet, not really to scale yet.


Should be a pretty easy build really, I'm a surgeon w/a jig saw.. will be nice having microwave in a box and the gmrs/aprs radios on the side of the trailer w/the antenna.. I'll embed conduit into it running down to wiring compartment for easy expansion in the future.. not looking to change things dramatically from how it is now, just a few improvements for better space utilization.. Thinking of making switch panel custom out of aluminum and having it laser cut and engraved off a cad file.

I can hear our Honda 2000 running when I'm inside the trailer.

What about tandem breakers for the dist. panel?

How about a battery switch (1-2-OFF) for power supply/ solar/ charging off.

Things change....instead of engraving I like labels.

 

[dreadlocks]

@hour, we'll they have an external switch IO I could just bang around, but my plan is to use the VE.Direct API.. this is something you can do..

After a long night of research I'm just going to write my own dashboard for monitoring the system, VenusOS is going to end up being too restrictive w/the hardware and software.. this project might result in me cooking my own board for the Pi.. but it'll let me do a bunch of cool stuff, like put the Inverter on a momentary switch.. press button, Inverter turns on.. software watches inverter load, when it falls back to zero start a 10m counter.. if it sits idle for >10m it'll turn the inverter off automatically.. I can also pull status info and embed it into an APRS status beacon, so when I'm backpacking/hiking/dirbiking/boating/etc.. I can monitor everything via Digital APRS packets, and even have like alerts send me messages via APRS.. like motion detected in trailer, low battery soc, etc..

I'll start working on the Phase2 wiring diagram here after the last trip of the year..

@Alloy, I've got 100ft extension cord.. when its just charging battery (basically idle) at the end of that there is no way to tell its running.. also nice for when camping at dads on an extension cord and someone unplugs me accidentally.

I was gonna make switch panel simple and standard, it'll just be a blank piece of metal for now until everything all wired up and finalized.. then I'll have one professionally cut, wont be that much of an expense.. and if I want to change it in the future I'll just have another one cut.

I'll start gathering up the RPI4, Display, VE.Direct cables and other things and work on the software side of everything over the winter from the comfort of my office.. and also start working on cabinetry, new neighbor across the street makes cabinets.. I should have a few beers with him and see if he'll lend a hand.

 

[john61ct]

Fantastic stuff…

Getting well past the point where a fresh new thread wohld be worthwhile?

 

[dreadlocks]

thats a good idea, I'll keep brainstorming and gathering ideas over the next week out in the field.. organize em and start a new design/build thread when I get back..

my RPI is going to be an Emby Media Server, Music Player Daemon, Direwolf APRS TNC, Graphana logging, and of course Victron Monitor.. I'mna start the UI by forking this Victron Project: https://github.com/victronenergy/venus-html5-app

 

[hour]

After a long night of research I'm just going to write my own dashboard for monitoring the system, VenusOS is going to end up being too restrictive w/the hardware and software..

Look in to 'Android Things' which you can load on to pi's, if you want to go god mode. I haven't kept up with it in a while but was obsessed in the earlier betas and built a hydroponic and lighting controller setup - one pi controlling multiple bloom tents and 3 vegetation tents, with touch screen. Just an absolute pleasure to write java / kotlin for hardware interactions. Completely unrestricted - read serial from USB ports on pi, do power stuff + disruptive things without any permissions (unlike standard android development) since AT can be run headless.

Plus, android studio is the lord's chosen IDE and building layouts is a cinch. Just don't know how that'd tie in to your other plans for your RPi since AT is the OS. And I can collab on that if you'd like - we're neighbors ya know.

If you've read anything useful about doing more than just LISTENING to VE Direct data, plz share. I'll be hitting all my Victron BT gear with a Ellisys bluetooth tracker (a $10,000 unit for some reason) on Monday to see what's going on and come up with my own BT library since they won't let anyone see theirs.

 

[dreadlocks]

heh, I built a full automated hydroponic garden with automatic nutrient and ph dosing, then did it again w/my fish tank.. I'll be building another one soon for the hydroponic greenhouse we'll be building in next year or two.

/Mode             <- 1=On; 4=Off
                     Writeable for both VE.Direct & VE.Can solar chargers
                     BUT: for VE.Can solar chargers it doesn't seem to work
                     (mva 2018-02-24)

source: https://github.com/victronenergy/venus/wiki/dbus#solar-chargers

That will let me turn off chargers w/out banging an IO, but looks like Inverter dont have such options so I might have to wire that up to an IO to turn it on/off.. mostly just need sensor reading so I know whats going on, was also thinking of putting a few more of the little battery protects in and banging them w/IO.. so I could stage some less important devices (lights/radios/etc) to shut down well before more important devices (heater/fridge)

After decades of coding w/Vi, I've upgraded to Atom as my IDE of choice.. android studio is way too much bloat.. whatever I do will end up on my github page, so I'm always open to some collaboration.. as long as I dont have to write anymore damn user stories or go to daily standup

 

[hour]

heh, I built a full automated hydroponic garden with automatic nutrient and ph dosing, then did it again w/my fish tank.. I'll be building another one soon for the hydroponic greenhouse we'll be building in next year or two.

/Mode             <- 1=On; 4=Off
                     Writeable for both VE.Direct & VE.Can solar chargers
                     BUT: for VE.Can solar chargers it doesn't seem to work
                     (mva 2018-02-24)

source: https://github.com/victronenergy/venus/wiki/dbus#solar-chargers

That will let me turn off chargers w/out banging an IO, but looks like Inverter dont have such options so I might have to wire that up to an IO to turn it on/off.. mostly just need sensor reading so I know whats going on, was also thinking of putting a few more of the little battery protects in and banging them w/IO.. so I could stage some less important devices (lights/radios/etc) to shut down well before more important devices (heater/fridge)

After decades of coding w/Vi, I've upgraded to Atom as my IDE of choice.. android studio is way too much bloat.. whatever I do will end up on my github page, so I'm always open to some collaboration.. as long as I dont have to write anymore damn user stories or go to daily standup

Brother! My first jaunt in to hardware was playing around with a WRT54G router for a reef tank. Many years later back in to it with an arduino and nano tank after flooding the floor of my old office with a faulty ATO system, ~2012. Also did the dosing pump for pH but never for nutrients since it takes 2+ weeks to run dry and I gotta go downstairs occasionally...

Never dabbled with atom, VS code seems to be light enough to get stuff done and I've grown to love it for react native work. Slimmer still - sublime text. Android studio is a slug but doesn't come close to the agony xcode puts me through on a daily basis. No stories, get a dozen a day from incompetent product team and attend far-too-long software and hardware standups every morning.

Thanks for the link-going to dive in tomorrow. Getting reacquainted with AT now which appears to no longer be in beta. Not sure why I spaced on it entirely when building my ammo can. Pi power, sqlite, easy syncing, lovely data models, and the option for a beautiful UI... ********.

 

[dreadlocks]

My plan right now is to dump data into Grafana and make a simple dashboard with that, looks like most of the plumbing is there.. wont be realtime tho, so I'll it up to publish activity to MQTT and then make a fancy web dashboard to display that data in realtime.. alot of that work looks like its been started, it'll just be tweaking it to my needs.

From my understanding the dbus api is stable/static, and the Bluetooth API is ever changing and evolving.. they dont release BT API not because they trying to keep it a secret, they just dont wanna have to support it and maintain flexibility of breaking backwards compatibility whenever they please.. from a developer POV, I'd rather stick w/the dbus interface.. I dont really need to reconfigure anything, just monitor values and turn some things on/off when I determine is appropriate.. if I can stop charging, and stop discharging.. which looks easy enough, then I'll be able to wrap my LFP in many layers of protection so it can just do its thing unsupervised w/out giving me anxiety.

The RPI4 is going to get a 1TB SSD via USB3 and also be a Media/Music server, and I'mna have a map display showing APRS position reports.. display will be fully html5 driven so it could also be viewed remotely via Wifi.

Victron wise, I'll have BMV-712 (Ve.Direct), two SmartSolars (50A & 30A) w/Ve.Direct, and my 1200VA Inverter (Ve.Direct).. sprinkle in some BatteryProtects in dumb relay mode here and there.. other sensor inputs will be indoor/outdoor/fridge temps, an internal motion sensor, barometric sensor, AC Current Sensor (input total) and god knows what else I come up with...

I looked at wiring digram for my Honda genset, its got an open circuit for engine running and a closed circuit for shutting it down.. I was gonna put like a headphone port on it and have a pigtail come out of the trailer I plug into it.. I cant have the genset auto start but I can have it auto shutdown, so like if we go on a hike I can fire up genset and walk away.. it'll charge up fully and then turn off the generator automatically whenever the bank is full.. we leave base camp frequently enough I would never have to listen to it run if I got no solar for whatever reason.

Code wise I'm not that daunted, at least getting off the ground, few weekends and I'll be at MVP.. its rebuilding the cabinet, getting all the components, rewiring everything and polishing it to look professional thats gonna get me, i might be a lil OCD.. I'll just temporary mount the PI down below in meantime and start playing with all that headless, then bring it together with the new cabinet when its ready to go w/out disrupting anything.. just incase my plans go sideways.

 

[DaveInDenver]

I'm an Atom convert, from Vi too.

The Ellisys BT tracker is expensive but it's actually about typical for commercial grade. Being able to sniff concurrently all 40 channels (mainly the 3 advertising channels simultaneously means multiple front ends) of Bluetooth spectrum with a noise floor of -90dBm requires a seriously good radio. I'm jealous, can't imagine ever being able to afford one. The times I've needed a BT protocol analyzer a $30 dongle and Wireshark is a lot easier to justify and so what if it takes a few tries to capture? The probability of capturing the whole negotiation with a single receiver on 3 channels is 99% by the 10th attempt. Is having 100% probability on the 1st try worth $9,970? I dunno. There's also the option to use three dongles, too. Still 1/10th the cost.

 

[SBDuller]

so this weekend I decided to rewire some of this, a while back I wired up a parallel over-ride switch with the Battery Monitor I can connect the LVD manually and did alot more research on LiPo's this is the plan.

I moved the charger over to the load side of the battery protect and bonded internal 12v circuits back up to the charger output in the breaker box.. I then started using the dual battery feature of the battery monitor and wired up the starter battery monitor up to the load side of the battery protect.. Now the Battery monitor see's the voltage on both sides of the battery protect.

I set the "High Starter Voltage Relay" to 14.4v and the "High Voltage Relay" to 14.2v.. What I'm hoping this will do is disconnect the charger when the battery reaches 14.2v, then keep it disconnected while we are on shore power because the starter battery will be 14.6v (>14.4v).. everything will be powered by the AC power supply, then when I disconnect shore power the battery will be at resting voltage (<14.2) and it will reconnect.

If the battery gets into a low SOC state and the Battery Protect/LVD disconnects, I can use the manual over-ride switch momentarily to reconnect em when the charger is powered..

When I get a Victron Solar controller I'll wire it up in parallel with this circuit, so it will shut down when on shore power.

*edit*
Diagram:

on this diagram, is the ground point after the shunt connected to vehicle chassis? or is this the 'heavy-duty' bus bar where all negatives connect to?

 

[dreadlocks]

its a heavy duty bus bar, but that was rather preliminary.. things expanded a bit.

 

[dreadlocks]

for everyone following, I did 8 days boondocking w/the new LFP and it did better than the previous LFP ever had performed.. it held voltage higher with the inverter, temps lower, charged faster, etc..

Triggered its protection mode once when wife tried to run microwave with crockpot still on, it cut out before the inverter did.. which old battery woulda let inverter fault out.. sucks when this happens as the BMV looses its calibration until I get it recharged again.. need to put stuff in place to keep it from triggering.

the PD power supply now constantly outputs 40A until it hits the knees, it used to slowly shed amps and still be bulking while at 15A.. I thought the charger was overheating, now I think the battery was.. I didnt have thermal monitoring on the BB until I got the solar charger, and once I got solar charger I basically stopped using the PD charger until I was testing it and then I noticed it causing temps to rise..

I wanted to get by w/out genset, but I hadda.. October sun is too low that you need a pretty damn large opening in the canopy (ie, a lil meadow) to get more than diffuse light on a solar panel.. but now its charging quicker so it took less than an hour of charging combined on two different days.

Conclusion: The OG BB was faulty out of the gate, but I was largely oblivious until it got worse.. Very happy w/the warranty experience.

 

[john61ct]

good news / bad news

Great result though. . .

 

[shade]

In another thread, I mentioned your comments about using internal battery heat from a high load to prime the battery for charging in low temperatures. Do you think whatever was wonky in the old battery was the source of the heat, and that a properly operating BB battery won't warm up nearly as much?