Chris.P.Bacon

I wonder if there is a different solution, maybe someone can mill a water cooling block for the inverter's components and then use an off-the-shelf water cooling kit for a PC.

Do any of you have experience with what fans are inside the SOL-I-AX-3VP? I want to order Noctua ones to replace the standard fans in the SOL-I-AX-3VP, but before I order it I want to know what size to get. Looks like an 80mm fan for the lager one, but the small one... I cannot figure out what size it is, doesn't feel standard?

I recently realized there is a considerable weight difference between the mecer batteries - ±14kg to 29kg So I opened them up, it seems Mecer is now shipping different variants some are prismatic cells and some are pouches. I am not sure if this is good or bad?

I have 1 left

I hope they give attention to adding support for the Victron MPPT charge controllers via VE Direct to USB in this new version, we practically handed the code to them on a silver platter.

The easiest by far will be to just do Victron MPPT -> VE Direct to USB -> Solar Assistant. The data is well documented SA must just prioritize this. Documentation for those interested; https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/VE.Direct-Protocol-3.32.pdf

Weirdly, I can push to Solar Assistant's MQTT broker. But Solar Assistant is not proving a way to "fetch" the data and use it. However I can fetch it with Home Assistant from Solar Assistant. Odd, they must just enable the topics sub, then this can actually work. Victron MPPT and Shunt -> Bluetooth -> ESP32 -> MQTT -> Solar Assistant -> MQTT -> Home Assistant. This means the data is available for fetching via Solar Assistant if their devs enable it.

Solar Assistant doesn't allow the pushing of data. I am able to read everything from the Victron devices over Bluetooth, but cannot push to Solar Assistant, so will need to set up something like Home Assistant and then push data via MQTT from Solar Assistant and bridge data from the C app I wrote also to Home Assistant. Pitty. [20:20:50][D][sensor:092]: 'Current': Sending state -0.65300 A with 3 decimals of accuracy [20:20:50][D][sensor:092]: 'Consumed Ah': Sending state -58.50000 Ah with 1 decimals of accuracy [20:20:50][D][sensor:092]: 'State of charge': Sending state 71.80000 % with 1 decimals of accuracy [20:21:57][D][sensor:092]: 'Battery Voltage': Sending state 26.26000 V with 2 decimals of accuracy [20:21:57][D][sensor:094]: 'Yield Today': Sending state 3.19000 kWh with 2 decimals of accuracy [20:21:57][D][sensor:094]: 'PV Power': Sending state 0.00000 W with 0 decimals of accuracy

This is my biggest fear in SA. We are probably the only house in our neighborhood with full solar. We stand out like a Christmas tree and I always wonder when Solar equipment becomes the next target for break ins.

Bullets are probably worth more than solar if the grid does collapse. If the doomsday preppers on Discovery Channel is anything to go by.

Baufeng, stocked up. Keeping GAS on rotate Have a 1kW 50L small geyser that I can run on a few solar panels and an AC microinverter and will then switch of the main geyser. The rest of the house is on batteries and solar, incl Fridges Have a water tank (2 x 5 000L) 500L petrol tank My biggest worry is sewerage, will need to invest in a porta potty or an incinerator toilet running on the solar. Grid collapse = no communication, no gas refill within 1 day, no fuel within 3 days, no running water, no sewerage within 4 days. Food shortage big issue, so stocked up on canned goods if you have chickens it helps. You have to be "off-grid" self-sufficient which most are not (including myself). Let's hope a grid collapse doesn't happen because it will not be fun, it will be a mass event that will put covid to shame.

I don't think so

Item: 4 x Mecer 12V 200Ah Lithium Age: 3 Weeks Price: R8800 each Payment Method Accepted: EFT Warranty: 2 years Packaging: Sealed / Unused Condition: Brand New Location: Cape Town Reason: Surplus stock from an install Shipping: R200 per battery via The Courier Guy Collection: Can be arranged Link: https://www.takealot.com/mecer-lifepo4-12-8v-200ah-lithium-battery-sol-b-l-m200/PLID91577930

I have a Sol-Ax-5VP unused for R9000 surplus stock

My averaging function was the problem, apologies. Grid voltage between 240V to 244V feels high?

How accurate are the Axpert inverters at reading the frequency? I'd also like to set an alert for mine, I've noticed incredible fluctuations the past 60 days.

Stepping up to 220V from 48V will have a higher efficiency than from a 12V system. Neglible in your use case.

There is nothing wrong with your solution and for only some key lights it is a good approach. No disagreement from my side. Cost at DB level is around R8 to 10k if you work on a 12V 50Ah Lithium battery. So agreed, substantially more than if you only need to keep some key lights on.

100%, i meant 24V 3kW Axpert + 2 x 12V Mecer 200Ah in series. ( 4.8kW bank )

Alternative is Axpert like a mecer + 2 x 200Ah Lithiums. Won't find better value for money and since it's a flat you don't need all the fancy features. Add Solar Assistant and you have all the fancy features. That said, Growatt is a very nice unit.

For lights only. I like the idea of a 12V250VA Victron paired with a 12V 50Ah battery and a Victron Blue Charger connected to the light circuit at the DB level. Small system and keeps all your lights on ( within reason provided they are LED ), a whole house solution with just a little bit of upfront work.

It is a pitty, becuase the hardware clearly supports it, as demonstrated here: I am able to pull data from the SmartShunt and the MPPT via Bluetooth using C. So it does work, but either Victron wants to make money selling cables or they will add this in a future software update. My plan now is to set up an MQTT broker, I will use a C program to read the data from the Shunt and MPPT over Bluetooth, then send that data to Solar Assistant using its built-in MQTT service. I will leave the Venus OS out of the equation for now as it offers nothing in this scenario. I emailed SA some code, hoping they might build it into SA natively, but until then I will use a broker to fetch over Bluetooth and broadcast over TCP. This means I can also set up my own Grafana dashboard if I want to dive into more nuanced statistics. I will keep everyone posted. The following data can begotten with my program, which I think should be sufficient for Solar Assistant's graphs if I sent via MQTT SmartShunt.cp And SmartMPPT.cp Reading data in real-time over Bluetooth using C. { "name": "SmartShunt", "address": "D8F1837D-2827-239B-97C2-114A2C125DH0", "rssi": -79, "payload": { "aux_mode": "midpoint_voltage", "consumed_ah": 19.8, "current": 0.0, "midpoint_voltage": 13.55, "model_name": "SmartShunt 500A/50mV", "remaining_mins": 65535, "soc": 91.5, "voltage": 27.2 } } { "name": "SmartSolar MPPT", "address": "691DE7G5-5B72-F212-D1E7-FCA6F32DF4CF", "rssi": -82, "payload": { "battery_charging_current": 15.0, // Ah "battery_voltage": 27.21, // V "charge_state": "absorption", "model_name": "SmartSolar MPPT 150|35", // Model "solar_power": 416, // Solar In "yield_today": 950 // Solar yield today } }

fokkit boys. calling it a night. Do we know who the creator of Solar Assistant is or how to reach him? I want to submit code for him to make this work in Solar Assistant natively.

GATT support, down the rabbit hole we go, MQTT to SA from here.

Well ran into my first issue. Venus OS on the Raspberry Pi cannot connect to the Bluetooth network of the Solar Charge Controller and the Shunt, idea is dead in the water. I don't want to run cables all over the place. My idea was (Victron devices on VE Network) via Bluetooth -> Venus OS (RPi 1) + MQTT Broker -> Solar Assistant (RPi 2) But seems Venus OS cannot talk to the Bluetooth Victron devices, which is absolutely stupid.