root

DC and AC cables in the same trunk?

Probably a busbar for the battery cables. The lynx distributor tabs seem to go in there. (not visible)

Communica als stocks them. But they seem to be out of stock like most places.

Did you setup the ESS assistant? Given your first post it doesn't sound like your installer added the assistant via a firmware update/config.

RJ45 is the technical name for a plain old network cable. Yes the one you use between your computer and the fibre router. Just use one of those between the mk3 interface and the multi.

Pin 1-3 must be empty/null on the new pylontech us3000c rj45 can/bms plugs. Check in the manual. If its not null it will not work. Got the T-shirt.

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I've started moving my Pi based systems over to AtomicPi. Form factor is a little larger, cost is about the same but the key difference is it has eMMC and can boot from USB. I have a few first gen NVME drives lying around and they go into usb3.1 enclosures beautifully. No more dead SD cards. Nice big passive heatsink on top.

See the irradiance report that @Rautenk kindly agreed to publish. https://powerforum.co.za/topic/2109-is-your-system-legal-capetonians-have-till-28-feb-2019-to-register-their-systems/?do=findComment&comment=64401

https://www.robotics.org.za/index.php?route=common/home Great service and lots of options...

Contact the guys at ITS Solar, you might be able to get a new controller which has time of day/week settings. They might be able to put the new controller on your 'old' heat pump.

I own a .177 silenced broomstick. That is all I'm permitted to say. Chat to your neighbours, explain the problem they might share your feelings. Pigeon poop in rain water collection systems are unhygienic and a hassle. Rock pigeons (Speckled pigeons) are the biggest problem, the normal cape turtle doves aren't. Using the broomstick is the only effective measure I've found. The rock pigeons aren't endangered and are actually a pest and considered to be a species that actually displace other endangered birds. PM me if you want detail. I'm not advising anyone to break the law here. You need to find a effective solution to this problem by yourself. There is this though: https://www.birdfreesa.co.za/shop/bird-free-optical-gel/

If its not loaded and spinning freely it will be silent. But it won't make any angry pixies either.

Hi Carel, this is something that has been discussed a few times on different threads and should actually become a sticky thread or a guide. But here goes: The pylons and the axperts don't talk to each other at all in a normal setup. The axpert reads voltages form the pylons and guesses (a Lithium has a very flat discharge curve that drops off quickly at the end. So its very difficult to use voltage to calculate SOC) the SOC. For a accurate SOC you need to ask the pylon what the SOC is. So you need some EXTERNAL device to chat to the pylon and chat to the axpert. A victron BMV 7xx is a option. The other option is a program called ICC. This runs on a raspberry pi and chats to the pylon and the axpert and controls both. If you are okay with simply losing power when your pylons run out and only care about them running for as long as possible, then you can use them as is. The pylons tend to drop out and disconnect around 10-15% SOC. So they protect themselves. If this is all you want then great. If you want them to last and work well then you need something that manages them. To connect to the pylons you need a special cable which you can buy or make up yourself. The info is scattered across this forum. You can connect to the axperts with the supplied usb cable and change/monitor things. Hope this helps.

I've had a few nylon non return valves fail on me. Now I only use the brass/copper ones. Since its a wellpoint, its going to have sediment and crap in it. Adding a purge valve above and below the pump is handy for priming and backwashing. These purge valves stay closed during normal operation and are nothing more than a lever ball valve with one end open. My system runs perfectly without a bottom non return valve. Its only got one at the top, upstream (suctions side) from the pump. I use the downstream purge valve to clear the initial sediment from the system. 2-3mins then the water runs clear and the purge valve gets closed and inline valve opened.

You're in luck! https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/commercial-circuit-simulator-goes-free/

You don't need to use the supplied pylontech cables. Any cat5 cable with T-568B pinout (this is the normal one everyone uses) will work.

Hey Jay/Energy very nice build. The only concern I have with that is it requires a RED LED light on the DB to indicate that it is live. Its a NRS requirement. Showed the pics to my father who is a EE and that was his only remark. He's been planning to build something similar over the last few weeks. Well done and great build.

Don't know the blue stuff. But given that the OP uses axperts its unlikely that a BMV wil work in his setup.

ICC is currently the only way to get the axperts and pylons talking to each other. Without ICC you effectively half your battery capacity. ICC reads the SOC from the pylons and tells the axperts what it is. Those expensive pylons are only being drawn down halfway without ICC.

ICC would solve this problem since it gets the SOC accurately from the pylons and tells the axperts what to do.

Hi Deepbass I've recently got some stuff through the post office and its gotten a lot better and quicker. Also got stuff from Banggood, these were couriered to my house without me even paying for shipping. It seems like the companies from China have sorted out the customs and distribution issues over here. A company called Buffalo did the customs clearance and even had a payment gateway for the customs payments. Was very surprised since I was expecting the normal 3-6 months lead time via the post office. Instead I had the parts within 2 weeks. Here is some motivation: https://hackaday.com/2019/07/28/russian-ebike-goes-everywhere-possibly-legal/ There are a few other ebike/cart and buggy projects on Hackaday. I don't want to derail this thread but there is also a EV forum with lots of info...

desiji, you MUST add a node name otherwise it won't work correctly.

Kobus also consider changing the charger source priority over to Solar only. Its on solar and grid currently. It could be that the current (before it ramps up) available solar power isn't enough to power the load and charge the batteries. It could be that this setting is triggering the batteries to be charged from the grid and not the load directly causing the change..

I'm not sure what happens in the background on the inverter. Whether it gets told what the actual SOC is or what the charge Source is, I don't know. The method of control is irrelevant to me as a user since I only care about the functional side. Currently our Off-grid system is being run mora as a type of hybrid setup. If the SOC(pylon) drops to 25% it cuts over to grid. AC municipal input. No feedback. When the SOC lifts to 35% it cuts back to batteries. This is done to limit grid consumption and still provide a level of loadshedding defence. Batteries only get charged from solar. Never grid. Since we don't have any time of use tariffs. This works pretty well as a hybrid system. If a load is larger than what the solar amount can provide it simply draws it from battery. If the solar ramps up again that energy is put back into the battery and carries the loads. The key to remember here is the lack of time of use tariffs. If I take 2kwh from the grid in one go, while solar charges my nearly deplete batteries, or 2kwh over time by assisting the solar production to supply the loads with ESS. I'm still paying the same amount for that 2kwh. There were quite a few threads on system sizing. My key takeaway from most of them was that its fairly easy and cost effective to get 95% of your consumption from solar. Doing that last 5% makes it very expensive. So by using ICC to control the inverter with data from the batteries gives the ability to manage your power sources and you actually get quite a capable hybrid setup.