Jaco Venter

Interesting but will wait for more feedback

Hi @Gerlachplease send me a message if you still looking for sensors?

Hallo @Nellis.Theron It might be that the voltage detected from the inverter is lower than 47.5V while the kettle is turned on. Are you making use of the inverter settings (29=47.5V) as your Back to grid? Are you making use of the inverter to detect when to switch from solar to grid or are you using ICC battery monitoring software? If you only use the inverter to detect the voltages to switch you may have to drop the "Back to Grid voltage" lower. Have a look at the Voltage trend to see if it is the case.

Hi there Is the Microcare MPPT still available?

AE Solar panels are over rated in any case. Canadian Solar panels perform much better.

Try PiShop in Meyerton. Bought Charger from PiShop and they also have batteries. I bought batteries from "Home and Toys" (China shop in Vanderbijlpark.)

@Deamon EmonPi should be good enough for what you want to do. I bought an IotaWatt which can measure 14 current streams and has a voltage reference. The IotaWatt is not set up as yet but will be able to reply soon with results.

Hi @KLEVAwhat about these unit avai;able from the PiShop They also have other PWM chargers.

Hi @DeepBass9 I might be speaking out of turn, but I actually think we make the charging of lithium batteries more complicated as what it is. I think it is crucial to have the correct floating voltage set and not to boost these batteries. The BMS (Battery Management System) of these batteries will do the rest. I commissioned my system and the batteries were not fully charged, although the Victron Battery monitor indicated it as 100%. I am making use of the ICC software to trend battery state only. As the system reached 100% during the day the batteries will accept the energy (kW) coming their way up to a point where the batteries actually reach the real 100%. I reached this point after I decided to charge the batteries with Eskom power one Friday. I charged the batteries at a rate of 50A from Eskom and at about 20:00 the Friday night the batteries were fully charged. The Amps drawn from Eskom suddenly dropped to Zero. Since then my batteries did not react strangely to high loads or give strange alarms since SOC (State of Charge) was actually much closer to reality. I had to disconnect the Victron battery monitor to install a bigger fuse on my battery system and after startup the monitor indicated full batteries again although it was at about 80%. I'm slowly catching up to the real 100% again but have not reached it yet as I do not want to pump Eskom power into the batteries again. Yes I agree that the Microcare MPPT's Voltage range for float needs to be changed to accommodate for lower Voltages as my batteries actually require 51V (12.75V x 4) as floating charge. I did a test whereby I set the floating charge to 52.8V and 53.6V respectively and on the ICC software it actually indicates that the float charging voltage is around 50.5V in both cases. (The BMS must have something to do with it) While you use the battery power every day say between 90% and 50% I do not think that you need anything else as to focus on floating charge voltage. It might be a good idea to charge it once every few months to real 100% but other than that I'm fairly happy with the way my batteries perform currently. Hope this help. Should anyone have a different view please share it with us?

Hallo @Solaris what is the step changes? 0.1V or smaller? For example can you decide between 12.5 and 12.6 ? Im also struggling with Microcare at the moment.

I sent my 100A MPPT for the same exercise and received it back without any changes. They are currently still busy to do some programming and testing and they told me they will sent me the PIC's on Monday. It actually make more sense now as surely @Solaris inputs was used to program the PIC's. Hopefully I will receive the PIC's during the week and then it needs to be installed. I have two MPPT's and it also needs to be changed on the Inverter as the Inverter settings is also not accommodating for LiFe as the voltage changeover settings is not fine enough (2V between settings). I used PostLink to courier the 100A MPPT and it cost me R207 from Vanderbijlpark to Microcare.

Most probably, as the load is not close to the max. (I presume) I found that the King performed more stable over weekend as the load in my house was more stable and lower over weekends.

Dit word ook aanbeveel om al die strings se drade ewe lank te hou om die sisteem gebalanseerd te hou.

Yes it will, it is actually marked to show which side is going where. If the shut is mounted with the coms cables on the right, the negative from the battery must be connected on the bottom and the top of the shunt must be connected to the inverter. Also make sure setting 5 on the BMV is set to 1.05 for Li-ion and setting 6 is set to accommodate losses. (95% might be close)

Hallo Mike The ICC software make use of the BMV values to determine the SOC.

Halo Ernie, SOC does not directly relate to Volts. SOC is calculated by measuring the current (Amps) flowing through the shunt. The Ah’s put into the battery vs the Ah’s pulled from the battery via the inverter. As you startup your BMV the first time the ICC will assume the batteries are fully charged. It might happen that your batteries need to be charged for a while before it is really fully charged. Indication of fully charged batteries will be that it will not accept any power although their might be power available, either from the panels or from utility source. The SOC is also calculated from the battery capacity you enter into the BMV. Hope it helps

Hallo @Coulomb I retired from the fight with my King and got rid of it. I bought a Microcare system and up to now, I'm pleased with the new system. One of my friends still planning to replace his 2018 King with a new version with updated firmware but is eagerly waiting for a solution to the PV problem. It sounds like you are onto something with the SCC. My King behaved itself over weekends when the load was much lower. I also found that during peak PV periods the dips were less than early mornings and late afternoons. Not to sure how this relate to the PV input issue as the PV is at max during mid day. (I ran for 3 low load days without a freeze and then it froze twice on one day) I will keep on following the progress and should my friend decide to buy the next King, I will surely be helping (or try helping) him. I did some tests in the beginning including: 1) Reducing the Strings from 5 to 2 (Still dipped) 2) Connected 2 panels per string from 3 panels (Still dipped) Hope you guys find a solution quick as the support from Voltronics and their suppliers are none existent.

Hi all My current settings are: 10) Aut 16) SbL/UdC 23) bYd I went to change these settings to the settings as proposed by Weber and immediately the inverter went into Bypass mode. (I'm currently drawing from the batteries as it is night and my batteries are still on 74%SOC.) I'm happy with the way my inverter is operating (Except for PV current dips and Freezes) as I'm in any case not totally off grid at the moment. My batteries are fully charged in the afternoons and then as the PV falls away the batteries supplement the load until the PV drops of completely. I then run on batteries up to about 02:00 the next morning when it changes back to grid with the SOC trigger of 50%. While running on the grid, my batteries are charged by the 2A from grid and as the PV picks up during start of day, all the PV power is also bumped into the batteries until the batteries reach 70%SOC. At this time (+- 11:00) the Solar/Batteries take over from the grid and all additional power not used by the load are dumped into the batteries. Most of the time the batteries will reach 100%SOC before the end of the day. My current settings are: 01) Sbu 02) 80A 05) USE 06) Ltd 07) ttE 09) 50 10) AUt 11) 2A 12) 45V 13) 52V 16) Sbl/UdC 18) bOF 19) ESP 20) LON 22) AOF 23) bYd 25) Fd5 26) 52.4V 27) 50.6V 28) SIG 29) 44V 32) AUt 33) Ed5 34 to 39) default (Not in use due to 33 disabled) 40) Nrt 93) Nrt If you see anything strange with the settings that might be an issue please feel free to comment on it. Hopefully it will help someone struggling with some other issues.

No word from Mustek. They are still apparently busy with the manufacturer. Must say the service from Mustek is not as good as I expected it to be.

Hallo @MartinCoetzee Please PM me as I'm interested. For one or other reason you can't receive PM's.

Hi there As long as your battery is taking power, the battery is not full yet. ICC has a tendency to capture the highest previous charge as "Full". If the battery is really full it will not accept any more power. I charged my batteries for almost 8 hours after it showed "Full" on ICC. (I'm using BMV battery monitor, and it might be different) Hope it helps.

Hi @SnoopySniper hopefully it will be reset the moment the PV input goes to Zero at sunset. Your system will run fine tomorrow again until the next freeze. Enjoy the break!!!

Good to see that it is 71.70 and not 71.50. Now I’m more convinced that the updated firmware will do the trick. Do you still experiencing any PV dips due to sudden load changes?

Do you know what firmware your new inverter is running on?

Hi @DarkFlashI'm still busy with the supplier and with other experts. What you can try in the meantime is to drop your Bulk discharge Volts (Setting 26) to 52.5V (mine was 53.5) and your Float charging Voltage (Setting 27) to 50.7V (mine was 51) The newest firmware (71.80) might be available soon. Be aware not to load any firmware on your machine as it might turn the inverter into a brick as it will be impossible to re-load any other firmware again. Hope it is better after these changes as today was the first day that my inverter did not freeze.