wolfandy

This does work. My system is set up that way at the moment. The only thing to be careful about is that the max charge amps between the inverter and the MPPT do not exceed the max charge amp of the battery

Yeah, that was my original idea. But I struggle to justify the cost of 2x Multi, 2x MPT, and GX device compared to the Sunsynk... I'll still keep the Victron MPPT, DC busbar setup, and my Pylons with the upgrade to the Sunsynk. It just means that the Victron MPPT will only be able to power the essential loads and charge the batteries - but not also feed non-essential loads Or am I missing anything?

Fair point. Have to admit that I missed that one 🙄 Everything is already wired for a single system. The reason I want to upgrade is mostly (a) to be able to blend PV and grid for cloudy days and (b) to also be able to feed non-essential loads currently purely on grid with excess PV. Keeping the Axperts would in my view rather complicate my setup

Hi all I am in the process of upgrading my system from older Axperts to the 8kW Sunsynk and adding some more panels. Am planning to install 3 strings, each facing a different direction. 2 of the strings will be connected to the MPPTs of the Sunsynk, the 3rd to a Victron MPPT that I already have in my systems. My question is how to best integrate the Victron MPPT with the Sunsynk? Currently the MPPT is connected to a DC bus bar together with the Pylontechs and the Battery-In of the Axperts. Do I keep it that way or can I connect the MPPT on the Generator Input of the Sunsynk? What would be advantages/disadvantages? If I keep the Victron MPPT connected to the DC bus bar, then I cannot use their production to power non-essential loads, correct? How could I connect the Victron MPPT to also use it's production to power non-essential loads? Thanks in advance for your help

Welcome mrd 🙂 After running with my setup now for about 12 months, my experience is that the comms between MPPT and BMS is not required. My system is happily chugging along without it. On a daily basis the MPPT does it's job based on the voltage settings I manually entered (52.5V Bulk/Absorption and 51.8V Float) - and my Pylon BMS reports 100% SOC through ICC when the MPPT stops charging and reduces production down to my current loads

So your inverter has the following 3 settings, correct? SBU (Solar, Battery, Utility) Solar Utility In that case, Solar should be what I have been referring to as SUB and Coulomb as SOL

This means that your Pi had a wifi connection problem and the VNC server that is running on it was not able to connect to the internet. Usually it works again after a few minutes - unless your Pi has completely lost wifi connection VNC is the software that allows you to remotely access your Pi (from your computer, tablet, phone, etc.) instead of having to directly controlling the Pi through a screen and mouse/keyboard plugged into it. It has nothing to do with ICC

Hi @Clivevan First off, congrats on your new Pylons 🙂 Did you also purchase the Pylons comms cable for ICC? So that you can connect ICC to your Pylons and read the BMS data? It is not the cable that comes with the Pylons, but something that you need to buy from ICC. If not, then I would highly recommend it - because then you can get around having to use voltage readings and can do the change based on SOC as per the Pylon BMS (significantly more accurate) Briefly drawing from your batteries is normal. This is due to the fact that when your load increases, your MPPT simply cannot adjust output accordingly that quickly - and hence your inverter will draw from the batteries to make up the shortfall. To my understanding, this will not hurt your batteries. I am having a cloudy day, so my charts are all over the place - but you will see that I also briefly draw from the batteries regularly I agree that something is weird in your system. I would suggest making the following changes: Bulk: 52.5V Float: 51.8V Could you please post a screenshot of your Graphs -> Battery Trends charts? That will help better understand what is happening with your batteries And maybe also the Settings -> Batteries tab please

You need to answer the underlying question if the 2 Blue Nova can be stringed together to provide 48V or not. If yes, then your inverter should be able to charge them (with the correct voltage settings). And you'd obviously still need to take Coulomb's warning into mind regarding your max draw (which is no problem for as long as you stay disciplined. I also started off with 1x Pylon, which meant I could not draw more than 1800W continuously) I have absolutely no experience with Blue Nova - so I'd suggest you give them a ring directly and see what they say about using your batteries for a 48V system Oh - and if yes, then you should make sure that you upgrade your inverter to Coulomb's latest patched firmware 73.00e (LFP version)

Yes - I believe the setting SUB is what you are looking for (and usually all Axperts have that mode). It will run on solar until your solar production reaches 0 (during which time it will draw the shortfall between load and solar production from the battery). Once your solar productions reaches 0, it will switch over to utility Maybe you could set your 'Back to Grid Voltage' so high that it will switch over to utility shortly after starting to draw from your batteries If you do not want to draw from your batteries at all, then you will something like ICC to do time-based switching to utility

Cool - happy to hear that you got it to work

If ICC could communicate directly with your Blue Nova (like it does with my Pylons), then you could use ICC to switch between Solar/Battery and Utility based on the accurate SOC from the battery BMS instead of the Axpert's voltage readings. You could throw a Victron BMV into the mix to get ICC to determine an accurate SOC for your Blue Novas and switch your Axperts based on that. You would then also have a complete view of everything that is going on in your system and could see in detail when your Axperts are switching to grid (and determine why). Here is my system as example (PV from my Victron MPPT): I updated and restarted my Pi this morning, so I unfortunately do not have any better charts to show at the moment. Drop me a PM if you want to have a quick chat in person about this

Ok - thanks I don't think that ICC supports Blue Nova yet, so you unfortunately won't be able to get the BMS data to control your inverter But you could connect the MPPT to it and then at least have full view of your production/consumption (apart from those things still directly connected to Eskom)

No, to my knowledge the Axperts are not designed like that This is a bit difficult to tell without having any data to look at from the inverter. Usually I would guess that it happens if you switch on a large load (e.g., kettle), which could cause the battery voltage to momentarily drop below your 50.0V - but you are writing that this also happens if you only have little loads. Have you thought about investing into ICC? For me this was a great investment, as it really gave me full insight into my system Another question out of curiousity: You are writing that you have a CCGX. Other than the MPPT, is there anything else connected to it?

Thanks @BasZ - this definitely helps. And I believe you are on the right track Let me try to explain setting 5 to my best knowledge: BLU: Your PV will first be used to charge your batteries. As long as your batteries are below setting 21 (52.0V in your case), all available PV will used to charge the batteries. The loads will be powered by utility. Once your battery voltage is higher than setting 21, PV will also be used to power the loads. This setting focuses on charging your batteries to 52.0V as quickly as possible at the expense of using more utility to power the loads in the meantime. LBU: Your PV will first be used to power your loads. As long as your batteries are above setting 20 (50.0V in your case), available PV will be used to power the loads. If PV is not sufficient to power the loads, it will draw the difference from the batteries (until they are drained to setting 20). If PV exceeds the loads, the excess energy will be used to charge the batteries. If your batteries are lower than setting 20, the loads will run on utility and any available PV will be used to charge the batteries until setting 20 is reached. This setting focuses on reducing utility usage. However, what can happen is that if your loads are too high and/or you have too little PV for the amount of battery storage, your batteries might never get even close to fully charged I am running basically like your LBU setting. My system powers my loads and excess energy is used to charge the batteries. I have sufficient panels on the roof that (for most time of the year) my batteries will get fully charged throughout my solar day. On some days this is later in the day (which means that I pretty much max out my PV production potential), on other days it is earlier No, the inverter will not actively start charging your batteries (as your setting 10 is OSO). It will simply stop drawing from the batteries to power the loads when the batteries reach 50V and switch over to utility. As per my earlier post, however, the inverters will draw self-consumption from the batteries even while running in utility mode. Depending on your model, this can be anywhere between 40W - 70W per inverter. For example, in my case it is 2x 45W = 90W. So if my system switches over to utility at 02h00 in the morning and my panels only start producing around 07h00, then the inverters are using 90W x 5h = 0.45kWh from the batteries during that time. You need to determine for your system what your inverters actual draw is when running on utility and for how long your system usually runs on utility every night (though probably use something close to worse-case scenario). Then you need to see if your current setting 20 is appropriate or if it needs to be adjusted. If you batteries last time were close to 48.0V, then you probably need to increase setting 20. If they were still around 48.5V, then you might even be able to lower setting 20 a bit (depending how adventurous you are and how much you want to maximize your utility savings). This is basically different for every system, so you need to play around with your system a bit and figure out which values works best for you. Just keep in mind that if your battery does hit the 48.0V (setting 19), your system will switch off and you will be in the dark...

Can you please post a link to the manual for your Axpert model here? You have a different model than me and the setting numbers do not align (and mine does not have any setting with the values BLU/LBU) Not fully understanding yet what setting 5 is or does - keep in mind that your inverters will draw self-consumption from the batteries even while running in utility mode. Depending on your model this can be anywhere between 40W - 70W per inverter. Not sure if you have taken that into account so far

I know that the BMVs are supported by ICC - but am not sure if the Smart Shunt is. Maybe drop Manie an email?

Sorry - typo 🥴 Was supposed to be 52.5V

Which Axpert model exactly do you have? Most ones cannot talk to the BMS directly - so you probably need to manually set the charging parameters (52.2V Bulk and 51.8V Float) as well as the other voltage settings (Back to Grid, Back to Battery, Low DC Cutoff) If your Axpert cannot talk directly with the Pylon BMS, I would strongly recommend ICC to be able to switch the Axpert based on the accurate BMS info instead of the Axpert's voltage readings

You seem to have a slightly different model number to mine - so our program numbers do not line up (and some settings I do not recognize, e.g. 22) From what I understand, you use the following settings - correct? Bulk: 56.1V Float: 55.9V Low DC Cutoff: 48.0V Back to Grid: 50.0V Back to Battery: 52.0V That would look ok Is your Axpert showing on the display 55V for the battery when going into bypass? Do you have any major loads connected at that point that could cause a dip in the battery voltage?

Hi @BasZ, here are my settings As I am using ICC, I have all my Axpert settings in a way that they do not interfere with ICC Do you maybe want to post your settings - and I can see if I spot anything?

I'd suggest going in detail through this thread

I assume that the Mecer is an Axpert. In that case, it always draws the power required for self-consumption from the batteries - even when running in utility mode. So you need to adjust your back-to-grid setting to leave sufficient charge in the batteries to power the self-consumption (usually around 45W) for the duration that you will be running on utility What happened in your case last night is that you drained your batteries too closely to their cut-off voltage before switching over to utility. The self-consumption then brought the voltage down to the point where the BMS switched the batteries off to protect them - and without battery supply your inverters shut down

My old Axpert 5kVA models also always draw self-consumption from the batteries - even when in utility mode On my old models, the draw is somewhere around 40-45W

Cool - happy to hear that you managed to get it to work Just 2 follow-up questions: All inverters are set to parallel mode (and not single) - correct? On the older Axperts, this is setting 28 Do your Kings show on the display which inverter is Master and which ones are Slaves? My Axperts shows MS or HS for Master and SL for Slave on the display. Are 2 of your inverters showing SL and 1 showing MS or HS?