DrLoLCat

What's the deal with this picture of Sunsynk 5kW that has a fan: Can find it on a few websites. https://www.arsolar.co.za/product/5kw-sunsynk-invertervat-incl/

@freierMenschwhere is the "about" text that you mention in your post? I'm very interested in the advanced settings. I am already in pro mode. See below. Hi,

It's annoying that Setting 11 also gets overridden by the BMS. I consider that a bug. There is no point to it if setting 2 is overridden. I have the issue that this is causing the generator to overload in an off-grid installation. Such BS sigh.

This worked perfectly with the first iteration of settings by the way. The installation has been running without any intervention for 2.5 months. I also did the wiring as per the above drawing to keep the current through any individual piece of cable as low as possible.

Hi, I have a VMIII and I need to update the removable screen firmware to a version that supports "LiB". This is according to the supplier what is required for the VMIII to communicate with Giter batteries. I see "LiB" has been remove in the latest removable screen firmware. My firmware is however old. U1: 41.14 U2: 02.40 (Can I update this to 02.49, using the below while keeping U1: 41.14) U3: 00.24 Is it possible to flash the removable screen with a USB cable only or do you need RJ45 serial? @Coulomb

The BMS of the Pylon stack will only be talking to to the VM III inverter. Thanks for the advice about letting BMS control last stage of charging, I will set up the voltages accordingly. I understand 5x Pylons can take 185A but what about the 25mm2 Pylon cables? I believe the current carrying capacity is 120A. So then, does that mean the BMS in a 5x Pylon stack will limit to 120A? Or self-protect to 120A to avoid cables burning? If the BMS actually allows the full 185A, that would mean I have to do something like the wiring shown below to avoid cables burning? (assuming I add more solar panels to enable 185A) Please review my wiring. Or is this actually unnecessary?

Thank you very much for the advice. I have a Bluesolar MPPT 150/70 that is currently not being used. I'll be very happy if I can use it in parallel with VMIII BMS charging. My concern with this was only about non-BMS charging in parallel with BMS charging from the VMIII. As you pointed out I won't have to worry about charging with too much current at least. If there is nothing else to be concerned about I will follow this solution and program the Victron Bluesolar MPPT with Absorption 53.2V and Float 51V. Victron equipment (in BMS mode) however seems to charge Pylons at 52.4V even if the BMS requests 53.2V. I will probably take a connection from every 2nd or 3rd Pylon to the busbar when I add this additional charging capacity. The limit on Pylon cables is 120A.

I have an off grid solar system with VMIII: 16 x 340W solar panels (North-West) - 2 strings of 8 panels each 4 x US3000 Pylontech I am missing out on some good sun in the early morning, which I want to capture as follows: Add another US3000 to the existing VMIII Add another VMIII or King with solar panels connected from the rooftop which gets son in the early morning. This new VMIII or King would then have its AC output permanently wired to the grid input of the existing VMIII which would be set to charge from utility and solar. I can have the new VMIII or King run from an old lead acid or no battery, I only want it to send solar power to the downstream inverter which charges the 5x US3000 Pylontechs Will this work? Of course this would not have been required if the VMIII could parallel.

Will this work to monitor real time values in Watchpower? Or should I just use the USB mini port with USB extenders? I saw a post here saying the USB connection was not designed for continuous data transfer.

Price Drop: R11,000

Update: Didn't bond it. But the inverter bonds neutral and earth. All is good.

According to this post, the VMIII will never ground the neutral by itself. So is having the neutral voltage floating acceptable then?

Thanks Jaco. This is for an off-grid installation. There is no utility connected. Only a gennie on the input which will be used if battery is empty. So there is no N-E bond on the input. Are you saying that even for this off-grid application N-E should not be bonded on the inverter output?

Thanks for the response. Why should there not be an N-E bond?

Would the attached schematic be the correct way to wire up a Voltronic VMIII off-grid with a gennie on the AC input?

Is it possible for an Axpert MKS II to mix/blend solar and AC input for AC output? Always thought this was not possible. I know VM III can. How are these guys achieving it: https://www.solar-shop.co.za/content/11-axpert-voltronics-power-use

Price Drop: R12,000 Can also throw in the Victron 150/70 Charge Controller shown in the photo for R5400. Also 4 years old.

MLT OASIS 448 Battery Inverter / Charger For 48V Battery Nominal Power : 4kW Max Power: 6kW (for 30 seconds) Power output with AC input (Eskom) activated: 9.2 kW Touchscreen Control Charges all Lead Acid batteries (AGM, Gel, standard) Robust, made for South African conditions. 4 years old (2015), used to power light loads in house. Price: R14,000

Good day, Can anyone supply me with an Imeon IMA-BOX or tell me where I can buy it? I contacted IMEON about it, and consequently a place in Bloemfontein contacted me with a quote of: R5050 Seems a bit much.

I placed an advert in the classifieds section. PM me your email address so I can send you the datasheet for brand details and cycle life information. The forum does not support PDF attachments.

Can someone elaborate on what makes the Trojan batteries a preferred choice? All of these batteries have the exact same claimed cycle-life curve according to the datasheet: Omnipower (12V) Trojan T105 (6V) Sonic Gel (12V) Due to the high price of these batteries in ZA I recently decided to import 24 x 12V Deep Cycle Gel batteries (180 Ah @ 10h discharge) which are meant for use in photo-voltaic applications. Their cycle-life is exactly equivalent to the above mentioned 3 brands: 30% DOD = > 2500 Cycles 50% DOD = +- 1750 Cycles I plan on replacing my existing 4 x 260Ah Omnipower batteries with 8 of these imported ones. Each of them have just about the same storage capacity as a 260Ah Omnipower battery which is actually 200Ah @ 10h discharge. I will create an advert on the forum to sell the remaining batteries that I won't be using.

I have experience with the Imeon 3.6. It is highly configurable and allows real time data logging to a laptop using a USB cable. It can output 6kW by merging Grid with Battery and/or Solar. The maximum power output without grid is a little over 3kW, then it will trip. Battery depth of discharge levels can be configured for when grid is available and unavailable. So you can choose exactly to what depth you want your battery to cycle each day, and thus control battery life expectancy. 1 big disadvantage of the Imeon 3.6 is its weak battery charge controller (25 A), so you are limited to the size of the battery bank you can use with this inverter if you want to adhere to recommended charging currents. This 25 A charging current limitation will also mean that Solar Energy must be used directly since the inverter can only direct a maximum of 1200 Watts towards the battery bank.

Hi CasualCheetah, Nice installation. I have a suggestion for you: For a pure UPS system without Solar Panels you could have used: Axpert MKS 3k-24 or Axpert MKS 3k-48. The only advantage that the "Plus" models offer, is an increased Solar Input Power Rating, which you don't need unless someone plans on adding solar panels to the guard house at a later stage. Going with the non-"Plus" models would result in a saving in excess of R2000. Approximately R8,390 vs R6,150 depending on your supplier. Furthermore, I don't really see a technical reason which would justify going for the 48V over the 24V version in this case (ie. no Solar required). The AC charging power for both models are the same. The 24V version will however require a larger battery fuse and thicker battery cables, so the price difference between the 24V and 48V version will probably not matter in the end. I recently specified the Axpert MKS 3k-24 for a very similar setup to yours, ie. guard house with 2 fence energizers and 2 boom gates and a few lights, no solar panels.

Hi Wetkit, Thank you for posting the details surrounding the evolution of your Solar system, it has been very interesting to read. I found this forum because of your DIY roof mounting installation thread. I will likely be copying exactly what you did since I was specifically looking to save on the cost of ordering a mounting system from a Solar supplier. Here are two examples of Power Optimizers: http://www.solaredge.com/groups/powerbox-power-optimizer http://www.tigoenergy.com/sites/default/files/attachments/mm-2es_data_sheet_1.12.2015.pdf Here is a video of well-known Capetonian, Martin Lorton, in which he provides some explanation of Power Optimizers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma6TN0PkohI