John

You can just double left click the icc shortcut on the bottom left hand corner of your screen, then be patient as it takes a bit to load.

How is this software integrated to home assistant mqtt?

I have both; one from mannie and one from centurion solar. They both hang intermittently, this is on updated and regularly reset raspberry pis. I reset em twice a day. Manie's version seems to keep communication with the victron battery monitor and the counter just becomes delayed but doesn't hang completely. It does however lose communication with the axpert. I then unplug and reboot the pi multiple times to get it to read again. The centurion solar version seems to have the top counter hang and the program becomes unresponsive until you kill the process and restart. This pi is on a system with pylontech batteries and an axpert. I have set home assistant to check the systems and message when they stop reporting to shut down loads so I don't drain the batteries ( I am completely off grid) I thought the pi s were overheating so I added fans, unfortunately the problem persists. I always thought it was just my setup that was not optimum. I have not had time to contact either or for assistance so in all fairness there may be a simple solution.

whew thanks guys!

I used the y connectors to parallel 2 pairs. Rather than taking 8 6mm2 (4 negative and 4 positive)wires to the combiner box I now take 4(2 negative and 2 positive). The combiner box then takes those 4 wires and combines them into one 10mm2 cable to the inverter. Is this ok?

Thanks for the help guys! In the end I made 2 strings of 2s2p. so two panels in series and then 2 pairs in parallel connected with y connectors. This made 2 banks of 80v 20 amps that I ran with 2 pairs of 6 mm wire to a combiner box from AC/DC ( very over priced, but nice unit that they had in stock). I am still confused regarding the y connector issue.

Great thanks, any suggestions where to order it from?

Hi guys, I have had an axpert mks inverter for a few years running as a load shedding battery backup. I now want to add some solar panels to the mix. I am thinking of getting some Canadian solar 410w panels and connecting them 4p x 2s, from what I understand this is safe as it is under the 145v voc? The inverter is about 20 meters from where the panels will be mounted. what size cable do I need? looking at all the kits offered there are no included fuses for the parallel strings, are these recommended? They also include a 4 pole DC disconnector, does this mean that 2 parallel strings should be connected with y connectors, if that is the case how are they combined to connect to the axpert? Thanks guys

what temperature do you guys heat the geyser to with solar? I have a split tube system and stop at 65 degrees but I see the panel regularly sits at 120. I was considering installing one of those thermal valves that mix hot and cold by the geyser output and heating it to 80, is this possible? Does anybody make use of the controllers ability to switch a second pump to cool the panel?

This is the download link, only works with serial, would be interested if anybody finds out how a third party can use the usb.

Oh I thought it was a serial library, written for ruby, should be cross platform? require 'serialport' require 'axpert_rs232' # => Set your serial port location, ls /dev/ and search for something that makes sense serial = SerialPort.new('/dev/tty.usbserial', 2400, 8, 1, SerialPort::NONE) # => Show available commands AxpertCommands.constants # => Some current device status info AxpertCommands::DEVICE_STATUS.issue_command(serial) # => Some current device rating info AxpertCommands::DEVICE_RATING.issue_command(serial) # => Set battery type to user agm AxpertCommands::SET_BATTERY_TYPE.issue_command(serial, :agm) Anyway there is still the pdf on the forum

@ Warren check my broadband there is a ruby script with all the commands and a pdf is available on the Australian electric car forum with all the commands

I've got the same problem no logging on USB, haven't tried serial yet

@cvzyl got that setup at the moment using a contactor via a 24v relay (cheaper than dc coil) to disconnect the inverter output via the bmv at 40% soc as an emergency measure, the bmv itself stores number of charge cycles, deepest discharge etc as long as you don't disconnect it, it'll store the data for you.

@superdiy I used a damaged x bee explorer usb from a friend. Just checked price has tripled on netram.co.za since I last bought em. It just converts USB 5v to 3.3 volt that the bmv uses and creates a virtual serial port . I soldered a 2.5 pitch connector for the bmv and connected ground and to rx and tx. (obviously switching them). It uses an ft231x I think. It then just transmits every second. The grand plan was to use this with a serial board for the axpert on a pi to monitor and control the system. USB would be great for the axpert but there is no api.

Thanks silver eventually got one myself.

I knocked together a ve.direct cable yesterday it's a serial cable with an FTDI serial to USB converter very easy to make and cheap. Probably cost me R100?

Thanks superdiy those are the settings I'm currently using, bit of a problem with the solar charge... Still looking to get panels atm

Great let me know when you find out

@ superdiy what settings are you using for the 105s on the axpert?

Hi what is the price of the hydrolink,got 8 105s? Using an auto cutoff battery jug atm.

Hi I am changing my battery cable to incorporate the victron shunt and I wanted to ask some advice. Firstly I can only find 35x10mm lugs not the 35x6.4mm described in the manual. Will this be OK, they fit and are held down by the washer but are not tight on the terminal screw? Where in bedfordview can I get the cable crimped, my sparky is away? Thanks

@jdp the victron bvm700 is a battery monitor, it is installed as a shunt on your negative battery cable. So it only measures the current going into and out of your battery bank. The 145v from the pv is converted at that point to charge voltage and current for you battery bank by the mppt solar charger of the axpert, so 90v is more than enough. So it measures how much the charger has charged your battery and how much the inverter has used to guess the soc.

@Jdp from my limited understanding the panels need to be in series strings of three and then the strings attached in parallel through a combiner box (preferably with lightning protection and grounding). This is dependant on your panels Voc of course, but the idea is to maintain a range within the axpert max input voltage even when at full power (this can be caused by cloud edge magnification) while keeping the input voltage between the mppt range. So you can use 3,6,9 or 12 panels not 10 (normally)

Wow that's even more impressive!