1 hour ago, Jesse said:

 

@Jesse . My remote was installed on a 5kw unit . I have replaced that with ICC because I neaded ICC for Lithium batteries . The remote is now installed on a 1kw unit and working fine . I must admit ICC is nice to have .

4 hours ago, Jesse said:

The cabin only really needs to know an approximate SOC, so could I connect a simple voltmeter to either the inverter or one of the Pylontechs, and if so, where would you suggest I connect it to?

I would connect it to one of the Pylontechs. Ideally to the same terminals as the inverter, but that's likely to be difficult. The spare two terminals would probably work well enough, if you can source a suitable plug. 

4 hours ago, Jesse said:

I could get a USB to ethernet adapter for the cable

You'd need an RS232 extender, not ethernet. Edit: at least, that's my understanding. But I suppose that the new com board might be RS-485 or even something custom.

Edited January 20, 20206 yr by Coulomb

On 2020/01/17 at 3:32 AM, Coulomb said:

Thanks Chris & Coulomb

I'll play with all of it 🙂

 

@Jesse .  Com's board supplied with the remote on the left with a 6 meter cable included . Like Coulomb suggested a laptop with watch power can be connected to your phone by Any desk if you have wifi .

On 2020/01/17 at 3:32 AM, Coulomb said:

8 hours ago, Chris Louw said:

@Jesse .  Com's board supplied with the remote on the left with a 6 meter cable included . Like Coulomb suggested a laptop with watch power can be connected to your phone by Any desk if you have wifi .

Hi Chris

Just to be sure, we are talking about the RCT Axpert Remote Control Panel you previously posted about?

And the remote Com board on the left is basically a replica of the one in the Axpert, and it comes with a USB cable with a female socket that will fit over the USB port on the right [which is the same as what I have], or perhaps I need an adapter?

As another option, since I could just move my inverter to the outside of the wall it is currently on, couldn't I just run the cable through the wall and build some small box to mount the remote in?

And as yet another option :-), does anyone know if I could take the original one out of its housing and install it remotely a few meters away?

 

@ Jesse it is supplied with board with the Rj45 female connection (no USB) .The board on the right is the board that was taken out to fit the new board and cable .

Bit of a lag because I couldn't access the powerforum for some reason, but wanted to say thanks Chris, that's looking pretty good.

And the new board was able to fit into and replace the boards in both your 5k and the 1k? May I ask how old your units are [mine is 6-2015]?

@ Jesse Hi my 5Kva unit was made in 2015 and the 1Kva unit was made 2018/01 . No problems to fit the board .

Thanks so very much Chris, I think I'll give it a go 🙂

Hi guys, reading this forum has opened up a new world of knowledge - but overwhelming at the same time.

i have 12v 200ah vision lead batteries - i have 2 5kva axpert converted and 15 *250w solar modules.

My batteries in load shedding during the nite is giving me max 2.2hrs (so 1 load shedding cycle), its 3.5yrs old what settings can i change to perhaps improve this b4 i venture in the expensive battery upgrade scenario of R70k

My current settings are:

02 - 60

03 ups

04 5d5

05 use

09 50

11 30

12 50

13 54

16 050

18 60F

19 ESP

20 lon

22 aof

23 bye

25 fen

26 56.4

27 54

28 pal

29 450

30 all

31 56e

Currently in summer using 12kwh per day - have 2 3kw heatpumps running during the day. Want to minimise power use but now with loadshedding say 2-3 times a day (most times nce during the day and once at night want to ensure battery to cover basic lights, tv and use of electrical components then - any advice for me as novice will be greatly be appreciated

 

 

 

 

Hi 

installed 5kw mecer inverter with batteries no solar 

when loadshedding , batteries feed  seperate sub board with  plug points and lights which are isolated but still have a feedback of 31 volts  between live and earth on incoming/line side to inverter in main board

anyone found this.

 

Hello guys.

Sorry for hijacking the post - I have a friend with an axpert that has a RJ45 instead of USB port for comms.

He wants to make up a cable - RJ45 to USB - does anyone perhaps have the pinouts?

Thanks in advance

17 minutes ago, Henkt said:

I have a friend with an axpert that has a RJ45 instead of USB port for comms.

That RJ-45 connector is an RS-232 port. You can't connect that directly to USB.

17 minutes ago, Henkt said:

He wants to make up a cable - RJ45 to USB - does anyone perhaps have the pinouts?

The inverter should have come with an RJ-45 to serial cable. It's non-standard; pinout here.

You would then use an off-the-shelf USB to RS-232 adapter to connect to a computer's USB port. Something like this:

Hi All.

I have read this thread and a few others on PF that relate to inverter settings. 

I have done my best to bring myself up to speed and the basics, but I do have a few questions to ask.

First the back story and equipment details.

My install is around 2 months old. My reason for posting is to confirm some of the settings that the installer put in place.

I have 4x 120ah AGM/Gel hybrid Omnipower batteries in Parallel

6*335 JA solar Pv panels wired in series

a Kodak 5Kw Off grid inverter VMIII (OG 5.48)

My aim at the moment is to run my Study and internet during loadshedding. so the set up is to prioritise keeping the batteries at full charge in case of planned or unplanned outages.

My settings are (The values I am hoping for help on are in red)

1 - SuB

2 - 20A

3 - UPS

5 - Use

6 - LTD

7 - TTD

9 - 50Hz

10 - 230

11 - Uti 20A

12 - 46v

13 - 54v

16 - SWU

18 - BOF

19 - TEP

20 - LOF

22 - AOF

23 - BYD

25 - FEN

26 - 28.4

27 - 54

29 - 45.8

30 - EDS

31 - 58.4

33 - 60

34 - 120

35 - 30d

36 - ADS

37 - NTT

My questions are

I aim to be as conservative as I can, my system is way overspecced for my current needs, so I can tend towards lower DoD - say 40% or better i.e. 60% remaining)

For program 12

• It is set to the default 46v. I have also selected SUB in Program 1 so not sure if this is even relevant.
• My question is, I have seen settings recommended up to 49v, what is the impact of changing this, and how does it impact DoD

Program 26

• The installer seems to have set the bulk charging rate WAY to low (28.4v)
• If I look at the spec sheet for my battery the Cycle (bulk) charge voltage should be between 14.4 - 14.7
• I assume a value of 57.6 is the lowest this should be (14.4v*4 batteries). Is this a good value and does setting this higher/lower impact battery life?

Program 27

• The default value is 54, I have seen 56 recommended.
• the spec sheet says floating charge should be between 13.6v and 13.8v
• would 54.4 - 55.2v make more sense, and what is the impact of a higher setting on battery life

program 29

This one has caused me the most confusion.

As I understand it, this is essentially where you control DoD (having read that these inverters are pretty useless at calculating this correctly)

A number of the regulars on the forum seem to point out that on the AExper (which mine is a rebadge of as i understand it) messing with this value messes with the batter % calculation.

As it stands, the minute Eskom goes out my battery % immediately shows 50%. which cannot be right. 

• To preserve battery life, I believe this value should be higher.
• I have seen recommendations that this is set to up to 49v.
• The most common recommendation is between 45 - 46v

What should I set this to to preserve my battery (bearing in mind that I do not have the ability to buy a BMV or wire in any other relays or jiggery Pockery.

I hope some one can shed some light.

Many thanks.

Lyle

 

 

 

9 hours ago, Lyle said:

Hi All.

Welcome, Lyle. And thank you for providing all the relevant information with your question; it really helps.

9 hours ago, Lyle said:

I have 4x 120ah AGM/Gel hybrid Omnipower batteries in Parallel

I hope you mean in series. It's a 48 V interter, right?

9 hours ago, Lyle said:

I aim to be as conservative as I can, my system is way overspecced for my current needs, so I can tend towards lower DoD - say 40% or better i.e. 60% remaining)

That would be good for battery life. Especially since 120 Ah is very light for a 5 kW inverter.

9 hours ago, Lyle said:

For program 12

• It is set to the default 46v. I have also selected SUB in Program 1 so not sure if this is even relevant.

For keeping the battery as full as possible, you want setting 01 to be SOL (solar first, line mode at sundown), and then it IS relevant.

9 hours ago, Lyle said:

• My question is, I have seen settings recommended up to 49v, what is the impact of changing this, and how does it impact DoD

This affects how soon the inverter switches from battery mode (during the day) to line mode (so the loads are taken by Eskom, not the battery). So it will affect DoD only when solar power isn't enough to power the loads, and it's day time. This is one you might have to fiddle with. To keep the battery as full and healthy as possible, I'd go for 49 V or even 50 V; it looks like your model will support this (some models only go to 48 V).

9 hours ago, Lyle said:

Program 26

• The installer seems to have set the bulk charging rate WAY to low (28.4v)

That's not even possible on a 48 V model. Surely it's 58.4 V (fifty odd, as opposed to twenty odd)?

9 hours ago, Lyle said:

• If I look at the spec sheet for my battery the Cycle (bulk) charge voltage should be between 14.4 - 14.7
• I assume a value of 57.6 is the lowest this should be (14.4v*4 batteries). Is this a good value and does setting this higher/lower impact battery life?

Yes, it affects battery life. I'm no lead acid expert, and especially I don't know AGMs well. I would keep away from the highest voltage in summer, and away from the lowest voltage in winter. To prevent having to change that setting twice a year, I'd use 14.6 V per 12 V module, or 58.4 V. Hopefully, that's what it's actually set to.

9 hours ago, Lyle said:

Program 27

• The default value is 54, I have seen 56 recommended.
• the spec sheet says floating charge should be between 13.6v and 13.8v
• would 54.4 - 55.2v make more sense, and what is the impact of a higher setting on battery life

Again, I'm no lead acid expert, especially AGM. This figure is affected less than setting 26, but again I'd go for the middle value, 13.7 x 4 = 54.8 V.

9 hours ago, Lyle said:

program 29

As I understand it, this is essentially where you control DoD (having read that these inverters are pretty useless at calculating this correctly)

Yes.

9 hours ago, Lyle said:

A number of the regulars on the forum seem to point out that on the AExper (which mine is a rebadge of as i understand it) messing with this value messes with the batter % calculation.

It does, but the SOC reading is pretty useless anyway. It's far more important to select a value that protects your battery, than one that will make the SOC display more reasonable.

9 hours ago, Lyle said:

As it stands, the minute Eskom goes out my battery % immediately shows 50%. which cannot be right. 

Just ignore that. Your battery is not really at 50%, it's just the crazy way Axperts guesstimate SOC.

9 hours ago, Lyle said:

• To preserve battery life, I believe this value should be higher.
• I have seen recommendations that this is set to up to 49v.
• The most common recommendation is between 45 - 46v

The 45-46 V recommendations might make more sense for lithium batteries; those are completely different, so don't use values intended for them.

Here's the ironic problem. Voltronic Power started off as an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) manufacturer. Yet their off-grid inverters aren't very good at just being a UPS in the face of regular load shedding. Setting 29 is intended as a last resort, "save the battery from imminent collapse" thing, after having used as much of the battery energy as possible. Way before this comes into effect, there are supposed to be other measures to keep the battery charged: solar power, and/or AC-in (utility or generator). But regular night time load shedding doesn't fit this profile at all; there is no solar power, and no AC-in, and there is only one AC-in connection, so you can't (easily) have utility and generator connected. The design assumes that there is a reliable source of AC-in. If that's utility, it's assumed that outages are infrequent, and during those rare outages, you're happy to discharge your battery deeply to keep the lights on and the beer cold. But my understanding is that South Africa is experiencing regular utility outages. With this design, you'd be regularly deeply discharging your battery, which is bad for life.

Setting 29 is the only way to stop the battery discharging too far during a load shed. That's not what it's intended for, but it's all there is. So you have to set it pretty high, I suggest about 49.0 V if your inverter will let you go past 48.0 V. Unfortunately, this will cause the inverter to treat all battery voltages below 51.0 V to be low, so you'll get a low battery voltage warning. You have no Victron BMV or other protection, so I'm afraid you'll have to put up with this. I note that at 2.0 V above setting 29, when the low battery warning comes on, this will be the effective value for setting 12. (The value acted on will be whichever is higher, the actual value of setting 12, or 2.0 V more than setting 29.) So don't be surprised if it seems to be ignoring what you do with setting 12.

9 hours ago, Lyle said:

What should I set this to to preserve my battery (bearing in mind that I do not have the ability to buy a BMV or wire in any other relays or jiggery Pockery.

You need to be concerned about the premature float bug. If you're doing a lot of utility charging, then this may not be an issue. Also, your value in setting 02 (maximum total charge current) is very low, so that means that the premature float bug is less likely to strike. But you should check anyway, because chronic undercharging will kill a lead acid battery in 12 months.

Watch the middle LED on the removable display (marked CHG). Watch the battery voltage. Before this goes from flashing (charging) to solid, the battery voltage should be up around the voltage in setting 26 (bulk/absorb battery voltage). If it's down nearer the float voltage (setting 27), then you're not charging the battery fully, and the bug is biting. If this happens, find the post(s) where someone figured out how to use the equalisation facility to force a higher voltage charge. Equalisation is intended only for a flooded lead acid battery, and yours is not, but it's flexible enough to be able to configure it to work around the premature float bug. Be sure to read the posts carefully, as it's easy to overcharge your battery with the wrong values. I suggest a maximum of 14.3 x 4 = 57.2 V for setting 31 (battery equalisation voltage). Your present value of 58.4 V does no harm while setting 30 is on EDS (Equalisation DiSabled).

Thank you Coulomb, extremely helpful.

I will take a close look when I am perched in front of the device and can rework the numbers.

Your help is way above and beyond.

 

Hi. I have a 5kva inverter with solar and 2 lithium 3.5kw batteries.

Is there a way to configure to maintain a 100% battery charge (in the event of an outage) whilst the inverter regulates between solar and eskom (whichever can meet the load) ? 

Right now my system is set up to use batteries first then eskom when too low. 

 

Thanks

What type and model of 5kva inverter do you have?

As far I know the king can do that

Edited March 2, 20206 yr by Quat Allah As Shams

On 2020/02/24 at 2:23 AM, Coulomb said:

That would be good for battery life. Especially since 120 Ah is very light for a 5 kW inverter.

Hi Coulomb, thank you for the settings I have put them into play.

One question, the above statement, can you elaborate? is this due to the 'overhead' of running the inverter itself?

 

1 hour ago, Lyle said:

One question, the above statement, can you elaborate? is this due to the 'overhead' of running the inverter itself?

First part: the 40% DOD is good for battery life. Lead acid is weird in that if you use more than about half of the capacity regularly, the capacity reduces quickly and you might only get a year out of the battery.

Second part: 120 Ah is very light for a 5 kW inverter. The recommended lead acid battery size for 4 kVA and 5 kVA models is 200 Ah. This is because an inverter running at a real output power of say 4 kW is going to draw of the order of 86 A. That's over 0.7C for a 120 Ah battery (120 x 0.7 = 84 A). Lead acid batteries prefer not to be charged at more than about 0.15 C, and not discharged more than... I forget, but certainly no more than 0.5 C.

You may say that your inverter is way overkill for your present needs, but once you have the capability, you may find yourself using it, perhaps even inadvertently (other household members turning on heavy use items unbeknown to you, for example).

Thank you for the input.

The Inverter was an error. I ordered a 3Kw, but only realised that a 5kw had been sent once installation was done. So now I have a massive Inverter.

What I am kicking myself for is not swallowing the cost and taking on a Goodwe or similar that offer much better management of what gets power when the utility supply drops away.

Thanks again.

 

4 hours ago, Coulomb said:

and not discharged more than... I forget, but certainly no more than 0.5 C.

0.2C for lead acids. That's already a fairly hectic discharge rate. 0.15C or even 0.1C are better. Of course there are some applications where the rules are bent. A starter battery in a car for example. That is designed to give over 1C, but only for a few seconds. The batteries in some UPSes as well, and the 7Ah units used in gate openers (common where I live), they also do over 1C for short periods. But continuous discharge should be under 0.2C 🙂

 

Thanks for the input guys, But please can you decode 0.2C? this is a new suffix. I initially thought is was Coulomb (the measure, not the man  )

But then I saw another definition that talks about Capacity/Hour. So I am a little confused.

Does the size of the load (mine is pretty paltry) impact this number?

 

18 hours ago, Lyle said:

Thanks for the input guys, But please can you decode 0.2C? this is a new suffix.

Does the size of the load (mine is pretty paltry) impact this number?

C represents the nominal Capacity of the battery in amp·hours (Ah). For your battery, I think it's 120 Ah. But when used like this, it represents a current in amps, so 1C would be 120 A for you, but 200 A for your neighbour with a 200 Ah battery. Ignoring the Peukert effect for now, that's the current your battery can supply for an hour, taking it from fully charged to dead flat (which you should never do, so this is a theoretical exercise).

So the maximum recommended discharge of 0.2C (sometimes written as C/5) is for you just 24 A, or about 600 W. With losses, you should only be drawing some 550 W. That's just 11% of your inverter's capacity. My point is, you need good discipline to stay under that load the vast majority of the time, even if your intentions are good.