After getting my telephone to talk to the Victron I used to be then in a position to go into the setup menu in the VictronConnect. Follow the programming directions posted by Battleborn to configure this charger for my batteries utilizing the “person-outlined” slot in the Victron’s battery library.
The Victron comes pre-loaded with totally different charge profiles for various battery varieties in its library, and this contains one for LiFePO4 batteries, however the values there differ barely from the ones really useful by Battleborn and after spending all that money on their batteries I’m sticking with the Battleborn suggestions!
Here I am verifying that the battery voltage displayed by the Victron, which is 7 ft of 12 gauge wire away, matches readings taken proper on the batteries with my trusty meter.
Ok, I suppose I should concede that there simply may be some advantages to dragging myself, kicking and screaming, into the technical world by including yet one more app to my cellphone.
By moving a change on the entrance-panel on the unique Solar Boost I could see the battery voltage, (Which really learn 0. If you have any type of concerns pertaining to where and the best ways to make use of lithium battery pack lithium polymer battery battery pack (https://setiweb.ssl.berkeley.edu/beta/show_user.php?userid=8706442), you could call us at our own website. 15V decrease than readings taken straight from the battery) the solar panel enter current, or the output charging present. (But only one at a time.)
Through the digital entrance panel of the VictronConnect on my telephone, in the status tab I can see these things as effectively as the wattage being delivered by the panel, (I took this picture less than an hour after sunrise on a cloudy day so I believed 23 watts was fairly good!) the amount of current being delivered, and the cost state. (Though I may see the charge state on the LED’s on the Victron itself. Here I’m in landscape mode of the historical past tab. Can see the final 30 days of historical past directly.
But there’s additionally extra.
Comparable to here on the history tab the place I can see the charging history for the last 30 days. Up by way of June fifth I had the empty fridge working just to put a load on the system whereas The Van was in pressured coronatine. Then I turned the fridge off and the remainder of the history exhibits the system coping with just the parasitic loads lurking in the Van, together with the slightly below 0.1 amp-hour that the Victron sucks down to maintain itself operating even when there is no such thing as a photo voltaic input.
Here I’m in portrait mode of the history tab and need to swipe side to side to see more than a number of days of history at at time, however the trade-off is that in this mode I can also see extra information for each day
By tapping on a kind of each day graph-bars, in either portrait or landscape mode, I can broaden it for more element.
Note that the vertical axis of the history graph is watt-hours and not time. Which means that comparing the heights of the bars from day-to-day is taking a look at watt-hour efficiency and has nothing to do with time, which can only be ascertained by increasing each day and reading the textual content in the bar. This was slightly confusing at first and it will have been good if I may toggle between watt-hours and time.
The data under the graph (In portrait mode) provides me even more information about my system.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that my 10 year previous 180W photo voltaic panel, which is mounted flat to The Van’s roof and not tilted for optimum performance, is capable, in the correct circumstances, of producing a peak of 200 watts of power. I’ve heard of people over-sizing their photo voltaic systems by as much as 30% to compensate for the anticipated drop in output as the panels age, so I might say I’m doing pretty good right here!
I took this screen-shot throughout float-stage so there’s not likely a lot taking place here.
The tendencies tab lets me watch two values of my own choosing (Solar volts, present, or watts, as well as Battery volts or current, and if I was utilizing the load output, the load present.) on a realtime graph. The default is Battery Current on the left. Battery Voltage on the best. This can be changed for every aspect with the pull-down menu. Unfortunately the app doesn’t remember your decisions. It’s a must to reset them back to what you want every time you open VictronConnect.
And talking of opening VictronConnect, there is no such thing as a buffering of any of those “pattern” values within the Victron so I can solely see as far back in time as the app has been linked for this particular session. Interesting info however I’m unsure how worthwhile that really is since I have to face inside blue-tooth range with the app open and displaying for the graph to replace. As soon as I step out of vary, switch to a unique app, time-out the display, or close the display to set the cellphone down for a minute, the session is gone and I’ve to start out over again.
To be honest this makes the tendencies tab appear slightly gimmicky. It could be extra useful if the info for all of the potential values was buffered up inside the Victron SmartSolar. I might reach back not less than 24 hours to see simply what’s been occurring.
Oh, and remember someplace means back in this lengthy-winded post when i stated the Victron has entrance-panel LED’s?
These let me know what stage the charge controller is in with out the problem of connecting up the app, which is handy because face it, as soon as the novelty wears off, dragging the phone out of my pocket, logging in, turning on blue-tooth, turning on location, opening the app, and at last tapping on the connection, will get outdated fast.
But, handy or not, see where the bulk indicator lithium polymer battery pack is a blue LED? You already know, the worst colour ever for natural sleep?
Well when there is no solar – you understand, like at evening when I’m attempting to sleep – and the Victron is not in any charging mode at all, this LED blinks – constantly – because the controller searches for those photo voltaic amps.
And I’m right here to inform you that in the dark, in the tight areas of The Van, that damn LED is Bright! That’s proper, capital vivid.
So I’ve resorted to somewhat chunk of black electrical tape, although with the LED bulging out from the case like that it doesn’t match all that effectively, and when i get over being lazy I’ll should search for some extra permanent answer that isn’t actually permanent, since those LED’s are also the place I read any error codes so I need to have the ability to see them.
But, despite all of the bells and whistles, the necessary factor with a charger is does it charge the battery? Does the Victron Energy SmartSolar Charge Controller do the job whereas treating my very costly LiFeP04 batteries properly?
Oh yeah. It does.
The primary day I bought the brand new charger hooked up it was already about 1600, well past prime solar hours, and though it was shiny, there were excessive thin clouds filtering the sun to the purpose of no solid shadows. Even with these limitations, earlier than the solar set the Victron had managed to tug 240Wh’s out of the sky and stuff it into my highly efficient LI batteries, throughout which I saw the charge present hovering between 6 and 8 amps between the hours of 1600 and 1700, which are the form of numbers I obtained out of the Solar Boost with cloudless sky – middle of the day situations when it was hooked as much as the lead-acids.