Smart shunt, Rpi, and solar assistant

DrBourne · Nov 20, 2023

My solar setup;
4 Redodo 12V 200AH Plus batteries(w/internal 200A BMS) wired 2s2p for 24V
8 100W solar panels wired 4s2p
1 WZRELB psw 3000W 24V inverter
1 Epever Tracer 4215BN charge controller

Situation:
Trying to find a way to more accurately monitor SOC. Either the batteries are garbage or Tracer is very inaccurate as far as charge state goes. After watching the posts, I'm inclined to go with the latter.
Currently I'm using a Raspberry Pi to D/L controller stats, but as above, I'm not getting a good soc(at least one that I can believe).
I'm considering a Victron smart shunt with Solar Assistant. If anyone has experience along these lines, is it possible to use these to get an accurate/useable soc? And would it be worth the added expense for the shunt, ve-direct usb adapter, and solar assistant? Or would it be safe to simply ignore the inaccurate soc from Tracer?

Any help/advice will be greatly appreciated.
Thnx,
Dale

Zwy · Nov 20, 2023

DrBourne said:
My solar setup;
4 Redodo 12V 200AH Plus batteries(w/internal 200A BMS) wired 2s2p for 24V
8 100W solar panels wired 4s2p
1 WZRELB psw 3000W 24V inverter
1 Epever Tracer 4215BN charge controller

Situation:
Trying to find a way to more accurately monitor SOC. Either the batteries are garbage or Tracer is very inaccurate as far as charge state goes. After watching the posts, I'm inclined to go with the latter.
Currently I'm using a Raspberry Pi to D/L controller stats, but as above, I'm not getting a good soc(at least one that I can believe).
I'm considering a Victron smart shunt with Solar Assistant. If anyone has experience along these lines, is it possible to use these to get an accurate/useable soc? And would it be worth the added expense for the shunt, ve-direct usb adapter, and solar assistant? Or would it be safe to simply ignore the inaccurate soc from Tracer?

Any help/advice will be greatly appreciated.
Thnx,
Dale

You don't need SA to accomplish determining SOC.

You can use a Smart Shunt, I have one on my house but it is used with SA for other monitoring. You can also use just a cheap shunt. As you have a Pi, then you could just pay for the download for SA and install it on your Pi.

I had SA first but found the reporting from the inverters for SOC was inaccurate. My Batrium BMS has a shunt but it did not communicate with SA thus the Victron Smart Shunt was added.

timselectric · Nov 20, 2023

As stated above, you don't have to use both.
The smart shunt gives you the accuracy, on its own.
Solar Assistant adds the ability to monitor it from anywhere.

740GLE · Nov 20, 2023

How long are you able to hold battery terminal voltages at 28-28.5v?

What are the setting for the SCC?

For almost 10kwhr of storage that’s mighty light on PV input.

Dagoth Ur Does Solar · Nov 20, 2023

I use both. Same type of setup, cheap AIO inverter, Victron shunt, and a Pi with Solar Assistant.

I don't really want to have a solar setup that I can't use SA with, as it lets me ingest all the data into HomeAssistant.

DrBourne · Nov 21, 2023

Zwy said:
You don't need SA to accomplish determining SOC.

You can use a Smart Shunt, I have one on my house but it is used with SA for other monitoring. You can also use just a cheap shunt. As you have a Pi, then you could just pay for the download for SA and install it on your Pi.

I had SA first but found the reporting from the inverters for SOC was inaccurate. My Batrium BMS has a shunt but it did not communicate with SA thus the Victron Smart Shunt was added.

Thanks for the advice. I just placed my order.
I realize that it will 'report' the soc, but, other than SA, are you aware of a way to communicate(i.e. save) the reading? I'd like to track the situation.

DrBourne · Nov 21, 2023

740GLE said:
How long are you able to hold battery terminal voltages at 28-28.5v?

What are the setting for the SCC?

For almost 10kwhr of storage that’s mighty light on PV input.

Thank you for the reply.
My settings are attached.
On advice of Redodo, I originally had charge limit set to 30V. But that caused a problem with the inverter. On getting close to limit, inverter would 'glitch' and cause powered devices( mainly computers) to shut down. Batteries actually never got to 30V. Evidently there is/are minor discrepancies between what inverter sees and controller reports. I lowered the charge settings to possibly too much.
Once I can actually track the values, I will further adjust my settings.
Suggested values would be appreciated.

Zwy · Nov 21, 2023

DrBourne said:
Thanks for the advice. I just placed my order.
I realize that it will 'report' the soc, but, other than SA, are you aware of a way to communicate(i.e. save) the reading? I'd like to track the situation.

The Victron bluetooth app stores 90 days if I remember correctly.

SeaGal · Nov 21, 2023

DrBourne said:
Thanks for the advice. I just placed my order.
I realize that it will 'report' the soc, but, other than SA, are you aware of a way to communicate(i.e. save) the reading? I'd like to track the situation.

This project may be of interest to you - though it is based on an ESP rather than RPi. Could modify it to read SOC from the Victron and send data over MQTT to wherever you need it saved.

DIY Battery via Smart shunt to inverter integration (Solis etc)

Hi All, I've taken some code that handles Victron's VE.Direct protocol (Smart Shunt) and added in CAN Bus / PylonTech protocol connections, this allows the State of Charge, Voltage, Amps etc all be sent to the inverter - any one that supports the PylonTech protocol. I have it connected to a...

diysolarforum.com

wattmatters · Nov 21, 2023

Zwy said:
The Victron bluetooth app stores 90 days if I remember correctly.

AFAIK it needs to be continually running though, so if you only connect occasionally with your phone app then you'll have no detailed historical data, just the overall sums stored by the shunt.

Zwy · Nov 21, 2023

wattmatters said:
AFAIK it needs to be continually running though, so if you only connect occasionally with your phone app then you'll have no detailed historical data, just the overall sums stored by the shunt.

I very rarely connect using bluetooth but I had historical data for whatever the limit is.

I just looked up the spec sheet, bottom line says 46 days.

wattmatters · Nov 21, 2023

Zwy said:
I very rarely connect using bluetooth but I had historical data for whatever the limit is.

I just looked up the spec sheet, bottom line says 46 days.

Interesting - I just checked mine and it does indeed capture the historical data. I don't recall it doing that before.

DrBourne · Nov 24, 2023

SeaGal said:
This project may be of interest to you - though it is based on an ESP rather than RPi. Could modify it to read SOC from the Victron and send data over MQTT to wherever you need it saved.

DIY Battery via Smart shunt to inverter integration (Solis etc)

Hi All, I've taken some code that handles Victron's VE.Direct protocol (Smart Shunt) and added in CAN Bus / PylonTech protocol connections, this allows the State of Charge, Voltage, Amps etc all be sent to the inverter - any one that supports the PylonTech protocol. I have it connected to a...

diysolarforum.com

Sorry for the delay, Thanksgiving and all.
Looks very interesting, will definitely look into it. I like the idea of reading via can-bus.
Thanks for the idea.

DrBourne · Dec 2, 2023

timselectric said:
As stated above, you don't have to use both.
The smart shunt gives you the accuracy, on its own.
Solar Assistant adds the ability to monitor it from anywhere.

Can Solar Assistant 'read' the QWORK battery monitor data? If so, how? I'd definitely go for that.

Crowz · Dec 2, 2023

wattmatters said:
Interesting - I just checked mine and it does indeed capture the historical data. I don't recall it doing that before.

It's VERY possible it didn't do it before since it forces firmware updates when you connect to it if ones available.

Dynoman · Dec 3, 2023

DrBourne said:
My solar setup;
4 Redodo 12V 200AH Plus batteries(w/internal 200A BMS) wired 2s2p for 24V
8 100W solar panels wired 4s2p
1 WZRELB psw 3000W 24V inverter
1 Epever Tracer 4215BN charge controller

Situation:
Trying to find a way to more accurately monitor SOC. Either the batteries are garbage or Tracer is very inaccurate as far as charge state goes. After watching the posts, I'm inclined to go with the latter.
Currently I'm using a Raspberry Pi to D/L controller stats, but as above, I'm not getting a good soc(at least one that I can believe).
I'm considering a Victron smart shunt with Solar Assistant. If anyone has experience along these lines, is it possible to use these to get an accurate/useable soc? And would it be worth the added expense for the shunt, ve-direct usb adapter, and solar assistant? Or would it be safe to simply ignore the inaccurate soc from Tracer?

Any help/advice will be greatly appreciated.
Thnx,
Dale

Using a Rasperry pi 3b+ with Victron BMV-712 smart battery monitor with the free Victron Venus OS. Take a look at the message and the video in the message. Maybe the setup is what your looking for?

Extend Victron Smart 712 signal

Just installed Solar 15k with Pytes Batteries with PV pro. PV Pro is a bit of a pain as it's not in real time. I really like the Victron Smart 712 display on it's app and would like to install one, but my power room is way out of range of the bluetooth signal. I've seen where the raspberry pi...

diysolarforum.com

Smart shunt, Rpi, and solar assistant

DrBourne

New Member

Zwy

Solar Wizard

timselectric

If I can do it, you can do it.

740GLE

Solar Wizard

Dagoth Ur Does Solar

Solar Enthusiast

DrBourne

New Member

DrBourne

New Member

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Zwy

Solar Wizard

SeaGal

Photon Sorceress

DIY Battery via Smart shunt to inverter integration (Solis etc)

wattmatters

Solar Wizard

Zwy

Solar Wizard

wattmatters

Solar Wizard

DrBourne

New Member

DIY Battery via Smart shunt to inverter integration (Solis etc)

DrBourne

New Member

Crowz

Solar Wizard

Dynoman

Solar Enthusiast

Extend Victron Smart 712 signal

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