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  1. shadowsteve

    Victron Charge Controller Price Crash

    On your phone? May as well have a flip phone in that case. If you're referring to the solar equipment then the dog would be barking long before someone got close enough to connect with BT :)
  2. shadowsteve

    Build a LiFePO4 battery or buy one already made?

    I built 2x 280Ah @ 12v packs for my RV in 2021. We only use it heavily for 5 months in the winter (two so far) but it's been running fine since built. It sits beside the house and I can monitor the system from my local network. Currently it shows 50 cycles on the batteries. When I built the...
  3. shadowsteve

    Off-grid Solar / Battery monitoring and control freeware

    I had card corruption issues after a while on a Pi4. I switched to using a SSD on my data collection system (Pi4 and ESP32's)
  4. shadowsteve

    Off-grid Solar / Battery monitoring and control freeware

    I read that one. All of the data reduction I've seen so far requires creating another set of data with less points which changes the Grafana charting when you want to zoom in/out. Just wondered what others have setup for their db's. I can't be the only one that has run into this issue as it's a...
  5. shadowsteve

    Off-grid Solar / Battery monitoring and control freeware

    Who's using Influxdb on their system? My db is >2gb and now won't compact. I have no CQ or RP setup.
  6. shadowsteve

    Data extraction from inverters

    Has anybody using Influxdb run into the compaction issue yet with a large db? My db is >2gb now and on Raspbian32bit & Influx 1.8 I'm looping on compaction that fails with memory issues. Seems to be due to Influx trying to map the db into memory and it exceeds addressable space. I have no CQ...
  7. shadowsteve

    Raspberry Pi Bluetooth Monitor

    Just found this thread. I'm running a Pi4/SSD with Telegraf/Influx/Grafafana to monitor my system in a fifth wheel trailer. I collect data from two JBD BMS units w/ESP32's, a Rover 40A via USB, an 8266 w/GPS & accelerometer and an 8266 w/DHT22. I display in a browser, on my phone or on a Pi3...
  8. shadowsteve

    Future of DIY LiFePO4 looks bleak…

    I have 560Ah (8x 280's) and with 150A BMS' my cost shipped to Canada was 1125$US which is <17c/wH for the components. I used what I had for the wiring & boxes but even so that might have added 50$ if I had to buy it. I'm retired so my time is free :)
  9. shadowsteve

    Victron VenusOS driver for serial connected BMS - JBD / Daly / ANT / JKBMS / Heltec / Renogy / Tian / ECS

    I'm just using a small buck converter mounted under the ESP32. It's the solder points between the socket strips. The 4pin cable plugs into the JBD BMS serial port
  10. shadowsteve

    Jiabaida JBD BMS with Xiaoxiang App Issues

    I have a 4S BMS. Don't know if there is a difference but I don't have the ground wire from the sense connector tied to the cells. This was based on a diagram I found when I was setting them up last summer
  11. shadowsteve

    Anyone working with the Overkill Solar Arduino lib?

    I wrote my own for the ESP32. Post #57 on this thread https://diysolarforum.com/threads/jbd-overkill-bms-monitoring.21817/page-3#post-516307
  12. shadowsteve

    Anyone working with the Overkill Solar Arduino lib?

    Just found this thread. The Overkill is the same as the JBD BMS. I'm running ESP32's on each JBD sending data via MQTT to an Influx DB on a Pi4/SSD with Grafana charting. There a couple of threads for the JBD stuff
  13. shadowsteve

    Should I change my inverter precharge circuit?

    No, you're right about the caps. It depends on the power supply design as to how it handles current draws far beyond it's rating. Easy to test, just short the lines from the power supply and see what happens
  14. shadowsteve

    Should I change my inverter precharge circuit?

    The supply would have to have some form of active current limiting. If it's a fuse then it'll just blow the fuse. The caps are a short circuit for the moment it takes for them to start to charge. A resistor and a pushbutton is the simple method. Making it foolproof requires removing the fools...
  15. shadowsteve

    Should I change my inverter precharge circuit?

    He never came back to say what he came up with. :)
  16. shadowsteve

    Any way to increase bluetooth range?

    They are a 4-pin connector and you can buy the male and female connectors on Amazon. I bought some so that I could plug my ESP32 boards in to replace the BT boards
  17. shadowsteve

    Off-grid Solar / Battery monitoring and control freeware

    I have a few different dashboards that I use to monitor my system. On mobile displays it's hard to get things to fit in properly so I just use gauges that sit one under the other. For the main monitor panel I run a kiosk mode Pi display that cycles through dashboards. On my desktop I have large...
  18. shadowsteve

    Renogy your so close.. open discussion.

    I've ordered a number of items from them and sometimes the packaging arrives undamaged and sometimes it doesn't. The inverter was well packed in fitted foam. The suitcase solar kit box was torn up with no other packaging and the panels face outwards (they worked). You can always get 10% of...
  19. shadowsteve

    Renogy 3000w inverter problem

    I have the Renogy 3000w PSW inverter. I had a large load on it when my wife turned on her hair dryer. Current draw got up over 200A before I told her she was doing too much at once and turned of the dryer. Mine never shut down at all and I'm fused for the full 3000W so that didn't blow either
  20. shadowsteve

    Off-grid Solar / Battery monitoring and control freeware

    Wanderer and Rover have the same register format as I recall. I'm running a Py script against a Rover in my system
  21. shadowsteve

    Expedient charging-LiFePO4

    A dumb FLA charger will likely max at 13.8v or so. Not enough to get the LFP to full charge but good for what you need. I don't charge my LFP batteries to the full 14.2V with my solar setup on TH RV
  22. shadowsteve

    Assistance with Renogy 2000W Inverter Charger shutting down

    I returned the Renogy 3000w I/C and bought the 3000w Renogy PSW inverter. I used it on our winter travels. We boondock about 2/3 of the trip. I ran it almost to the full 3000w with no issues.
  23. shadowsteve

    JBD BMS Wi-Fi Module

    Are you using the esp8266 or esp32 based units? I have esp32's talking to my JBD bms's and sending data via MQTT over wifi and it works well. I couldn't get the comms to work reliably with ESP01 (esp8266) boards
  24. shadowsteve

    JBD / Overkill BMS Monitoring

    Not all BMS configs have the two sensors. In the DD03 buffer the cell[26] will have a 1 or a 2 and then 1 or 2 dbl-byte values will be in the next 2 or 4 cells. From my ESP32 code: iNTCQuantity = inBuff[26]; if(iNTCQuantity > 0) flTempValues[0] =...
  25. shadowsteve

    JBD / Overkill BMS Monitoring

    I have OTA in the code too so I can update the s/w over wifi I used a pc of perf board but if you had enough BMS units you could make up a simple PCB.
  26. shadowsteve

    JBD / Overkill BMS Monitoring

    I had no information on what current the UART lines could supply so it was easy enough to add the buck which I had a bunch of.
  27. shadowsteve

    JBD / Overkill BMS Monitoring

    Yes. I built a board for the ESP32 that has a voltage converter for power and then connects to the BMS serial port. Should be pics somewhere on here found it https://diysolarforum.com/threads/jbd-bms-wi-fi-module.17252/page-9#post-368757 there's a small buck converter under the ESP32
  28. shadowsteve

    JBD / Overkill BMS Monitoring

    I wrote my own. https://github.com/playersz28/JBD-ESP32
  29. shadowsteve

    JBD / Overkill BMS Monitoring

    I used to use UDP broadcasts for my old system (in an RV) but switched to MQTT at the source. I have an ESP32 on each BMS and it publishes MQTT which is picked up by a Pi4. I figure the ESP32 is the cheapest way to do a wireless connection
  30. shadowsteve

    Choosing inverter size for RV

    I had a 2000w and when I switched to Li I replaced it with a 3000w. Mostly to get a direct connection inverter but the extra watts are helpful too. This is on a 50A fifth wheel. I pulled over 2000w a few times last winter Edit: I'm on 12v. If I was wanting to consistently run up near the 3000w...
  31. shadowsteve

    See this before buying Victron

    I would think that would require a fair bit of tq on the lug screw considering what it takes to properly compress a ferrule with the proper tool. I'll just stick to putting the stranded cable into the lug where the cable gauge doesn't exceed the lug size.
  32. shadowsteve

    Solar Assistant - data logger

    I had a Pi lunch the SD card when I was using mySQL for a db onto it. I now run an SSD for the db on my current monitoring system for the RV. It tracks all the solar & GPS location info using Influx. Working fine since last Oct. I also run Plex on it
  33. shadowsteve

    Use MPPT controller as DC-DC charger

    I've been charging with pretty much just the solar. A couple of times we were on hookups and before I left I used the onboard converter to top off the batteries. I'm not using the truck connection at all (fuse pulled). So far I haven't had any need for DC-DC charging
  34. shadowsteve

    AC vs DC appliances

    Where you camp is a choice. My point was about using DC equipment to save the small loss from inverting. Not worth it. The difference between AC & DC appliances won't allow you to live without solar input for much longer, maybe a day more if that
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