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My sales rep, he told me he spoke to Victron to confirm. So, I guess I am going off of that. I do not have a spec sheet that shows me for sure. I am leaning toward trusting him because ill get the Victron switches essentially free once the blue sea switches are returned. Getting into the...

The final solution to this was to use the Victron switches. I was told they are *actually* rated for 48v systems. Much more affordable solution, I was looking at 250A Midnight breakers that were $110/each and they want about that much for the enclosure for them as well. To go the Midnight...

Hi everyone, I have some of the Kilovault HLX+ 3600 batteries and I want to be able to monitor them via Canbus. To be clear, I am looking to build an interface using arduino/arduino compatible devices. Kilovault does not provide any documentation about their canbus interface and I think I am...

Hi all, thanks for the conversation! I just got off the phone with a BlueSea and asked if he could explain this to me. He was very helpful and here is what he told me: These M-Series switches are designed for 12-36v systems, the sweep style contacts have about 2mm of distance between them, and...

Clean! Looks great. I'll let you know what they come up with for the breakers. I'm going for a clean install, if I have to get those breakers, I want some sort of housing for them.

I think I know which ones you are talking about. I have a couple of those on my temporary 12v 2000w system currently. Seem to be OK for that. Though I don't think I have pushed that system over 800w or so.

Thanks, good information for the procedure in any case. I'll make sure to turn off the main AC breaker before actuating battery cut-off switches (whichever I end up with) so there is no load on the system before disconnecting.

Hi all, I'm slowly putting my system together and have gotten to the point where I am installing batteries and making all of the cables. The other day I had called the company who sold me all of my equipment and he told me that he "mis-spec'd" the battery switches, which are the 48v Blue Sea...

Hi all, I'm getting ready to start setting up my system finally and have some questions about the type of battery cable to use. I am also interested in suggestions on brands, are any better than others? Including lugs. I know I am going to use 4/0 copper, but what is the designation for the...

Here are the photos of the lug stacks. More information: After running the batteries for a day, they switched. Now the bottom two are drawing the higher amperage, and the top are lower amperage. He ran up the draw to about 50amps and there was no change. Interesting, I wonder why they...

Yes, it's a 24v system. I believe the voltage was 25.5 when measured at the string lugs, and exactly the same at the mid point. Thanks, -Kaleb

For the first part, that was our intention, but we just didn't have the parts with us to do that. It will most likely be rectified in the near future, but I wanted to post this issue to see if anyone knows why this would be happening. On the second part, you are probably right. My bad. I am...

Thanks, John, I'll ask the owner to upload the requested pictures. But I can say that I stacked the midpoint lugs, and before that, I wire-brushed them vigorously and made sure they were as clean as I could get used lugs. We did not try to crank up the discharge current, as we were a little...

Hi all, Now that winter solstice has come and gone, I am ready to start my new installation! I have been planning and talking with a few vendors, working out design and quotes and so far so good. I'll post another thread on the full system design, but I wanted to get your opinion on the two...

Hi all, Yesterday I was with a friend while he was replacing a bank of 6v lead acid batteries with a new set of KiloVault LifePo4's and we ended up with some strange readings. I was wondering if anyone had thoughts about why this is. Due to several factors, such as the remoteness of the...

Ugh, sorry all. Not sure why that 404’d… Here is the GitHub link again: https://github.com/KalebTheMaker/VictronSmartShunt-ESP8266-MQTT

I think the HA app just connects to the HA server. You would still need to have HA. But... *could* install a MQTT broker on something (pi, laptop, computer etc), then have a look at that. Where do you want to see the data? It may end up being a slightly different project, but I would be glad...

Hi all, I cleaned up my code and wrote some docs on it. It can be found on GitHub here: https://github.com/KalebTheMaker/VictronSmartShunt-ESP8266-MQTT Stuart, you can dump all the data from the Smart Shunt by uncommenting PrintData() in the main loop. You can also just use the example from the...

Absolutely. That is what I have done. Read the serial data into an ESP8266, and then transmit over WiFi.

I was just looking at that same link! Thanks!

Looking at either SOK 48v 100Ah Racks, or I have a connection with KiloVault. Just getting started looking at their solutions. Either way, they will be LiFePo4. All of Northern California == High Fire Hazard. ;)

For sure. When I say "shed", I mean it only as an outbuilding. It will most likely be cinderblock (high fire hazard area) and clean inside. Only use will be for these electronic components.

Hi Shimmy, ~10kW PV array. I am most likely going to build a "power shed" that is close, but not inside the house or shop.

Hi @Chriskruger , thanks for the reply. I don't understand how it's uneconomic if running DC would be smaller gauge wire. Can you explain, I seem to be missing something. Thanks, -Kaleb

This is exactly why I wanted to post this here. I have had mixed answers from people when I have spoken to them in person. Some people say go AC, and some say go DC. Tim, this makes sense to me, and it's the way I am leaning currently. But then I hear answers like @Chriskruger saying that AC...

Hi there, It's 1000' along the road. A bit shorter line of sight, but would have to trench through *lots* of roots and rough terrain. Fully off-grid. No grid-tie option. Not quite that expensive, but close! If I did AC (two hots, common and ground - 4 conductors) it's something like $10/ft...

Thanks Don, And oh, I am :) I want to get the Solar going as I am running on a generator currently (charging a battery, 2k psw inverter etc...) and fuel is really expensive here. The year-round stream has about 16m of head, and I have not figured out a good way to measure the GPM without...

Hi everyone, On my property, my house and shop site are north-facing, but just down the hill, I have a great site that is south-facing and will get plenty of sun all year. The issue is that "just down the hill" is about 1000 feet. There is a road, so it would be easy to trench through. I have...

Hi there, Yes, I just did this. I used an ESP8266 microcontroller to connect to the serial ve.direct port on the smart shunt. I installed the MQTT broker add-on in Home Assistant, and send all of the output from the ESP to MQTT. Then set up the appropriate config on Home Assistant for MQTT...

Hi all, My name is Kaleb and I just bought 50 acres off-grid in Northern California to homestead on. The property used to be a cannabis grow, so there is plenty of water! Two horizontal wells, two vertical, and a year-round stream. About 17.5k gallons of water storage came with the property...