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I've just tested the isolated can bus transceiver and it seems to be working a treat, I don't have the inverter yet but using an Arduino with can module for for my board to talk to it seems quite happy. Once I get my stroppy BMS sorted I'll get the inverter and batteries so I can get the project...

Yes I wanted to make a complete board that would have the can bus transceiver, RS485 transceiver, isolated power supplies, fusing and a nice tidy way of terminating the battery sense wires. The TSA1052i chip uses the same MPC2515 interface chip as the run of the mill can transceivers use but the...

I like it! I'm using a TJA1052i chip, I believe this should give about 1KV of isolation, its the first time I've tried one of these, it might not even be necessary but should make for a robust board. I'm actually wondering now if the 4.2V was the issue, looking at the BMS spec the maximum pack...

OK, this was going to be me asking advice as to why my BMS died after a few hours of testing but after re-reading the data sheet it seems that my temporary test battery pack made from Li-ion 3.6V (charged to 4.2V) cells might have been too high a voltage. Still, I might as well show my control...

My BMS arrived today, only 19 hours after ordering it and 4 days before Christmas! ? It came with the Bluetooth adaptor already fitted to the UART socket. I hooked it up to an old 10S ebike battery so its alive and communicating with my phone over Bluetooth. There's a couple of small issues...

That's a very good point!!! some sort of electrical insulation between the cells might be prudent also. That's a bummer, knew it was too good to be true, I guess I'll be needing a Bluetooth adaptor to use my phone or a USB converter to use a laptop (preferred as my phone is rubbish), I think I...

Ah OK, most of the 240V heaters I looked at were much higher power which is why I was looking at 12V heaters. I'm thinking of sticking them to the underside of an aluminium sheet / plate that the batteries will sit on, I'm planning on similar insulation probably 25mm, its good to get some real...

Thanks SeaGal, your heaters must be quite high power in that case, I was looking at around 7.5W per cell, what do you heat them to? I looked at someone's build and they were heating them to 60 Celsius, I'm hoping he meant 60 Fahrenheit. I'm keen to distribute the heat evenly to all the cells, I...

I must admit the state of charge is kind of the unknown, I have a good system on my e-bike charger that calculates Ah going into the battery but that's just one way for one charge, any errors over a long period of time would likely end up quite large. If the BMS can provide SOC then it does...

So here's the plan with the battery monitoring, I've come up with a design that will measure the battery current and voltage allowing it to calculate the state of charge then output this together with the Voltage and current limits over Can bus to the inverter. It should make quite a...

Good point about the MCB, think I'll be upping the cable size :) Originally I miscounted the number of panels on my roof (Doh!) hence the different figures, they are only little 185W panels, much easier to man handle by my self, there are a couple of Sanyo HIT 215W panels mixed in that I need...

Thanks for the awesome info, I'm sure I replied but it seems to have vanished. I'm going for the 5KW version of the Solis, as you say there is not much difference in price and will better handle the higher domestic loads like the cooker etc. I believe the feed cable to the inverter is currently...

I'm looking at around £2000, about £1000 for the inverter and the rest for the battery. I do have 2 complete sunny boy inverters that I can sell to offset some of the cost but need to find a couple of substantial boxes to pack them in as they are incredibly heavy. The main driver for this is...

OK, I'm about to order a Solis S5-EH1P-L 3KW hybrid inverter and batteries to replace my now defunct Sunny boy. As for the battery I'm going to struggle to drag a 40Kg pylontech / Fogstar rack mount battery up into the loft and mount it to the inside of the gable end, however, I do like the...

Talking of low temperatures the heater in the Fogstar unit might be a huge bonus as my loft is well ventilated so gets really cold. I always add heaters to my e-bike batteries so I can still get to work when its -20 degrees. Brrr.

I think a limit can be programmed into the inverter, the battery and inverter communicate over can bus, but this might just be state of charge temperature etc. Edit. The charge profile seems to be fully configurable but I think that might just be for lead acid / discrete Lithium batteries, I...

I'm looking at a Solis 3KW hybrid inverter and a single PylonTech US2000 battery, they look like they should come it at a jiff under £2000. Its a lot more than anticipated but I can sell some of my existing bits and the savings should help pay it back. Its probably one of the smaller scale...

Not quite sure what I was thinking there about taking the tails into the inverter, didn't sound right as I wrote it. The hybrid inverter is definitely the way to go, it would involve pretty much no extra wiring and everything would go in the loft. Originally the plan was for some big lead acid...

The hybrid inverter makes a lot of sense, that and the batteries would be quite an investment though. I guess the meter tails would feed the inverter, the inverter output would them power the fuse box. I'd obviously have to get a pro in for this bit as it would mean breaking the seal on the...

Wow thanks guys, I was expecting to get flamed over this! My understanding is for the panels to be connected to the grid (via inverter) they need to be installed by an MSC credited installer or the electricity provider will not accept the output and difficult questions will be asked, not such...

Hey all, looking for peoples thoughts. I've always been well into alternative energy, I commute to work on a diy solar / wind powered E-bike that has now passed 37,000 miles, the lawns are mowed via the workshop solar system as well as the garden lighting and outbuilding alarms. Upon my...