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Adding Vatrer Rack Battery to Solar Assistant

BarracudaBob

BarracudaBob

Harvesting free photons from clean fusion
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So the question came up how I got the data out of the battery.

A big fricken hole! BUT my USB panel mount flipped the data pins and didn't work so I added a gromet and will come back to this with an adapter and some how flip the pins again. It is slightly crooked in the picture but you get the idea.

1735373564662.png
 
@BarracudaBob

Do you have multiple Solar Assistants? If not, how are you getting both the Vatrer and the EW batteries in?
 
JAS said:
@BarracudaBob

Do you have multiple Solar Assistants? If not, how are you getting both the Vatrer and the EW batteries in?
Click to expand...
They are both JBD so I use a 4 RS485 to usb waveshare adapter for all the E-W and the output of the JBD/Overkill is usb. I plug both into solar assistant and click on all batteries.

1735434035554.png
 
Ah, OK... So in my case, I already have (2) EG4 Batteries. I guess I can't do that then and would need a 2nd Solar Assistant. (Or hope that Solar Assistant provides an update)
 
JAS said:
Ah, OK... So in my case, I already have (2) EG4 Batteries. I guess I can't do that then and would need a 2nd Solar Assistant. (Or hope that Solar Assistant provides an update)
Click to expand...
I am running 2 SA, one for EG4 and other for JBD
 
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I picked up another USB 3.0 A to USB 3.0 A Cable and the USB Panel Mount worked. Now all I need is a BMS push switch with two pins. Switch is ez but I want the correct Push on connector. Sad reality is as we all know we keep buying and testing batteries but ultimately we want one like the E-W and others that have all the com ports on them. Not to much work to bring this one up to Com's.

I moved the temp sensor off the back right wall and put it on the breaker. With a bunch of batteries my charge/discharge current is a very low C rate so it shouldn't get hot. USB UART is on left wall and USB is on right.

1735485997906.png
 
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How are you supposed to pronounce Vatrer? The way Will vomits the last R?

By the way @BarracudaBob, what's your favorite battery? Are they all the same?
 
Siamac said:
How are you supposed to pronounce Vatrer? The way Will vomits the last R?

By the way @BarracudaBob, what's your favorite battery? Are they all the same?
Click to expand...
I kind of like how it will pronounces it. I'm not sure if I could do it without practice. It's with a French interpretation.

It better do good with such a fancy freaking pronunciation 🤣

I just did a French translation and it came up with. Va Tree

I just called the VTR or Vader 👹
 
BarracudaBob said:
I kind of like how it will pronounces it. I'm not sure if I could do it without practice. It's with a French interpretation.

It better do good with such a fancy freaking pronunciation 🤣

I just did a French translation and it came up with. Va Tree

I just called the VTR or Vader 👹
Click to expand...

Or could be vatrer, Norwegian for waters. Sounds like it's spelled, not Will's way 🤷
 
Siamac said:
Or could be vatrer, Norwegian for waters. Sounds like it's spelled, not Will's way 🤷
Click to expand...
Okay, we're going to have to figure out where this thing came from and what their meaning was.

You've asked the question now you got to do the research. What nationality were they trying to express? inquiring minds want to know!
 
I had to look at its current condition and it has more SOC than my E-W V2 so this leads me to believe that at least on the top end it has a little more coulombs stored in that jar. But as they discharge they don't always go at the same rate. Can't wait for Will's next video. I hope he opens up the BMS and sucks every Watt/Hour out of that thing.

It's hard for me not to compare the two but there's the data. This is off solar assistant with the USB upgrade to the VTR.
 

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BarracudaBob said:
I had to look at its current condition and it has more SOC than my E-W V2 so this leads me to believe that at least on the top end it has a little more coulombs stored in that jar. But as they discharge they don't always go at the same rate. Can't wait for Will's next video. I hope he opens up the BMS and sucks every Watt/Hour out of that thing.

It's hard for me not to compare the two but there's the data. This is off solar assistant with the USB upgrade to the VTR.
Click to expand...
Is there an assumption here that SA is in fact pulling all the correct data and more importantly, displaying it correctly.

Generally, if the same manufacturer provided software using the same protocol format displays the battery data correctly then hopefully one can more readily trust SA.

The JBDTools_ChangePow software uses the Modbus-Ascii protocol (very little documentation) and the returned data is not quite the same as the ECO-Worthy software which uses the JBD Modbus-RTU protocol (no documentation). In addition different versions of the software may or may not (mostly not) include the battery address in the command sent to the battery.

The CRC (cyclic redundancy check) calculation is slightly different for address vs no address and the response data is also shifted slightly.

In particular the response data is slightly shifted with respect to the six temperature values. With the address in the command the MOSFET and Ambient temperatures are returned separately from the four cell temperatures whereas without the address all six are returned in the same sequence/group.

I have reached out to ECO-Worthy, their reply was that @Bill Young was on vacation. I guess since it has been a couple of weeks I need to reach out again.
 
marionw said:
Is there an assumption here that SA is in fact pulling all the correct data and more importantly, displaying it correctly.

Generally, if the same manufacturer provided software using the same protocol format displays the battery data correctly then hopefully one can more readily trust SA.

The JBDTools_ChangePow software uses the Modbus-Ascii protocol (very little documentation) and the returned data is not quite the same as the ECO-Worthy software which uses the JBD Modbus-RTU protocol (no documentation). In addition different versions of the software may or may not (mostly not) include the battery address in the command sent to the battery.

The CRC (cyclic redundancy check) calculation is slightly different for address vs no address and the response data is also shifted slightly.

In particular the response data is slightly shifted with respect to the six temperature values. With the address in the command the MOSFET and Ambient temperatures are returned separately from the four cell temperatures whereas without the address all six are returned in the same sequence/group.

I have reached out to ECO-Worthy, their reply was that @Bill Young was on vacation. I guess since it has been a couple of weeks I need to reach out again.
Click to expand...
Well, if you have any questions about solar assistant you need to direct it into the proper company.

As far as what I've seen, solar assistant in the JBD software, even the E-W version of it all registered the same values within the limitations of solar assistant to provide what they do. There's a whole lot of temperature sensors on that BMS so I think solar system only gives you.

I've reached a happy point where I'm not taking everything apart and reanalyzing it's working very well. I'm adding solar panels redoing wiring and enjoying it.

It would be nice for jbd to provide more information about the BMS. Personally, I don't use the rs232.
 
Siamac said:
How are you supposed to pronounce Vatrer? The way Will vomits the last R?

By the way @BarracudaBob, what's your favorite battery? Are they all the same?
Click to expand...
I just saw this I'm not sure if I answered it I believe it's pronounced Va-Tree I looked it up one time as a French pronunciation. Be honest with you I just call it Vader, VTR, it should have been black it would have been really cool 😎 I think the new ones are. The blue is pretty nice too.

So my favorite battery is determined by the BMS. JBD can all be put together on solar assistant where it reads them all together. I already have six JBD bass batteries so that is my anchor. So my favorite battery would be JBD based. And at least at the time of me writing this there's only one battery that has all the comms great customer support and prices right. That's the Eco-Worthy rack battery.

But if I had a single battery setup as a little UPS or portable backup the VTR has a badass big display so it would be perfect for that application.
 
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Btw. VATER in norwegian means water level/spirit level. Aka for checking leveling in construction.

VATRER is something else ^^ dunno what :)
Hm, wasn't Will to supposed to do a test video on a Vatrer battery?
 
LydMekk said:
Btw. VATER in norwegian means water level/spirit level. Aka for checking leveling in construction.

VATRER is something else ^^ dunno what :)
Hm, wasn't Will to supposed to do a test video on a Vatrer battery?
Click to expand...
Will already tested it. results were good.
 
Any cell balancing issues with the Darth Vatrer Battery?
 
robby said:
Any cell balancing issues with the Darth Vatrer Battery?
Click to expand...
It balanced pretty fast. I did do my top balance to it but first or second cycle it was ready. BMS is very simple voltage controlled unit.

Here is a live snip of SA. I didn't have good sun for last 2 days but holding it's own pretty good.
VTR is the bottom battery (5) at 64% so it has similar capacity as the E-W but not held back by the coulomb counter. I did find some of the BMS settings a little wild so I set it up as default Overkill. There is a thread on those findings and teardown.

It seems to run slightly warmer than the other batteries. It is on top of a rack of 5 E-W with a E-W on top of it.

1741145006834.png

1741145070850.png
 
Oh how I wish the Vatrer had a BMS with Comms!
I think the cells are CATL cells.
 
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