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Chins 100ah batteries X 3 for 36v nominal, Victron smart shunt 500A version, 150/35 Charge controller, settings

Herb

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Hello, I recently got 3 chins 100ah batteries which are hooked up in series for 36v nominal, I also got the Victron 150/35 charge controller and a smart shunt. I went to the settings and change a few parameters but there are a few settings that I just don't know if i should change them and I don't have any values for them. I would like to make a network so I can monitor both the charge controller the smart shunt and a Victron power supply at the same time. Is this possible? what are the settings that I should be focusing on? Is there a way to transfer the settings from one device to the other? Or do I need to enter them to each device?
 
The smart network will not let you monitor more than one device at once. You still can onl monitor one and must switch between them as you did before.

I found no good way to transfer settings between different devices. I have five different Victron devices and the only ones that would transfer are the two devices that are exactly the same. I have to 100/30 SCCs and the file transfered. I could not transfer to the 100/50 SCC, 75/15 SCC or VictronSmart shunt.

Enter settings into each device if they are not exactly the same device. If it is save the settings and open in the other device.

For the settings. You have a 36 volt pack, but I’d concentrate first on the product spec sheet, From there, the chemistry type. My spec sheet gave me not a specific setting but a no more than. I started a couple volts under that and bounced it up. Depends on the typpe of pack you have.
 
Thanks for the reply, good info! The batteries are 3 each 12v Lipo Chins batteries. I got them setup in series hence 36 volts nominal, I got some feedback from Chins and I was able to understand better. But here are some questions that have been in my mind and so far I have no concrete answers. Since I have the 3 batteries in series and each battery is 100ah don't the AHs add up? If no what is the advantage if any of using a higher voltage on your system besides saving on cables? Will the Watt Hours remain the same? I just like to know if the total capacity is reduced by going in series or if it stays the same since a 36 volts system is "more efficient"? I'm not sure if I will go up to 48 volts but seems like the more efficient and economical way from where I stand or maybe lower the system voltage to 24 volts but the cables could end up to small, right now I have 4AWG on the 36volts. Thanks for the assist. Thanks for the assist everyone! I appreciate it. Not sure if I should start another post, I did went up to 48 volts since it was part of my original plan, so now I have 8 Chins LiPo batteries 12 volts each, and need to adjust the settings on the 3kw Growatt off grid all in one unit, like the one Will was setting up in one of his videos not long ago. Out of all the settings which ones are the most important ones, all I need is for the unit to charge from AC outlet when solar is low like in rainy days and in case of a power outage that the unit kicks in and charge from solar if available and draw from the batteries to run the loads. Will set one up and it looks pretty easy and used the AGM battery setup.
 
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Hello, I recently got 3 chins 100ah batteries which are hooked up in series for 36v nominal, I also got the Victron 150/35 charge controller and a smart shunt. I went to the settings and change a few parameters but there are a few settings that I just don't know if i should change them and I don't have any values for them.

Post them.

I would like to make a network so I can monitor both the charge controller the smart shunt and a Victron power supply at the same time. Is this possible? what are the settings that I should be focusing on? Is there a way to transfer the settings from one device to the other? Or do I need to enter them to each device?

VE.Smart network for bluetooth devices. Their settings are all essentially independent, so you need to set them individually.


Thanks for the reply, good info! The batteries are 3 each 12v Lipo Chins batteries. I got them setup in series hence 36 volts nominal, I got some feedback from Chins and I was able to understand better. But here are some questions that have been in my mind and so far I have no concrete answers. Since I have the 3 batteries in series and each battery is 100ah don't the AHs add up?

No. If they did, you would have cubed your capacity instead of tripling it.

"Ah" depends on voltage to be a measure of energy. Wh is a quantity of energy.

LFP 100Ah:
12.8V * 100Ah = 1280Wh.

3*1280Wh = 3840Wh (3X 12.8V 100Ah batteries)

3840Wh / (12.8*3) = 100Ah (just working the math backwards)

You also get more power for a given current.

100A @ 36V = 3600W
100A @ 12V = 1200W

36V is a bit of an oddity. You will have less to choose from, and they will likely be at a higher price point.
 
VE.Smart network for bluetooth devices. Their settings are all essentially independent, so you need to set them individually.
I do use a VE smart Network. The documentation I found for it is here:


IMO, the few things I found the VE.Smart Network does is the app gives me warnings that one SCC is not set the same as the other as I adjust charge parameters and also when I equalize a lead acid battery with multiple SCCs, the SCCs will all equalize together when it is set into one and also shut off. I suspected it, but the book I linked above does say the three SCCs I use will synchronize to the same charging voltage with one SCC being the master.

. I would like to make a network so I can monitor both the charge controller the smart shunt and a Victron power supply at the same time.
I am unfamiliar if the Power Supply can be monitored. I have the charge controllers and Victron Shunt Networked together, but still can just monitor one at a time.

The most useful display to me would be all three SCCs and the Shunt at once. That way I can figure out power in and out without going to four screens. I think the Cerbo GX may be able to do something like that. A project that I dropped was to write my own software to monitor. Victron is pretty open source with code and hex addresses, but I don't know enough about Programming a Rasberry Pi to write my own software and making a user interface to display on my tablet. I wanted to do that this last winter, but did not get to that.
 
Thanks everyone, I appreciate the assist. So The 36 volts off grid system is working really good, is a bummer that I can't monitor more than one device at a time w/o investing more. Anyways, I also have a Growatt 3K at 48v with 8X12v 100Ah Chins batteries for emergencies, and while it sits there I noticed that the voltages drift, I like to keep them as close as possible, according to the manufacturer the built in BMS on these batteries will not balance, is there an external balancer I could use to actively balance them, Chins recommends to take them apart 2 times a year after they reach their low voltage cutoff and reconfigure in parallel then charge them up, to balance them, which I have done but is a pita and it takes 6 days, if I can avoid that it be great! Is this possible? I have seen some units on Amazon but comments are mixed from they work to burning mishaps. Other than that they work great. Maybe something like in the picture, as long as it don't burn the shed!
 

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Thanks everyone, I appreciate the assist. So The 36 volts off grid system is working really good, is a bummer that I can't monitor more than one device at a time w/o investing more. Anyways, I also have a Growatt 3K at 48v with 8X12v 100Ah Chins batteries for emergencies, and while it sits there I noticed that the voltages drift, I like to keep them as close as possible, according to the manufacturer the built in BMS on these batteries will not balance, is there an external balancer I could use to actively balance them, Chins recommends to take them apart 2 times a year after they reach their low voltage cutoff and reconfigure in parallel then charge them up, to balance them, which I have done but is a pita and it takes 4 days, if I can avoid that it be great! Is this possible? I have seen some units in Amazon but comments are mixed from they work to burning mishaps. Other than that they work great. Maybe something like in the picture, as long as it don't burn the shed!
This is the problem with putting BMS's in series. (I'm not a fan of doing that)
If I remember correctly, Victron makes a battery balancer.
 
Thanks for the reply. Yes is a bummer but now that the server type battery packs are more affordable I'm looking at them but then again I expect issues with them too. I looked at the Victron's balancers but I would need like 3 of them, I think they can only do 3 batteries each per unit, I've read that balancers are not required for LiPo4 batteries but it sure would be nice to be able to pop one of these things up and balance the batteries w/o the usual sloow balancing procedure we got now. It takes 6 days 24/7 for me to get them done, and as soon as I hook the battery bank up to the Growatt the voltages start drifting. From what I have seen and heard this is very common when you deal with any type of chemical reaction based battery. All BMSs should have some kind of balancing function, to try and alleviate this, isn't that part of managing a battery? Are you having any issues with the EG4?
 
The BMS is going to balance the cells under its control. This is part of the reason why batteries in series get out of balance. Each BMS is balancing its cells at different rates.
 
Hello, forgot to mention I'm not off grid. I use a Growatt 3k 48v single phase with the Chins 100ah LiPo4 batteries, for emergency use and to supplement a central AC unit with 2 mini splits during hot summers. Today was a great day for solar power generation. The Growatt can handle both mini split units w/o any issues. I'm not really pulling a lot of amps from it. But since the Growatt and the batteries can't communicate (not smart type) I had to add a Victron smart Shunt to monitor their state of charge. The Growatt will read the bank's voltage just fine, exactly the same voltage as the Smart Shunt. But it can not determine the batteries state of charge or any other parameter due to lack communication with the Growatt. Per Growatt's email it does not have a shunt built in, Hence looking at a server type battery pack that can communicate with the Growatt. Hopefully these EG4 can communicate with the Growatt w/o any issues. Other than that they work great, no issues so far.
 

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