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Electrodacus-based Build Begins

Dhowman

San Diego, California
Joined
Dec 29, 2019
Messages
295
Location
San Diego
With the arrival of those last four "lost cells" this week, I'm officially kicking off the build stage with an initial top balance. And while I knew there'd be some head-scratching moments ahead, despite iterating and poring over the design details for months (first, second, third, most recent) and going back and forth on all the "what-ifs" with all of you, I didn't realize how quickly the first one would hit me. :confused:

So, unpacked all 16 150Ah cells from BLS, hooked 'em all up in parallel (all cells arrived @ 3.29-3.30V) to my charger, set it for 3.4V/10A for the first step and, lo and behold, the 10A (charger's max) CC didn't kick in cuz the charger was reading a battery voltage of 3.4! What the hey??

IMG_6181.JPG
So, after checking to make sure the charger wasn't the problem, I turned my attention to the wires. Swapped 'em out for bigger ones. Same thing. Could it be the battery? A bad connection somewhere? Or is it just the LFPs? Voltage at the bank terminals was 3.30V but the charger terminals less than a foot away were 3.41V (see above).

Then it dawned on me. If hooking up CC panels to an LFP battery brings their V down to batt V, why should I expect they wouldn't do the same to any other charging source? [Edit: Nope] What I probably needed to do was to hook up those remote V-sensing wires on my Phillips (-S and +S in pic above) to let it know what the TRUE batt voltage was and then everything would be ok, right? [Edit: Yup ... see below]

Yep. As soon as I hooked 'em up and flipped the sensing switch from "local" to "remote" the Phillips then saw the batt V and kicked into CC charging.

IMG_6183.JPG

Wow. One thing to understand something theoretically. Quite another to connect the RW dots and see it in action (if in fact, I'm connecting the right dots ... seems so [Edit: Nope, see below]). Quite literally feel like I'm relearning this stuff as I go.

So, having reached this milestone, REALLY want to to thank @Will Prowse for his YT channel, launching this forum, and ALL the folks here who've helped get me to this point. Six months ago I had no thought of doing something like this, no solar knowledge and only distant memories of Physics 101. Five months ago I joined the forum. Today I started building a system and have managed to troubleshoot problem numero uno relying on what I've learned here. And it really wasn't a problem at all. So, we're off to the races ... albeit at only 10A *sigh* ...

IMG_6185.JPG

Stay tuned. Plan to update this thread as things proceed. Once these guys are topped, I'll be using my SBMS to perform 2 capacity tests (8 cells at a time ... twice) so my 8S SBMS can monitor individual cell voltages. I'll be using SBMS's logging as well to graph it all up when I'm done.
 
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Actually, the more I've thought about this since posting above, the less I think what I described is what was going on, but I just can't think why the terminals at the charger wouldn't come down to the battery voltage. Clearly the sensing wires can, but why my big fat charging wires would have such a big voltage drop and my #18 sensing wires don't has kind of got me stumped.

Any ideas?
 
I think it has something to do with the charger you are using. I'm just guessing that this is either a feature or a bug of the device. I think it is showing you what the output voltage is not the actual voltage. Just pure guessing on my part. The fact that it has a local and remote switch makes me think it is a feature.
 
I think it has something to do with the charger you are using. I'm just guessing that this is either a feature or a bug of the device. I think it is showing you what the output voltage is not the actual voltage. Just pure guessing on my part. The fact that it has a local and remote switch makes me think it is a feature.
Yeah, went back and reread the manual. Looks like the V diff wasn't big enough, which explains why similar CC CV setup when I tested this charger on the LA battery in my truck worked like this is working now but this charging (in .1V increments) needs the sensing leads to measure the V diff. So ... right solution, wrong diagnosis. Ha!

1590883270238.png

I'm assuming what they mean by this is that "the voltage [displayed as the voltage] at the load will equal the programmed value" so it went straight to CV charging. The measured voltage at the load was actually 0.1V less than what was displayed, which the sensing wires are now reading so it's CC charging at 10A (vs CV charging at 4A when it didn't see the 0.1V diff).

May seem like small potatoes but it's the difference between this process taking less than a week vs taking more than 2 weeks.
 
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I would concur with your not enough deltaV suggestion coupled with the power supply's operational capabilities... it may have sourced 10A if you would have upped your target voltage with your initial 2-wire connection.

I appreciate all the project visibility you have provided and will be looking forward to further progress with your build and deployment.
 
OK, some Cell Balancing Lessons Learned (so far):

So last night I noticed the bank V was increasing faster than I expected. Turns out some of the nuts holding down bus bars had loosened so finger-tightened using a 10mm socket on 'em (didn't wrench 'em). I'd also noticed that the wire running around the back of the bank that connects POS sides of each half of my parallel set up was only pushing a little more than 2A to the left side but A measured on POS charging wire coming off the charger was about 9.8-9.9A. So I shut everything down and let the pack sit overnight. I also noticed that the studs had allen sockets in one end but not the other and it occurred to me this was probably so you could hold the stud whilst tightening the nut down so it doesn't turn and bottom out in the hole and possibly damage the cell. I only had half of 'em in the right orientation.

This a.m. I measured resistance across different lengths of POS and NEG sides of this config and wasn't liking what I was seeing.

So, before I started it all back up, I:
  1. Took off all bus bars and cut back the yellow insulation so that when they went back on, their metal surfaces were flush and flat against all nuts and terminal pads.
  2. Checked all cells were still w/i .02V of each other (all were at 3.1V).
  3. Also made a better bent bus bar that connects the right and left NEG buses in the middle of the pack at the back to better achieve the same thing.
  4. Swapped out the #12 wire connecting the 2 POS buses w a #1. It occurred to me that maybe since there's only 3.3V pushing those 10A, I probably needed a much bigger wire back there to eliminate wire loss.
  5. Turned all the studs right side up, finger tightened 'em till they bottomed out (about 3.5 turns to do this), then backed 'em off 1 full turn.
  6. Rather than use the insulated socket wrench I got for tightening down bus bars, I taped up a closed-end ratcheting swivel head wrench and tightened down all nuts while holding the stud with an Allen wrench so it didn't move. Left to their own devices, these WILL turn, so you def want to do what you can to prevent that, else you could drive that stud right through the bottom of the hole (I think it's just Al).

Then I retested resistance all along both POS and NEG buses only to discover I still had a bad connection across 2 of 'em. Removed 'em to find that one of those un-coated Cu bus bars was pretty tarnished. Cleaned it up with emery paper, sprayed all conductors and terminal pads with electical contact cleaner, put 'em back on and, voila, zero resistance along the entire length of both buses.

Hooked everything back up to my charger, this time twisting V sense wires (to eliminate any inductive V they might pick up) and fired up the charger again. V came back down to where I was expecting it (3.2V, vs the 3.8-3.9 it had risen to last night before I shut it down) and resumed CC charging at 10A. Charging wires are reading 9.8A and that back POS wire now has 4.4A going through it (2x the amount than with the #12) ... much better.

One thing I've noticed with this charger that may turn out to be a huge benefit is that with those sensing leads, this thing stays in CC charging mode until the the sensing V has reached and stays at V(set) (=3.4V for this stage) for a while. CC phase lasts a lot longer, I think, than a charger that doesn't have dedicated sensing leads. Me thinks that the only possible way to top these up without those is to just set your charger to 3.6V (or maybe 3.5). Stepping up the V in .1V increments wouldn't work. It would take forever since you spend most of your time CV charging. In fact, I think, having ability to sense is probably a much bigger leg up than getting a charger that puts out more amps. You won't get to use 'em if you spend most of your time CV charging, no? And to get your charger to do anything for that last push to 3.6V, wouldn't you have to dial up the charger V to something north of 3.7 ... and is that not a bad thing?

Some piccies:
Bridging NEG bus bar before I made a new one that sits flush against nuts and bus bar below it.
IMG_6188.JPG

Allen wrench in the top of a stud. One the left is in upside down.
IMG_6189.JPG
These bus bars really need attention before you just slap 'em on. Insulation is all over the place. Had to trim every single one!
IMG_6190.JPG

Everything all back together but now with #1AWG running from cell-16 POS to cell-1 POS and a new/better bridging bus bar on NEG bus.
IMG_6191.JPG

Allen and closed-end wrenches on left replaced insulated socket wrench on right.
IMG_6195.JPG

Back in business ...
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First, thanks for posting on your Electrodacus build. I've got one on order and look forward to trying it. Will be comparing it to a Chargery BMS I already have.

On your experience with voltage drops, sounds like this is new to you? So hopefully some additional comments are helpful vs. just obvious.

Have you used a DMM to measure the voltage at different points from power supply out to battery terminals? You can catch any contact resistance issues quite easily that way, don't need to take apart and measure resistance.

12AWG wire was a bit small as you found. Resistance is 1.75 mohm per foot, so if you had 4 feet of wire (2 feet each direction pos and neg) then you would have a 70 mohm voltage drop just in the wire, not including any contact resistances. You started with the power supply only 110 mV above the battery, so most of that was used up in the wires.

Yes as you found, make sure no tarnishing, insulation in the way, loose nuts, etc. As you found, all of these will add significantly to the resistance of the feed wires.

The batteries themselves have internal resistance and so the voltage when charging will be higher than the voltage at rest. However, with this many batteries in parallel and only 10A I doubt that this was much of a factor.

I would set your voltage higher than 3.4V anyway, that is a pretty small delta. Just set to the target endpoint, and the current limiting in the power supply will keep it at 10A until the battery voltage (plus any drops, unless you have remote sensing as you do now) reaches the setpoint.

If you want to speed up the initial charging, you can first connect them in series and charge to a slightly lower setpoint, while monitoring the individual cell voltages to ensure none of them get out of balance and exceed your target. Then you can run the supply at a higher voltage and get a full 10A through multiple cells in series rather than splitting up the 10A between parallel cells. Then switch back to parallel for the last bit of charging to target voltage.

Hopefully this helps.
 
On your experience with voltage drops, sounds like this is new to you? So hopefully some additional comments are helpful vs. just obvious.

Have you used a DMM to measure the voltage at different points from power supply out to battery terminals? You can catch any contact resistance issues quite easily that way, don't need to take apart and measure resistance.
Hah ... ALL this is new to me. It's one thing to know it. Quite another to do it! ;)

Yeah, I was measuring V across the cells from the terminals and noticed something was wrong. Resistance check was easy enough since I had to take it apart to reassemble those posts anyway to really tighten down the nuts with the studs right side up! Voltages look good now.
12AWG wire was a bit small as you found. Resistance is 1.75 mohm per foot, so if you had 4 feet of wire (2 feet each direction pos and neg) then you would have a 70 mohm voltage drop just in the wire, not including any contact resistances. You started with the power supply only 110 mV above the battery, so most of that was used up in the wires.
Only need the POS wire. NEG connection between the 2 halves is that bent bus bar. That wire is about 2 feet so, yes, that V diff probably wasn't making it to the cells on the left. Makes absolute sense. Gotten so used to thinking of #12 as more than enough for 10A but forgot this thing is only at 3.2V. Doh! Big difference.
I would set your voltage higher than 3.4V anyway, that is a pretty small delta. Just set to the target endpoint, and the current limiting in the power supply will keep it at 10A until the battery voltage (plus any drops, unless you have remote sensing as you do now) reaches the setpoint.
Yeah, I'll likely do that today. Gotta love this CC charging though w the sensing leads. V stays just low enough to keep 10A moving. And no prolonged CV charging at or above 3.6.
If you want to speed up the initial charging, you can first connect them in series and charge to a slightly lower setpoint, while monitoring the individual cell voltages to ensure none of them get out of balance and exceed your target. Then you can run the supply at a higher voltage and get a full 10A through multiple cells in series rather than splitting up the 10A between parallel cells. Then switch back to parallel for the last bit of charging to target voltage.
Man, that never occurred to me! Thought I was limited by the 10A max of the charger but am only using slightly more than half it's rated power, so that makes a lot of sense and may just do that!
I'll see if I can get a better bead on how long this will take "as is." Others who've gotten these cells report they need about 94Ah to get to 3.6, so about 1500Ah for 16 cells for me. That's about 6 days assuming I can spend the vast majority in CC at 10A. If it looks like it's gonna take longer, I may just try that. Earliest I can do cap testing is next weekend anyway.
Hopefully this helps.
Immeasurably. Thank you!
 
Only need the POS wire. NEG connection between the 2 halves is that bent bus bar. That wire is about 2 feet so, yes, that V diff probably wasn't making it to the cells on the left. Makes absolute sense. Gotten so used to thinking of #12 as more than enough for 10A but forgot this thing is only at 3.2V. Doh! Big difference.
Actually was talking about the wires from the power supply, not the neg bus bars or the connection from #1 pos to #16 pos. Hard to tell from pictures but still looks like fairly small wire coming from power supply pos and neg to the 16 cells in parallel. Although with remote sense that won't matter so much.
Man, that never occurred to me! Thought I was limited by the 10A max of the charger but am only using slightly more than half it's rated power, so that makes a lot of sense and may just do that!
I'll see if I can get a better bead on how long this will take "as is." Others who've gotten these cells report they need about 94Ah to get to 3.6, so about 1500Ah for 16 cells for me. That's about 6 days assuming I can spend the vast majority in CC at 10A. If it looks like it's gonna take longer, I may just try that. Earliest I can do cap testing is next weekend anyway.
I just noticed your power supply is limited to 60W, so you actually won't get much benefit from series connection. It might work with 2 cells in series and ~7V (i.e. 2 x 3.5V) but at 70W you'd be outside the specified range of the power supply. Of course you could optimize and back off current to 8A through 2 cells. My supply is 600W (this one) so I could run 20A through 8 cells in series and stay below the 600W limit.

If you have a charger for your planned system you could also use that for the initial (partial) charging. Don't remember your planned system voltage but if 24V for example, and you had a 24V 30A charger or inverter/charger, you could set the cells up in a 2p8s config, set your charger bulk/abs setpoint at desired value, and charge at 30A. Monitoring individual cell voltages of course. You'd have ~15A into each cell simultaneously, would only take 10 hours to charge all 16 cells to your desired "almost there" level. Then go back to parallel to finish them off with your power supply.

Just a thought, if you want to save time.
 
Actually was talking about the wires from the power supply, not the neg bus bars or the connection from #1 pos to #16 pos. Hard to tell from pictures but still looks like fairly small wire coming from power supply pos and neg to the 16 cells in parallel. Although with remote sense that won't matter so much.
Ahhh. Yes, right now they're doubled up #12s (-ish ... no labels). So, effectively, a single #9 on POS and NEG. Have noticed that the banana plug wire's carrying about a third of the total combined 9.8A. The other (and possibly smaller) wire's got a fork connector under the binding post. I can probably make 2 shorter #12s w fork connectors to get 2 under the binding posts, and with the 15A-rated banana plug test leads , get the 3-wire combo to deliver all 10A (?)
I just noticed your power supply is limited to 60W, so you actually won't get much benefit from series connection. It might work with 2 cells in series and ~7V (i.e. 2 x 3.5V) but at 70W you'd be outside the specified range of the power supply. Of course you could optimize and back off current to 8A through 2 cells. My supply is 600W (this one) so I could run 20A through 8 cells in series and stay below the 600W limit.

If you have a charger for your planned system you could also use that for the initial (partial) charging. Don't remember your planned system voltage but if 24V for example, and you had a 24V 30A charger or inverter/charger, you could set the cells up in a 2p8s config, set your charger bulk/abs setpoint at desired value, and charge at 30A. Monitoring individual cell voltages of course. You'd have ~15A into each cell simultaneously, would only take 10 hours to charge all 16 cells to your desired "almost there" level. Then go back to parallel to finish them off with your power supply.

Just a thought, if you want to save time.
Yeah, hadn't done the math yet, but that would still be faster. Nice supply! I found mine used on EBay from National Test Equipment just up the road from me, for $80. Just needed a new fan, so pretty pleased it's working "as designed" so far. I toyed with other charging options, including just using SBMS and my panels to top 'em up quicker, but, yes, still needed something to balance 'em and this looks like it'll do the job quite nicely, if not as quickly. As it is, six days to do this isn't really going to slow up the build. Can only work weekends on it as it is.
 
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Ahhh. Yes, right now they're doubled up #12s (-ish ... no labels). So, effectively, a single #9 on POS and NEG. Have noticed that the banana plug wire's carrying about a third of the total combined 9.8A. The other (and possibly smaller) wire's got a fork connector under the binding post. I can probably make 2 shorter #12s w fork connectors to get 2 under the binding posts, and with the 15A-rated banana plug test leads , get the 3-wire combo to deliver all 10A (?)
You're fine. Even one 12AWG wire can safely handle well more than 10A and this is just a test setup. Voltage drop is addressed by your remote sensing at the battery terminals.

Have fun turning it on! I'll follow your posts, my Electrodacus should come next week and hopefully I'll finally get my new cells as well.
 
Probably worth noting, too, since it's not documented above that NEG charging lead and V sense are on NEG of cell-8 and POS charging lead and V sense on POS of cell-9 so POS & NEG charging and V sense wires are at opposite ends of the bank from each other.
 
I know this is your build thread but I haven't started one so I'll just provide my initial experience here. I got my SBMS0 yesterday and set it up in my test setup. Other than a few ambiguous parts in the manual as to shunt wiring polarity, it was straightforward and worked like a charm. The display has some truly tiny fonts even with my reading glasses, so I'm glad I got the Wifi option.

Wifi worked well although I wish I could connect it to my AP rather than vice versa. And I did have a connection issue at the end of the evening, didn't take time to troubleshoot it.

Connecting the CAT5 cable was not as bad as I feared. I used a dental pick to open the contacts and had a bright light right over it so I could see those tiny contacts. I don't know if there is solid core CAT5 rather than stranded, but if there is then I would recommend that. The stranded wire is a pretty fragile connection. I have the CAT5 cable taped to the nearby ribbon cable for a little bit of strain relief temporarily while I work on it. I wish I had the new SBMS0 model Dacian is just now releasing, apparently it has a more robust connector. But I'll just have to be careful and ensure good strain relief on the actual installation.

HVD and LVD (OV and UV in SBMS0 parameters) both worked as expected. So far I've just connected EXTIO3 and EXTIO4 but I plan to use EXTIO5 or 6 for a master battery safety disconnect driven by the second layer disconnects OVL (Over Voltage Lock) and UVL (Under Voltage Lock). For testing I just use a small 2.5 Ah test battery I built from four 26650 cells. They can take 10A charge and 50A discharge (continuous) so it makes for some fast charge/discharge cycling for testing purposes. When my 280Ah cells come in, my system will be tested and ready. Cycling those will take a while...

Current measurements of charger, load, and battery also worked as expected just entering nominal resistance values for the two shunts. Still have a bit of calibration to do including offsets. SOC seemed to work perfectly and synchronized at the top. I haven't yet tested with actual solar with the DSSR20, just drove it with a charger for testing.
 
Thank you @Dhowman for starting this build post. Will be closely watching and continuing to learn. Same as @Airtime, I too am intending to build out my system with the SBMS0 BMS (BMS arrived yesterday, 24 Xuba 280Ah cells currently processing payment).

The majority of my electrical/battery knowledge has also been recently learned from Will, his channel, and the many knowledgeable folks on this forum. I am currently drawing my schematic/diagram based largely off of Dhowman's thoughtful design. Big thanks, all!! So happy this community exists.

Regarding the Wi-Fi module:
Wifi worked well although I wish I could connect it to my AP rather than vice versa.
I too have ordered the Wi-Fi module and wish it would connect as a device on an internal network rather than creating a separate network for itself. This would allow remote monitoring to be much easier. One of my skill-sets/strengths is computer networking with some dabbling in programming and open-source. My goal while waiting for batteries via the slow boat from China is to research how to modify the Wi-Fi module to be in client mode, rather than infrastructure mode. Considering Dacian made his an open-source, open-hardware device; my assumption is that this will be possible. Will keep you all informed as the progress begins.
 
There's quite a bit of chat and dialog going on right now on the ED forum regarding alternative connection methodologies to the SBMS0. This ranges from direct connect methods for scraping via cron'd python scripts using Pi's to secondary ARM nodes collecting and surface data in alternative UX formats and methods. This includes not only scraping/monitoring data but also delves into remote settings and operational tweakage.

Dacian's pretty clear with all his design choices as they stand and everything is open-source... I'm particularly interested in an MQTT broker to provide hooks into Hass.io or OpenHab controllers. I am liking where all of this is leading!
 
OK, last night when I went to bed, bank V was about 3.38-3.39 and getting 10A CC. This a.m. I was a little surprised to see that, overnight, they'd made it all the way up to 3.5V CV and amps were down to .16A so I shut it all down, removed the charging and sense leads. Couple hours later, banks sitting at 3.5V so holding steady.

Plan for today is to dry fit and wire up SBMS, buses, shunts, breakers, fuses and inverter then take 1/2 the bank from 3.5 to 3.6, which should only take about 1-2 hrs, put the 8 in series and start discharging w the inverter and heat gun to begin the cap test on those 8 (while the other 8 sit at 3.5). Once cap testing is confirmed on the 1st 8, I'll top the 2nd 8 up to 3.6 and do the same thing and then grab logs from SBMS for the 2 cap tests to see how each individual cell's done. Assuming all that tests out good, I'll re-balance the 16, make my 2P8S 24V config and move it all into the camper.

Per my calcs, I've dumped about 1,475Ah into these to get to 3.5V. If these were at the same DOD as others have reported for new 150Ah BLS cells, I suspect that each half will take about 15Ah more before they hit 3.6V, or 1.5 hours.
I know this is your build thread but I haven't started one so I'll just provide my initial experience here. I got my SBMS0 yesterday and set it up in my test setup. Other than a few ambiguous parts in the manual as to shunt wiring polarity, it was straightforward and worked like a charm. The display has some truly tiny fonts even with my reading glasses, so I'm glad I got the Wifi option.

Wifi worked well although I wish I could connect it to my AP rather than vice versa. And I did have a connection issue at the end of the evening, didn't take time to troubleshoot it.

Connecting the CAT5 cable was not as bad as I feared. I used a dental pick to open the contacts and had a bright light right over it so I could see those tiny contacts. I don't know if there is solid core CAT5 rather than stranded, but if there is then I would recommend that. The stranded wire is a pretty fragile connection. I have the CAT5 cable taped to the nearby ribbon cable for a little bit of strain relief temporarily while I work on it. I wish I had the new SBMS0 model Dacian is just now releasing, apparently it has a more robust connector. But I'll just have to be careful and ensure good strain relief on the actual installation.

HVD and LVD (OV and UV in SBMS0 parameters) both worked as expected. So far I've just connected EXTIO3 and EXTIO4 but I plan to use EXTIO5 or 6 for a master battery safety disconnect driven by the second layer disconnects OVL (Over Voltage Lock) and UVL (Under Voltage Lock). For testing I just use a small 2.5 Ah test battery I built from four 26650 cells. They can take 10A charge and 50A discharge (continuous) so it makes for some fast charge/discharge cycling for testing purposes. When my 280Ah cells come in, my system will be tested and ready. Cycling those will take a while...

Current measurements of charger, load, and battery also worked as expected just entering nominal resistance values for the two shunts. Still have a bit of calibration to do including offsets. SOC seemed to work perfectly and synchronized at the top. I haven't yet tested with actual solar with the DSSR20, just drove it with a charger for testing.
I think I'm gonna install the SBMS IN the electrical closet and just rely on the AP to keep an eye on things from a dedicated old phone or tablet (maybe even mounted somewhere easily viewable) for just that reason.
Also, I plan to just wire EXTIO3, 4, 5, PV and ADC from the SBMS into this and then just connect 5 pairs of CAT6 to the 2 shunts, the inverter, the converter and the DSSRs, with the plugs on the opposite ends just going into the receptacles wired directly to the SBMS. That way I don't have to disconnect EVERYTHING if I ever need/want to remove/replace the SBMS and put 'em back where they're suppose to go. I'll color code 'em so I know which one goes in which socket. May even throw everything into a project box so it's all one piece.
Good to know about the shunt calibration results. What shunts are you using? I may hook up my power supply to the PV shunt briefly to confirm SBMS amp reading matches supply amp reading and adjust resistances accordingly, if necc.
Thank you @Dhowman for starting this build post. Will be closely watching and continuing to learn. Same as @Airtime
Regarding the Wi-Fi module:

I too have ordered the Wi-Fi module and wish it would connect as a device on an internal network rather than creating a separate network for itself. This would allow remote monitoring to be much easier. One of my skill-sets/strengths is computer networking with some dabbling in programming and open-source. My goal while waiting for batteries via the slow boat from China is to research how to modify the Wi-Fi module to be in client mode, rather than infrastructure mode. Considering Dacian made his an open-source, open-hardware device; my assumption is that this will be possible. Will keep you all informed as the progress begins.
Man, would love to see how you wind up solving that!
There's quite a bit of chat and dialog going on right now on the ED forum regarding alternative connection methodologies to the SBMS0. This ranges from direct connect methods for scraping via cron'd python scripts using Pi's to secondary ARM nodes collecting and surface data in alternative UX formats and methods. This includes not only scraping/monitoring data but also delves into remote settings and operational tweakage.

Dacian's pretty clear with all his design choices as they stand and everything is open-source... I'm particularly interested in an MQTT broker to provide hooks into Hass.io or OpenHab controllers. I am liking where all of this is leading!
Yeah, gotta say most of what you just described (and what Everlanders has done on that front) is greek to me, but so was all this not so long ago. Intend to turn my attention to that learning curve as soon as I have the basic system behind me!
 
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OUTSTANDING write-up so far --- and thanks for sharing your lessons learned ...

But i do have one complaint - and its nothing about your stuff at all -- its that damn little DVM in your picture ... it seems like everyone of these that we got recently - excatly like that one - has gone bad in less than a year ... we switched over to another one and so far no worries - but its frustrating to be out in the middle of nowhere - or on a roof - and turn it on and only half the screen appears ...
.. Untitled22.jpg
 
OUTSTANDING write-up so far --- and thanks for sharing your lessons learned ...

But i do have one complaint - and its nothing about your stuff at all -- its that damn little DVM in your picture ... it seems like everyone of these that we got recently - excatly like that one - has gone bad in less than a year ... we switched over to another one and so far no worries - but its frustrating to be out in the middle of nowhere - or on a roof - and turn it on and only half the screen appears ...
.. View attachment 14799
Hah! I've had that one for years and it hasn't failed me yet. Also seems pretty accurate. Just picked up the one next to it for amp readings, and measurements using both are identical to each other (and my Phillips/Fluke power supply), so I think I'm getting the accuracy I need and have a back up if one or the other fails me at any time.
 
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Hah! I've had that one for years and it hasn't failed me yet. Also seems pretty accurate. Just picked up the one next to it for amp readings, and measurements using both are identical to each other (and my Phillips/Fluke power supply), so I think I'm getting the accuracy I need and have a back up if one or the other fails me at any time.

YEP the older ones we have are still chugging away -- I think they spent like $15 or something on those each a few years back before I came on board .. seems the new ones are the ones going bad ...

These are the ones i swear by now ... of course i got mine 2 years ago for 26 and its know up to 35 but still worth it ...measures anything and everything i could ever need to ... https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07WCFR7VR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
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