In the 'Victron is overpriced' thread, Pike Industries is mentioned as a good seller. That's who I bought from this morning, and it was just delivered. Unlike all the white generic boxed Victron stuff I've bought from Inverters R Us (24-12V converters, Smart Shunt) , this unit from Pike is in a retail box. Now I need to buy the correct 6ga stranded wire as Victron says it needs to be very high strand count.
Thanks for the input on BatteryCablesUSA.com !BatteryCablesUSA.com is my go to for high quality high strand count pure copper cables for a fair price and cheap shipping. They don’t sell on eBay or Amazon in order to keep their prices low. I have bought from them I think 5-6 times now. Shipping from I think Alabama or Georgia to the Pacific Northwest has only taken a few days, 5 at most.
blue toothHow do you do comms with the Victron regs?
I've got all my epever's networked (one of the reasons for choosing them)
And then to a raspberry pi?blue tooth
Thanks for the input on BatteryCablesUSA.com !
Is there a trick to finding this unit on the Epever website? Is it too old and off their support/acknowledgement list?First reply was "4215BN
Not sure. I have had the same issue at times looking up info on it. Seems half the time it looks discontinued and then pops back up.Is there a trick to finding this unit on the Epever website? Is it too old and off their support/acknowledgement list?
I am helping someone and looking for software/firmware updates and cannot get ANY hits on 4215BN or even 4215.
My google-fu not successful either.
I had the same problem yet the ones I bought had support for LFP and LCO batteries natively showing they’re still making updates to the FW.Is there a trick to finding this unit on the Epever website? Is it too old and off their support/acknowledgement list?
I am helping someone and looking for software/firmware updates and cannot get ANY hits on 4215BN or even 4215.
My google-fu not successful either.
Thanks. Can't see BT working for me with multiple (and spread out) regs.blue tooth
sorry for the confusion. The blue tooth connection is between the ssc and the shunt to get a accurate voltage readingThanks. Can't see BT working for me with multiple (and spread out) reg
Ah - ok.sorry for the confusion. The blue tooth connection is between the ssc and the shunt to get a accurate voltage reading
and tail current .
not between 2 ssc
you need to have a cerbo for that ( i think)
try thisI am helping someone and looking for software/firmware updates and cannot get ANY hits on 4215BN or even 4215.
I ended up going with the 150/35 from Pike because I had a hard limit of $200 on a specific Amazon payment method. However the extra output of the 150/45 seems like it's worth the extra bucks if you can stretch the budget..I just looked at Amazon here. The 150 volt 35 amp unit dropped 40% to just $184.45 USD with free shipping. I just might have to give it a try.
I have 2 nearly identical arrays that are parallel feeding my BougeRV 40 amp controller. If I split them across the two controllers, I will be able to see very quickly if the MPPT tracking in the Victron is that much better than the BougeRV one. While the Bouge never got stuck like the EPever complaints, it does seem to miss track a fair bit. My maximum power has never topped 26 amps for any length of time. I have seen peaks show a maximum power hitting 1,800 watts, which suggests about 34 amps. I think the Victron 35 amp rating should be just fine if I put all the panels on the one controller, even if it is better at pulling current from the panels. Or should I go up to the 45 amp version?
Hello !My two 4215BNs are working fine even with today's clearing clouds from the rains we had yesterday.
You really should start a new thread (with an appropriate title) to work on YOUR issue. You can add links to posts in this thread if you think that helps. But this is someone else's thread for HIS issue.Hello !
help me please .
Still good 11 months later? I wonder if you've noticed precisely what it's doing differently than before?My two 4215BNs are working fine even with today's clearing clouds from the rains we had yesterday.
Yes, my two model 'BN' controllers are still working great. I do not recommend the 'AN' models, they have lots of problems. I can't personally answer for EpEver failures to offer better support. My BN controllers appear to rescan for optimum voltaqe every 10 minutes or so,Still good 11 months later? I wonder if you've noticed precisely what it's doing differently than before?
I bought a Epever G3 3210AN along with the MT50 in Nov 2023. This is in a camper with 2 100AH 12V LiFe batteries in parallel. Charging is from a 200W portable panel.
I think it was likely that it failed MPPT earlier, but since the panel was wired for 12V, I didn't notice. Before the last trip I wired the panel for 24V and it became glaringly obvious, since when it drops the panel input to ~14V I'm only getting about half the charge I should be. I don't have a logger, so the following involves a bit of guesswork... observations from when I was watching it.
1) If amperage is low (I've read that <1.5A will cause it to lapse into PWM mode), it will drift down to ~14-15V for the panel input. Not instantly, but after some minutes.
2) A fairly substantial cloud is enough to make it drop out of MPPT, if this cloud persists for some amount of time (several minutes?).
3) After it goes into PWM mode, if it is then sunny again it seems that the MPPT will eventually start working, but the sun must persist for a good amount of time. I'm not sure how long that is.
4) In cloudy conditions or say... alternating between cloud and sun every 10-20 minutes... it seems to stay in PWM mode and delivers ~half the power it could be.
5) Cycling the panel does not always work. I've seen it step right through the optimal point on it's way to PWM even in full sun. There may be a time factor involved... ie it will stay in PWM for a certain amount of time regardless.
6) I haven't noticed the controller ever reseting itself (open curcuit, then track), except on start up. Someone reported early in this thread that it would do so once per hour, and that Victron would do this every 10 minutes. Maybe I just didn't notice.
7) The controller seems to work great when it's functioning correctly (good tracking and good output)... it just so often isn't.
8) If this is so common across many Epever models, why the hell isn't this common knowledge, and why haven't they fixed it? This is completely unacceptable behavior IMO. I think I'd be happy if the logic included a lower voltage limit of say 75% of the open curcuit voltage, but I don't know if there is a hardware reason why that wouldn't work.
Thanks for the feedback and recommendations! My options with the MT50 are "12V" "24V" and "Auto". These must be battery settings. I've tried them all and they seem to behave the same. Currently it's on 12V. The batteries are 12V and the panels are 24V.Yes, my two model 'BN' controllers are still working great. I do not recommend the 'AN' models, they have lots of problems. I can't personally answer for EpEver failures to offer better support. My BN controllers appear to rescan for optimum voltaqe every 10 minutes or so,
If you have the '24v' mode enabled with any sort of 'automatic parameter' setting, I recommend that you set battery type = 'user'', and all voltage settings explicitly.
Yes, that setting refers to the overall battery bank voltage . Leave it marked as "12V", do not allow it to become confused via the "auto" setting when LFP batteries are present. (They have slightly higher voltage than most lead-acid types, in most situations).Thanks for the feedback and recommendations! My options with the MT50 are "12V" "24V" and "Auto". These must be battery settings. I've tried them all and they seem to behave the same. Currently it's on 12V. The batteries are 12V and the panels are 24V.
The charge settings are "User", defined by me. LiFe batteries.
I guess a 10 min rescan would help, but if it's cloudy then that alone won't fix the issue for me. If MPPT truly fails at 1.5A, then a fairly solid cloud will still send it into PWM mode... which will be ~1/2 the power the panel can produce. That isn't a good scenario on a cloudy day when you need everything you can get!
If you are producing enough current in cloudy conditions to keep the amperage going into the charger above 1.5A, then maybe you'd be fine. Is this true? Maybe the only issue you had was the charger being stuck in PWM too long in the mornings?