8writer
New Member
First-time poster here but I've followed Will's wonderful videos and posts and advice since I ran into his cheerful face on YT!
Embarassingly, I'm a long-time electrician, but I've never gotten to put in a solar system! I did the training - twice - and was on my first sales pitch to some prospect in his home in LA, telling him all about the benefits and payback and... Something on the kitchen TV was rivetting his attention - was I THAT boring?
Well, it was the image of a commercial jet plowing into a very tall office building...
Yeah, there went that sale. And here I am 2 decades later, finally about to do some PV!!
Glad to be hooked up with this fine group and I'm sure I'll learn a lot.
BUT FIRST:
I've got a source locally for a bunch of these critters:
I want to buy at least 4 of them (the guy's selling them for $30 each) and replace my RV's house batteries (lead acid) with them.
Looked it up and they have a BMS built in and those 2 data connector cables (I think it's an RS-485 interface). I'd like to have at least a readout on SOC on these and supposedly there exists a little LED display for that, that plugs into those cables. It's called the U-Charge Battery Discharge Indicator or BDI and made by the same company (Valence, now made by Lithionbattery.com). Looks like this:
But I can't find it anywhere. I've emailed Lithion but haven't gotten a reply yet. Meanwhile, I ran across this bizarre equivalent (I think):
Which was on ebay, labeled as: Tripp-Lite U-BDI Switch Pad Control Module for Valence U1-12RT Battery System. Does it just plug into that RS-485 like the Lithion unit?
Has anyone used this? Does it work?
Or can someone steer me to where I can buy the actual Lithion BDI unit?
Sorry for taking so long to say hello, and thanks for your input!
Embarassingly, I'm a long-time electrician, but I've never gotten to put in a solar system! I did the training - twice - and was on my first sales pitch to some prospect in his home in LA, telling him all about the benefits and payback and... Something on the kitchen TV was rivetting his attention - was I THAT boring?
Well, it was the image of a commercial jet plowing into a very tall office building...
Yeah, there went that sale. And here I am 2 decades later, finally about to do some PV!!
Glad to be hooked up with this fine group and I'm sure I'll learn a lot.
BUT FIRST:
I've got a source locally for a bunch of these critters:
I want to buy at least 4 of them (the guy's selling them for $30 each) and replace my RV's house batteries (lead acid) with them.
Looked it up and they have a BMS built in and those 2 data connector cables (I think it's an RS-485 interface). I'd like to have at least a readout on SOC on these and supposedly there exists a little LED display for that, that plugs into those cables. It's called the U-Charge Battery Discharge Indicator or BDI and made by the same company (Valence, now made by Lithionbattery.com). Looks like this:
But I can't find it anywhere. I've emailed Lithion but haven't gotten a reply yet. Meanwhile, I ran across this bizarre equivalent (I think):
Which was on ebay, labeled as: Tripp-Lite U-BDI Switch Pad Control Module for Valence U1-12RT Battery System. Does it just plug into that RS-485 like the Lithion unit?Has anyone used this? Does it work?
Or can someone steer me to where I can buy the actual Lithion BDI unit?
Sorry for taking so long to say hello, and thanks for your input!
