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Schneider Conext Battery Monitor - Insight Cloud info??

dobrzpe

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Sep 16, 2021
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hey guys!

ok, i installed my Schneider Conext Battery Monitor about 2 weeks ago on my new DIY 1680aH LifePO4 battery bank. (yea, 6x 280aH batteries) and i just finally got a full charge. i've been watching the progress of the charging through Schneider's Insight Cloud and i'm a lil confused as to what i'm seeing. my question:

what *exactly* is the info that is given through the online portal next to the battery? specifically the "time info"? i understand the voltage, SOC and temp data of course. the time is what has me confused!! i assumed it was 'time left till 0% SOC'. most of the time it says XXdays-XXhours-XXminutes. HOWEVER, sometimes it says something WAY lower like "15 minutes". or "35 minutes". or "2 hour, 45 minutes".

does anyone know if it displays how much LONGER it will take to charge to 100%SOC while charging, then when discharging it shows how much longer to 0%SOC? it just seems random and i can't figure it out! i even thought at one point the lower time was 'how long it's been since it "synced" itself to 100%"... but that was a stretch of a guess!

couldn't find anything in the manual(s), or from searching online. and i'm NOT contacting customer service - they've NEVER been any help.

if anyone can shed some light on this, i'd be MOST appreciative!
 
I don't have the battery monitor, so I can't answer that portion of the question.
I'd guess it's time to full at current charge rate. When discharging it would take a long time to reach full...
Or maybe estimate time to the next portion of the charge cycle (absorption, float...)

Can you share a screenshot?

Have you tried local access instead of online? Some data points have an explanation exclamation point, lol.
I mean a little ! that you can hover the mouse over to get some details.
 
sure!

so, here's why i'm confused:

'a' & 'b' were both taken 24 hours from each other and NOT during charging. 'a' has more voltage and SOC and less time on the counter, than 'b'. (albeit using slightly more power... but not a 50% difference! remember, my bank is ~88kWh.)

'c' was taken the next day while charging and has 1/5 (or 1/10th) the time shown. here's the kicker - when this was taken, the generator & solar went for another 4 hours to a full charge. NOT another 1d 4h 9m!
 

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keep in mind: the SOC was NOT calibrated yet in any of these pics as the bank hadn't been fully charged yet... so i was taking the SOC % with a rock-of-salt!

which leads to another thing: if it 'thinks' it is at 100%, why would it still say +1d?

just trying to figure it out.
 
again, that was another thought - time since last 'equilazation' is shown while charging... however, it was WAY less than +1d since the monitor 'thought' it had reached 100%.... more like, maybe, 3 hours prior.
 
SOC typically resets when it hits a specific voltage (fully charged) or finishes the absorption cycle.

If the battery monitor had never actually been full there would be no reference so it's just watching current go past and moving th SOC accordingly. The battery monitor has to start somewhere (preprogrammed SOC) there's no chance of that random SOC being correct on first power up.
 
ok. follow me on this:

right now it says 53.3V, 94%, 19.0degC, and 9d16h46m.
currently pulling 310w from battery and 266w to load.

9d16h46m = 9.699 days and 1500Ah @ 51.2V = 76.8kWh (i have my battery monitor set to a total of 1500Ah...)

so:

310w x 24h = 7.44kWh
7.44kWh x 9.699days = 72.161kWh
72.161kWh/76.8kWh = (drum roll) 94%!!

so it DOES show 'time remaining' while discharging.

i still can't for the life of me understand why it'll say 15min or 2h45m or whatever sometimes. guessing it's an estimation of 'time left till full charge'.

dunno, but i'll look into that tomorrow when it's charging.
 
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ok. new (cloudy) day, but that shouldn't matter really. we're charging. SO:

same math as above. just charging instead of discharging, right?

725w x 2.45h (that's 2h27m...) = 1.776kWh
1.776kWh is 2.3% of the full 76.8kWh.

so, the battery monitor *should* be showing us at 97.7% if it thinks we'll be full in 2h27m, but it's saying 93%...

when the math DOESN'T check out - it bothers me!! LOL

the only other thing i can think of is there is a setting in the monitor that asks what the float voltage is. i have mine set to 54V. *MAYBE* the time it's giving is until the float voltage is reached? but that doesn't really make sense... it wouldn't be taking into account the bulk/absorb stage BEFORE lowering to the float voltage...

and i'll say the 93% given is accurate! that's roughly the amount of power we used since the sun went down and need to put back. we *should* be short the 7% (or 5.376kWh).

5376Wh/725w = 7.466h

or, in other words, it should be showing 7h28m to 100%.

that's interesting the minutes are so close together. (i'll chalk that up to rounding errors.) but 7h instead of 2h?

i'm just thinking out loud at this point! someone else might find this stuff interesting. this *IS* the internet after all! LMAO!
 

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...ugh...

just over an hour later, sun is trying to peak out. now it's showing HIGHER voltage (which is fine), HIGHER percentage (which makes sense), AND MORE TIME!!

4% of 76.8kWh = *ONLY* 3.02kWh needed till 'full' (i have faith in the SOC%)

but now it's calculating/telling me: 2.33kW x 5.55h = 12.93kWh. or, like, 4x what i actually need to reach 100% SOC.

there's gotta be some loss/rounding error/delay going on that i can't figure out.

again, i'm assuming it's telling me time to 0% SOC while discharging, and *TRYING* to tell me time to 100% while charging. guess i'll revisit this once it's fully charged and see what it's saying THEN...
 

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whelp. at my programmed bulk/absorb voltage of 56V.

says 6h58m for some reason...
 

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I am writing here since my concern surrounds an S/E Insight box. Does anyone that reads this have issues with wifi connectivity and the S/E I nsight interface ? Have an xw6848 Pro with it. Seems to disconnect after a day or so and requires a three-minute power cycle to recover. Currently have the firmware at Version: v1.14 Build 488 [ 17 th Sept 2021] which I believe is the latest and greatest version.
 
you say "S/E Insight box"... is it the Combox, Insight Home, or Insight Facility? regardless, is your wi-fi stable from your access point? i.e. does the wi-fi/network loose connectivity at all when this happens? is your "S/E Insight box" within range of the access point or just *barely* able to get the signal?

and you have the terminators installed on each end of your Xanbus network, right?
 
i'm re-reading your comment... are you having a problem with the Insight Cloud when you log into your account online? or do you think your "S/E Insight box" isn't connecting to your LOCAL network at all?

are you able to log into your "S/E Insight box" directly from your computer (using the wi-fi access point feature)?
 
Problem is ...

Modbus data will work for some half day and stop. A Insight power cycle will recover in 3 minutes without any restart of the code using modbus. Recently we tried using the cat6 and now have lan conflicts. Even after turning off the wifi in Insight, the conflict will resurface in a few hours. We have no cloud interconnect enabled at all.
 
This is identical modbus commands that work at my other location with the gateway 100% 24/7. Never a hiccup. The only variable is the gateway to insight home device.
 
you say "S/E Insight box"... is it the Combox, Insight Home, or Insight Facility? regardless, is your wi-fi stable from your access point? i.e. does the wi-fi/network loose connectivity at all when this happens? is your "S/E Insight box" within range of the access point or just *barely* able to get the signal?

and you have the terminators installed on each end of your Xanbus network, right?
Terminators are on the XW side, the Insight Home has no dual connectors, so we assume the Insight Home is self terminating. It is the lan solution that is in a new arena with ip or mac conflicts now. Will try factory reset and only lan down the road.
 
ok, you are using Insight Home. got it. yea, that one (and the ONLY one Schneider has that is) is already self-terminated for the Xanbus network and needs to be on one of the ends.

you keep mentioning 'lan' - as in Local Area Network? Xanbus is *technically* it's own LAN with it's own protocols and not connected to a traditional LAN in any way other than through wi-fi... EDIT: i don't have the Home, so i just looked at a pic of the connections, yup, it's got a LAN port!

you say you don't have any "cloud interconnect enabled". and that's where i get lost. unless you ONLY have the Insight Home so you can log in using the Insight Web Portal via wi-fi access point, it sounds like you have some sort of home automation/smart home thing going on... and i don't know anything about modbus data, where you are getting that info, how one would even use that, etc...

then, just out of curiosity, it sounds like whatever DIY local monitoring you are doing is what is 'loosing the connection', correct? like some google home thing or raspberry pi? your Xanbus network is sending the info through your Insight Home (via wi-fi) to whatever access point/router you have that is connected to something-that-i-have-no-idea-about?
 
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When I say lan i speak of the cat6 network to the router. I know XanBus is not the same.

As I said, at site #1 with gateway, all has been fine 24/7 for 2 years. Its the Insight Home at site #2 that is at issue. Modbus is local and works fine at site 1, its the site with the Insight, el cheapo box, that drops within 24 hours. Neither site bothers with a cloud.

I'm just hoping someone new will stumble upon this thread and have a contribution not thought of yet.

Thanks.
 
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