Recent content by sunworshipper

Victron products talk to each other.

career in physics & electro-chemistry (vanadium redox flow batteries). I can assure that when it comes to lead acid batteries, the manufacturers don't have a team of chemists; I'm personally aware of a well known US battery mfg with no chemist on their payroll. The field is so mature that anyone...

No that messy at all. Solar chargers & battery monitors already communicate with each other - controllers communicate battery temp to the monitor, monitors communicate the true battery terminal voltage to the controller, etc. It's a simple task to communicate net, efficiency adjusted charge...

I don't agree.

Terminating charging based on Amp-hrs returned (after allowing for Coulombic inefficiency) is the best way. After all, the electrons are part of the chemical reaction. In my view, all other methods are compromises.

Most of us on this forum know that the battery voltage (esp. when discharging or charging) is not a reliable of the SoC of a battery bank and recommend the use Coulomb counting of battery monitors for this purpose. However, we seem to blindly accept chargers that determine if the batteries are...

MSP430F6733

TI The relay is triggered by a digital signal generated by a microcontroller. Placing the relay far away from the microcontroller would expose the digital lines to noise. So, the relay is usually close to the brains of the operation. I decided to cut a 'window' so that I can peek inside. The...

Are you sure? I took the PCB off from my BMV 712 shunt. There's no microcontroller on that board. If the display unit contains just the LCD display, why have the relay contacts on the display unit? Would make more sense to have the relay connections close to the battery where other DC devices...

Thanks for the link. That's the board for the shunt. I'm looking for the main unit.

Does anyone know what microcontroller Victron uses in their BMV-712 bluetooth battery monitor?

I tried this almost 15 years ago on a limited scale. I bought four 100 AH lead acid flooded type batteries (12V). Charged them fully. Then drained the acid/electrolyte in to a polyethylene container, rinsed the cells with distilled water and put them away. After several months, refilled the...

In your case, a PWM is better. You have prioritize reliability over efficiency. I assume that you have the panels are wired to match the battery voltage (12V battery and nominal 12V panels in parallel). If a PWM controller fails, you can simply connect the incoming solar positive to the battery...

When a switch rated for AC applications is used in DC circuits, the current rating of the switch is the same. The DC voltage limit is usually much lower, typically 1/3 of the AC rating - 120VAC RMS (170V peak) rated switch can be used in 170/3 or about 56V DC. The reason for the derating the...

This guy has documented his attempts at managing heat in his Victron MPPTs. He has a couple of more videos apart from the one below.