SOC staying high overnight. Insomnia?

[DevoDave]

Had my WBjr installed for a couple of days now.

The SOC when I wake up in the morning is shown as 90-odd%, where the Xantrex monitor has it down to 70%.  The amps in/out between the two devices match well enough during the day, so I'm thinking the Classic is not keeping track overnight.

Do I need to turn the Insomnia and/or Log Overnight settings to anything in particular?

(I currently have two separate shunts in series)

[zoneblue]

HArd to say which one is right i guess.  First check the 3 WB settings, efficiency, battery Ah and temp correction.  Start with 94%/1%.  It does need to float correctly once to give valid readings. Then the only other factor is sporadic controller reboots. These will tend to reset the SOC to the last midnite value. Theres a fix for this in the brewery.

BTW Not sure how the two shunts in series will work, might mess with the "ground". Will also give two lots of voltage drops, 50mV + 50mV is 0.1V, which will mess with your set points. Suggest using one shunt, with both sensors attached. Add sheilded wire where required.

The acid test is to watch the SOC as it approaches absorb EA. If you have it setup right it will just reach 100% prior to EA (if you have EA set right).

[boB]

Zoneblue has all the right suggestions.

SO, does the Xantrex (is that an XW ?) do battery temperature capacity adjustment ?  If so, what does it use for capacity change per degree C ?  If it doesn't, then you might try changing the Classic's % to 0 %


The Classic does not need to be running at night to do its SOC% calculations.  BUT, it does need to keep running.
Yes, the fix for rebooting is definitely close to being ready to bottle and cap (from the brewery as AB says).

You should be able to put shunts in series because there is such a low voltage drop across them, they are essentially
at battery negative for most purposes.  For the Classic's communications with the WB Jr. they certainly are.

However, it occurs to me that since each shunt can be off from each other in calibration, if the WB Jr. shunt is different
than the XW shunt, that can make a difference in readings.

90+ % SOC   vs.  70% SOC is quite a difference though so not sure why that is happening.

First thing is that they should both start out at 100% at the same time (or pretty close)

The newer firmware coming up (with network bug fixes too BTW), will allow you to force the WB Jr. SOC% to
100% from the "MORE" screen which might come in handy for synchronizing the WB Jr. to the XW system.

I don't know if I knew that the XW system did SOC ?  I know the SMA sunny island does.

boB

[DevoDave]

Thanks for the replies guys.

The Xantrex is the older square one.  It's been very reliable for SOC for a few years.  It does compensate for battery temperature.

I am currently on the water and the solar input is not currently good enough to get into float.  It may be better tomorrow and finally get to 100%.

Another mystery I have just spotted is that the 'Remaining' value on the Whizbang status page shows a value higher than the capacity.  I have 400Ah of batteries which I have told the Midnite is 385Ah, and yet the Whizbang status says my capacity is 397Ah.

One last mystery is a possible bug when I clear the logs for the Whizbang data.  Pressing the appropriate buttons and it takes FOREVER and I finally get sick of waiting and press the main menu button, retry and it does not take long.

New firmware?!?  You ripper.

[Resthome]

Another mystery I have just spotted is that the 'Remaining' value on the Whizbang status page shows a value higher than the capacity.  I have 400Ah of batteries which I have told the Midnite is 385Ah, and yet the Whizbang status says my capacity is 397Ah.

What is your Temp Reference Point set at, %Capacity/C, and what is the current Battery Temp. If you want to disable set the %Capacity/C to 0 then you remaining capacity should equal you Battery Bank AH set at 100% SOC

From the WizBang Jr manual:

As a battery changes in temperature, its apparent capacity changes
and the voltage we charge it to needs to change. If the battery temperature is
above the “Reference Point” (Hot) we gain capacity and lower the charge
voltage. If the battery temperature is below the reference point (Cold) we lose
capacity and raise the charge voltage. Most standard batteries use 25 Degrees
Celsius as their “Reference Point”. If your battery uses something other than
25C for a reference value, this is where you would set it.

We also have to set the percentage of capacity lost or gained for every degree
Celsius we are below or above the reference point. This value can be set from 0
to 3%, where 0 is disabled. Typically a lead acid battery is 1% per degree C.

[boB]

Thanks for the replies guys.

The Xantrex is the older square one.  It's been very reliable for SOC for a few years.  It does compensate for battery temperature.

I am currently on the water and the solar input is not currently good enough to get into float.  It may be better tomorrow and finally get to 100%.

Another mystery I have just spotted is that the 'Remaining' value on the Whizbang status page shows a value higher than the capacity.  I have 400Ah of batteries which I have told the Midnite is 385Ah, and yet the Whizbang status says my capacity is 397Ah.

One last mystery is a possible bug when I clear the logs for the Whizbang data.  Pressing the appropriate buttons and it takes FOREVER and I finally get sick of waiting and press the main menu button, retry and it does not take long.

New firmware?!?  You ripper.

Resthome answered the amp-hours remaining question related to battery temperature.

On the waiting forever to clear the log value,  just try it again.   Sometimes it takes a couple times to clear.  It shouldn't take more than about 5 seconds or so, so when you see it just continuing to sit there, just try it again.
I have never had to do that more than twice.  If it continues to stick in the erasing logs screen, then there may be something else going on ?  Sorry about that.
boB

[DevoDave]

Loaded the latest firmware yesterday and the SOC was down to 79% this morning.  Given that the Midnite started from 100% on the restart when the reality was around 85%, that ties pretty closely with the 64% I see on the Xantrex.

Looks like the issue was the Midnite restarting.

Still overcast here so I'll still have a discrepancy between the two units until I manage to get to float but we are on the right track I think.