Midnite Classic on a world cruise. Do you have to keep changing time?

[DevoDave]

I'm setting up for a world circumnavigation on my yacht.

500W of solar, 400Ah of AGM batteries, a 150A Balmar alternator with smart regulator on the engine.

I'm looking to upgrade my existing MPPT solar controller and the MidNite Classic 150 at this stage looks the goods.

The only query I have is in regards to the time setting and possibly the Lat/Long location.  As I move about the planet, the local time will of course change.

What effect will this have?  Will I have to keep changing the time as I go?

[Halfcrazy]

The controller does all the basic charging work based on the actual PV power available. The "Only" effect time will actually have on charging at all is the controller considers Midnight the start of a new day and will start a new bulk charge. So as you travel and the remembered Midnight starts to get into the daylight hours you will need to reset the clock.

Another option is to leave the year at 2000. The data logging will be stamped with invalid date and time but then the Classic will determine it is a new day after sleeping for 2 solid hours.

Ryan

[zoneblue]

>Another option is to leave the year at 2000. The data logging will be stamped
>with invalid date and time but then the Classic will determine it is a new day after
>sleeping for 2 solid hours.

Theres always new things to learn about that black thing isnt there?

[DevoDave]

My MidNite is now ordered (yay!) and I'm now trolling through the manual before it arrives.

I just discovered the MODBUS information.  Excited, I immediately thought I could set and update the time and maybe even the GPS position from my yacht's PC every day automatically.

My reading suggests that the time/date is a Read-Only register though.  No mention I could find of Lat/Long.

Does anyone have experience if setting the time (writing to a register) will safely work?  Are the Lat/Long registers available and writable?

[Westbranch]

boB posted something about Lat/Long a long time ago, but unable to find it.  Possibly unused.

boB?

[TomW]

boB posted something about Lat/Long a long time ago, but unable to find it.  Possibly unused.

boB?

Seems it is not used now. Originally for wake up on a solar setup. I
think. Maybe.

Pretty sure it is not used now at all.

Tom

[DevoDave]

OK, if lat/long are not used that's fine.

But what effect would writing the Date/Time registers to update the clock have?

[TomW]

Dave;

Ryan is Technical Support Supervisor at Midnite Solar, in case you did not know.

As far as time on the Classic goes, you can take this post as Gospel truth:

The controller does all the basic charging work based on the actual PV power available. The "Only" effect time will actually have on charging at all is the controller considers Midnight the start of a new day and will start a new bulk charge. So as you travel and the remembered Midnight starts to get into the daylight hours you will need to reset the clock.

Another option is to leave the year at 2000. The data logging will be stamped with invalid date and time but then the Classic will determine it is a new day after sleeping for 2 solid hours.

Ryan

[DevoDave]

Thanks for that TomW.

I had read that, and it may turn out to be the workaround.  Not having a Classic to play with (yet...  it's on the way) I wasn't sure how that workaround would show up in my logs.

It may create too much of a headache when I sit down to chew through months of data which may have skewed timestamps thanks to local time changes.

Hey, worst case I change the time every week.  It's not like I'll be travelling as fast as an America's Cup AC72!

[zoneblue]

To answer the question, you *can* set the time over modbus. Its not as simple as writing to that register, (yet), you have to use the small file upload protocol. If you are linux savy the simplist is to use RossWs  newmodbus tool, which you can find info about here:
http://midniteforum.com/index.php?topic=1335.0

If you are really serious about monitoring these are your choices:

- classic alone: localapp only records live data when the app is running. classic itself only stores daily agregates.
- mymidnite: youll need a net connection to get hosted online storage of full data for several weeks, and daily agregates for life.
- home brew: if you use a small pc to talk modbus to the classic at regular intervals. see open source area for details on that route.

[toothy]

Hello DevoD

I would use this to my advantage, when the fish aren't biting and the wife or whoever isn't
naked, it's time to set the Classic clock, small diversions may just be true bliss!:-[

Don't worry about that thing, the Classic will be the least of your worries, I've heard there is an edge, sea monsters, or the great beyond, beware!

If you make it to Alaska look me up.

Wade