WB jr. Q&A

[boB]

Crap ... I paid $59 elsewhere. I should have waited two more days and paid $44 here.

Either way it's a pretty good deal.

Up here, I would call  $59 - $44 ==  to about 10 Dick's cheeseburgers !

That's one good way to put a value on things for me.
boB

[Tons001]

It is phenomenal deal.

[Resthome]

Has anyone found a retailer that knows when they will have them in stock?

Well there appears to be some miss information going on with the retailers and Midnite. I sent a note to NAWS and this is their reply.      <<<  ...

Noticed last night that at least Wind-Sun had a listing for the MNWBjr:
http://www.solar-electric.com/midnite-solar-whiz-bang-jr-current-sense-module.html

There is NO stock and NO Due Date,  but,  at least some progress.  FWIW.  Christmas in November??   Vic

Strange NAWS shipped mine today. Just got the UPS notification. 

[Vic]

It IS a phenomenal deal!.  And,  it will get better and better,  just like the Classic.   Vic

[Vic]

Hi Rest ...

Well,  you were wise to order yours before I ordered mine  ...  a guess.  OR,  perhaps they came in today,  or perhaps they sold out this AM   ...   or  and so on.

Happy that yours is on the way.  My order was placed on the phone,  FWIW.  Enjoy!  Vic

[Resthome]

Hi Rest ...

Well,  you were wise to order yours before I ordered mine  ...  a guess.  OR,  perhaps they came in today,  or perhaps they sold out this AM   ...   or  and so on.

Happy that yours is on the way.  My order was placed on the phone,  FWIW.  Enjoy!  Vic

Vic

Order mine on the web site last night and got the confirmation and invoice this AM and UPS shipping notice this PM. Due to arrive on Monday so we will see what is in the box. Suspect yours will be shipping soon since Midnite is shipping 10 per box to distributors/retailers. Have a great day!

[mtdoc]

I just ordered mine online so we'll see if they're out of stock already.....

[Resthome]

I just ordered mine online so we'll see if they're out of stock already.....

Just received another UPS notice saying it was from Midnite Solar, so maybe Midnite is drop shipping them for NAWS.  If so thanks Midnite.  I did have a second item in my order so maybe the first UPS notice from NAWS was for that item. Both scheduled for Monday delivery so will see. 

[boB]

I just ordered mine online so we'll see if they're out of stock already.....

Just received another UPS notice saying it was from Midnite Solar, so maybe Midnite is drop shipping them for NAWS.  If so thanks Midnite.  I did have a second item in my order so maybe the first UPS notice from NAWS was for that item. Both scheduled for Monday delivery so will see. 

I know that some went out today or yesterday so one of those was probably yours.

boB

[ClassicCrazy]

Just ordered a Whizbang Jr from NAWS ! Also ordered some Midnite breakers and surge protector.

[Vic]

UPDATE:

My WhizBang Jrs were drop-shipped from MidNite yesterday evening,  and due here on Monday.

THANKS MidNite!

[Resthome]

Okay, I decide to read over the current set of instruction for the WhizBang Jr.  I'm not sure I understand why it is still necessary to set an “End Amp” setting.

“The proper value for Ending Amps will need to be known for this to work properly. If the Ending Amps current is set too low, then the Classic will simply just end using the timer instead and nothing bad happens.”

My understand with the WhizBang Jr installed and the Advance Charge setting to “SHUNT” the Classic would be using the external shut at the battery for its measurements. However the above statement indicates that an “End Amp” value must be entered. It seems to me if I am there and the load is varying this is going to be one number and if I am gone and all loads are non existent or minimal it will be a different number. Although I suppose it's possible to get a number that would work for both it would seem to depend on how large the loads are when the charging changes from Absorb to Float. I was really hoping that the software in the Classic would know when to go into float based on the AH removed from the batteries and how many AH were returned plus some charging efficiency factor. Maybe we are not there yet with this latest beta firmware or I don't understand how the WhizBang Jr is resolving the End Amps issue if we have to know what value to enter.

boB or anyone else care to enlighten me.

[boB]

Okay, I decide to read over the current set of instruction for the WhizBang Jr.  I'm not sure I understand why it is still necessary to set an “End Amp” setting.

“The proper value for Ending Amps will need to be known for this to work properly. If the Ending Amps current is set too low, then the Classic will simply just end using the timer instead and nothing bad happens.”

My understand with the WhizBang Jr installed and the Advance Charge setting to “SHUNT” the Classic would be using the external shut at the battery for its measurements. However the above statement indicates that an “End Amp” value must be entered. It seems to me if I am there and the load is varying this is going to be one number and if I am gone and all loads are non existent or minimal it will be a different number. Although I suppose it's possible to get a number that would work for both it would seem to depend on how large the loads are when the charging changes from Absorb to Float. I was really hoping that the software in the Classic would know when to go into float based on the AH removed from the batteries and how many AH were returned plus some charging efficiency factor. Maybe we are not there yet with this latest beta firmware or I don't understand how the WhizBang Jr is resolving the End Amps issue if we have to know what value to enter.

boB or anyone else care to enlighten me.

RH, realize that there is not "State Of Charge" (SOC) software in the Classic yet.

Until (and if) we can learn the capacity of the battery bank, you would also have to
enter the amp-hours of the bank.  Next version should have that entry field. The Amp-Hours
will of course change while the battery ages.  In fact, a new batteries' capacity may go up
before it starts going down.

Also, even if there were SOC calculations in the Classic (eventually will be), you will still need to know
an Ending Amps value.  Of course, we may eventually have some software to help figure out what
this Ending Amps should be but for the moment, we don't.  E.A. is ~typically~  some percentage of
the capacity (Amp-Hours) of your battery bank.  Somewhere around 1% to 5% or thereabouts.

Actually you don't have to even use the Ending-Amps setting.  Just leave it at zero and let the
Absorb timer take care of it if you want.  In fact, you probably want to do just that and watch
the current into the battery with the WB Jr. while the voltage is sitting at absorb and see what
it drops down to.  I would let it go a bit longer than your typical absorb time (1 to  2 hours)
and really watch the current during absorb to see if it drops to some lower plateau.  Then,
you can set the Ending Amps to something just higher than this lower current value.

Until there is more software in the Classic, this is about all that can be done.  It will also
be good to get an idea of your Amp-Hour efficiency by seeing how many positive
amp-hours have to be put in, assuming that the NET amp-hours got reset as soon
as the Classic went from Absorb to Float (i.e. battery full)

Please let me know if I didn't quite understand your question though and I'll try to elaborate.

This is definitely fun stuff !

boB

[Resthome]

Thanks boB, pretty much what I had concluded. I'll try to compare what I see on the Classic with the WhizBang Jr verses my Link 10 battery monitoring system (wish it had data logging) but I pretty much know what time of day the batteries should be going into float as the load is much more consistent this time of year, although the days are getting a little shorter it still should be in Float by 1pm. Also have a lot of local app data I can start to look at in more detail. I guess I should look at dumping some of that data from the Classic to see what it has been doing when I am not there and there are minimum loads of essentially the Classic.

Are the same data values that are available in the local app available to be dumped from the Classic? Or are we only able to get the Offline data? Are there any white papers around on just how one may dump the Classic data? I know there are a few folks on here that have appeared to have mastered it.

Guess we can all hope for that WhizBang Sr you have been hiding. 

Thanks again for your reply. 

[boB]

Thanks boB, pretty much what I had concluded. I'll try to compare what I see on the Classic with the WhizBang Jr verses my Link 10 battery monitoring system (wish it had data logging) but I pretty much know what time of day the batteries should be going into float as the load is much more consistent this time of year, although the days are getting a little shorter it still should be in Float by 1pm. Also have a lot of local app data I can start to look at in more detail. I guess I should look at dumping some of that data from the Classic to see what it has been doing when I am not there and there are minimum loads of essentially the Classic.

Are the same data values that are available in the local app available to be dumped from the Classic? Or are we only able to get the Offline data? Are there any white papers around on just how one may dump the Classic data? I know there are a few folks on here that have appeared to have mastered it.

Guess we can all hope for that WhizBang Sr you have been hiding. 

Thanks again for your reply. 

Luckily, with the WB Jr. you don't need to care what the loads are when transitioning from Absorb to float.

Yeah, need some of that link 10 stuff in the Classic too.

To dump Classic data, the modbus document pretty much says how to do it.  The newest Local App evidently
shows the WB Jr. basic numbers.

Now the Classic also needs to data log the WB Jr. current and amp-hours.  That's one of the next things
for that to do.

Going to sleep now, I mean, Resting and a good reset.
boB