New Beta code for Battery Meter and SOC%

[Halfcrazy]

The Classic should still see the elevated voltage and its internal timers are still counting so it should still trigger a Float even though it is showing Resting

Ryan

[dgd]

BIG thanks to boB, Ryan and MN crew for the WBjr updates and now SOC% from the Classic is just excellent - and addictive too. I had a holiday yesterday and the day just disappeared as I was watching the MNGP WBjr display or the local app while also monitoring my KID.

And here was me mistakenly thinking progress was at a leisurely glacial pace       it been just weeks since the WBjr appeared and SOC% display already!
Whats next BIGKID next Q and MN Inverters Q after 

On the plus side a long time off gridder was visiting, he has an Etracer MPPT 60 amp controller and a Morningstar 60 amp MPPT controller with 3kw array into 24v bank.  He liked the C150 and local app so much he bought one with MNDC box, WBjr, shunt etc..

dgd

[offgridQLD]

Just updated our classic 150 to the latest firmware to take advantage of the new SOC readings. Update  went smooth . I have set my capacity and eficancy . I did the update just on sundown around 6pm today. The battery's were on float and SOC was showing 100% but charge controller went to resting soon after it was up and running.

It's just after 8:00pm and we are sitting on 51.3v and 98% SOC  . It will be interesting to see the SOC % first thing in the morning. I am guessing it will be well above 90%.

Anyhow its a nice feature and my wife likes looking at a % number as she can relate to it rather than asking me how flat the battery's are based on a voltage reading. Thanks for getting it out there.

I am guessing I might need to do some tweaking to get it dialed in , 6 year old 1330ah cells at c100 but only 800AH at c10. Based on that I put them down as 1000AH based on the typical average loads they see. efficacy I put down as 95%. Will see how I go.

kurt

[Halfcrazy]

I will be releasing even newer code and local app today. The new classic code adds 2 neat things

A- Temperature compensation for Battery capacity Adjustable from 3% to 0, Default is usually 1% per degree C below or above 25C the classic subtracts below 25 and adds above
B- Adjustable Temperature for the Neutral point. Typically it is always 25C as the Neutral point but there have been a couple people ask for it to go to say 30C so it is now adjustable and it covers the Step A above as well as Temperature compensation for the voltage.

Here is a link to the firmware until I get it on the website http://www.fusion.midnitesolar.com/MidNiteSolarUpdate_1755_2-1-2014_v4.11.exe
Here is a link to the newest Local App that has most of the setup and some extras for the SOC meter http://kb1uas.com/HighVoltage/LocalApp/LocalStatusPanel.v0.3.37.air

[offgridQLD]

Thanks for the update.

I noticed last night just after nidnight that the Remaining Ah was showing 65534Ah and 100% I'm not sure what happened as it was set at 1000ah and was counting down fine at about 96% and   960 or so AH. So Im not sure what happened. Could it be something to do with having ( night auto reset enabled on my classic)?If it is I need this feature on as its very handy in case there is a issue when I am not at the house so the classic can reset ans sort any hangups out itself.

Anyhow I upgraded to the new local app this morning and reset the AH to 1000 and efficacy to 95% . It was then showing 958AH and 95% SOC so looks like it was keeping tabs overnight but just something went funny with the 65534Ah count . Will see what happens tonight at midnight.

If I get enthusiastic I might even update the firmware again to day.

Kurt

[RossW]

Anyhow its a nice feature and my wife likes looking at a % number as she can relate to it rather than asking me how flat the battery's are based on a voltage reading. Thanks for getting it out there.

We have an iPad in the kitchen, always ready for the million random questions each day.
One of its permanent displays is my battery monitor. Wife loves this one for the same reason - she can see at a glance how we're going. Not as simple as a % but far more telling:

[Halfcrazy]

Thanks for the update.

I noticed last night just after nidnight that the Remaining Ah was showing 65534Ah and 100% I'm not sure what happened as it was set at 1000ah and was counting down fine at about 96% and   960 or so AH. So Im not sure what happened. Could it be something to do with having ( night auto reset enabled on my classic)?If it is I need this feature on as its very handy in case there is a issue when I am not at the house so the classic can reset ans sort any hangups out itself.

Anyhow I upgraded to the new local app this morning and reset the AH to 1000 and efficacy to 95% . It was then showing 958AH and 95% SOC so looks like it was keeping tabs overnight but just something went funny with the 65534Ah count . Will see what happens tonight at midnight.

If I get enthusiastic I might even update the firmware again to day.

Kurt

It could be the Auto Reset and boB is aware of this bug and hopefully will squash it

[offgridQLD]

That's fine I guess I could turn off Auto night reset just to confirm it.

I'm just watching it top up the battery now. I am at 99% SOC but it looks like I will go over 100% SOC today as I am still in absorb with a bit to go. 

My thinking is that because I have efficacy set at 95% and perhaps I need to adjust this down until I see 100% SOC as close to the moment I hit float as possible. For example If I hit float today showing 105% soc I should take 5% off the efficiency and adjust it to 90%

Battery Temps at the moment are spot on 24-25C so there isn't much drift there from spec.

Edit: In the end I was showing 1015 Ah into the 1000Ah bank before float triggered. So 15AH overshoot. With 95% set as the efficiency that works out to 1.5% overshoot I can't set ( .5%) so I set it down to 93% efficiency and will see how close I come next time it will be nice to see SOC hit 100% just as float triggers (although i think exact timing will be a big ask) .


Kurt

[boB]

Edit: In the end I was showing 1015 Ah into the 1000Ah bank before float triggered. So 15AH overshoot. With 95% set as the efficiency that works out to 1.5% overshoot I can't set ( .5%) so I set it down to 93% efficiency and will see how close I come next time it will be nice to see SOC hit 100% just as float triggers (although i think exact timing will be a big ask) .

Kurt

Which version of this new software do you have ?  I thought I had fixed the overshoot...   Maybe the newer stuff
isn't quite out there yet.  Still beta but getting better (I  hope)

boB

[zoneblue]

Northguys point, i beleive valid, is that 'efficiency' varys depending on what charge stage its in. in Bulk its likely around 100%, and in absorb maybe 80%. Using an average 'efficiency' will work well enough i guess if the charge discharge rhytym is regular day to day.

[boB]

I noticed last night just after nidnight that the Remaining Ah was showing 65534Ah and 100%

Kurt, I know what this is !!!  Just found it doing it for me with debug code.  That happens when
the AH Discharged goes more than your battery capacity, which I let it do by 2 AH so I would know
it until release...  Guess I can't do that !   Fixing this now. 

boB

[boB]

Northguys point, i beleive valid, is that 'efficiency' varys depending on what charge stage its in. in Bulk its likely around 100%, and in absorb maybe 80%. Using an average 'efficiency' will work well enough i guess if the charge discharge rhytym is regular day to day.

Remember that there are two different kinds of electrical charging efficiency.  One is Amp-Hour efficiency which is in the mid to upper 90% area, and energy efficiency, which is the one that changes with charge stage and can be all over the map.

SOC% will usually use Amp-Hour efficiency.

boB

[offgridQLD]

I guess capacity of the battery can be anything you want it to be as a portion of the real capacity. For example you might have a 100AH battery and you could enter it as 20AH capacity if you like and consider  80% SOC empty.

I have my bank down as 1000AH though its rated at 3 different capacity's depending on 100 hr - 20 hr and 10hr  C rate from 600AH up to 1330AH .

I counted AH today after hitting float and overshot by 15Ah on a 1000Ah battery. Though the SOC stayed at 100% and the capacity stayed at 1000ah i just used the ah total for the day to count the extra 15ah. I have reduced the efficacy to 93% and will see how that works out. Over the day (in float) I was running some big loads and the sun was patchy so it was interesting to see the SOC drop to 99% some times 98% then back up to 100% over the day as the classic did its best to cover the large loads with the patchy conditions.

I don't really expect things to be perfect given the variables of charging and discharging lead acid. I think as long as the the SOC % resets to 100% when the classic hits float and just counts down the AH and displayed it as a % its useful to me. Its a rare day that i don't hit hit float so personally my SOC will have a new datum every 24hrs so things shouldn't get out of whack over that time with small unpredictable variables.

It will be great if one day the SOC % could be logged every 10min and sent to the my mymidnite logs

Kurt

[cybermaus]

So, now that Aux on SOC is available, I have ordered the WB Jr.
Should be here in a day or two.

About its mounting: Its supposed to mount directly on the shunt, but that is a rather right spot.
Can I also connect it through sense wires? After all, no significant current would flow through the wire, so there would not be a voltage drop.

I cannot think of any reason why this would not work, but I thought I'd ask here anyway.

[Vic]

One consideration in remote mounting of the WBjr,  away from the Shunt might noise induced on the sense leads connecting the WBjr to the shunt.

This has been discussed,  in passing on this Forum EDIT:
http://midniteforum.com/index.php?topic=1536.0

Would suggest that the leads between the WB and the shunt be twisted,  or perhaps use shielded cable.

And it would be kind of nice if the WB was supported mechanically.  Some might just put it in  a plastic bag and chuck it in a corner of a conduit box somewhere.  Doubt that the WBjr consumes much power (to be dissipated).   But it does deserve respect!    Just opinions,    Vic