Barcelona Aux Question

[Groton Vermont]

Hi all,

I have a Barcelona, Rosie and eVault Battery.
I am setting up the Aux on the Barcelona (as they now work, maybe) and one parameter option is SOC%
Great, thats what I need, at 99% I will turn on the heater in the basement and at 98% I will turn it off.
But, as the Midnite Solar equipment and the eVault do not communicate, does the SOC work?
I have no SOC on the status display so I am thinking it will not work.
Or, does the Barcelona work out the SOC from the Battery type and the charging voltage?

btw, can we have the eVault and minditesolar equiment communicate? I read the battery online using the Vitron smart shunt, I can set the correct protocol for thesmart shunt to read the battery info. I don't believe I can do this with the midnite solar equipment.

Thanks

Jim

[ClassicCrazy]

If you have a shunt and Whizbang on your Barcelona that should read the SOC which is often more accurate than than SOC reported by batteries , especially since the whizbang will see the average of all batteries on the system.
I have a Hawkes Bay but your Barcelona should work the same way using Whizbang. So the Aux would be using the whizbang reported SOC.
Larry

[Groton Vermont]

Hi Larry,
Yes, thank you for the response.
Can I read the SOC on the display?
How do I know if the Whizbang is on the Barcelona? I do remember reading about it when I bought it.
Is it buried inside?
If so, it would only read the charging amps for the battery, not the draw?
I bought the Barcelona prewired with the breaker box.
Thanks again,
James

[ClassicCrazy]

The Whizbang is an add on and not internal. You need to have a shunt installed on the system and the Whizbang mounts on the shunt. The shunt would go between the battery and all the loads. It then reads all the amps going into and out of the battery and your Barcelona can calculate the SOC from that data.
I made a video of my Hawkes Bay install and show the Whizbang towards the beginning of the video. I had an existing Classic setup with shunt, and I added my Hawkes Bay to it . So in the video it shows me stacking two Whizbangs on the shunt - but that is because I had one on the Classic and one on the Hawkes Bay. You will only need one.
The video will give you an idea of how it is installed. Basically you have the shunt with only one connection to the battery on one side of it. Every other negative from the system will be on the other side of the shunt.
So not sure how your system is put together and how much modification you will have to do to install a shunt. The purple wire from the Whizbang goes to a connection for it inside the Barcelona , and then there is one setting you need to change on the Barcelona MNGP2 to get it active.
Take a look at my video for more info - remember your whizbang won't be as complicated as mine was with the two of them stacked.
https://youtu.be/7t7lw8ryIxA
Larry

[Groton Vermont]

Hi Larry,

Thanks for the video.

I have a shunt in the system, a Vitron Smart Shunt.
I can report online to see the SOC but I am not sure if the Midnite Solar can read a Vitron Shunt and it is not setup to do so right now.

So with no Whizbang Jn, do I assume the SOC is not known by the midnite system, so the AUX SOC will not work?

Maybe I can use the FLOAT instead and if so, any idea how I set it up - as the manual is a bit vacant on this.

thanks

James

[Groton Vermont]

Just to add some info here.

I have both of the Barcelona Aux set to the same
SOC% on 99% off 98%

On the MPPT second page it shows Aux2 written inbetween the MPPT1 and MPPT2 columns but not Aux1, althought right now the Aux1 is on.

[ClassicCrazy]

I think Midnite is behind on finishing up the Aux and MNGP2 features.
You are going to have to experiment to see if they all work right.
Easiest way would be to set it up on a light bulb or something and try them out.
I just manually turned on the Aux on my MNGP2 and I don't see any indicator for AUX 1 either. On one of the screens there is just a tiny Aux 2 written in the bottom right corner.
It would have been nice to have an LED that would turn on when they were active.
I haven't been using the Aux . When I had lead acid batteries and wanted to get the extra power available from the Classic, I used Waste Not to an SSR that would divert the extra power above Absorb and Float to a water heater element.
But with Lithium batteries there is no extra power when they are charging since they will take the full amount available on my system here.
What I did last year for awhile was have pv input go in parallel to the Hawkes Bay and to resistance baseboard space heater. The PV wires to the space heater went through a breaker so I could manually turn it on or off, but also had a DC contactor in the line so I could control that via the Classic Aux 12v. I didn't use the Hawkes Bay because it doesn't have the 12v that the Classic had and I never got around to setting up a relay to make Hawkes Bay work from a 12v source to turn on the contactor.
I am not using that now since I put in a heat pump this summer which works better for heating my power room when there is extra power.
Larry 

[ClassicCrazy]

here is video I made last year of how I was bypassing PV to heater
https://youtu.be/1Vjfv_GMH94
Larry

[Groton Vermont]

Hey Larry, thank you again for the reply.

I do not want to go to DC heating yet. I am happy using the rosie to power a small heater when there is extra power, which is often. Here in Vermont, in the mid winter, the sun is quite strong and will charge the battery in just a few hours. So on a sunny day of more that 3hrs long I have extra power. I'm in an 1820 Farmhouse with an insulated stone basement. It will usually stay above freezing but should it go below freezing the battery will shutdown, opening the breakers on the Barcelona. So, if I am away, which I often am, I will come back to a dark house. I have to manually turn on the battery and close the Barcelona breakers to get charging again.
I would not have done it this way had I know about the automatically opening breakers of the Barcelona, altho I guess I could take out the breaker control wires. But anyway, the battery needs manual input to close the built in DC breaker. So, if I can get this heater to kick in automatically whenever we get to full charge life would be sweeter..
I can control the heater with a wifi controlled outlet but this is me doing it and I'd rather an automated system. Get a whizbang is the easy answer - assuming the AUX is programmed in the firmware (Is it??)

But, if someone at MS can let me know a) if the FLOAT works in AUX and if so, b) how to set it??
that could do it.

James

[ClassicCrazy]

I keep my batteries in an unheated but insulated shed here in Wisconsin .
What I did was use 2x2's to build a frame around my batteries and then put polyiso type insulation board around them ( and some insulation under them too). I use an inkbird wifi controllable temp controller that has an external temp probe that goes into the battery box. Inside the box I used AC  radiator type oil filled space heater on it's low setting . It worked  great last winter . This year I squeezed another battery in the box for now and put in a 250w ac resistance  heater I had around here. The inkbird is nice because it will data log the temperatures on their app and you can change temps via the app too. They often have them on sale for $35 for wifi model - there is another that is identical looking but no wifi in it. With your basement situation seems like any small heater would keep your batteries from ever shutting down.
Larry

[Groton Vermont]

Yes, it's not the heater that's the problem. It's the control of it when I am away. I would like to AUX to operate the heater whenever the battery is full.
If I get a Whizbang Jr, I can use the SOC% (if it's programmed yet) but I would need a second shunt in series with the Victron Smart Shunt (used for remote monitoring).
If Midnite Solar had an internet gateway and all the promised programming (I bought it thinking the AUX's would work) then all would be good. But alas this is not the case.
I am actually considering selling all my Midnite stuff and going with Victron. The only issue is their inverter is 6KW, not 7KW... but half the price, so maybe I could get 2.

Thanks for all the input Larry. Much appreciated.

[ClassicCrazy]

well there would be some control available via the internet when you were away.
You could turn the inkbird temp controller on or off remotely.
I also use some Sonoff S31 power monitoring outlets that I reflashed with Tasmota .
I can log into a remote computer using Tailscale ( a free vpn of sorts -look it up) and then turn the S31 loads on or off and see power consumption through them too.
But I understand  your frustrations with how far behind Midnite is with the software and documentation for the newer products.
Larry