Victron Venus OS

[howson]

Thats kind of my thinking. I do not have the washer or dryer, so those breakers are not even in my panel. I have it pretty balanced right now between the phases. To do this I will probably load one phase a bit heavier than the other, but no where near the 50 amp max per phase to trip the breaker or risk danger to the neutral. The only downside I see is power assist would not be available to the other side. So in my case, one AC, the water heater and fireplace would not be available for power assist. Also those items would not be included in the calculation the inverter makes for power assist, so you could end up tripping the breaker outside the rig if you had any of those loads on. My main use for power assist would be friends driveways and generator use, and I would be running the water heater on gas, and I would not need the fireplace and AC at the same time, so should not be an issue there.

Why ditch your SPS if its bought, paid for, and installed? Eliminate a possible point of failure?

Well...dang...completely forgot about the power assist angle when on <50A shore power. Good point. Never mind.

[ncitro]

Well...dang...completely forgot about the power assist angle when on <50A shore power. Good point. Never mind.

Yeah that is my hangup too. If I only needed to split some loads out I would not worry about it (thats essentially how I have my Magnum setup now). The main reason I am using to justify the upgrade to my wife is the option for power assist, and using the same app and the Pi to monitor everything in one place.

[howson]

ncitro

Neil--check this out. Pretty cool, though they don't quantify how large the picture can be or the formats. (Experimentation time!)

[ncitro]

ncitro

Neil--check this out. Pretty cool, though they don't quantify how large the picture can be or the formats. (Experimentation time!)

Very cool! I knew you could do that but did not know it was so easy. A few YouTube videos I watched showed custom logos. More things to play with.

[ncitro]

Well today the work began in earnest. I decided to rip out everything I had from before. I had done my upgrades in phases over three years; first golf cart batts and the Magnum inverter, then I added solar, then the lithium batts, and lastly the DC to DC charger. Over this period I had add various circuits and while I had it tied up pretty well it lacked the unified vision if it were all done at once.

This is a photo of what I had before I ripped it out (cable ties removed from testing the Pi). You can see I still have the box from the GC batts, which is not the best use of space for my lithiums.



Here is the bay emptying out. In one picture you can see the unistrut frame I made to support the Magnum and later the solar controller. We use unistrut for supporting equipment at work and had it laying around. With the weight of the GC batts I had some concerns about the floor of the compartment. I tied the unistrut to the frame above and the floor down below, so it did double duty of supporting the heavy Magnum and also reinforcing the floor for the GC batts.




For the new install I did not need this anymore so removed it, and mounted plywood to the back wall to attach everything to. I screwed the plywood to the steel angle that the wall is attached to.



Next step was to get the Multiplus mounted up. I put it as far into the corner as I could. You will notice I pulled out the wires feeding the factory disconnect, I will be relocating that to this bay.



Next I drilled a hole into the pass through to bring my solar wires in as well as the USB cable to connect the PI to everything. This hole will also have the 120V in and out. I also got the SmartSolar mounted up.

[ncitro]

Before stopping for the night I got the solar wired in and mounted the BMV and DC to DC charger.



I ordered a 12 V fuse panel by Blue Sea (discussed in another thread) and it comes tomorrow. I plan to install it on the right side to power all the factory "stuff" as well as most of the circuits I added. Behind the battery in the picture are positive and negative buss bars. I had those from my previous install so I figured I would wire them in. They will sere as a power source for anything I add to that side as well as power for the BMV and whatnot. I should hopefully have only one connection to the batteries.

Tomorrow will be 120V wiring and then maybe the 12V fuse panel if it comes in time.

[howson]

ncitro -- you're going to really like the new setup! Looking forward tor reading more about the install and especially configuration of the units.

[ncitro]

ncitro -- you're going to really like the new setup! Looking forward tor reading more about the install and especially configuration of the units.

Yes I already love it more and haven’t even turned it on lol. Unfortunately configuring is on hold as Amazon lost my mk3 to USB cable I need to interface with the inverter. Hoping for today or tomorrow but no tracking info and if I order another one it won’t be here until Tuesday :(

[ncitro]

howson

Hey Howard, a question for you. I fired the inverter up to do a test with one battery connected. Unfortunately my programming cable isn’t here yet, I found another seller on Amazon and ordered anger one, hopefully it’s coming tomorrow. The inverter works fine inverting, but won’t switch over to mains power or charge. I checked with my meter and I’ve got 120v at the AC in terminal. Without the cable, I can’t really check the configuration. I’ve got the Bluetooth module, and in that I can see that it does not think there’s voltage present at the input terminal. I’m hoping that the default configuration is messed up and that’s all that’s wrong, but curious if you had any thoughts.

[howson]

howson

Hey Howard, a question for you. I fired the inverter up to do a test with one battery connected. Unfortunately my programming cable isn’t here yet, I found another seller on Amazon and ordered anger one, hopefully it’s coming tomorrow. The inverter works fine inverting, but won’t switch over to mains power or charge. I checked with my meter and I’ve got 120v at the AC in terminal. Without the cable, I can’t really check the configuration. I’ve got the Bluetooth module, and in that I can see that it does not think there’s voltage present at the input terminal. I’m hoping that the default configuration is messed up and that’s all that’s wrong, but curious if you had any thoughts.

I'm sure the configuration is wrong. Don't forget to check the firmware, too. Video below.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to hit me up. Also sending you a PM.

[ncitro]

I'm sure the configuration is wrong. Don't forget to check the firmware, too. Video below.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to hit me up. Also sending you a PM.

Thanks, I thought a firmware too, unfortunately you can’t do the Multiplus off of Bluetooth, only usb.

[ncitro]

Late reply but it was a a long day of progress since we are supposed to head out Wednesday. I left my computer at the shop after programming the inverter, so a full update will have to wait for tomorrow. Everything is up and running great. I’m very happy with the way it all laid out, and the Venus software running on the Pi. Here is a shot of the UI remote console travel from my phone via the VRM portal at my house. The remote connectivity is amazing.

[ncitro]

While I continue to wait for my replacement Multiplus, I did some work on my control center cabinet. A long time ago I had enclosed the top half of the cabinet to allow me to mount more devices, but most of these were out of reach of the more vertically challenged. Now with the removal of the Victron MPPT display, and BMV (which I moved to the front bay), it gave me the opportunity to move things around so all could be more reachable. I removed disassembled most of the cabinet, removed the side door, and put a new piece of panneling over it. I found a close match at Menards. I reinstalled the factory control panel, the holding tank monitor, and the Raspberry Pi and rebuilt the inside of the cabinet. I left the shelf out for now, I think we are going to try and do something to utilize the space in the cabinet better. Need to trim out the panneling yet, but I think I like it with no door. Makes it easier to see whats going on when we walk by.

This is what it looked like before, with the factory control center removed and the door open.




Here is the cabinet taken apart.



And put back together, not trimmed out yet.