On the 20th of December, Batrium released Watchmon toolkit 2.17.15 which includes a great new feature for inverters that support CANbus. The new feature is called ‘Ramped Targets’ and allows the charging current to be reduced at the top or bottom ends of SOC. I use this feature to bring down the max charge current…
Before installing the panels, I wanted to make sure they were all OK. I performed two tests: Short Circuit Current – Using a current clamp to measure current. Insulation Test using a Megger Short Circuit Current This step is rather easy. Simple connect the positive and negative plugs together on your solar panel and point…
As we progress into winter I noticed ESS Battery life doing its thing. You an see in the screen shot below, from around 22nd May 2021, Battery life has been altering the minimum state of charge by ~ 5% per day as there is nowhere near enough solar to charge the battery. The effect is…
Today I temporarily connected the MultiPlus II to the Sub Board in my shed (Phase L1) with 6mm electrical cable and turned it on. The inverter came to life and started supplementing my usage perfectly as it should. Below is a screen shot of what my Enphase graph looks like with the battery.. The consumption…
As I have some time to wait for my electrician, I thought I would have a go at nickel plating my busbars. In an earlier blog post I created my Nickel plating solution and have been storing it for when it was required. I found a test busbar and attempted nickel plating it. I cleaned…
Now all the busbars are installed I can finally fire up the Batrium. Using the Testmon I tested my wiring loom. All good. I also created a small precharge resistor pack so I can precharge the caps in the Victron Multiplus II inverter. I now have a bit of a wait before anything new can…
Today I received the last two pieces which has allowed me to complete the high current wiring. I needed two Cabec CB 70-8 Bell mouth lugs that will fit onto the Batrium shunt.
While waiting for other parts, I figured now was as good a time as any to tackle the communication cable between the Batrium and Victron Cerbo unit. The Batrium Documentation doesn’t spell it out, but does give enough information and links to work it out. One end of the cable is standard ethernet as shown…
I found a suitable rack cabinet on Facebook Marketplace for $100.00. It was local so I snapped it up this afternoon. It came with a stack of shelves and some old audio connectors which will need to be removed. The photos below give an example of how the modules fit. The rack cabinet is an…