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Everything posted by tetrasection

  1. So we got a decent amount of sun yesterday. Panel charging power dropped to 500w at 96%, then shortly after reaching 99% it dropped to 300w, then 150w, 60w, 30w and eventually 15w of charging power. That's when I disconnected the battery because I wanted to install the trunking to make it all look nice. So it looks like it is working as it should, it isn't "overcharging" like it seemed to be doing on it's first cycle, since the charging power now drops to virtually zero. So even though it never get's past 99% it is essentially 100% charged. Who knows, maybe in a few days it will say 100% but either way it's not an issue. Thanks to everyone on here for all the helpful info and advice!
  2. Yeah but it was stuck on 99% for 4 hours and "charged" 2kWh, which is actually over 20% of it's capacity... I'm just hoping it's some kind of initial balancing or calibration or something that will sort itself out after a few cycles.
  3. Was cloudy today, only got up to 89%. Hopefully there will be some sun tomorrow.
  4. Good to hear your alarm issue is no more. Yeah idk, checking on the app now at 12:00 it reached 97% and capped the charging power from the panels to around 600w. It reached 99% by 13:00 (took 0.6kWh to get from 97% to 99%) and kept charging at 99% till the sun started fading at 16:45, so almost 4 hours. In that time it "charged" an extra 1.9 kWh. Will see what it does tomorrow. Really hope I don't have to send this thing back a second time!
  5. I got my battery back from Rectron, changed the dip switch to 0110 and it's working perfectly using the RS485 port and protocol 01. Only weird thing is that it's been on 99% charge for the last 2 hours and there's full sun. Is that normal?
  6. You don't need a special crimper, it's just a standard crimper. Local Computer shop will probably do it for free.
  7. TechCentral has learnt that the Durban offices and warehouse of JSE-listed IT distribution group Mustek were trashed and set alight on Monday. Mustek MD Hein Engelbrecht said no employees were present at its Durban offices when the criminals breached the security at the Redlyn Business Park north of the city — the company had told staff to stay at home given the volatile situation. “They attacked the office complex at around midday,” he said. “They hurt the security guards badly and broke down the gate.” The looters then gained access to Mustek’s top-floor sales area, where they proceeded to steal anything they could, but especially TVs, monitors and laptops. They also gained access to Mustek’s warehouse and damaged the company’s fleet of vehicles and stole stock meant for customers. https://techcentral.co.za/samsung-mustek-targeted-in-kzn-anarchy/109020/
  8. What I meant about the firmware is that sometimes it says "update complete" or whatever but after restarting the inverter and checking the firmware version on the display it is actually still using the old firmware. So then you have to update it again. This only seems to happed with one of the two files. What I noticed on the spreadsheet is that when "capacity" changes from 50 to 100, the "status" changes from "Combine charge and bypass" to "PV charge and bypass". Does that mean once your battery is charged it switches to utility power? If that's the case it seems likely that something in the settings is causing this behavior...
  9. That's strange... did you double check the firmware version on the inverter after updating? Cause sometimes it doesn't take... What is your battery voltage doing while this is going on?
  10. Interesting... Well either way my battery is already booked for transport. Rectron said that turnaround time is 48 hours so it should be back by next week already. Though the real mission is getting this thing off the wall and back into the box!
  11. Haven't even connected it yet but was told it would give high voltage alarms if not updated.
  12. Just a heads up for anyone thinking of purchasing a Dyness battery. Make doubly sure that the battery is updated before you buy it as it seems that some suppliers are shipping batteries with out of date software. I got a Powerbox F10 a few weeks ago and it's a big mess. The battery needs to be updated and the store had no idea that it was not updated and the supplier won't take responsibility. So after weeks of back and forth, the store and I have agreed to split courier costs to ship the battery to and from Rectron to get the update done. So yeah, to be safe, ask for a serial number and ask the very kind Dyness rep here on the forum to check the software version for you before making a purchase.
  13. Can't find a "current balancing controller" (or whatever this smart box might be called) on google. You might be able to achieve this with a bunch of current monitoring relays and current limiters but that seems overly complex.
  14. I see what you mean. I was assuming your base load + excess load was within the 5kw limit of the inverter. For this kind of scenario I would go with the Sunsynk, as it can pass grid power through the inverter in addition to the 5kw that it produces (I think passthrough is 90A, which is almost 20kw). I don't know much about the AUX limitations on the Sunsynk but you could possibly connect your excess loads to the AUX output so they only turn on when the batteries are full. If the AUX port is not capable of grid passthrough (or there is a current limit) then you could use the AUX output to signal a relay on your excess loads (which would then be connected to the main output). You can also connect a second relay to the excess loads with the signal inputs connected to the prepaid meter's output, so that if eskom goes down, your excess loads turn off and prevent inverter overload.
  15. Same thing AFAIK. You put your relay switch on the positive wire between your non-essential loads and the inverter's AC output and connect the Aux dry contact to the signal input. I'm not saying the Sunsynk won't work, I'm saying if you want to get the most out of your money you should go with the Growatt and lithium. Sunsynk with Royal batteries is like buying a petrol Hilux and using diesel fuel lol. Rather get the petrol Corolla and use petrol fuel.
  16. Growatt SPF5000ES + 2.4kwh lithium is the better option BY FAR! Please don't get the Sunsynk + Royal batteries... Please...
  17. The Growatt also has an AUX port. Though it is limited to 3A/250V = around 700W. Easy way to get around this limit is to connect all your gear to the main output of the inverter and connect a solenoid switch to the aux output which will power on your excess non-essential loads when the batteries are charged.
  18. Honestly with lithium batteries being as cheap as they are I wouldn't even think about going with Gel batteries unless it's for DC application like a gate or outdoor sensor-lighting or a water feature or something like that. The thing with Gel batteries is that even if they last years, the capacity drops a lot. So your 200Ah (which as I explain below, you will never get) batteries turn to 100Ah batteries rather quickly. Beyond that, Gel batteries have a substantial voltage drop especially when they are running a bit low so even though you might have x kWh left in your batteries, enough to power your lights and tv and fridge or whatever for the night, as soon as a water pump or something load heavy get switched on it will drop the voltage and trip your low voltage protection. In other words, the lower your batteries are, the lower your load has to be, so you can never make use of the capacity that's on the box. Lithium doesn't do that. Voltage drop is very low. Another thing is charging. The only time you are making full use of your panels is during bulk charge stage. After that, it uses less and less of what you are producing to charge the battery. Time becomes more important than panel power. Package inserts for Gel batteries will tell you that in order to properly charge the batteries, they're supposed to be charged at absorb voltage until the current drops to less than 10mA/Ah, after which they should be switched to float voltage for no less than 24 hours. Even a full day of sun in summer can't do that, it's simply not possible with solar. Lithium batteries can absorb power much quicker and more efficiently and do not need a float charge at all. They simply stop charging completely once they are full, so if you only have a few hours of sunshine it's no problem. In summary, lithium batteries are far more suited to solar application than LA or Gel batteries, and over their lifespan you will actually be saving money while avoiding the hassles and headaches associated with traditional battery system maintenance and use.
  19. I've owned 3 different brands of Chinese gel batteries. Sonic - Good (lasted many years without balancer) Allgrand - Very good (still going) GoldShine - Crap. Stay away. (Some started failing in less than a year with Victron balancers)
  20. Wow. Reading this it seems pretty clear to me that it is the installers who where trying to gip you. Suppliers don't just send out pallets of unknown Chinese crap panels by mistake. Most wouldn't even stock them. Even if it was a mistake by the supplier, as an installer first thing you would do is send the pallet back. You wouldn't go install this at someone's house and never even mention it to anyone. Anyways, great to see you got your system up and running as it should!
  21. Cool. Yeah the Sunsynk has 2 mppt's. For west/north facing panels, separating the strings to different MPPT's is definitely the best option. That way you can also use any panel with an ISC of up to 11A.
  22. I think we're getting way ahead of ourselves here. We don't even know what equipment he has yet. Btw while the Growatt does consume +/-60W with NO load, when you apply lets say a 50W load then it only consumes 90W in total, so the inverter itself then only uses 40W. Pretty sure that as the wattage goes up, the efficiency goes up (same as your computer's power supply). So adding 60W to your loads isn't really necessary. Would be nice to have a graph of exactly how much gets consumed by the inverter at different load levels... maybe someone with 2 clamp meters and some time on their hands will make one one day... In the ShinePhone app there is "load consumption" and "storage consumption" but it doesn't seem that accurate. At times it even tells me that the loads are bigger than what is being pulled from the battery which is not even possible...
  23. What batteries do you have?
  24. The Growatt ES also has an AUX port, though it's limited to 3A. You could always just use that to energize a solenoid switch to turn on the secondary loads when the batteries are charged to a certain voltage. Though with the Growatt you'd still be limited to 5kw where the Sunsynk can use the grid above and beyond that.
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