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Fra avatar image
Fra asked

Suggestions for improving Victron Connect

hello, after 2 years of use and study I noticed fews things that Victron products can improve a lot with little effort.


1) the count of the cycles of the smartshunt and of the various models of BMV.

A cycle is only counted under 65% ..

This is incorrect in my opinion for lead acid batteries one should count a cycle even at 90% or 85%.

IN my RV the system is correctly sized, the batteries are agm for 178ah, and the photovoltaic of 450 watts.

I live in a pretty good climate and never run out of batteries below 80/85%.

So no cycle counts, apart from synchronizations.

This also leads to an inaccurate reading of the average discharge.

In fact, the average discharge is based on cycles and not on synchronizations.

In fact, I have average discharges of 25/30 ah and this is not detected, since my battery pack is 178ah and I never discharge below 65%. actually never below 80%.


2) it would be nice if the victron Connect app for the smartsolar also displays the internal temperature of the solar controller.

This temperature is certainly detected by the smartsolar but is not displayed.

3) it would be nice in the "trends" section to be able to cross the curves of 3 values and not just 2.

For example "battery voltage + battery current + soc".


it would be nice if the AH count was implemented in the historical trends of the smartshunt. Instead it is the only data that is only available in real time.


4) it is a pity that a small economic accessory is not available that records in a memory all the data of historical trends in CSV format to be exported.

The trend is only available on the App for 46 days and the possibility to save the history every 30 days (but only manually) from the smartsolar.

When I had the Epever-based system, a simple object costing 20 euros would record months of data at a time in. CSV.



I hope these suggestions can be taken into consideration, at least in part… at least the talk of battery monitor cycles.

BMV Battery MonitorSmartShuntVictronConnect
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Trevor Bird avatar image Trevor Bird commented ·

@Fra interesting points however the discharge cycle may be worth reconsidering. Battery manufacturers sometimes rate their battery life in terms of discharge cycles. Some set that to an 80% discharge as a measure of one discharge cycle. If you set the discharge cycle too high ( or not enough discharge) it loses meaning because it may look like the batteries are much older in terms of discharge cycles than they really are. It is possible if discharge cycle depth is not set low enough you may think batteries have really been hammered when really they have hardly been used.

The setting you request for cycle depth may make the concept of discharge cycles lose all conventional meaning.

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Fra avatar image Fra Trevor Bird commented ·

sure, I am aware of this.


however there are some Rolls battery,

screenshot-2022-09-28-10-54-38-345-cnwpsmoffice-en.jpg that have a difference in duration between 2,000 cycles at 30% DOD and over 4,000 cycles at 10% DOD.
My own victron agm battery is given for 1500 cycles with 30% DOD.

In my situation it results in 0 cycles on the smartshunt, when in reality it has done more than 400 cycles with DOD 15/25%.

According to the smartshunt it should last me tens of years.
Instead I know that after 1500/1800 cycles with DOD 15/25% the battery will be exhausted. but according to the smartshunt it will be new.

Only the synchronizations allow me to know the true number of cycles.

Could you at least make sure that the average discharge is always calculated every synchronization?

Because it is currently calculated between total Ah divided by the number of cycles.
And in my case the average discharge is 0Ah, since according to the smartshunt I have not even done a cycle.

but my average discharge is around 20/25 Ah. And it is not detected. Except if I divide the total Ah by the number of synchronizations, in my mind.

The user could be allowed to set the cycle count threshold to their liking.
For example, differently in the case of lifepo4 batteries, or Agm or traction flooded acid.


Thank you.

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Trevor Bird avatar image Trevor Bird Fra commented ·
@Fra …..very good point. Many thanks for the detailed explanation.

Regards,

Trevor

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Fra avatar image Fra Trevor Bird commented ·
Ok, i dont no if you are a victron technician..

Im not a software ingeniering, but i think Is very simple to add these feature in the App..

Or not?

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2 Answers
mark-a avatar image
mark-a answered ·

@Fra:

1) (@Trevor Bird also) IMHO the most sensible calculation of charge cycles iwould be the number of Ah drawn from the battery divided by its capacity. In other words add a cycle each time an amount of Ah has been drawn from the battery which matches its capacity (probably taking into account a configured Discharge Bottom).

3) I support that, esp. the historical data issue with the trends display.

4) I'm going to try a RasPi with Venus OS for that matter.

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Fra avatar image
Fra answered ·

Hallo, thanks for your comment.


I don't agree with this.. and maybe I don't quite understand what you mean.


The reality is that the smartshunt cycle count is totally wrong.

All the datasheets of the best lead-acid batteries report the life in number of cycles and different DODs.

THIS INCLUDES 10% OR 20% DOD.

It makes no sense that smartshunt only counts a cycle if the.DOD exceeds 35%.


My batteries will reach the end of their life with 40 or 50 cycles... when in reality they will have done 1300/1500.

These are not my opinions, but facts.

A lead acid battery that have a 15% DOD discharge , it will get one cycle older.

Obviously less older than after a 50% DOD cycle.

But make no sense that smartshunt consider a battery with 1300 30% DOD cycles , like new. With 0 cycles.


It's simply ridiculous.


That victron doesn't change this thing is more than absurd. And it has no logic.

I repeat.. My AGMs will need to be changed in 3 years. and they will have done their 1500 cycles correctly with an average DOD of 15/25%.


But according to smartshunt they will still be new.☹️

It would be sufficient to let the user decide the minimum DOD in the settings for a cycle to be counted

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kevgermany avatar image kevgermany ♦♦ commented ·
So every user now has to guess what a charge cycle is/means... In case you hadn't noticed, the majority of questions here are from people who don't read the manuals, or don't understand them. Now you wish to add complexity for mostly inexpert users.
At best a charge cycle is a guess at representing average usage. It's one definition across the Victron range and some installers take it into account when assessing claims for battery life expectations. But let's go further.


Let's also factor in other factors which affect service life, such as ambient temperature, operating temperature, rate of charge and rates of discharge. And don't forget battery types and quality. Also maintenance during storage, how long batteries spend in partial states of charge...

Unless you're going to do exhaustive tests over every battery in varying conditions, there is never going to be a realistic charge cycle value. But for a specific battery under tightly controlled conditions, a standard van be defined. But would it be applicable and of value in the real world?


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