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t0ma81 avatar image
t0ma81 asked

Wrong time in solar charge controller/MPPT

Hi, I have VE.Smart networking via BT between shunt and

Product SmartSolar Charger MPPT 150/45 rev3

Firmware version v1.61

Now my issue is, that totals of solar production is changed not at midnight anymore. It used to do that before.

I use Venus OS on rPi(with ssh, date&time is correct) that is wired to both devices as well as MK3 with inverter.

I do read daily yield for today and past few days via MQTT which is where I've spotted the problem. However to best of my knowledge MQTT dailyYield are values stored and managed by charge controller. So is there somewhere RTC in it? Must be, cuz how else you are going to get History tab contents in VictronConnect android app(with correct date and time)?

When I open Trends - the graph is showing correct x axis time range etc, but if I open History tab, I see at 21:53 that today is 0Wh Yield and P max was also 0W, but it wasn't.

The system that reads these values as sensors via MQTT suggests that the data for Yield values shifted around 19:48.

Ideas?

//Tomas

MPPT SmartSolarVenus OSVictronConnectMQTT
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3 Answers
Michelle Konzack avatar image
Michelle Konzack answered ·

Nop, no RTC in it.

And it become even more annoying if you have to disconnect the MPPT for repair or changes on the system, because it start a new day after reconnecting!

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t0ma81 avatar image t0ma81 commented ·

Thanks, that behavior every time you disconnect power is known to me.

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JohnC avatar image
JohnC answered ·

@t0ma81

You're running 2 networks. Disconnect the VE.Smart network. It's not recommended to run both together

Your RPi via VRM can manage time. The mppt has an algorithm to determine 'solar midnight', but you need to wait for sunup for that to calculate. I think after a couple of hours of no sun it then considers the day over and Tomorrow then becomes Today.

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Michelle Konzack avatar image Michelle Konzack commented ·

It happen to me, that this year my SmartSolar MPPT 150/70-Tr VE.Can started charging around 05:45 and around 09:30 it became so dark and rainy, that you could think it is already midnight. However in the late afternoon around 17:30 it started again charging, but with a new day!


How do you cope with such thing?


It is realy annoying, if you download the data from the MPPT and your Database gies crazy because of a value, which should be not there.


Then you have to go manually trough a database with several 10.000 values and correct it.


As the OP sayed, he us used to download the values at midnight which is usually the correct behaviour.


Because the current behaviour is absolutely non reliable.


I live in Estonia and in the summer, the MPPT switch to a new day somehow AFTER midnight (00:00-00:30) but in the WINTER it change to the new day already around 18:30!


I think, the Victron Ingenieurs should consider upgrading the Hardware with a RTC and switch to the new day at MIDNIGHT or make it CONFIGURABLE, when the new day should start.


I am OpenSource (Linux) Developer myself since over 23 years now and it is only a very small thing from the software. The hardware is another thing.


However, the Victron Team should think about.

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t0ma81 avatar image t0ma81 commented ·
Changed, still today same behavior.
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kevgermany avatar image
kevgermany answered ·

There's something else to be aware of. The MPPT behaviour is as stated. New day calculated as half way between sun down/sun up. Also on system start.

But... Values are stored in a database and a time stamp is added when the value hits the database. Trying to improve the MPPT data by adding a time stamp from a real time clock would create two versions of the truth as you can't override the automatic time stamp from the database. (I may be out of date here, it's 3 years since I worked with this)

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