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danmannale avatar image
danmannale asked

How do I enable Synchronized charging for BlueSolar MPPT?

Hello

My question is if there are known problems with synchronized charging between Bluesolar and Smart Solar devices (in my case both mppt100/50)?

I expanded my system with additional panels and a new smart solar mppt 100/50 charger. I already had a Bluesolar charger, also an mppt100/50 with a BT dongle. They are connected together over the VE Smart networking (Bluetooth) for the purpose of synchronized charging. There is also a Smart Voltage/Temperature sensor attached.

As far as I can see the synchronized charging does not work at all. The switch together into absorption mode, but apart from that they behave totally different. Despite having the same settings, the absorption/float times differ sometimes quite drastically.

I have compiled a very detailed description of the setup and the problem. It can be viewed here under this link.

MPPT Controllersbattery chargingVE.Directsmart solar charging behaviour
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3 Answers
Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) avatar image
Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) answered ·

Hi @danmannale,

Synchronized charging is not supported by the (ASS030536010) BT dongle. It only supports Voltage/Temperature sense over VE Smart networking.

Kind regards,

Thiemo van Engelen

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danmannale avatar image danmannale commented ·

Hi @Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) and @ejrossouw. Sorry, my answers will always take some time as I live in a quite remote area.

Both dongles I am using (one for the BMV, one for the Bluesolar MPPT) are NOT 6010's but have both the PN ASS030536011 (SN HQ17466U1IN + SN HQ1923WTTKR).

I have been monitoring the system over the last days. I let it run a few days with the BMV in the VE Smart Group and one day without any sensor, just the two MPPT. See please the notes I made in the Document attached mppt-debugging-observations.pdf (I also added Synchronisation Problem.pdfthe document i posted in my original message: MPPT Debugging Observations.pdf). There seem to be several issues...

First of all, they do not synchronize at all. One thing I observed at the very beginning when I added the Smartsolar MPPT, that I got a warning because the setting where not the same. Now I can load totally diferent presets and no one of the devices will complain.

Another observation: The Bluesolar charger, seems not to retrieve the current information when the BMV is connected, only the voltage (regarless if there is another device in the same group or not). Why is that?

******

Apart from the issue, that the devices are not synchronizing, I think that something else is wrong. The times when they switch to absorption mode were mostly totally different (when using the voltage/temperature sensor once they did at exactly the same time). I also observed, that they do not really switch into absorption mode at the value set (28.8V), but often before (28.5V). I looks like that one day there was a very short peak at 28.8V, after which the Smartsolar switched to absorption mode. However the voltage was not really yet at 28.8V but at 28.5V. The other device then switched to absorption mode much later. The peak I mentioned can be seen in the graph, however it was not displayed by the app in the Status section (I am recording each device's status with a camera).

****

As said, yesterday I run the MPPT without the BMV being conected. I haven't been able to analyse the behaviour in detail, but I observed that the Smartsolar MPPT displays a wrong Voltage. It differs about 0.7 from the real voltage (i double checked with a voltmeter, measuring the voltage at different points of the system). I have checked before, basically the voltages are everywhere the same with very small deviations. Cables are thick (Nr 4) and short and have all the same lengths. Again the devices switched into absorption modes at different times. Basically the Smartsolar device (named "casa") switched into absorption mode when it displayed 28.55V, however the other devices was showing 27.6V at that point. A few hours later there was a peak where the other device also displayed above 28.6V and then switched into absorbption. The Smartsolar had been already in float mode long before that.

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mppt-debugging-observations.pdf (335.0 KiB)
synchronisation-problem.pdf (834.9 KiB)
Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) avatar image Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) ♦ danmannale commented ·

@danmannale

Sorry, but I got the part numbers wrong.
Part number ASS030536010 does not support any form of VE Smart Networking.
Part number ASS030536011 only supports Voltage/Temperature sense over VE Smart networking and does not support Synchronized charging. This is only available on the SmartSolar MPPTs.

Kind regards,

Thiemo van Engelen

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danmannale avatar image danmannale Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) ♦ commented ·

Thanks for the answer. It is quite disappointing, that it doesn't work with the dongle. I suppose it's more an issue of marketing than of bad engineering... That however does not explain why the smartsolar behaves so strange... (see below).

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danmannale avatar image danmannale commented ·

In general, my batteries are getting charged quite well because I have enough panels. The problem with all that is that the absorption times are not predictable and can be sometimes to long or inneffective depending on the situation and how much power is available from the PVs. I live in a tropical area, with mostly lots of sun in the morning and with changing conditions from about 11:00 in the morning. I have been observing the system quite close lately, because I extended it with additional PV and the smartsolar. Also my last batteries only lasted about 15 months, so something was wrong maybe before. However, the cabling and connections are all new.

Hope I could give you a bit a clear picture and that somebody can give me some hints on how to solve the problem... Thanks!

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michelg avatar image michelg danmannale commented ·

Hi Danmanale ! Which batterie's model ? Kind of setup (parallel / serial) Your link does not work so no idea. I had some kind of issues too at the beginning of my installation, and after adding panels to get the sun from the West in the afternoon, everything went ok.

I presume your batteries are not getting enough energy and are sulfated, that would explain why they lasted only 15 months.

Michel.

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solarp11.jpg (131.5 KiB)
ejrossouw avatar image
ejrossouw answered ·

Hi @danmannale Can you confirm the part no for your bluetooth dongle plse? The below part is not compatible with smartnerworking.

VE.Direct Bluetooth Smart dongle ASS030536010
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danmannale avatar image danmannale commented ·

Hi @ejrossouw

Please see my notes above. Also for @Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff), here are the pictures of the 2 dongles. The HQ17... ist the one used by the Bluesolar MPPT. The other is used by the BMV. All the other information of the system can be found in the document "synchronisation-problem.pdf" above...

Thanks!

Daniel


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danmannale avatar image danmannale commented ·

it's the 6011, but as it seems it also do not support smart networking... I think at the moment I need to solve the problem of the new smartsolar that might be damaged or not calibrated as it reads a wrong voltage (see my other comment).

Thanks!

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danmannale avatar image
danmannale answered ·

Hello all

Thanks for the answers. So far it is clear that this devices cannot synchronize, as it does not work with the dongle (see answer from @Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) above).

However, as said the behaviour (Bulk, Absorption, float times) are sometimes very different. I have been making other tests and run the Chargers without any voltage sensor connected. There i noted that the (new) smartsolar charger displayed a wrong voltage, about 0.7V above the real voltage a its inputs (i double checked with a voltmeter, I am electrical engineer so I know a bit about the topic...). In that case it makes sense why it changed far to early into absorption mode. I don't think that this deviation is normal? Should I return the device?

Thanks for the answer!

Daniel

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danmannale avatar image danmannale commented ·

Hi @Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff)
Can you help me with that question please? I suppose something is wrong with the device if it reads the wrong voltage, right? What should I do?

Best Regards,

Daniel

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Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) avatar image Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) ♦ danmannale commented ·

Hi @danmannale

I am very sorry, but I cannot help you with this question. I would advice you to contact your reseller.

Kind regards,

Thiemo van Engelen

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