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Old 22-10-2017, 04:54   #1
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Free Open Source Advance Battery Monitor System

In brief: I got really annoyed with the standard battery monitors that are in general completly useless except showing current volts and amps ( amps not very correct usually) costs a fortune, dificult to install cables to lay etc. following is a description of a completly working open source - free project - everyoine who is interested and want to build one for himself I'm happy to help with advice and everything needed ...

project - source files and description located at :

https://github.com/vtomanov/merix

in : https://github.com/vtomanov/merix/tree/master/pics - are some pictures of the actual working thing

Brief Capability Description:

- up to 9 measuring point ( easy extensible with just a configuration change if needed)
- every measuring point can be included or excluded in the current consumption, current amps and volts calculation - for example if you have let say one measuring point just after the battery bank and somewhere further down a measuring point which will measure the watermaker consumption - you do not want the watermaker to be included in the current calculations as it is already part of the first measuring point, but in the same time you do want to know how much the watermaker consumes and how much from the total consumption it is accountable for.
- measuring point communicate with the main/display module using radio/wirelessly
- calculate properly the in and out amps and adjust based on the battery voltage when appropriated
- calculate/adjust dynamically the loss coefficient as to get 1ah to discharge you actually need to charge more then 1ah - and the loss increases when batteries become older
- show the consumption for the last 24h
- shows how much time is left until the batteries are down to 50%
- shows how long it will take to charge the batteries to 90%
- shows current AH available in the batteries
- shows charge state in %
- shows amps, volts and for how much of the discharge or charge every measuring point is accountable for
- screen is able to switch off the back light to prevent the annoying strong light source during sleep in the saloon
- able to initialize and connect new measuring points ( handshaking and binding with all available measuring points)
- reset of all measuring points and enables them for new binding with new main module or etc.

What The Display Show:

First line:

- average voltage across all measuring points
- total resulting current ( sum across all measuring point)
- proper calculation of battery bank state of charge ( with correction when volts are over 14 and no consumption or charge, when no consumption or charge for 1min also charge state correction based on voltage) and when charge state is corrected - auto calculation of lost coefficient while charging - e.g. when you charge there is a loss e.g. to have 1ah to discharge in average you need to charge 1.25ah)

Second line - flips between ( every 5 sec - configurable) :

- total AH available , and total consumption for the last 24h
and
- time to discharge to 50% ( if discharging) or time to charge to 90% if charging - assuming charge or discharge current continue to be the same ( the charging calculation is a proper one taking in account that after 75% charge the batteries gradually start accepting lower and lower current)

Third and Fourth line are related to cycling between all measuring points

Third line - name of measuring point and :<sequence> of the update received from the sensor
Fourth - current voltage at this measuring point, current amps at this measuring point, how much consumption this measuring point is accountable for in % from day one.
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Old 22-10-2017, 05:16   #2
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Re: Free Open Source Advance Battery Monitor System

What is expensive with a Victron BMV battery monitor? $170 or less if you search them out. Installing A Battery Monitor Photo Gallery by Compass Marine How To at pbase.com.
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Old 22-10-2017, 05:19   #3
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Re: Free Open Source Advance Battery Monitor System

i think it could be done with a nodemcu board and leave out the rf board..
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Old 22-10-2017, 05:49   #4
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Re: Free Open Source Advance Battery Monitor System

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zil View Post
What is expensive with a Victron BMV battery monitor? $170 or less if you search them out. Installing A Battery Monitor Photo Gallery by Compass Marine How To at pbase.com.
$170 is not too much , but :

1. how man measuring you can have ? one ? ohhh how you will measure then ? bow thruster ? watermaker ? inverter ? solars ? windgen ? oh and some of them are directly connected to the batery bank like the bow thruster and inverter and some of them not... and how about if you have two battery banks ( like me ) one in the bow and one in the stern ?

2. $170 is not much... but still for this amount you can have a lot more advance system with about 6 measuring point instead of one + no cables to lay etc. etc.

Of course veryone can make his own decisions I've just decided to put my project for FREE to everyone who wants tp have a advance battery monitor or is annoyed with the standard ones available off-the shelf...
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Old 22-10-2017, 05:59   #5
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Re: Free Open Source Advance Battery Monitor System

Quote:
Originally Posted by jim321 View Post
i think it could be done with a nodemcu board and leave out the rf board..

yes the gauge (client) side shoudl be able to be done ...

but for the server side - not sure especially with my future plan to get a bigger display 3.5-inch LCD touch screen - 480x320 - to make the whole thing look a lot nicer

one other option will be to run a simple private LoRA WAN on the - which inevitably will happened with all things on board overtime ...
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Old 22-10-2017, 06:36   #6
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Re: Free Open Source Advance Battery Monitor System

My dream is a central controller that knows banks' SoCs accurately and set to control all charge sources.

Need per-bank LVD / OVD and temp protection, non-proprietary FOSS BMS.

Here's a FOSS alt regulator. ​ https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/m...VU?usp=sharing
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Old 22-10-2017, 06:37   #7
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Re: Free Open Source Advance Battery Monitor System

That is an extremely cool project! I currently have three ammeters (Bluesea 1732 ammeters) running to see solar, wind and consumption. I would love to be able to monitor this from one screen with historic data on the solar and wind.

I'll have to read more on this later to see if my neophyte skill set can do this DIY.

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Old 22-10-2017, 08:18   #8
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Re: Free Open Source Advance Battery Monitor System

Vtomanov,
This is an incredibly great idea. Thank you very much for your kind willingness to share it with all of us!
Don't listen to any denigratori comments and forge ahead, hopefully you will find a few people with much more understanding of electronics than me that can help fine tune the system.
I will definitely try and build a couple, one for my 4wd camper with dual battery, fridge, solar, water pump, alternator etc and the second way more complex for my cat.
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Old 22-10-2017, 08:22   #9
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Re: Free Open Source Advance Battery Monitor System

Quote:
Originally Posted by vtomanov View Post
Of course veryone can make his own decisions I've just decided to put my project for FREE to everyone who wants tp have a advance battery monitor or is annoyed with the standard ones available off-the shelf...


For a few dollars more people can add a very accurate ADC -
https://www.adafruit.com/product/1085

Less on ebay, 16 bit ADC, 4 channels or 2 differential channels

One difficulty with this side of electronics is the speed at which it's progressing!

The esp8266 was a ground breaker, I have one sending data from a Victron MPPT solar regultor to the internet and a raspberry Pi over MQTT, but the ESP32 looks like a big step ahead again - ESP32 Overview | Espressif Systems
Runs 15 times fast than an arduino with bluetooth & wifi built in, 5 microamp power draw when in deep sleep.

The ESP8266 code seems pretty simple to port over from arduino, 32 I've yet to play with.

Interesting project, good on you for making it opensource for everyone.
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Old 22-10-2017, 08:23   #10
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Re: Free Open Source Advance Battery Monitor System

Vtomanov--allow me to second the thank you for presenting this. I am definitely interested in installing a proper monitoring sysytem which individually measures my diverse electrical users and abusers. Well Done!
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Old 22-10-2017, 08:42   #11
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Re: Free Open Source Advance Battery Monitor System

Quote:
Originally Posted by conachair View Post


For a few dollars more people can add a very accurate ADC -
https://www.adafruit.com/product/1085

Less on ebay, 16 bit ADC, 4 channels or 2 differential channels

One difficulty with this side of electronics is the speed at which it's progressing!

The esp8266 was a ground breaker, I have one sending data from a Victron MPPT solar regultor to the internet and a raspberry Pi over MQTT, but the ESP32 looks like a big step ahead again - ESP32 Overview | Espressif Systems
Runs 15 times fast than an arduino with bluetooth & wifi built in, 5 microamp power draw when in deep sleep.

The ESP8266 code seems pretty simple to port over from arduino, 32 I've yet to play with.

Interesting project, good on you for making it opensource for everyone.

initially I was planing to use :

a 200amps or 300amps shunt with :

Dual-Channel AD Module A/D Conversion 24-Bit HOT Weighing Sensor Shied HX711 | eBay

and

AD623ARZ AD623 AD623AN Programmable Gain Digital Potentiometer Amplifier Module | eBay

bu lately settled on using the allegro modules :


for small currents e.g. watermaker : 50amps one :

50A 3.3-5V ACS758LCB-050B-PFF-T Current Sensor Hall Current Module | eBay

and for high currents the 200amps one :

5pcs ACS758ECB-200B-PFF-T ACS758ECB-200B CURRENT SENSOR IC ALLEGRO CB-PFF-5 | eBay

- in practice the best strategy is to have multiple hall sensor one after the other and switch the measurment between them depending of the value e.g.

let say we have 3 hall sensors one after the other one measuring 10amos, nex measuring 50amps, nezt measuring 200amps

the easure can start from teh 200amps and if < 5o get the measure from the second one if < 10 get the measure from the first one - this way the measuring will be VERY acurrate to about 10milliamps till 10amps and less acurate for 50 and less acurate for 200 , but not sute that it is worth the harware hasle to solder and install all of this...
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Old 22-10-2017, 08:49   #12
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Re: Free Open Source Advance Battery Monitor System

vtomanov:
Just to add my thanks for making this available to all! I know from limited personal experience just how much work has already gone into this project, and to make it free for those who can use it ....... very generous of you!
To the naysayers, you don't have to take advantage of this opportunity, but negative comments do not help advance the work - constructive criticism, by those with far more electronics knowledge than myself, might indeed produce something very worthwhile.
Let's keep feeding this one!
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Old 22-10-2017, 08:50   #13
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Re: Free Open Source Advance Battery Monitor System

hi,


Look great, what kind of shunt are you using? How much power does the whole stuff need?

About the price, if Victron functionalities are good enough for you it's likely cheaper too, good shunts aren't cheap, and you can find some older Victron model for 110 USD with shunt but IMO it's not the point.
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Old 22-10-2017, 09:14   #14
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Re: Free Open Source Advance Battery Monitor System

Quote:
Originally Posted by did-g View Post
hi,


Look great, what kind of shunt are you using? How much power does the whole stuff need?

About the price, if Victron functionalities are good enough for you it's likely cheaper too, good shunts aren't cheap, and you can find some older Victron model for 110 USD with shunt but IMO it's not the point.
I already have a NASA battery monitor and in teh end it is not about teh price but teh useless of the of the shelf onces ( at liast for me) picture attached - 14.8v < 1v consumption with 440ah bank and 90% only showing charged battery ! in brief the volts and amps are displayed OK, but the charge stage is useless ...

I using : http://www.allegromicro.com/~/media/...Datasheet.ashx

costs about $3

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Old 22-10-2017, 09:15   #15
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Re: Free Open Source Advance Battery Monitor System

Quote:
Originally Posted by nitpik View Post
vtomanov:
Just to add my thanks for making this available to all! I know from limited personal experience just how much work has already gone into this project, and to make it free for those who can use it ....... very generous of you!
To the naysayers, you don't have to take advantage of this opportunity, but negative comments do not help advance the work - constructive criticism, by those with far more electronics knowledge than myself, might indeed produce something very worthwhile.
Let's keep feeding this one!
thank you!
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