Victron solar regulator API or equivalent

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Quebramar

Maybe I’m too simplistic. Isn’t it possible to set the relay to let power go to the battery if voltage is higher than float, and when it drops open up to the other circuit? You would leave the bank connected but let new demand from the heater get the excess? In doing so the high demand from the bank would get satisfied first then the heater gets the excess production once the battery is floating. I am maybe too naive and am interested to hear about this.

This would be good except the absorption phase is higher voltage than float. Quite a bit higher.

So unless you have some VERY clever algorithm that can spot the voltage stablisation AFTER absorption and not be confused by house loads etc, it's just too tricky to rely on voltage alone.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by bradfordharley

I also have been playing with arduinos lately for various controls. I would go ve direct and cable it. You can buy the connectors on amazon for pennies. If you don’t want to do ve. Direct, it would be pretty easy to identify the pattern that signifies float. Time of day with time within a voltage range Subsequent to your absorb voltage. You could look at averages to survive the house load peaks. A battery backed rtc like the ds3231 is invaluable if you need time of day.
Sounds like fun. Good luck.
If you have any specific questions, I’ll try and answer.

Thank you, I will look for those cables on Amazon for a start. The prices I had seen for the genuine article were a little brutal.

You sound like you have a similar style of approaching these things to my own, so if I go down the Arduino path I will get in touch.

FWIW, I am using some neat little M5Stack boxes for boat electronic projects. I have found them very handy for these sorts of jobs.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by GILow

I will certainly consider it.

The thing is... I know it sounds shallow... but geez the BMV712 is ugly. My Votronic battery monitor just LOOKS so much nicer.

Drill some holes and add some diamonds to it. Threads on this forum never fail to flabbergast me

[GILow]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Drill some holes and add some diamonds to it. Threads on this forum never fail to flabbergast me

Ooh yeah, that’ll improve it no end.

[RickG]

It looks like you can run a relay off the VE port. There's a discussion here: https://community.victronenergy.com/...bluetooth.html

Victron open source projects: https://www.victronenergy.com/live/open_source:start

The VenusOS distro for RasberryPi and BeagleBone looks like it's worth taking a look at. I put that on my list. There is also a JSON API for the VRM portal.

Cheers, RickG

[bradfordharley]

Originally Posted by GILow

I will certainly consider it.

The thing is... I know it sounds shallow... but geez the BMV712 is ugly. My Votronic battery monitor just LOOKS so much nicer.

I completely agree on looks and display quality. The smarts are great though. You could go with the new smart shunt and a nice voltmeter....

[GILow]

Originally Posted by RickG

It looks like you can run a relay off the VE port. There's a discussion here: https://community.victronenergy.com/...bluetooth.html

Victron open source projects: https://www.victronenergy.com/live/open_source:start

The VenusOS distro for RasberryPi and BeagleBone looks like it's worth taking a look at. I put that on my list. There is also a JSON API for the VRM portal.

Cheers, RickG

Some great leads here, thank you RickG!

[GILow]

Originally Posted by bradfordharley

I completely agree on looks and display quality. The smarts are great though. You could go with the new smart shunt and a nice voltmeter....

I am glad someone else thinks they look horrible.

The smartshunt is an interesting idea, thank you. I will look into it some more.