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Post by blade3609 on Oct 31, 2018 20:49:45 GMT
What setup do you have tattoo? I have 8 100w panels, a 60A Commander CC. 6 6v 215ah deep cycle batteries and a 500w and a 2000w inverters..... I'm 100% off grid.... Everything that I have came from Renogy except the batteries and they came from Batteries plus......
This will be my 3rd winter on Solar.... I use about 550w of power each day... Sometimes more but never less.....
Wow that's awesome! I also want to expand and get more panels eventually. I recently ordered another battery so that i can go 24v (I would need a new inverter also  ). |
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Post by blade3609 on Oct 31, 2018 20:52:26 GMT
What setup do you have tattoo? I have 8 100w panels, a 60A Commander CC. 6 6v 215ah deep cycle batteries and a 500w and a 2000w inverters..... I'm 100% off grid.... Everything that I have came from Renogy except the batteries and they came from Batteries plus......
This will be my 3rd winter on Solar.... I use about 550w of power each day... Sometimes more but never less.....
What fuses do you have? |
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Post by tattoo on Oct 31, 2018 21:20:24 GMT
60w that I bought at the local high end car Stereo business.... They are the very same that Renogy sells.... About the same price but no shipping.... |
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Post by tattoo on Oct 31, 2018 21:22:58 GMT
Wow that's awesome! I also want to expand and get more panels eventually. I recently ordered another battery so that i can go 24v (I would need a new inverter also ). Yea that's the only bad thing about going to 24v.... I'm very happy with what I can run off of my system the way it is so I don't see the need to expand any further.... |
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Post by blade3609 on Oct 31, 2018 22:37:28 GMT
60w that I bought at the local high end car Stereo business.... They are the very same that Renogy sells.... About the same price but no shipping.... How do you have the panels connected? series? parallel ? and only one fuse or multiple fuses? do you use a combiner box? |
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Post by blade3609 on Oct 31, 2018 22:44:01 GMT
You use 550W of power each day ? thats very limited power usage, what do you use it for? Im using 40 watts/hour now and that's just a camera system, 40watts x lets say during the day 12 hours, that's already 480 watts in one day.
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Post by tattoo on Oct 31, 2018 23:10:12 GMT
How do you have the panels connected? series? parallel ? and only one fuse or multiple fuses? do you use a combiner box? Series and parallel.... 4 each then 2.... Multiple fuses.... No combiner box they are to expensive for me, It's a cabin so I have an old fashioned house breaker box.. It's wired just as you would a house on the grid but it ain't..... Light switches, lights, fans etc.... It's 100% 120v AC I don't care for 12v DC just way to many problems from what I have seen.... |
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Post by tattoo on Oct 31, 2018 23:26:32 GMT
You use 550W of power each day ? thats very limited power usage, what do you use it for? Im using 40 watts/hour now and that's just a camera system, 40watts x lets say during the day 12 hours, that's already 480 watts in one day. Yea that's all I use everyday 24/7 it's handy knowing not to not use more than that on cloudy days..... I have an old 1940s GE fridge that uses very little power, lights, fans when I need them.... You know the regular things people use today everyday...
But it can be as much as 1kwh in a day if it's sunny and I want to use the table saw, any larger power tools etc.... I have made as much as 1.9kwh on a sunny day.... That's why I use it all I can during the day without pulling the batteries down......
Solar is really awesome if you learn what you can and what you can't do with it.... It took a lot of trial and error before I figured it out...
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Post by playersz28 on Nov 1, 2018 13:23:38 GMT
Im using a raspberry pi to get the data of serial. Is that the code that lindsay posted up or your own? I have a Pi in my RV now that I use for system monitoring but it's not connected to the serial data port on the Rover. I'd like to be able to have my own data collection as well as the BT module connected so I'll look at a serial monitor (only want to read data flow). I also have two Arduino's in the trailer for other functions. Just wondering  |
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Post by blade3609 on Nov 1, 2018 16:04:42 GMT
Is that the code that lindsay posted up or your own? I have a Pi in my RV now that I use for system monitoring but it's not connected to the serial data port on the Rover. I'd like to be able to have my own data collection as well as the BT module connected so I'll look at a serial monitor (only want to read data flow). I also have two Arduino's in the trailer for other functions. Just wondering I used this one
But i had to edit the code to send the data to a database and have it graphed. The BT module does not work for my Rover, its an older version.
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Post by playersz28 on Nov 1, 2018 17:04:41 GMT
Just wondering I used this one
But i had to edit the code to send the data to a database and have it graphed. The BT module does not work for my Rover, its an older version.
Are there any doc's anywhere for the pkg? Is it using a USB port for the serial or is it via a GPIO port. There's a thread on this board about a Renogy monitor done in Python by a user named "lindsay" |
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Post by playersz28 on Nov 1, 2018 17:47:10 GMT
Did some more digging around and found this one github.com/danieloneill/EpsolarServerNot sure if this one works with the newer protocol in the Rovers. My old Tracer didn't provide much info and left it up to the connected interface to keep all the info. I have a C#/Windows 10 UWP app I wrote with a touch screen interface that display gauges and charts for data it receives as multicast packets from an ESP8266. Think I'll try setting it up with one of these Linux packages and work out the data protocols and then migrate that information into my C# app. I have my winter travel time to get it done |
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Post by tattoo on Nov 1, 2018 19:49:53 GMT
Did some more digging around and found this one github.com/danieloneill/EpsolarServerNot sure if this one works with the newer protocol in the Rovers. My old Tracer didn't provide much info and left it up to the connected interface to keep all the info. Yes my old Tracer was the same way... But when I upgraded from my 40a CC to my 60a commander CC, I couldn't believe how much more you can do with it....... You can ever go back inside and look at what it was doing at 3pm or any other time on any day....
I was impressed with all it can do... Way more info that I will ever need....
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Post by blade3609 on Nov 2, 2018 16:22:49 GMT
I was thinking about the commander too , but its way more expensive then the rover.
How do you have your batteries connected?
I read somewhere that all the connections should be placed on one battery(1st battery) (example charge controller cables, inverter cables) and not on the second battery you paralleled onto the 1st or does it not matter?
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Post by playersz28 on Nov 2, 2018 16:38:24 GMT
If you have more than 1 12v or 2 6v then the main feeds off the batteries should be setup so that the connection length off the batteries is the same.
ie: for 2 12v connect the positives together and then the negatives to make a battery unit. Then take the positive feed off one and the negative off the other
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). 
