This is a continuation/update of a now two year old post. Thanks to the Raspberry Pi 3b, I have detailed logs per minute of information. Now I have a lengthy menu of graphs to review. This menu of graphs replaces the functionality of a remote meter. I iswireless as well.Lets review this morning.The first thing in the morning, I want to see how things went overnight. Here is the graph for this morning.My conclusion is that the system is working well and therefor there were no problems that need to be addressed. This took about 3 minutes for me to view on my mobile device. I am done for today. Why?1. The blue line(V_Batt) shows the bank began the night in excess of 13V. As you can see, the blue line starts off the top of the graph. This is systems normal and the bank ended well charged yesterday.2. The blue line stayed above the green line(2 Hrs). This means the charging time for Absorption is set to one(1) hour. The downward spikes are the ICECO 12V fridge cycling. If the fridge were not running, the ending Volts likely would have been above 12.8V. This is the seen as Volts at the top of the blue line between fridge cycles. There is a static 3A draw for misc electronics. 3. If the bank volts had dipped below the green line, the ABS time would have been set to 2 hours.4. If the bank Volts had dipped below the yellow line(~ ABS, the float would have been cancelled and the ABS would run until sunset. The green and yellow line's Voltage settings are the main triggers that allow catch-up if the bank had been used heavily enough beforehand to pull the low Volts down. These values were determined through extensive testing and analysis of finishing Amps between APR 2017 and JAN 2018. HTH;John

I’m glad there are people who do these studies. What exactly was the question or event which predicated this multi year study?

wildtoad wrote:I’m glad there are people who do these studies. What exactly was the question or event which predicated this multi year study?1. AGM charging. Because you cannot dip the acid and know the state of charge(SOC) of sealed batteries. Around here, this is called the one half of one percent rule taken from the Lifeline AGM battery manual. This is a method to assert fully charged based on the charging Amps rate tapering down to a percentage of batter Amp hours.2. Smart Chargers. Off the shelf chargers do not charge lead acid chemistry no matter the format(flooded, gel, AGM) and the assertion by some folks that there is no such thing as an automatic charger. Relying on this type of charger may lead to a shorter battery life.I am asserting that I have accomplished both.

Good morning Everyone!Here is an example where the temperature was too cold for the ICECO 12V fridge to cycle. The downward spikes are not in the blue line as we saw in yesterday's graph. The downward slope is due to:1. The battery temperature decreasing. 2. Static/parasitic draw of around 3A.The low Volt reading was 12.854 and appears to be the low point at the end of the blue line. This graph ends when the controller switches to Bulk state.The bank is doing well. I am done for today.HTH;John

Good Morning;Here is another key graph. This graph shows the 10 day trend for battery Voltage. The Voltage is measured via the Remote Temperature Sensor(RTS) connected to the solar controller. The Raspberry Pi 3B collects this information at one minute intervals. There are 1440 daily recordings.The story today is that I have not checked anything since 4/13 and I want to know if anything unusual happened.Red line(Min) - The first nine days are history, the last date is the condition as-of today's date-time in the title of the graph. I see the Red line stayed around 12.6V. That is good and normal. Lt Blue line(Max) - It looks like there is a trend downward. My analysis is that the battery temperature has been rising and the controller is responding to the RTS and lowering the ABS set-point. Maybe good.Green line - This also shows a decline but then there is a day above 14V. This tells me that the RTS Volts were above 14V for 360 minutes, or 25% of the time(1440/4). It appears that the controller is playing catch up as it should do. I look outside and see we are at full sun so we will have a splendid solar day. All is good and normal. :)HTHJohn

Two requests on this type of graph1: all lines should have text labels lying on the line2: IF it's a clear top/middle/bottom like the last graph please use those descriptions instead of color as color blindness is a Sex Linked Trait and though I am NOT color blind.. I'm not far from it (Per US Government testing).

Automatic, smart battery charger? , part 2 | Good Sam Community

full_mosey
Explorer
Jul 10, 2020
A thunderstorm just rolled in and it got dark enough to convince the controllers to switch to night charge state.

Notice that at 10:00AM, the blue line changed from Bulk(5) to Night(3).

HTH;
John
pianotuna
Nomad III
May 25, 2020
ty John
full_mosey
Explorer
May 25, 2020
pianotuna wrote:
4000 watt-hours implies something like 350 amp-hours of batteries? I forget how many watts of solar you have.

620Ahs AGM and 400W solar. Details are in my profile.

HTH;
John
pianotuna
Nomad III
May 24, 2020
4000 watt-hours implies something like 350 amp-hours of batteries? I forget how many watts of solar you have.
full_mosey
Explorer
May 09, 2020
Good Morning!
It won't take long to report success.

Analysis:
The 12.79 over night Volts look good.

Analysis:
There was 1hr of ABS on 5/8 as scheduled. This is good.

Analysis:
More than the base load of 48Ahs were returned to the bank. This is good.

Conclusion:
Good, good, and good.
I am done for today, and done for at least a week when I check back to see if I have had a weekly CHARGE.

HTH;
John
full_mosey
Explorer
May 08, 2020
time2roll wrote:
I would not be concerned as long as the voltage is getting to 14+ by mid afternoon.

If the voltage stays above the green line... why is the controller not limiting the absorption time or going to float?
Maybe I am misreading the graph.

The battery Voltage has not reached the ABS set-point for 4 consecutive days.

The 10-day history if the ABS set-point(regulation) is shown in the graph below:

and the 10 day history of battery Volts is shown in the graph below

.

On the the days 5/4-5/7, the battery volts have been below the set-point(regulation) Volts. The controllers cannot begin ABS until the battery Volts reach the set-point Volts. Accordingly, Float cannot begin until the ABS has completed its daily-set-time in ABS.

IOW, the controllers were in Bulk for the last 4 days.

HTH;
John
time2roll
Nomad
May 08, 2020
I would not be concerned as long as the voltage is getting to 14+ by mid afternoon.

If the voltage stays above the green line... why is the controller not limiting the absorption time or going to float?
Maybe I am misreading the graph.
full_mosey
Explorer
May 08, 2020
Good Morning!

Analysis:
The 12.79 over night Volts look good.

Analysis:
Still looking for ABS. This could be bad.
The controllers never were able to raise the battery Volts to the ABS set-point for four days. My personal rule is to charge the batteries no less than once each 7 days. I will explain more below.

Analysis:
The Ahs look good as they are staying above the base load of around 48Ahs daily. Now you see why I posted the NOAA weather info.

Overall Analysis:
The project started out on 5/4 with a high Watt draw to see what I could get out of the solar panels during the draw. The inverter tripped due to low Voltage after about 4KWh were drawn(SWAG). At that point, I decided I might as well track the solar system's progress in recharging the bank. After the trip on 5/4, the solar system accumulated 37.4Ahs.

When I use the term charge, I mean it as taken from the battery's specifications, not some marketing mumble speak, loosey goosey term such as boost or storage that you may find in some charger's specs. This definition of charge also encompasses the one half of one percent rule(.5%) found in the Lifeline manual under paragraph 5.4.

IMHO, the battery has not been charged, neither per my battery's specs, nor met the .5% rule, for four(4) days. I ignore the wonderful over night Volts of 12.79! My batteries are not charged, yet.

HTH;
John
full_mosey
Explorer
May 07, 2020
time2roll wrote:
Looks to be working as designed. Should see float soon. I see no reason to count and track amp-hours once you know this is working. Now you can focus on camp activities instead of managing charge level of the battery.

The Raspberry Pi 3B tracks for me. I just click on WWW links to see the graphs. No more time use than pushing buttons on a remote meter.

Thank you for your comment. Of course, I agree! :)

Actually, I am still waiting for ABS.

Over night looks good, both controllers will schedule 1 hour ABS.

No ABS yet!

Lots of Ahs.

NOAA wrote:
REST OF TODAY
Decreasing clouds. A slight chance of rain
showers and isolated thunderstorms in the late morning and early
afternoon. Highs in the upper 70s. South winds 10 to 20 mph.
Chance of precipitation 20 percent.

Will post status daily until an ABS charge is completed. Then I will be ready to believe Float.

HTH;
John
time2roll
Nomad
May 06, 2020
Looks to be working as designed. Should see float soon. I see no reason to count and track amp-hours once you know this is working. Now you can focus on camp activities instead of managing charge level of the battery.