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paulz
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# Posted: 27 Sep 2024 10:28 - Edited by: paulz
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My pal who recently upgraded his cabin from FLAs to those new high falooting Bluetooth LFPs was telling me he hasn’t been to his cabin in over a month, wondering how they are doing. Guess he got used to looking at them on his Bluetooth when still at his house. They are on a solar charger at his cabin and power something all the time, rodent deterrent or some such.
If remote system monitoring has been discussed here I’ve forgotten reading about it. Even though I too have an Lfp bank, they and my chargers and stuff are old ‘dumb’ ones that are still beating. When not here all power is off, just solar to bank still going.
Refresh my memory, can you guys check on your systems from home?
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ICC
Member
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# Posted: 27 Sep 2024 13:55
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My cabin can not be remotely monitored as I do not have internet service there. I could but that would mean paying for cellular data service all the time. I don't want or need that.
My home system on the other hand has a 24/7 internet connection and can be monitored from anywhere there is an internet connection. Power system, surveillance system, weather station, HVAC, ......
Plus the equipment used in the power system must be able to be used for remote monitoring. EG: at my cabin the newer Victron charge controller and shunt could be connected to the internet, but my older Midnite SCC could not. The Victron up there have Bluetooth but that is only good within 25 - 30 feet.
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 27 Sep 2024 14:22
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Thanks. So if he had the newer Victron SCC and full time internet he could monitor? Doubt he’s up for that either. His new LFPs do have built in BMS so if his rodent thing wears them down and the solar dies they’ll just shut off.
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razmichael
Member
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# Posted: 27 Sep 2024 23:47
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Originally I was worried about how things would work but no internet - nor did my system have any remote capability anyway. I just used a cellular trail camera pointed at the controller display so I could “request” a snapshot once in a while. Semi low tech and limited but it was enough for me to eventually be
Confident that nothing was going to explode or stop working.
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gcrank1
Member
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# Posted: 28 Sep 2024 01:10
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 28 Sep 2024 01:57
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Ha, yeah I thought of that, would work at my place! He says he has lousy cell service, how bad I don’t know.
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travellerw
Member
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# Posted: 28 Sep 2024 02:52 - Edited by: travellerw
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I built a custom solution at my cabin, but its based on Esp8266 and Victron (so nothing exotic). Basically, the Esp8266 pulls data from the Victron (BMC-700) every 5 seconds and sends it to the cloud. Its super reliable, but requires a WIFI network and knowledge of micro-controller programming. The key is the BMV-700 as it collects and exposes all the metrics you would want. (total cost with programming tools is well under $100 CAD). I reality, you shouldn't be building a solar solution without some kind of BMV, so I don't include that as a cost.
For a less DIY solution I know many people that have used Victron GX (either a Raspberry Pi DIY or the actual Victron unit) and Victron VRM. It works awesome and requires much less knowledge. Basically, if you can read a manual and follow it, you can make it work. However, its not a super cheap solution. (Cost is between $300-1000 CAD depending on if you DIY or not).
No matter what solution, you will need "poor to decent" cell service at minimum. Its tiny amounts of data so speed is not required, but the service has to be reliable. You will also need to convert that cellular data to WIFI (often called a MIFI device). Of course if you have Starlink, then no worries.
There are unlimited custom ways to do other solutions (i.e. Bluetooth to WIFI to Cloud), but depending on the hardware it would be difficult to insanely difficult (so much reverse engineering). That is the reason I love Victron! Its all open source and well documented so you don't have to try and reverse engineer anything. Build a custom solution using all their documentation, or just use one of their off the shelf solutions. Your choice.
P.S. I know I said I would publish a whitepaper on the solution I built. Sigh, I just have WAY too many projects at the moment. I promise I will eventually get to it.
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kittysmitty
Member
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# Posted: 29 Sep 2024 12:23
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I am fortunate to have internet at the camp. I have a smart plug that I can turn on the lights in the shed and a camera to see the Charge Controllers. One is set to battery voltage and the other to charge current. Here is the current readings
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kittysmitty
Member
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# Posted: 29 Sep 2024 12:32
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travellerw, I have the Bluetooth modules and the app on my phone, but only works when I'm within Bluetooth range. You mentioned Bluetooth to Wifi. Does such a device exist?
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