Feature request - solar/wind priority change back to sustain mode once batteries are full

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iand asked Nov 6, '23

Feature request - solar/wind priority change back to sustain mode once batteries are full

Is it possible to change solar/wind priority so that after 7 days (or reaching the minimum voltage/SoC threshold) when it switches out of sustain mode and charges to 100%;

That it doesn't then stay in this mode forever but then reverts back to sustain mode after a programmable time, enough to allow cell balancing for LFP banks?

Otherwise it's of little use for cases like mine.

My boat moored in winter where solar can't keep up with the entire demand (almost all DC), but can supply some of it to reduce shorepower use.

Right now after 7 days (or sooner) the batteries would get charged to 100% SoC and stay there, so any available solar can't be used to recharge the batteries.

If the boat is moored for months in winter this makes the solar priority mode pretty much useless.

This should be very simple to implement given what's already been done.

solar feature request

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Modifications Space

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Answer 1 · 2023-11-07T09:53:10Z

iand answered · Nov 07, 2023 at 09:53 AM

Any comment from anyone at Victron as to whether this could be done, while the feature is still presumably being worked on?

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iand commented · Nov 09, 2023 at 10:52 AM

Anyone? @Matthias Lange - DE

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Answer 2 · 2023-11-11T12:43:54Z

iand answered · Nov 11, 2023 at 12:43 PM

It would be nice to have a comment/answer from Victron, I know I'm not the only customer with this requirement.

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Answer 3 · 2023-11-20T11:09:14Z

iand answered · Nov 20, 2023 at 11:09 AM

It would be nice to get a response to this, the same issue has since been raised in other threads too.

Any response -- positive or negative -- would at least show that Victron are listening. Come on guy(s)... ;-)

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pwfarnell commented · Nov 20, 2023 at 12:11 PM

Agree with you on this, making it more akin to the storage mode where you can set the repeat absorption interval and it does not stay there but goes back to storage voltage afterwards.

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Answer 4 · 2023-11-20T14:32:18Z

Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) answered · Nov 20, 2023 at 02:32 PM

Hi @IanD,

Your explanation makes perfect sense, and I'll forward it on, but I will say that this might not be so simple as it seems.

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iand commented · Nov 20, 2023 at 02:40 PM

Thanks Guy :-)

I'd have thought that all would be needed is to make the "sustain mode" timer programmable instead of being fixed to 7 days, and the same for the "100% SoC" timer (instead of it being effectively set to infinity).

On another thread there was a comment that some change to the system seemed to have restarted the "7-day sustain" timer, so it must be possible... ;-)

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Answer 5 · 2023-11-20T14:57:17Z

Dirk-Jan Faber (Victron Energy) answered · Nov 20, 2023 at 02:57 PM

You probably should be able to do this using the "Settings control" node from Node-RED.

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iand commented · Nov 22, 2023 at 01:49 PM

I could in theory, but my boat is supported/monitored/debugged/updated by the boatbuilder, and does not have the large OS and Node Red installed.

I would have thought that the functionality I'm requesting would be commonly needed once the updated OS with solar/wind priority becomes widely used; what has been rolled out so far doesn't really do what is required... :-(

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