VE.Direct MPPT´s in parallel with MaxiGX

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ckrohmer asked Oct 1, '19

VE.Direct MPPT´s in parallel with MaxiGX

We have a customer that has built up a system with 19 VE.direct MPPT 250/85 charge controllers feeding into the same battery bank. Now he is doubting on the ability of the MPPT's to work correctly together without being coordinated or being truly paralleled by VE.Can or bluetooth.

I have read numerous posts saying that MPPT's should work properly feeding to same battery, but always talking about 2 or 3 units. Will this also work with 19 units ?

Is it possible to truly parallel the MPPT's using a MaxiGX unit ? Or will the MaxiGX only retrieve data from the MPPT's ??

MPPT Controllers battery charging VE.Direct

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Answer 1 · 2019-10-01T21:29:11Z

Mark answered · Oct 01, 2019 at 09:29 PM

The Maxi GX unit will only allow data logging of the 19 MPPT units and some communication via DVCC or external control in an ESS system. It will not enable you to synchronise the MPPT behavior (phase changes) between the multiple units.

But even with so many units working independently, they will still all work well during bulk phase and switch to absorption at a similar time, but based on various factors some units will inherently switch to float phase a lot earlier than the others. But from the batteries perspective it still receives the correct charge that it needs, as the remaining units in absorption phase will still 'finish off' the charge cycle alone.

But the good news is that all 250/85 MPPTs should be SmartSolar versions and synchronized charging via VE.Smart Network is currently being tested and planned for release soon.

Refer to the related comment in the blog for FW v1.42;

https://www.victronenergy.com/blog/2019/09/11/victronconnect-5-9-solar-charger-improvements-and-much-more/

This method should support upto 25 units in the network;

https://www.victronenergy.com/live/victronconnect:ve-smart-networking

PS. If you are super keen (do at you own risk) you could give synchronized charging a go before the formal release by manually installing VictronConnect v5.12beta2 and then updating the MPPT FW to v1.44.

https://www.victronenergy.com/live/victronconnect:beta

If you do happen to test it please report back as 19 MPPT units is really alot...

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