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Matt Knight avatar image
Matt Knight asked

Powering BMV-712 from 12V UPS

We have an off-grid installation in our RV with LiFePO4 batteries along with a 3kVA Victron MultiPlus, CCGX and BMV-712. The behavior of the BMV-712 is such that if it loses power, it restores to 100% SoC when turned back on. I am aware of the setting so it is set to unsynchronized instead.


Unfortunately neither behavior is suitable for us - the most likely cause of loss of power to the BMV is the BMS temporarily cutting off the batteries due to excessive current. This is a temporary situation which we can restore from within about 1 minute, so the SoC of the batteries does not change meaningfully during this time.


My plan is to install a 12V Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) that is kept charged by the main batteries but provides reliable power to the BMV as well as a handful of other low power but key systems such as the TPMS booster and probably the CCGX. I have a Blue Sea Systems split fuse block and the UPS will power the bottom section for these devices.


We have recently acquired the temperature sensor to connect to the BMV-712, and this has two wires - essentially data and positive power. I'd like to connect it such that the data line goes into the BMV but power for the BMV comes from the UPS into the other connection on the BMV. The temperature sensor draws its power from the 12V positive terminal it connects to, but I will remove the fuse and not connect its power line to the BMV.


I have tested this by connecting it up and it all seems to work correctly. However, before I hardwire this in, I wanted to check to see if a) anyone can see any reason this wouldn't work in all cases (I haven't checked all failure scenarios) and b) there are any plans to add a capability to the BMV-712 to restart with the last known SoC.


Thanks in advance.

BMV Battery Monitorups
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markus avatar image markus ♦♦ commented ·

Hi,

It could work, to use the starter battery over a relay or some combiner, switching, to supply power to BMV in case of LiFePo goes off. Just thinking...

If the BMV is not supplied by the batteries voltage, SOC calculations will be incorrect.

The Multi can calculate SOC based on his own consumption, if you have other DC loads, the Multi can't measure them.

Regards,

Markus

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Matt Knight avatar image Matt Knight markus ♦♦ commented ·

I thought the BMV calculates SoC based on current through the shunt, not voltage. The voltage for LiFePO4 batteries is a terrible indicator of SoC. Can't the system use the BMV for SoC and MultiPlus for battery voltage?

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markus avatar image markus ♦♦ Matt Knight commented ·

ah yes, sure. You are right, i was me thinking erroneously. Sorry. Its late I should go to bed.

I don't think that this is possible, as you can only switch to one or another battery monitor in Venus, but I am not sure, if there is an official way to combine values from BMV and Multi, as of Venus perspective, it reads the same voltages in the system...

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Matt Knight avatar image Matt Knight markus ♦♦ commented ·

If that's the case, maybe a better solution is to find a way to "restore" the SoC value if the BMV loses power. I am monitoring the value anyway, so maybe if the SoC suddenly jumps to 100% I can write the previous value back to it over MQTT. Would that work?

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markus avatar image markus ♦♦ Matt Knight commented ·

I don't think so, as you have to write the data back to BMV, but I am not sure if there is a way to get this done.

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Matt Knight avatar image Matt Knight markus ♦♦ commented ·

Can you not just write on "W/<device_id>/system/0/Dc/Battery/Soc" or "W/battery/258/Soc"? If not, I seem to recall from the dev-venus Google group that it's possible to do it directly on the dbus.

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markus avatar image markus ♦♦ Matt Knight commented ·

I am sorry, I can't help you further, it's a good idea to ask the Google group...

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Matt Knight avatar image Matt Knight markus ♦♦ commented ·

OK, no problems - thanks anyway!

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1 Answer
wkirby avatar image
wkirby answered ·

Are you intending to have the BMV permanently powered from the UPS? It would work of course, but in that case it will not be passing true Voltage values to the rest of the system. You could set the MultiPlus to be the system Battery Monitor, but then the BMV would be a bit redundant.

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Matt Knight avatar image Matt Knight commented ·
@WKirby Yes, I would need to use the MultiPlus as the voltage monitor. The BMV would still be doing a valuable role monitoring the SoC of the batteries as we have Lithiums so need to Coulomb count - that's where the BMV's shunt would come in.


I would imagine the MultiPlus voltage measurement would be incredibly close to that of the BMV, right? The batteries are connected to the MultiPlus with a short length of 4/0 cable, so if anything the voltage drop is probably higher along the thin power cable of the BMV's temperature probe.

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