I just loaded the beta into one of my microwave site controllers. It is an RPi 3B+ Doing very well
Here is the controller and router box. As you can see there is not much space. So we try to use as much multipurpose equipment as possible.
By the way, how can I remove the charger and AC loads symbols. We have no use for them at these sites. (maybe the charger at some but should be able to remove if not needed).
To give you and idea of our network here is a map, this is a dynamic map so all of these node sites are presently active.
You can not, the schematic is centered around an inverter charger as the hub of a system. Systems without one are in a minority, hence I believe Victron have prioritised resource on software development towards most common usage.
For SOC a SmartShunt is a requirement. A solar controller does not know if there are other loads on the battery.
I would hope that they would take into account that small systems are becoming quite common, The small mppt controllers supply all that is needed for a system on a pole powering whatever load. The map I sent has 2875 active devices on it. There are probably twice that many that are not linked to that mesh network.
Regarding the charge controller load info, not so the 75/10 75/15 and 75/20 all provide load information as seen here:
I am not a programmer but seems it should not be too hard to take the above data and calculate SOC. The code would need the a/h rating of the battery.
I believe this is a growing market and the Victrono products are very stable and reliable, something needed for remote unattended sites.
Hi,
I think that VenusOS indeed could do a SoC calculation based on the information from the solar chargers. As a matter of fact I made a start with the software for that a while ago but could not justify the effort for the small number of DC only systems I have installed so I’m using SmartShunts. Maybe one day 
Jan
If you think a little harder, it may occur that anything can do an SOC calculation, you just won’t be happy with the calculation as accuracy requires hardware…
Hardware = cost.
Adding cost to devices that don’t need that degree of accuracy is a bad idea.
I am no coder but since the 75/10 75/15 and 75/20 all provide a load output and show the battery voltage seems there should be enough information there to provide a fairly accurate SOC once the battery capacity is added to the equation. Small DC systems are being put into use for many different operations, in our case microwave links, having that data would help in the monitoring of each remote site.
Hi, the current measurement is not very precise, so when used for SOC you (can) get drift issues. If you do depends on the installation, and how often the battery is recharged, and so forth.
And at least on some models we’re running out of code memory in the microcontroller - making it hard to add features like this.
But in more general: yes for small applications like this it would be very nice to have SOC in the mppt. Hopefully some day!
And looks like a cool application, what you’re working on.
Understand on the measurements, since it is a solar site it gets it’s fill daily of course unless there are clouds. We have sites with SmartShunts and of course that gives us the SOC.
I guess my question was can the VenusOS code take the data and calculate the SOC?
And as to the usage we hope that most of the key node sites end up solar powered, it is after all for emergency backup, and we have learned that nor grid nor public networks fare well with major usually weather born disasters. We have found that the microwave links if done right seem to weather most wind and other storms, seismic activity can be an issue if the structure is damaged or moved. Here we had a hail storm with stones 7-10cm across, my vehicle windows were cracked roof needs work but the solar panels did not even show a dent!! Replace roof with solar panels… We like the well built Victron devices, at first I was a bit put off by not having a screen on them but now I am just the opposite, the BT link lets me see more than a screen and in one of those tower mounted boxes a screen is just another thing to go bad.
Great equipment keep up the good work.
So I only have experience with a system connected to a cerbo, but you talk about a Raspberry that is running the system, right? and i guess the Raspberry is in the same network as the MPPT tracker? Then you can just pull the information through modbus or mqtt, calculate your SOC and feed it back to the System via those options. Or is VENUS OS running on that Raspberry? Then the information should be accessible already on the device.
VenusOS is running on the RPi. If you go to the device list you will see all of the information including the
load (mppt 75/10 75/15 and 75/20) so it would see that you could by having a battery a/h entry calculate the
SOC of the battery. We are trying to keep these remote systems simple. The SmartShunt does a very good
job but for a small box it is a large piece of gear. Especially when it appears that all the needed information
is already there.
