I have a simple 12v system that seems to have a glitch for which I can find no solution on the Interweb.
System is a LifePo4 battery connected through a smart shunt to a Smart Solar 75/10 and the loads on the caravan.
This has been working fine with monitoring over Bluetooth for the last year and still does.
I have added a Raspberry Pi running Venus OS to monitor remotely, this much of the time is fine. However the Smart Shunt drops out of the VRM randomly. There is no evidence of it being there apart from the devices list where it says how long it is since it disappeared.
It’s still there via BT from Connect.
I have changed the cable and the USB port but to no avail.Firmware and software are the latest available.
One thing that I did find on the Interweb is that there may be a low supply voltage hardware problem with the ip65 shunt <2.7v causing it to shutdown, but I can’t find which serial number units this might affect.
Does anyone have any thoughts on how to cure this.
Forgot to add there is also an IP22 charger connected but powered down, so inactive as there is no local mains supply and a GPS puck.
One thing i do know is sometimes a raspberry pi ‘power saves’ by shuting down usb power. This could also be a factor.
A second factor could be some battery bmsdont like parasitic draws, it could also be randomly shutting down and then re awaken because solar is there.
Two things i have seen being experienced in the field.
Pi and USB is a possibility if I reboot the unit it does come back but why doesn’t that affect other USB items they always stay up. I will have to swap the USB outlet again with the solar as that doesn’t drop out.
Doubt its the battery because although it doesn’t register low currents on the BMS SOC there is no record of it dropping out as the Pi stays powered 24/7
What are you using for cables? It kind of sounds like you’re experiencing similar to what I am (which I have my own thread for: Second VE.Direct device goes offline (Firmware woes?) )
Same sort of cables as you are using😱
However you are far more diligent looking at logs, I regard myself as a hardware person rather than software.
Slightly different results here the Shunt can stay up for 8+ hours, it’s never been less than about an hour. Problem for me is the system is 15 miles away so not something I can easily swap stuff around on and sit and wait until it drops out.
I’m getting the MQTT-RPC error code #R2 message just having connect open on the desktop, I need to see if that occurs on the spare unit I have here.
Might have to do a trip tomorrow to remove GPS and offline charger and swap to their USB sockets.
MQTT-RPC error happens on the spare system which is just a Pi with nothing connected.
I swapped out cable and it made no difference. Shunt still dropping out from VRM.
Tried a USB isolator on the shunt and it made no difference.
Removed the usb extension (it’s there so I can plug things into adjacent sockets) and swapped USB sockets with the MPPT controller. Also removed the GPS as it was drawing too much current.
Now got to wait.
I must be in someone’s good books today.
The MPPT controller has dropped out of VRM so it looks like it’s a “bad” USB socket in the RPi .
I will swap it to the other socket and report back.
I’m hesitating on posting this as it may signal the kiss of death to my theory.
Having spent the morning down there and moved the MPPT to another USB socket all appears to be working as it should.
The RPi is running from a 12v>5v converter as there is no 230v available to power the proper adaptor. The voltage under load at the good USB sockets is 4.89v, at the one that is intermittent its 4.83v. Even though there is only a USB to VE direct adapter on each one my suspicion is that the voltage is dropping enough to cause the adapter to drop out. At the moment all is running fine I await to see what happens overnight when the battery voltage drops a bit.
I will be replacing the 12v>5v converter with another type that puts out 5.1v through my Test RPi later in the week.
will report back later.
I totally didn’t get notified of any of your replies here despite asking for alerts… odd… I’ve changed my alert settings - hopefully that helps.
I’ve been wondering about the voltage being supplied to my pi also - I can’t remember what I used for a power supply as I set things up a couple of years ago and my memory is short…
Thanks for following-up with your results though, I guess I COULD temporarily use a different power supply and see if that has any impact on my issues.
Should have stayed quiet. It got dark and it’s dropped out again.
I will change PSU leave it for a couple of days and report back.