What would you think about the idea to ‘isolate’ the ‘boat page’ from the ‘energy system’ pages altogether? And have a completely independent boat page data source and formatting menu to implement that.
One advantage of that would be the ability to keep the boat page ‘Amperage’ centric while keeping the other pages ‘Wattage’ centric. Another advantage, especially useful for electric propulsion, is the ability to separate the propulsion system (battery, chargers, motor) from the energy system (battery, chargers, inverters a.k.a. MultiPlus).
Personally, I believe that this implementation should not be tied to the type of installation. In stationary systems, it is equally important for me to monitor the current in amperes within the battery.
Not sure whether that is what lays at the root of this ongoing topic. Generally speaking everything ‘power’ restricted is best monitored in Watts and everything ‘wiring/fusing’ restricted is best monitored in Amps. But that doesn’t account for any actual and very real ‘operator expectation bias’. I for long gave up on the idea that I could ‘educate’ my customer base to change their biases towards the more rationally fitting solutions. I mean, why do you think half the western world is still using non-metric systems anyway?
The point I am trying to make is that there is a distinct difference in expectations around the subject of ‘power metrics’ between the ‘boating’ community and the ‘Solar and ESS’ community. What I try to propose is to let have each their own preferences, without forcing a choice for one or the other within a single system. Hence the idea of isolating the boat page data source ánd display settings from the rest of the system.
@UpCycleElectric, I hear you and I get it.
I also think this won’t put much of a load on the interface when adding the option to pick values based on personal preferences.
It’s all because of the policy and the big business behind it.
People’s opinions don’t matter in this case, only the numbers and values that make sense to the business are important.
I REALLY think displaying amps should be an option. In the end amperes is what’s ALWAYS the limiting factor. In power electronics, in cables, connectors, etc.. Too many amps breaks things. And displaying watts does not warn directly that stuff is about to cook. The factor voltage also comes into play.
That is also a little niggle I have with all the Victron datasheets; none mention both AC and/or DC current limits. Designers have to make decisions based on current when they configure a system. You need to know nominal current, sustainable indefinitely, as well as max current, with max duration.
That has been fixed a while ago already, the settings allow setting Amps as the systemwide preferred display unit for power. This didn’t fully address the original issue/request though: to be able to show Amps for DC related power and Watts for AC related power.
