Conext battery monitor opinions needed

new2PV

Has anyone used the conext battery monitor, I plan to use it with my xw inverter as it reports SOC to the inverter more accurately than the built in method of reporting SOC. Anyone ever used this unit? Good or bad results?

SkiDoo55

Have had one in use for a few months, seems to be accurate. Feeds information to ComBox haven't explored all of its features.

new2PV

Ok, keep us posted.

new2PV

Upon further manual reading , it looks like SOC is also temperature based but I am not 100% sure.

HiAltitude

SkiDoo55 wrote: »

Have had one in use for a few months, seems to be accurate. Feeds information to ComBox haven't explored all of its features.

SkiDoo: Thanks for posting. I'm in the planning process of installing Conext Battery Monitor on my XW system.

Queston: Did you mount the Shunt near the battery as they recommend in the instructions, or did you mount the Shunt in the PDP if you have one?

There is a reference in the XW System manual to a shroud built into the PSP to protect the shunt wiring , which seems to infer that the Shunt should be mounted there, not near the battery box. However, there's not other mention of a shunt in that documentation.

I'd be interested in hearing how other may have installed this monitor.

thanks GP.

SkiDoo55

Used the shunt from the Mid-Night E-Panel for the XW 4024. Mounted on the bottom of XW. Contains all of the switch gear and had all of the required buss bars for AC/DC IN/OUT required.

new2PV

I plan to mount it in the PDP, I hope it is possible.

HiAltitude

SkiDoo55 wrote: »

Used the shunt from the Mid-Night E-Panel for the XW 4024. Mounted on the bottom of XW. Contains all of the switch gear and had all of the required buss bars for AC/DC IN/OUT required.

I saw the Midnite E-panel this last week at Solar International with the Shunt mounted at the top of the Epanel (bottom of XW as you described).

SkiDoo55

HiAltitude wrote: »

I saw the Midnite E-panel this last week at Solar International with the Shunt mounted at the top of the Epanel (bottom of XW as you described).

My battery monitor is mounted in a separate enclosure. My battery system is outside but fully weather protected. Rain hasn't been a big issue for the last 4 yrs of drought conditions. Haven't even washed any of my arrays so far this year. E-Panel was a lot more complete than the PDP was additional required breakers easier to locate at NAWS.

new2PV

Very disappointed with the supplied shunt uses 5/16" terminals and its going to be hard to get 2 x 4/0 cable attached to it for my parallel battery banks, not sure if stacking terminals is a good idea.

Rossman

HiAltitude wrote: »

There is a reference in the XW System manual to a shroud built into the PSP to protect the shunt wiring , which seems to infer that the Shunt should be mounted there, not near the battery box. However, there's not other mention of a shunt in that documentation.

Oh man, I just mounted mine today below my PDP, never even thought to check if there was a spot in the PDP for mounting. What documentation did you see the shunt mentioned in again?

Just started with the battery monitor so no long term comments, but I do like:

• how it adds a state of charge indicator to the system overview screen of the Combox
• getting the two mid-point voltage readings on the battery bank
• estimated time of discharge for the batteries (not sure what kind of accuracy this has)

new2PV

You may need to upgrade the firmware for the battery monitor to work properly with the 6048, better ask Schneider.

Rossman

new2PV wrote: »

You may need to upgrade the firmware for the battery monitor to work properly with the 6048, better ask Schneider.

It seems to be working ok so far! I am not sure what integration it would have with the XW, I thought it just reported data into the Combox...perhaps I am wrong

new2PV

Rossman wrote: »

It seems to be working ok so far! I am not sure what integration it would have with the XW, I thought it just reported data into the Combox...perhaps I am wrong

It reports SOC to the inverter, more accurately than the built in components in the XW, so yes it is integrated.

Rossman

new2PV wrote: »

It reports SOC to the inverter, more accurately than the built in components in the XW, so yes it is integrated.

I guess this is true, but this feature only seems to be used for more accurate generator starting from what I can tell in the documentation. As a stand alone battery monitor that reports into the Combox, it's still a great unit to add to an older XW system.

new2PV

I have to look at the documentation again on the monitor to learn more details on the SOC.

Rossman

From what I can tell, it offers the following integration with Xanbus devices:

Operation with Automatic Generator Start
The Battery Monitor allows for one additional trigger to start and stop a generator
based on SOC%. When the Conext Battery Monitor is present on the XanBus
network with other battery based devices, the Conext AGS uses Battery Voltage
status information from the Battery Monitor.

Operation with Conext XW+ Inverter/Charger
The Battery Monitor broadcasts State-of-charge information using XanBus. This
allows The Conext XW+ Inverter/Charger to use the Battery Monitor’s date
instead of its own internal State-of-charge calculation. This technique helps to
achieve a more accurate and consistent State-of-charge display on all XW units
connected to same battery bank. In the future, advanced charging algorithms for
lead-acid batteries will also be implemented using the Battery Monitor.

So really the integration level is low right now, you don't get much on that front.

new2PV

Not stated in the XW manual but you can use different values of SOC to control the aux contact in the XW. This might be a good idea to control my AC unit from grid to off grid with a contator.

WaterWheel

My context battery monitor works fine with the XW+6848.       While I guess you could mount it in the Conext PDP I instead cut a hole in the Conext conduit box (mounts under the 6848) and put it in there where it is easy to see.      The Conext control panel in my living room can see it using the Xanbus network so you really can mount the battery meter wherever you want.

The meter comes with it's own shunt which I mounted inside the battery box.

new2PV

Interesting, I did upgrade the firmware in mine, now I lost the cycle count of my batteries and discharge rates, etc. Now those counters are no longer working at all!