Renogy BT-1

garynappi

I'm upgrading my small system and while I'm at it I bought a Renogy BT-1 companion blue tooth communication interface so I did not have to go outside to check what's going on. 

When I opened the BT-1 box I found that the serial connection cable was fifteen feet long :-) I'm sure they have reasons for the extremely long cable? Maybe to get the BT closer to the home for loss of signal issues? Or perhaps inside cabinet interference a short cable would give? I do not think the latter because I Emailed their support folks and they just said to stow the excess cable in the cabinet :-)

I think I'd rather have seen an optional Female/Female cable adapter with a 15' cable than have all that excess cable in the cabinet, but I wasn't invited to the design team meeting.  

Anyway I wanted to keep the BT-1 inside the cabinet with the CC and the idea of stowing 15' of excess cable was not one I preferred.

Since I already had a multi cat5/RJ12/telco crimp tool I got a pack of 10 RJ12 connectors, cut back the BT-1 wire to a manageable ~15" (a bit longer than needed to allow for crimping issues) and on the second crimp try it's working and it took all of five minutes to correct.

Luckily the RJ-12 connector they used is clear so I could see the wire orientation in the stock connector.

PS, while at it I shortened the thermocouple wire to ~15", made a bracket for it and mounted it inside the cabinet to watch the inside temperature. I'll have internal forced air cooling powered by the solar cells during the day. 

BB.

You probably do not want to install the B-T tranceiver in a metal box... It is already a very low power signal and installing inside a metal box will probably cause loss of signal and/or directionality issues (the door and other gaps can create "slot antennas" and become a directional antenna).

B-T is also pretty short range--Around 30' or 10 meters out to 100 meters/300 feet (depending on hardware)--So installing the transceiver closer to the location(s) you plan on making remote access could make good use of the long interconnect cable.

https://www.scienceabc.com/innovation/what-is-the-range-of-bluetooth-and-how-can-it-be-extended.html

The range of Bluetooth depends on its class and there are three main classes of Bluetooth:

1. Class 1 : transmits at 100 mW with a range of 100 meters.
2. Class 2 : Most Bluetooth headsets and headphones transmit at 2.5 mW with a range of 10 meters.
3. Class 3 : transmits with 1 mW at a range of less than 10 meters.

-Bill

garynappi

Thanks Bill, I guess I should have said that it's a large BUD enclosure (Plastic outdoor poly PBT blend) I only need around 10' but I've tested it to 40' and it works perfectly.