JK-Interface 'Peter' boards replacing Victron Smart Shunt. Battery Shelf now under BMS-Control!

[@Der_Hannes]

Hi Andy, thanks for the new Video! As much as i'd love to give the Control Boards a chance - they are way to expensive in my opinion. To upgrade my 3 batterybanks, it would cost me additional 640 USD - more than the BMSs - even if i would decide to buy the new inverter BMSs I understand, that software development and all the effort and time should be mentioned in any case....but man.... I mean on the hardware perspective they came maybe around 30 USD per piece...thats really a bummer And what if the project gets stopped for any reason? There is only one person (not a company) or did i miss something? It should also be mentioned that the Software is (at least some parts) based on open source projects from other users. It also creates a bad impression because the software is no longer open source now. That's just my opinion (so far) - but in the end everyone has to decide for themselves. I dont want to bash this great Idea and project - and please feel free to correct me any time if i´m wrong in any point

[@OpenSolarEnergy]

For those wanting an alternative to the Peter Board, please note that I have improved the latest open-source version provided by Peter (only one BMS) => G.H. Sleeper85 jk-bms-can.

[@emiller233]

@@OpenSolarEnergywhere do we get more info on this? First I’ve heard of jt

[@GregOnSummit]

@@OpenSolarEnergy That's great, but isn't the point of the board the ability to control multiple BMS's. I see it as a way to consolidate everything into a single BMS interface? Am I misunderstanding it's purpose?

[@OpenSolarEnergy]

@@GregOnSummit Yes, Peter's version 1.13.3 only supported a single BMS connection. I improved this version by fixing bugs, adding new functions including support for SMA and Victron. Peter's development for multi-bms support is something that takes a lot of time and that's why he sells his own cards. My idea here was to release the open-source version for a single BMS connection, for now, I don't have the time or need to write a multi-bms version. Those who use multiple battery banks can purchase Peter Board or the new inverter JK-BMS.

[@OpenSolarEnergy]

@@emiller233 I can't give links here, do a search on the Internet with the information I communicated. FYI (G.H.) is a well-known platform.

[@OpenSolarEnergy]

For those wanting an alternative to the Peter Board, please note that I have improved the latest open-source version provided by Peter (only one BMS) => G.H. Sleeper85 jk-bms-can.

[@Juergen_Miessmer]

​​@OpenSolarEnergy Another alternative for multiple old style JKBMS is 'Battery Safety Controller'.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Supports only one BMS?

[@OpenSolarEnergy]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia Yes, Peter's version 1.13.3 only supported a single BMS connection. I improved this version by fixing bugs, adding new functions including support for SMA and Victron. Peter's development for multi-bms support is something that takes a lot of time and that's why he sells his own cards. My idea here was to release the open-source version for a single BMS connection, for now, I don't have the time or need to write a multi-bms version. Those who use multiple battery banks can purchase Peter Board or the new inverter JK-BMS.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

@@OpenSolarEnergy keep up the good work. I really like it!

[@dougle03]

@@OpenSolarEnergy Please keep it open source! People will help you if you do...

[@mikeunum]

Hi Andy, i don't use all that HA and Pi stuff. I have coded a lot of libraries and software on a B&R PLC and it works fantastic and includes my complete home control. Also had done a simulation of a small solar system which i have connected to VRM. The PLC has a lot of possibilities like web server and/or client. I do industrial automation on high end systems for 35 years now. Greetings to Prof. K at NASA. Your setup looks very good.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thanks for sharing Mike. You have great knowledge of this automation stuff. I wish I would too...

[@solarindependentutilitysystems]

Humidity affects both batteries as well as us Love this new ac Lg I got a window ac w/ heat pump uses 575 watts 120v ac and 1280 watts 120v heat pump So no propane for heating for me More generator lol Collect that rain water Best wishes

[@wideawaketotruth5301]

Very interesting Andy. Thanks for the info. You sure have a nice yard! Cheers

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thanks 👍Yard is very nice now, looks like a park!

[@upper_deck]

I agree with some other comments that the “Peter” board solution is too expensive. I can understand that a lot of development effort was required, but these costs should be compensated for in unit quantities. If I were to expand my two JK BMS (currently connected to Cerbo via RS485) with this solution, the cost would be approximately $450 (excluding shipping). But if I were to buy two “new” JK-BMS of the type PB2A16S20P, the cost would be around €360. In this case, the advantage would be to have a new BMS, which also allows a firmware update compared to the current variants. - Then why should I buy this solution? If the price will be significantly lower, I would consider purchasing it.

[@loucinci3922]

Enjoyed the video. Thanks for sharing

[@tyweb9264]

Be interested to see how the Tilt system handles this, My AC coupled solar, when using the float mode of the latest troubled JKBMS causes the Multiplus 2 48/5000 to go into frequency lockup at 53hz, shutting off my solar. As it sees the step down of the charge voltage as an over voltage.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

The tilt system is not affected by the Peter boards. The Multiplus handles all AC-solar and increases the frequency as usually.

[@FutureSystem738]

Thanks Andy- as always! 👍 (Very interesting of course, but not for me. My JKs and BMV-712 are working perfectly so I’ll leave it all alone). And yes disgusting humidity and heat for us so far this Summer- more like the weather they get in Cairns or Darwin in the wet season. Typically they say around 22C dew point is the level at which humidity gets pretty unpleasant, and my weather station is showing 24.6C dew point right now, and waaaay over 22C most days. Using our aircon, the drain tube isn’t “dripping”, it’s literally a constant trickle, makes it sooo much more comfortable in our living room by dehumidifying. I also have an old inverter split aircon in my garage which I run any time I’m doing things out there including work on the battery- it’s a game changer. I just need more solar to feed it all.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

I have an old AC as well and may be mounting it in the garage as well at some stage... Yeah, the Peter boards may not be for your system setup and I'm just testing them for now...

[@FutureSystem738]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia Thanks Andy. Is it a split system? If so, hopefully the gas has been fully pumped down and retained, not just disconnected. That would be bad. :-( If ever you need help installing give me a yell and I’ll help if I can manage it. I have all the gear (vacuum pump, gauges, flare tool etc etc) and have done literally dozens and dozens of split system installations over many years.

[@Ether_Void]

Ok, I'm not gonna say anything about the temporary electrical tape ... but I am gonna say this: There is nothing more permanent then a temporary solution.

[@universeisundernoobligatio3283]

Electrical tape hate the stuff. Any tine I touch any connection made with it, it's slimy and sticky where ever it was.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thanks for not mentioning the tape!

[@NedKLee]

G'Day Andy, I'm grateful you're doing all that experimentation so I don't have to. I've already assured my 2 x Victron Smart Shunts that since they've been doing a very good job for many years, that they're in no danger of being replaced. Nice to know there's alternatives out there, but both my battery banks are doing just fine, totally Off Grid, Stand Alone Solar, 11 years and counting. Old dogs and new tricks come to mind, it's not broke and doesn't need fixing. I've been using Solar Assistant software for a number of years now, love it and like you, I can use it anywhere.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yes, I love the smart shunt for many things. But I'm very keen to test the Peter boards for a while to make an informal decision if communication is really necessary. I'm not going to replace my shunt either. Probably because it's too hard to get to it😆

[@dougle03]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia Is 'Peter' paying you to promote his rip off boards?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

He supplied me the test boards which I haven't paid for, but their are not mine. He's still the owner of them. I also had to pick them up myself... I'm just testing equipment here and show possibilities, that's all. If you have your own project you're working on, @dougle03, let me know, happy to show case it here as well if it is of interest.

[@Juergen_Miessmer]

Hello Andy, the way you handle the boards is scaring me. You know that the red wire coming from the JKs RS485 port is connectet to battery + ? There is full battery voltage on the Peter board ! Be carefull ! ⚡

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Nothing to be scared about. All isolated and under contoll!

[@dougle03]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia Rapidly power cycling an Expressive chip can cause faults and perhaps a complete failure of the board.

[@daviddutton6532]

Andy quick question. The new JK inverter bms comes with a can bus port. Can this be connected to the raspbery pi with a canable can to usb cable or do you need a Peter board too?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

You don't need the Peter board for that. The CAB to USB cable may work but may require additional drivers or scripting to make it work. I have used the CAN hats for the Pi and they work well. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mHjQc2xtmMqcgck

[@peel1e]

Its all well and good, but these "Peter" boards seem hard to find. Looking at ordering 1 x DCDC kit and its $150 but how does it know aobut shipping? i get hes not a shop but it would be nice to know that that $150 was goign to turn into something that arrives... also... $150 for an ESP 32 plus a PCB is a bit steep!

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Everything costs money... but as some here say, there are free solutions out there which can do similar things apparently. I'm testing this solution atm to see if it is worth the money and effort. As always, I'm testing new equipment. Nobody should feel encouraged to buy it!

[@bartjedb9017]

Hello Andy, I have seen that you are adding length to the balancing wires. Can you do that without issues? Do you have to keep them the same length?

[@Wirelessinfopuntbe]

Hi Andy, I don't see the link to the peterboard anywhere. Can you show me or give me the link please? Many thanks for your wonderful and engaging tutorials and experiences. Regards

[@gerdbeutler3728]

Good morning, it's 4am here in the Philippines and I just woke up. It's another amazing video. I also have JK BMS 60A here and since Sunday a 6kW Deye hybrid Inverter. Now I need to decide how to make the CANBUS work with my JK BMS. I'm trying to find the best way and open for your inputs, guys, before I start this.

[@mandimandi2523]

hallo gerd. ja, das würd mich auch interessieren. der deye 48V hybrid inverter steht auch auf meiner shortlist. zur kommunikation mit dem deye gibt es jetzt die PB serie. PB2A16S20P zum beispiel.

[@gerdbeutler3728]

@@mandimandi2523 kenn ich noch nicht , mal anschauen. Mir gefällt das Peterboard Uksa007 am Besten. Auch wegen Home Assistent.

[@schunkelndedschunke6914]

​@@mandimandi2523 In meinen beiden GobelPower Akkus sind 200A PaceBMS verbaut. Die kommunizieren perfekt miteinander und zu meinem Deye 12kW. Die könnt Ihr auch extra bei GobelPower bestellen inkl. Balancerfunktion, Bluetooth.

[@Juergen_Miessmer]

Der 'Battery Safety Controller' läuft bei mir als Schnittstelle zwischen den JKBMS und den Deye Hybriden. Die Daten der JKBMS gehen per mqtt an HomeAssistent. Mit ESPhome werden dazu noch die Deye per Modbus von HomeAssistent ferngesteuert.

[@gerdbeutler3728]

@@Juergen_Miessmer Danke für die Info

[@DG3ACM-Marc]

Hi Andy, regarding the Peter Boards, I would suggest to glue them temporary with hotglue. Maybe the cable too. Yes I use it not only for temporary fixing because I can easy remove hotglue with Ethanol (Spiritus) Cheers Marc

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

The board gets warm, so I think hotglue will melt again...

[@DG3ACM-Marc]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia Hi Andy, I bet it will not melt it. Especially if you use the RJ45 ports to stand on like it is standing on that BMS at 5:08. A piece of tape over the open RJ45 contacts, then two dot of hotglue and stick it in place. Why not give that a try. As I mentioned, you can easy remove that stuff with Ethanol in an syringe with cannula to squirt some of it under the glued area. /Marc

[@DrCoolZic]

I Andy, thanks for your great videos. I think it would be nice for you to reexplain how all your devices are connected together from the **data** point of view. Let’s first talk about the connection of the different Victron devices: if I remember correctly all the MPPTs are connected via VE direct connections to the Raspberry Pi that acts as a Cerbo GX and I think that the Multiplus 2 and the Smart shunt are also connected through the VE direct? The Raspberry Pi has a board with a CAN bus and currently on this bus you only have the three Peter’s board? I think that most of the Victron devices can be connected together using the protocol CAN, is there a reason why you didn't use this type of connection? Did I forget something in term of exchanging information in your system? From the software point of view, I think that the Raspberry Pi is connected to Victron VRM (or VictronConnect ?) and this allow you to display the information about the complete Victron system from a web browser or from a phone? And now with the Peter’s board you can also display some information from the batteries. It seems that you have also integrated your installation into HomeAssistant but despite the fact that this seems to be the most powerful way to display and control this kind of installation it doesn’t seem that you are using it too much for some reason? I did not mention that most if not all the Victron devices can be access directly via Bluetooth. In fact, this might be an idea for a future video where you could do a recap on how the display/control information travel through your entire Victron and BMS system?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

I'll make a separate video about that. With the Peter boards, some coms has changed and we have now a BMS which communicates all data to the Victron system. Totally different from what I had before.

[@seniorgolfer888]

Hi Andy, do you have a video showing how to integrate the BMS into HA?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Which BMS? The Peter Boards? They show up in HA automatically once connected to your home Wifi. HA does this all automatically.

[@seniorgolfer888]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia I have a JK BMS, do I need to buy a Peter Board and attach the JK BMS to it? Can you give me a pointer to more information? Thanks.

[@Dutch_off_grid_homesteading]

Heya, and wen it rains w'll wait a minute lol. I like that system with the peter boards

[@legominimovieproductions]

But if I only have one battery with the new JK bms I don't need the Peter-Boards to connect the BMS to my victron system, correct?

[@patricklyons7683]

Dual BMS in future batteries; one for main routines & secondary to finalise the balancing ...opinion Andy?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Which BMS is that? Or do you just install two? Wast of money and resources would be my first reaction. JK does it all in one BMS.

[@keyem4504]

Interesting piece of tech, these Peter boards. However, I can't see the big advantage over what you had with the smart shunt. What's the advantage from your point of view of having the inverter controlled by an external entity?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

It will be in the next video...kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y6muqGWXqbFqpa8

[@marinostsalis314]

Can you make a video comparing the small jk bms (with Peter board) and the Inverter bms you installed in the last videos. It would help a lot of beginners like me to understand whats best for their project.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

OK, great suggestion.

[@janbroz4681]

Unfortunately the board is too expensive, I can't justify an addon board that is more expensive than the bms itself.

[@dougle03]

Especially when you consider the hardware components cost is about $4, and 90% of the code used is borrowed from open source projects...

[@jozefflak895]

This board is Crazy overpriced. Looks good but better will be buy JK Inverter BMS and still save money. BTW for "Peter board want from me pay 150usd"

[@janbroz4681]

@jozefflak895 yep 150. One thing I really like is the ability to controll the bms from home assistant. Hopefully I'll figure something out. I got the inverter bms but didn't have the time to install it yet. I would like to be able to at least read out the data from the bms into Home Assistant.

[@janbroz4681]

Don't get me wrong, I understand how much work it all takes and appreciate it greatly. But €150 for an addon board while the bms currently retails bellow €100+ with the new inverter bms on the market, I can't see him being able to sell many units. If it was €50, I'd take it.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

That's fine, I'm not encouraging anyone to buy this board or solution. Like always, I'm just showing what's available on the market.

[@udodrotleff3070]

Way to expensive as mentioned already, it doesn't provide much of a benefit for a single battery pack. It would be intresting for multi packs and mixed vendor situations. The compenents used are fairly standard, so I don't fully understand the price.

[@SetitesTechAdventures]

I'd be curious about multi-vendor as well. Right now I have a JK BMS battery and some random server rack battery that either doesnt communicate or I made a mistake trying to create a cable for it. I would love something that would help me get all my various devices working. Though I might just replace the BMS in it with a JK Inverter BMS

[@dougle03]

Vast majority of the software is taken from open source projects, so yes these are massively overpriced... Best avoided, especially as the dev will move on when he gets bored of this....

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Hence I test the board with JBD and JK BMS in mix. Works great and monitors down to cell level...

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

@@dougle03 Instead of accusations, evidence please... you repeat yourself, so do I...

[@AndreasMuhl]

Hallo Andy, ich habe 6 Seplos V2 und 6 Neef 4A Balancer, wie kann ich die mit dem Peter-Board verbinden und dann auf den Victron geben, Ziel ist es die Einzel Daten per MQTT zu bekommen.

[@GiocondoSticca]

Nice video, what are the pros and cons of this configuration compared to one with the 3 x new JK BMS?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

I hues the remote monitoring is one of the big ones. I show more about this in the next video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y6muqGWXqbFqpa8

[@akhenatn]

Hi, help me answering 2 questions: Are your batteries DIY? and if they are, what breaker do you use for them? thanks

[@GregOnSummit]

A nice feature for the top balancer would be a time limit. Set it for 2 days or so then it would automatically turn off. Question .. how accurate is it compared to the smart shunt? Or does it just read from the shunt?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

The Peter boards aggregate the data from all three BMS and send them combined to Victron/Inverter. Nothing else does the smart shunt, it measures the current of all three boards. So far all data is very much the same.

[@paulcurtis5496]

Magnetic suspension mount! You can do it! I can’t wait until you hit 1 gWatt/hr worth of battery!

[@andresgodinho]

Did you loose the ability to see the "time to go" from the smartshunt? It didn't show on the litle window bellow the system in the system page.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

That is a Victron Smart Shunt feature only. No other BMS supports that unfortunately.

[@xpfreal]

Obrigado por compartilhar esses experimentos. Aqui no Brasil estamos engatinhando no que diz respeito a energia solar fotovoltaica. Como eu mesmo monto, mantenho e amplio meu sistema off grid (ainda com baterias de chumbo ácido) presto muita atenção a seus vídeos e tomo nota, assim já posso evitar erros no upgrade e manutenção de meu humilde sistema. Mais um a vez obrigado, já sou seu fã 🙂

[@xpatrikpvp]

9:04 those usb ports are grounded so make sure it doesnt touch the 48v bus bars. I would electrical tape the usb extender - usb cable connection just to be safe

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

The 5V is not grounded. It comes from a 5V isolated DC-DC converter. I've shown this in my older videos when I build the battery shelf.

[@xpatrikpvp]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia oh okay sorry, i forgot about that the dc-dc is isolated. In my system i'm using a cheap one from china that is not isolated :/

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

@@xpatrikpvpI had one of these before as well, just a DCDC converter from 60V to 5V but I felt, if this converter is fault and kills my Pi, I lose all control and data, so spent the extra money and got this isolated power supply.

[@marcinx8724]

Question from the begginer. What you recommend? Jk bms and peter board or jk inverter bms? Assumption is that I have 2-3 48V parrarel batteries. When these two solutions will be the best?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

You just need the normal JK, that's all. No coms required. It will run perfectly fine!

[@andreas4175]

I have a similar setup - SmartShunt and Seplos BMS (controlling the Victron system). For some reason, however, I don't see the SmartShunt in the VRM web interface. I have made sure that it is "visible" in the CerboGX settings. Is there anything else that I need to activate/configure to see it? And is there any update on the Peter Board version for the Seplos (and others) BMS? What's the best place to follow the developmemnt / read about updates?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

If it shows under devices as a smart BMS you should be able to make it visible. Strange... I'm testing the CAN-CAN Multi boards at the moment. They are still in early alpha, so lots of bugs. You can follow on his Githup and Patreon page, I guess...

[@Roland_Deschains]

How to download and install new version of jkbms firmware?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

I just made a video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oqKsc6ODbZiEnsk

[@talowbo]

Andy…I love you man, I really do… BUT… please give this another thought or two … just ask yourself, “what happens if the Peter Board fails?” … “should I put my ENTIRE battery system under the control of an unproven device?” … I think I’d consider perhaps one of the three banks under Peter Board control and leave the other two under the Victron Shunt control…after all, Victron is a very large organization with years and years of R&D, and as much as I appreciate Peter’s effort and work…sometimes shit just happens! … OR, perhaps 2 master Peter Boards and 1 slave, just rename the 2nd master.

[@dougle03]

Especially when the Pter board is 'borrowed' code (Syssi, ESPHome etc) that the dev really does not properly understand. I see lazy programming given the number of bugs for a product on general release. The hardware cost is about $5 and most of the code is 'borrowed', I'd expect the 'Peter' board to be no more in less than 8 months... Stick with your Victron kit.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

I had this already twice and the whole system shut down as the 'BMS' was not there any more. Everyone has to calm down here a bit. I'm testing this device the same way as I test many other devices. So, I'll tell you in 2-3 months what my verdict is.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

@@dougle03 Instead of accusations, evidence please... Send me an email with proof of what code he has 'borrowed' in your opinion, links to the code he has used and the licence agreement of the source he has taken code from.

[@jbuszkie]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia It's all there in Github.

[@jerrylewis4456]

Why can't I just plug the lan cable from the peter board directly into the victron Cerbo GX lan port to link the peter board into the victron Cerbo GX

[@sparkletornado5890]

Is the USB power supply sharing the ground of the battery? I accidentally dangled and touched the positive on the battery and got sparks on my setup with a USB cable. You might want to put some tape around the metal on the USB cable It is right next to the vertical positive busbar.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

No, my 5V and 12V are fully isolated from the battery.

[@sparkletornado5890]

Can you check continuity from the ground? The boards are in series and the first is powered by the BMS which I assume is non-isolated from the battery. The RS485 cable should have a ground in it. Would you need to only run the rx and tx from the BMS and power the first board with the isolated 5v as well to be isolated? @@OffGridGarageAustralia

[@upnorthandpersonal]

State of charge on the JK BMS isn't very accurate compared to a SmartShunt though, especially when you have small loads.

[@garys-half-baked-offgrid-dream]

The cycle capacity has drifted upto approx 60Ah now between my 2 JKs in just a couple of weeks, I have taken your previous advice to ignore them.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

I hope the JK will reset everytime it hits SOC100%Vol. Same like the smart shunt does when the battery is full. But there seems to be a bug in the JK FW.

[@just_saw_dust]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia I think JK is a synonym for bugs. Great devices that are leading the field, but they need to get to grips with Quality Control and software or someone needs to hack them and come up with a more versatile OS.

[@cgutowski471]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia I'm having the same issue. Voltage goes higher than my SOC 100% setting but it does not reset to 100.

[@chasoy314]

do they have peterboard for the new style jk bms? i am asking because the new style bms cannot communicate with kuxpower inverter

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Not yet, Peter is developing such a CAN to CAN board atm. If you set your inverter and the JK to Pylon protocol, it should work...

[@millycarrington]

I suppose you could automate the top balancing using the local calendar in Home assistant (say twice a year?). Would also be good if you could cover Victron / Home Assistant integration. - cheers

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yes, the sky is the limit now with HA...

[@typxxilps]

Electrical tape used in Betriebswirte Style ? The new standard for the world.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

It sticks soooo goooood!

[@BadIdea1123]

Is the communication between the boards done via wifi directly to one another or Homeassistant

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

They have normal LAN cables connecting them as shown in the video.

[@91TheClash]

Bin gespannt ob der SOC passt. Meine JK zeigen immer den komplett falschen SOC an.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

You have to calibrate it once. The it works pretty accurate.

[@alexandergunda8916]

Andy, till now the Victron Smart Shunt was considered the "golden standard". I supose that the Peter-Board is guessing the SOC by the cell voltage which is more or less accurate considering the voltage curve of a LFP cell. But I think it will do the trick. How relaiable are the voltages you have shown for the percentages? Were they determined by you or Peter? Or did I understand it completely wrong and the SOC is calculated by the BMS and the Peter-Boards are "only" taking the values from them? THX! Greatings from not so sunny and cold Austria!

[@dougle03]

The better question is how reliable is the ESP32 that the Peter board is based on? They can and do regularly fail, they are $2 a piece, not even close to the price being charged for a stock dev board with the Eth module and a Can chip... The FW was open source and based hugely on the unpaid work of others, but it now closed sourced for no valid reason other than profit... The dev should be ashamed...

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

No, the Peter board is getting the data from all three BMS and aggregate the data. It's not guessing it 😆It is fairly accurate and pretty much the same as the shunt so far.

[@MrDeferens]

My Peterboard been going well so far. But it has a bug with the charged/discharged energy reporting in HA. It resets at 10pm. I think because he is in Qld and it needs selectable time zone in the app?

[@dougle03]

It's a very expensive product that's barely at Alfa stage of development. The dev will get bored of this and you'll end up with an expensive paperweight...

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

If you report this to him, he will update the FW. No big deal. Interesting bug actually...

[@marioGS7]

@@OffGridGarageAustraliaI installed 1 master and 2 slave boards on my JK system. There are wrong values send to my cerbo (capacity increments permanently if slaves are connected, min/ max voltage values come only from master board). In this stage the boards are unusable. I reported this behavior, the developer asked about the running firmware and now there is no reaction at all. I don't know if he's working on it or if I've wasted almost €600 😞

[@nunyabusiness9760]

Sorry, but I still fail to see how giving full control of the system to the BMS is a good idea. The BMS as the "last line of defense" now becomes the first and only line of defense. Where's the redundancy? Personally I trust the Victron hardware & software far more than the potentially quirky chinese software. Case in point is your JK BMS that had the 4.2v default limit, that could have applied the 4.2v to all of the connected batteries and the Victron CC would have done whatever the BMS told it to do. Question, in a parallel battery setup, do the slave BMS' follow their own settings or do they follow whatever settings the master has? I realize that the slave may have the proper settings in memory but the question is what settings do they actually *follow* when being "supervised" by the master?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

It will be in one of the next videos.... be patient, I cannot show everything in one video😉

[@nunyabusiness9760]

Great! BTW, Thanks for all the testing you do for us DIYers, truly valuable info!

[@dougle03]

It's an ESP32 board and the primary software that built the FW is ESPHome, that is in turn built upon the Platformio engine. It's development software and the seller Peter is not a contributing dev so your concerns are valid, I'd be avoiding this for any sort of primary control of your system

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

@@dougle03 again just your opinion until we see evidence of your accusation. Send me an email!

[@peterbredehoeft4914]

Hi Andy, can I use this Boards also for other BMS? Where can I buy these Boards in Germany?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

All info in video description. It only supports JK and JBD/Overkill atm.

[@GustavoGustik]

Does the peter board have any other advantage or feature over the Battery Aggregator from pulquero?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

You tell us. I don't know this other project...

[@GustavoGustik]

@OffGridGarageAustralia, I came across this project on GitHub - pulquero/BatteryAggregator, and I think it's pretty amazing, especially when combined with Louisvdw/dbus-serialbattery, which now supports CAN batteries (still in beta, though). I would love to see a video from you about this.

[@jerrylewis4456]

Where can I get the Peter Board ? I can't find it in your description ! Thanks

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

There is a link to the initial video about the boards. It has all the info.

[@MrJramirex]

I personally wouldn't put an ESP32 board in charge of something that can cause a fire or irreversible damage to cells. ESP32 boards are amazing little things but they are not reliable enough for battery management.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

As I explained in the previous videos, the Peter board is not in charge of the safety. That is still what the BMS is for.

[@Jonyys]

great sound when it rains

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yep, the metal roof amplifies it!

[@pulith5220]

Andy nice one again. But this time i got an issue. After watching all your videos i also bought victron. Can you help me with an issue. I want the victron to take grid if battery voltage is low. I tried assistant but its not working out. I have a multiplus-II gx. The gx is builtin.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

That's not enough info to help you out. I would suggest to ask around in the Victron Community Forum here: community.victronenergy.com/index.html

[@pulith5220]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia I did ask but no response from anyone 😕

[@SetitesTechAdventures]

What does it cost if you are a patreon? Is there a still a DIY version? I'd be willing to pay like half as much if I just put things together myself. I am fully capable of soldering myself, compiling firmware, etc.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

I think there is a complete manual on Github, what parts you need... free.

[@georgmuse]

Almost the same, you'll save few bucks. I'm in the same situation, but Peter does not provide diy solution anymore. Sorry to say, but he is not even too much nice guy regarding this topic even when I was Patreon member. Is there even complete price in the video? 😉

[@Juergen_Miessmer]

For DIY you maybe want to take a look on the 'Battery Safety Controller' project.

[@dougle03]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia 'Peter' has closed his project for profit reasons, he claims it's a support issue but we all know that's not the case. The FW is 90% 'borrowed' from genuine open source devs including a huge amount from the ESPHome open source project of which I'm a developer. His actions are purely profit driven but he's chosen the wrong board to use. The ESP32 is great for most things but it's far too unpredictable for anything that actually matter. If I were you I'd distance yourself from this project for obvious reasons.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

@@dougle03 Again, I want evidence of your accusations. Send me a detailed email with all the links and code he has 'borrowed' in your opinion and I'll make a video.

[@ffs5310]

are the "lan" ports isolated on the peter boards, so it can be used on series packs?

[@dougle03]

No, they share a parallel ground. The dev is 'borrowing from reference designs, I doubt he'd know how to change that since the code is essentially 'borrowed' without consideration to the original devs...

[@ffs5310]

Oki the easy way is to use esp-now then you dont need the cable

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Not isolated, no...

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

@@dougle03 Instead of accusations, evidence please...

[@andreasw5925]

No 3D Print on thingyverse yet for the peterboards?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

I don't want a full case just a holder.

[@dougle03]

For the price you'd think it would come with one...

[@sharpx777]

link for the peter boards?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Under the first video which I have linked in the description.

[@rcinfla9017]

I would be cautious of giving the BMS's cheap multi-parallel shunt chip resistors too much power of control. At least use the Victron shunt to verify calibration of BMS's readings periodically.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

That's what I do for the next 2-3 months while testing the boards. So far, all data seems to be very much the same, SOC, voltage and current.

[@blueforex]

Hej Andy, vielen Dank für deine Videos. Du bist ein bischen mit Schuld, dass ich jetzt eine Solaranlage mit Batterie habe. Als du das Peter Board vorgestellt hast, hab ich mir gleich eins bestellt. Jetzt habe ich leider ein kleines Problem damit, dass dich vielleicht auch interessiert. Seit ich das Peter Bord angeschlossen habe, wird der DCL zu einer unbestimmten Zeit und mit einem unbestimmten Ladezustand auf Null gestellt. Das geht dann so lange, bis die PV wieder Strom vom Dach liefert. Dann wird wieder 200A DCL am WR angezeigt. Ich habe keine Idee mehr woran das liegen soll. im BMS ist CCL auf 150A und DCL auf 200A. In den Einstellungen im PB ist auch 150A CCL und 200A DCL. Was mich auch etwas irritiert ist, dass im Homeassistant die Entitäten für das PB bis zu 3 Stunden brauchen, um aktualisiert zu werden. Ich hoffe du hast ein Idee dazu. Viele Grüße aus DE. Frank

[@cascallana2626]

How many Kwh do you have already worth of different batteries?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Never counted... I have 44kWh installed in the battery shelf. everything else is just for testing purposes atm.

[@ClausMallorca]

Do you have some numbers how much you spent on your system? It must be incredible high 😮

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

It's a hobby. Other go skydiving or mod their cars, spending 10s of thousands... So what's the point?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

And I'm not paying for beer🍺 Thanks to all my supporters🙏

[@joesmith1142]

Andy #1, can you please ask your assistant, when he is sober of course, to please straighten out the crooked BMS in the bottom shelf. Thank you, JoeSmith #1142

[@rickcole2176]

How much money do you have tied up in all the equipment you have?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thousands. But I get free beer, so...

[@eingeordnet]

As with the first installation it somehow gives me a "not good" feeling to see you placing the Peterboards on the aluminium-plates without any electric isolation...😮

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

It's not aluminium plates though.

[@eingeordnet]

Ok, if it's nothing conductive...:-)

[@keyem4504]

Use Velco to organize your cables, otherwise Andy2 will haunt you in your dreams, Andy.😉

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Velcro does not stick on the plastic cover of the shelf though. So tape was my friend here 😉

[@alanblyde8502]

Great review as always Andy, has anyone had trouble connecting their Peter board to wifi, mine won’t connect it cones up with incorrect password which it isn’t coz nothing has changed in the original password, any help be grateful, ps I didn’t receive any instructions when I received mine, I have watchAndys video on how to do it but doesn’t work. TIA

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

The Wifi PW is 1234567890 as per manual. This does not work when you connect to the board's access point?

[@alanblyde8502]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia thanks Andy got that sorted now to connect to Cerbo, might have to watch you video again 😀

[@jackoneil3933]

Well Andy, hopefully it's not the new "Climate Normal". Of course there's weather and then there's climate, climate science and political science, and like with BMSs there's the hype and reality, but we can always believe wisely...

[@Dan-LS]

Electric tape 😮 - No comment 😁

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thanks!

[@ChrisEpler]

Get that 3D printer runn'n and print some cases for those things!! :)

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

They won't be going into a case. Just a small holder... Ah... I forgot about the printer😆

[@dougle03]

For the price you'd think it would come with a case, and gold lined packaging.... lol

[@paulcurtis5496]

Like# 1 - Comment# 1

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

🥇

[@rickyreynolds17]

Electrical Tape???😮 I expected better from you 😂😂.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

I needed a quick fix. Hey, no comments about the tape, I said!😎

[@beelzeboss4901]

I own the Peter-Boards too since a few days, and I have 3 JK-BMS with different Software Versions. V10.XG_V10.07, V10.XW_V10.8 and V11.XW_V11.25 The first one is not recognized by any of the Peter-Boards and the 2nd BMS reports a Ternary Lithium Battery even the BMS is configured with LiFePo-Battery. Does Anyone observe this behavior too?

[@sebydocky5080]

For the Ternary Lithium Battery reporting it's normal for JKBMS monitored informations

[@dougle03]

Sorry you've wasted your cash...

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

JK is reporting the wrong battery chemistry. It has no effect on the functions of the boards. Are you BMS on the list of supported BMS on the Github site?

[@ken-w]

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

🥈

[@Tezza66]

Your just introducing more failure points

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yes, correct. That is on my list of point. Hence I test this solution for a few months to see how good it is... Like many other hardware we are testing on the channel.

[@honumoorea873]

What a mess...and there are free agregator drivers for many bms... Qo there is no need to spend this much money on those boards that are far overpriced. In the underground solar world, nobody want those boards, only youtuber talk of it...

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

I test this as a plug and play solution as I explained in a previous videos. Yeas, there are other free projects out there, but the programming is messy, and you need to know what you're doing with putting all these single software packages together and make them work. The Peter boards are plug'n play. They don't even need the Wifi connection.

[@bboyda4399]

Please don't mention ccbs

[@cyberplebs6577]

🐸🐸🐸

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

🥉

[@solarshedenterprise]

Electrical tape is NEVER the answer 🤦🏼 It's not even worthy of the name anymore 😂

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

That's why we don't talk about it, right?!😎

[@stephan.scharf]

Using this electrical tape is not Andy1 standard, I am very disappointed. Should I unsubscribe ...?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Didn't you see that these were Andy2's hands! He must have been drunk again!😆

[@stephan.scharf]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia Ah ok I see, you should forbid him to enter your garage, better whole property. Not good ...

[@grigorescunicolae2094]

🙈🙈🙈

[@falahhasan1226]

2

[@opless]

Third ;-)

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

4th... again...