New Video - Raymarine & Victron Integration aboard a 32 foot sailing yacht

At the start of December 2019, I went up to the UK coastal town of Whitehaven in Cumbria. Chris from UK Marine Electronics Ltd was about to overhaul a 32-foot sailing boat's electrics and navigation equipment. The owner wanted brand new Raymarine measuring equipment as well as a new Victron inverter, battery monitoring and lithium batteries.

Take a look at this video for how I got on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0Uu7EXJU4s&feature=youtu.be

A blog has been written about this install here: https://www.victronenergy.com/blog/2020/01/07/raymarine-victron-integration-video/

Chris himself has done a great article about lithiums charging when cold here: https://www.ukmel.co.uk/post/when-is-a-battery-cold

Along with the video, John has written this thorough blog including kit used as well as many images taken from both the video and whilst I was there.

One big topic Chris needed to overcome was how to charge lithium batteries in temperatures lower than 5 degrees celsius. After thinking out of the box a bit and lots of RS Component orders throughout the time I was there, Chris decided upon a RS 12 volt 30-watt silicon heat mat. As you will see in the video, the resistance from a PT100 thermostat gave the Venus GX tank input a measurement how cold it was and he then used the relay set in-tank pump mode to turn the heat mat on and off.

cornelis commented · Jan 07, 2020 at 03:06 PM

Great video and blog. This is almost the same setup I'm helping install on a similar sized sailboat (also all Victron and Raymarine instruments with Axiom). Few questions:

1. Why is the 230V neutral not taken from the MultiPlus output; aren't input and output galvanically separated (for a reason)? <In the design we're working from, made be Energy Solutions UK, input and output are fully separated.>

2. Why are the neutral lines not led through both RCDs? I think this is potentially very dangerous as, especially in marina's the neutral is not always 0V relative to ground (and could, by swapping live and neutral in error somewhere in the marina's cabling, even be 230V).

3. Why the 230V - 12V charger and not a setup with Cyrix-ct battery combiner?

4. Does a Color Control add anything compared to the Axiom application?

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Chris Dobson cornelis commented · Jan 07, 2020 at 04:06 PM

Hi Cornelis,

Thanks for your comments.

The drawing was, and still is very much a work in progress. The Multiplus we installed is the compact version and only has one AC output. Therefore the Calorifier and Battery charger supplies are taken from the shore supply before the Multiplus.

The Neutral lines are of course, going through both RCD's, again its a work in progress drawing. When the project is completed and she has been relaunched we will put further details and the final drawings on our web site.

Because we are using Lithium Batteries we used the Buck Boost Regulator as this gives us much more control over the power drawn from the alternator. The Cyrix is a bi directional device and would draw too much current from the alternator. We decided to fit a Blue Smart charger to take care of the lead acid batteries on board which are the engine and bow thruster. The charging curves are different for Lithium & Lead acid, and this seemed a cost effective solution.

We love the Color Control and have fitted many of these in the past, however Venus has a lot more inputs and allows for greater remote monitoring. Since the Venus OS now talks via Ethernet to MFD's the whole system is much more installer and user friendly. The latest release now outputs some information in NMEA2000 format that can be displayed on MFD's. From a Marine Electronics perspective this is an exciting development. I know I am sad, but the morning after it was released I connected Victron to NMEA2000 in our workshop and made this very brief video. https://www.ukmel.co.uk/post/victron-nmea2000-integration.

For more advanced applications we can custom write screens for the Raymarine displays using the Empirbus MCU.

rodney-abbott-buchanan commented · Jan 16, 2020 at 05:10 PM

This blog and video came at a perfect time. Have been searching through Victron products and the community for any info on Lithium battery heaters for cold weather use, and not finding anything till just this week with this blog. I'm assembling a small VE system in a truck/tentcamper. Temperature ranges from 100*F down to and below 32*F in the Nevada/California basin and range region. A single 100Ah VE lithium battery is mounted and restrained in a heavily insulated battery box, with room for an aluminum base plate and heater pad. I have not considered the need for a VenusGX, but the video sparks my interest with Tank input and Relay control. To this end, I have the RS bits listed on order from UK, but, I will need more clarity/specifics on wiring from VGX to relay, as the video as good as it is, leaves out complete wire runs, and I'm not that good at implementing a clean kit from a schematic as shown. Thanks for any further ideas or info.

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New Video - Raymarine & Victron Integration aboard a 32 foot sailing yacht

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