Smart Shunts disappear from Cerbo on VE Direct/USB

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Graydon asked Sep 16, '22

Smart Shunts disappear from Cerbo on VE Direct/USB

Hello, this is the 2nd time I have lost a Smart Shunt from my VRM console.

I have 10 banks of batteries (each bank is a pair of 12v/206Ah SOL batteries, for a 24v/206Ah bank) Each bank has a smart shunt attached to monitor charge, voltage, current in and out, temperature and general condition of the pair of batteries making up the bank.

Each shunt is connected via a VE Direct/USB cable to a USB hub, and the HUB is wired to a Cerbo GX,. I have 2 such hubs, each connected directly too the Cerbo. One HUB holds 6 VE Direct/USB shunt cables, the other 5. This week, shunts labelled 4-5-6 disappeared. VRM shows they haven't been seen in 5 days. Using the Victron Connect Bluetooth app, they show up fine.

This happened to me last year, when one shunt disappear for several days, only to randomly rep-appear a few days later. My gut feeling is something is amiss at Victron server end, and perhaps the VRM instances are being misconfigured or blocked.

anyway, its very annoying, and any ideas what to try? (I have already tried plugging one in directly to a Cerbo USB port, disconnecting the cable completely. Replacing the cable, rebooting the Cerbo)

thank-you

cerbo gx SmartShunt VE.Direct

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Answer 1 · 2022-09-17T15:16:49Z

Graydon answered · Sep 17, 2022 at 03:16 PM

Possible solution. I can't say this is the actual fix, but it worked this one time.

I disconnected the 3 'missing' shunt from the Cerbo for 4 hours. I then rebooted the Cerbo and reconnected the Ve Direct/USB cables to the Cerbo and the shunt, and, voila, they are back.

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Answer 2 · 2022-09-19T19:46:32Z

xl5 answered · Sep 19, 2022 at 07:46 PM

I've been having the same issue over the last week, losing the smart shunt connection a couple of times a day on the VRM portal, shows fine on the Bluetooth app connecting to local devices?

It will come back working if I do a reboot, for a couple of hours then the VRM portal loses it again.

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sookparr commented · Jan 30, 2023 at 02:46 AM

Did you have a fix on this issue?

0 ·

Answer 3 · 2023-01-27T18:12:09Z

sungunner answered · Jan 27, 2023 at 06:12 PM

I have the exact same issue. I have one 500 A smart shunt on my chassis battery and a second 500 A smart shunt monitoring my house battery bank. The chassis battery has never dropped but the house battery drops consistently after a period of time sometimes 12 hours, sometimes 5 hours, sometimes after an hour. Both shunts are on firmware v4.12 and connected via USB to a pi running Venus v2.92. I've swapped USB ports and even swapped cables and I have the same issue. Obviously both battery systems are important and the reason for the two monitors. I have not had a problem connecting via Bluetooth locally, but now the RV is in storage for the winter and I need to monitor things remotely. When I reboot using the console the house battery monitor will pop back on-line.

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Answer 4 · 2023-01-30T08:37:06Z

jetlag answered · Jan 30, 2023 at 08:37 AM

@Sungunner

Do you use the original VE.Direct to USB cabels from victron or do you maybe use some DIY cables?

I ask, because I had (and not only I) exaclty the same issue/behavior with the DIY calbes. After changing to the original victron cables with that "knob" on the cable this problem imediatelly stopped.

These cabels are electrically isolated and this seem to be the problem.

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Answer 5 · 2023-01-31T23:52:14Z

Graydon answered · Jan 31, 2023 at 11:52 PM

I have always used the Victron recommended cables. It has happened again, sporadically, since the original post. And the solution that has worked is to simply reboot the Cerbo

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Answer 6 · 2023-02-01T12:15:32Z

jetlag answered · Feb 01, 2023 at 12:15 PM

@Graydon

My comment was related to the usage of a Raspberry PI like sungunner wrote.

You are using a Cerbo, so the cables, I guess, are the original VE.Direct cables, right? So that is not the problem... The only one more thing I can tell you to this is, how is you Cerbo powered? Directly from the Battery? I'm asking, because I observed some strange behaviour when my Raspberry was powered by a 230V power supply, then also sometimes the connection to my Multiplus was gone.

When change to battery power, this problem was gone. Just as an idea...

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Answer 7 · 2023-02-01T14:06:31Z

Graydon answered · Feb 01, 2023 at 02:06 PM

Yes, I am using original VE Direct/USB cables, for each of my 11 smart shunts. They connect through 2 USB hubs connected to the 2 Cerbo USB ports. The USB hubs are power as well. The Cerbo is powered off the Victron Lynx bus bars @ 24v

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Answer 8 · 2023-05-02T11:16:24Z

nfluester answered · May 02, 2023 at 11:16 AM

did you get this fixed i have a similar issue with a Smart solar disappearing from Cerbo and VRM portal

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Answer 9 · 2023-05-05T00:32:49Z

Graydon answered · May 05, 2023 at 12:32 AM

Yes, I fixed it. It seems to be a CERBO issue. By restarting the CERBO, everything returns to normal

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