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ttmott avatar image
ttmott asked

Dual battery banks, dual Smartshunts, single Cerbo GX configuration?

This is a US marine application; Sea Ray 52 Sedan Bridge. The boat has two 12 Volt battery banks which both independently serve starting and house functions: that is the OEM configuration. The battery banks are not interconnected on the positive side but both terminate to a common ground buss.

I installed 1000A Smartshunts for each battery bank then connected each shunt to a Cerbo GX via VE.Direct cables. I also have a GX Touch 50 and VRM up and running.

In the Widgets page I can see each Smartshunt and all of their unique parameters but in the graphical pages, it seems the system selects only one of the shunts for display and it incorrectly determines the data (at least it seems so). There is a small Phoenix inverter also connected via VD.direct which further complicates the graphics.... The battery charger has multiple outputs for multiple battery banks.

Is there a way to correct the graphical representation?

Or, do I need to step back to a single Smartshunt and hope each bank is equally represented?

Your help is much appreciated.

SmartShunt
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1 Answer
bathnm avatar image
bathnm answered ·

The Cerbo GX and VenusOS is designed to report and manage energy associated with a single bank. Therefore in the setup, system settings, battery monitor setting. You need to define which shunt is the primary for your house bank. This should be the shunt which the inverter is connected too and supports.

You imply the second bank is for engine starting. The SoC or real time reporting for this is not really needed and is generally just voltage which dictates it’s health. This can be viewed through the device list rather than the graphical overview.

Monitoring SoC for a start battery which delivers very high current for just a few seconds will not deliver much useful information.

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ttmott avatar image ttmott commented ·
Both battery banks serve starting and house functions. Sorry if that wasn't clear. The Port bank serves Port engine starting, several critical/safety, and the cabin functions. The Starboard bank serves starboard engine starting, other critical/safety, bridge/helm function, and all ship's external (lighting) loads. So, in reality I need to know for both banks.

It seems though, based upon what you state, that there isn't a capability to graphically support more than one shunt simultaneously. At this point it appears prudent to eliminate one shunt and combine both battery bank grounds to one. Thoughts?

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