question

sensei avatar image
sensei asked

Export Battery Sense Data from VictronConnect

Hi

Is it possible to (CSV) export the Battery Sense Data available within VictronConnect (5.74) graphs directly on my Android phone? Or via VRM? VC tells me that voltage and temperature are being transferred to VRM and historical data is shown in the app, but I can find only a settings export.

Kind regs

Sensei

PS No, at the moment I do not have any other Victron product.

Smart Battery Sense
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7 Answers
snoobler avatar image
snoobler answered ·

Smart Battery Sense does NOT send data to VRM.


https://www.victronenergy.com/live/temperature_sensors


I've never found a way to export it.



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jperez (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image
jperez (Victron Energy Staff) answered ·

Hi @Sensei,

Currently data/history from the Smart Battery Sensor can't be exported.

Where in the app do you see that the Smart Battery Sensor data is transferred to VRM? This is not the case so could be that the texts need some improvement to avoid confusions.

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gearloose avatar image
gearloose answered ·

Are there any plans to add this? As I understand it the App already supports this for other products.

I just installed a smart battery sense in my car and was pretty disappointed about the missing export function.
Especially since no documentations I could find mentions how long the device stores the trend history.

Im trying to diagnose extremely sporadic battery drain. Im using the ios version.

Regards

Gearloose

3 comments
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snoobler avatar image snoobler commented ·

A smart battery sense only reports voltage/temperature. If you're chasing a drain, you should use a shunt - BMV or smartshunt.



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gearloose avatar image gearloose snoobler commented ·
The additional information of the shunt would not be useful so I chose the cheaper option. It can guess the current from the falling voltage but that doesn’t tell me in which subcircuit the drain is. So I‘m starting with trying to guess something from the time and profile of the drain.
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regman54 avatar image regman54 gearloose commented ·
@Gearloose A suggestion. Rather than trying to record a voltage drop with a battery sense then guess which circuit it might be I'd use a DC Amp Clamp at the battery and start pulling fuses and watch to see which circuit(s) have a parasitic drain. It's basically doing the same thing as a shunt only much easier to implement as there's no installation involved and you are watching the results for each circuit tested in real time.
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snoobler avatar image
snoobler answered ·

First, concerning VRM, there is no VRM unless you have a GX device or are running a RPi with Venus OS installed (filling the role of a GX device) with an active internet connection and a VRM account, i.e., nothing will ever upload data to VRM without a GX device.


I have a hard time relating to you saying a current measurement when tracing a drain isn't useful. It's the most important measurement. Decreasing voltage is only sufficient for a very inaccurate guess. With a shunt installed, you could literally connect one thing at a time and find the drain when you connect it even if the voltage doesn't drop.


Smartshunt and BMV-712 retain any two selected parameters for 45 days even without the app running. I have no idea how long the SBS maintains any history. I wasn't aware that it even had the option beyond however long the app is open with the trend tab displayed.


Not sure how practical any of this is for troubleshooting an intermittent battery train in a car.

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jetlag avatar image
jetlag answered ·

I have a smart battery sense installed and can tell you, that it stores the data at least for the last 33 days in my VictronConnect app (Android). As it is installed for more then 33 days now, I guess this is the buffer limit the component has.

But in general, I agree with @snoobler, that a SmartShunt would better help you to identifie the unexpected battery losses. At least you could have an idea of the current that is pulled and with that you might be able to determine what could rather be the faulty componen or curcuit.

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chaz-the-spaz avatar image
chaz-the-spaz answered ·

I have Battery Smart Sense modules too, and thought once I had the Android App signed into the VRM/VE.Smart Networking, that I would be able to export the data, as the app says the Battery Sense module is transmitting data to the network - but it is not, as others have mentioned. I also found in the VRM Windows App somewhere where it did mentiom the Battery Sense Modules don't send data.


The Smart Shunt is a good/better idea. I might be stating the obvious, but the only thing to be mindful of is where and how you install the Smart Shunt. Usually this would be right on the battery's negative connction point/post, with the vehicle cable that was directly connected to the battery, also now being connected to the shunt.

Any ground/negative wires directly connected to the battery's negative post also need to be moved to the shunt, or will not be captured/measure by the shunt.

Additional TMI:

Many newer vehicles (mid-2000's and up) have a current sensor in the battery cable path (usually negative cable), that monitors current use and adjusts the alternator's output based on amp/current demand.

When there is less demand, the alternator puts out less, which reduces drag on the belt-line, which reduces physical load on the engine (i.e. helps with fuel consumption).

Any custom accessories added that have a direct connection to the battery, and not at a contact point before the vehicles current sensor, will not be considered by the vehicle as it manages the alternator output... so a current draw from a stereo amp with a direct connection to the battery could be a form of parasitic drain, because the vehicle won't see this drain and the alternator might not be putting out enough output to charge the battery upto full capacity.

There are also often ground wires from the negative battery cable that mount to the vehicle frame at different physical points. It is possible a small parasitic current drain might be taking the path through any of these ground points. So you will want to make sure you capture/include any current flowing through these points too - this would be accomplished by having the Smart Shunt being the only item directly connected to the battery's negative connection.







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vendors1 avatar image
vendors1 answered ·

While the Victron products are very good, this is a major shortcoming in the BMV712. History should be exportable. It is a relatively trivial programming exercise to allow the export of data, given that the code already has all the data for graphic display. I would like to reset to zero the BMV712 for diagnosis, but keep the history.

There is also a major bug in the Android and iOS code where the "Trends" tab will not properly keep the graph history if the app is in "sleep" mode (i.e. loaded, but not the app in the foreground). This forces people to kill the app, then reload it just to be able to look at the past data. Also, the "Live" play button, and the Pause button on the bottom of the trends screen don't seem to have any function or make sense.

The use of a gray font, with little contrast to the background, for the date/time at the top of the trends graph illustrates that the programming staff/management have NEVER considered readability. On a small phone, a person without very good eyes, will not be able to see the tiny font with poor contrast used. Please consider using BLACK as the font color ! This is a trivial change that will improve the App ! The text showing the length of time covered by the graph "zoom" level IS in black, and can be read.


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Related Resources

Additional resources still need to be added for this topic

Smart Battery Sense Product Page

Smart Battery Sense Manual