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Russell Brown avatar image
Russell Brown asked

Orion DC-DC charging 414W but Cerbo GX shows Battery discharge -414W

My system until now had worked fine, has a Lynx Smart Shunt. All loads and MPPT's wired to Victron Distributer.

Any shore power charging, MPPT charging all shows on the Cerbo GX correctly.

I just wired in an Orion Smart 30A DC-DC non isolated. While it does charge the system, and the Cerbo GX battery icon correctly shows "414 Watt charging" the DC icon shows an exact opposite "-414 Watts"

Why the "-414W" this shows a drain exactly matching the charge value ?

The system in reality is charging correctly and the battery will fully charge correctly when DC-DC is charging.

If you look at the Cebro GX and saw charge = 414W and DC = -414W in theory this means zero charge, yet its charging ?

I have the + from the DC-DC Orion into the Victron Distributer and the common - of the DC-DC Orion also to the Victron Distributer, same as I have the MPPT chargers.

Any ideas why DC-DC charging shows as a negative DC draw on the Cerbo GX while at the same time it shows the exact same charge ?

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orion-tr smartorion dc-dcorion
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4 Answers
kevgermany avatar image
kevgermany answered ·

Probably your wiring. How are the lynx units, batteries and other equipment conbected

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Russell Brown avatar image Russell Brown commented ·

All are connected as per manual and all work fine. Any other charging source MPPT, Multiplus charger , the battery shows the "charge" on the battery icon and the DC icon only shows the current DC load as expected.

Only when the Orion DC-DC is running does the DC icon show a negative value = what the Battery icon shows is charging.

Lynx smart shunt has ALL loads including the Orion DC-DC connected to the Victron Distributer ie. the only thing connected to the battery direct is the Lynx Shunt.


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Matthias Lange - DE avatar image
Matthias Lange - DE answered ·

That's normal for the "DC Power" tile.

That tile shows DC loads positive (just like AC loads from the grid or on the AC Out of the inverter) and power feeding back to the battery as negative.

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Russell Brown avatar image Russell Brown commented ·
When the MPPT are charging the DC tile does not show the charging watts, only the actual DC load. The charge value always shows on the battery tile.


I am wondering if this is because the Cerbo GX can see the MPPT and see the Multiplus as they are networked, but the Orion DC-DC can't be networked so the system therefore shows the charge value as a negative on the DC tile ?

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Matthias Lange - DE avatar image Matthias Lange - DE ♦ Russell Brown commented ·

Exactly, the Cerbo knows what power is coming from the MPPT and the MultiPlus.

The DC tile only shows "unknown" DC consumption/charging.

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JohnC avatar image
JohnC answered ·

@Russell Brown

That DC Power tile is set up to show Loads from the battery as Positive. It's by design, as probably most users would have 'random' dc loads from their main monitored batts, rather than charge.


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Russell Brown avatar image
Russell Brown answered ·

I think I have found the solution. Get a Victron Smart shunt, connect it to the negative line of the Orion DC-DC and set the shunt to "Energy Meter" and type "DC Charger"

The Cerbo will then see the charge source and correctly display on the Cerbo screen, leaving the DC tile back to just showing the actual normal DC load.

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