question

saskak avatar image
saskak asked

mixing VE direct with VE smart (bluetooth) for mid point and temperature sensing

I have a very simple system with a victron smart shunt 500A, victron smartsolar mppt 100/30, 24V battery bank (2x FLA C20 100Ah), Victron Energy Phoneix 24V 1200VA inverter and 2x 340W panels connected in parallel (shading issues). All connected via victron VE direct cables to a PI3 (VE.direct to USB). All working without a problem.

I have a mid-point voltage reporting for the shunt to the aux port. The problem is that as far as I can see I cannot have both mid-point voltage and a temperature sensor cabled to the shunt.

My question is, can I get a victron smart battery sense and connect the MPPT to get the battery temperature from the battery sense via VE smart network in conjunction with my current setup? I will disable the voltage reporting as this will come from the shunt. I know it is a bit of a mix and match between the two and there might be problems.

Alternatively, to avoid the mix and match with my PI3, do I need to get a second smart shunt and hook a temperature probe to that, so that would be VE direct cables for all and no VE smart networking.

If there were two aux ports to the shunt that would have been great.

Many thanks indeed for any help.

VE.DirectSmart Battery SenseVE.Smart Network
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1 Answer
derrick thomas avatar image
derrick thomas answered ·

Victron manual specifically states NOT to use ve.smart network with hard wired components as this will cause conflicts.

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saskak avatar image saskak commented ·

Many thanks, so I gather the only solution is to get a second shunt to hook the temperature probe to and the shunt itself to the PI3.

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derrick thomas avatar image derrick thomas saskak commented ·
What inverter do you have? You may be able to connect the temp sensor to the inverter, then specify the temp sensor in Venus.
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saskak avatar image saskak derrick thomas commented ·
It's the Victron Energy Phoenix 1200VE 24V, but I do not think I can hook up anything to it. It only has the VE direct cable to USB on the PI3.
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nickdb avatar image nickdb ♦♦ saskak commented ·
Or get a cerbo which has additional inputs for temp sensors.
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saskak avatar image saskak nickdb ♦♦ commented ·
Yeah, that is a good option, but I already invested in PI3 and seems to work ok. Maybe I should have bought a cerbo rather than PI3. Seemed cheaper at the time.
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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


VE.Direct protocol FAQ


Additional resources still need to be added for this topic

VE.Smart Networking Manual