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matthias-nagel avatar image
matthias-nagel asked

Does the Cerbo GX support monitoring two separate battery systems at once?

I have two separate, independent battery systems (a starter battery system and a house battery system). The starter circuit is "dumb". It is only charged by an (unregulated) alternator and that's it. The house battery is charged via PV (Smart MPPT) or AC (Phoenix Smart). Both systems are monitored via their own BMV 712 Smart. The house system is controlled via a Cerbo GX.

Maybe, at some future point of time, I will add an additional Orion-Tr DC-DC charger between the starter system and the house system, but even then the systems virtually remain separated.

Does the Cerbo GX support to also add the BMV 712 of the starter system for monitoring purposes only? Of course, the Cerbo GX shall not control anything on the starter system. This would be for visualization only. Or will the Cerbo GX become confused and mistakenly also use the second BMV 712 as an control input for the chargers of the the house system?

cerbo gx
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Vance Mitchell avatar image
Vance Mitchell answered ·

You can connect multiple BMV devices on the system and manually select the one which you wish to be the master device in the cerbo settings. You will then be able to see the status of the other devices in the VRM portal under 'Advanced'. I believe the system will remember your settings but the developers will hopefully confirm this for you.

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geomz avatar image geomz commented ·

What @Vance Mitchell said is correct —the GX will only show one chosen primary BMV’s data at a time, but just in case you did not know, the BMV also has the option of monitoring an additional (starter) battery bank, and showing you that voltage information. To be clear, that only monitors voltage and nothing else (no current in/out, for example), but it might reduce your system complexity a bit. It does, however, take away temperature and mid-point monitoring as it uses the same pin.

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matthias-nagel avatar image matthias-nagel geomz commented ·
As I intend to use the temperature monitoring, I will use a second, independent BMV.
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