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southsideph avatar image
southsideph asked

Advice Needed on setup

Hi

Advice needed on 2 areas

Background.


Question 1

I do a lot of shows and off grid stop-overs, apologies upfront and bear with me.

Original setup was Smart Solar MPPT 100/20, 110AH leisure battery, SmartSense using VE Smart Net. But the demands on load increased so added a second leisure battery and Smart Sense battery monitor in parallel , this is where things started going wrong. Batteries were connected in standard - to -, plus + to +, Load battery A -, Battery B +

In this configuration from what I understand you can only use one BatterySense which means you cannot synchronise/monitor temperature on both batteries. (Batteries are contained in their own battery boxes)

Further complicated as needed to increase load still further so I replaced the inverter, as such I wanted to protect batteries to a maximum current drawable from each battery, so changed cabling so both batteries are now fused and connected by bus bar using same length cables (+ and -), as you would in 3+ battery configuration to maintain balance, also as I may add additional batteries in the future.

I have now added a BMV712 Smart into the mix, which measures current and voltage at bus-bar point rather than battery point, but the documentation says you cannot use the BMV 7xx with smart sense monitors. Even if you use the BMV with temperature sensor, you can only measure temperature on one battery??? So charge/temperature algorithms will only will be based on one battery not both or more.

I'm at a loss on what to do for the best?


Question 2

I currently am looking to replace the current DC-DC charger for the Orion-Tr smart 12/12 (30), Does anyone know if there are any plans to include support for VE Smart Net.


Any advice is very much appreciated.


Rgds


MPPT ControllersBMV Battery MonitorSmart Battery Sense
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1 Answer
Justin Cook avatar image
Justin Cook answered ·

Hi @SouthsidePH, to answer your questions as succinctly as possible:

1. The best solution for you is to choose the battery most likely to experience the greatest temperature variation, and connect your temperature sensor to that one. You are correct, in that -for VE.Smart Networking purposes- you can only have a single sending unit on the system: either a Smart BatterySense or a BMV-712 with a temperature sensor, but not both. Average battery banks have the batteries placed next to each other, so a single temperature sensor on the bank is suitable; unfortunately your particular use case is a bit unusual, and brings unusual challenges.

2. No, there are no current plans to bring VE.Smart Networking capability to the Orion-Tr Smart line of DC-DC chargers anytime in the foreseeable future. This feature is certainly on all of our wishlists, and there is certainly hope for its implementation someday, but it will not be anytime soon.

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