Data Cabling help

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tonyyoung4650 asked Jan 31, '21

Data Cabling help

Hi,

I am about to order a bunch of victron pieces to rebuild a boat electrical system. I want to get all the data connection equipment ordered, but I am not an expert at all in the VE direct versus VE Can versus VE Bus etc

planned layout as below.

BMV-712 and Digital Multi Control at the helm. Also ethernet connection to Lowrance HDS unit

Inverter Charger, 2 x SmartSolar, smart shunt and Cerbo CX on electrical board approximately 7 metres away.

Can anyone direct me to a good source of information on this, or provide a short summary of what should connect to what with what type of cable.

thx

Tony

Venus OS

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Paul B answered · Jan 31, 2021 at 06:50 AM

Things to note

1. as you are using a victron smart shunt then the BMV 712 head is NOT needed this may then remove one ve direct device and you wont need the VE direct to USB cable

2. There are only 3 VE Direct plugs on the cerbo and you have 4 VE Direct Devices so ONE of them will need a VE direct to USB cable.

3. DO not connect any VE BUS cables to the router (Important)

4. now the connection to your MFD (Tip - first to get it all working connect the MFD directly to the CERBO (dont connect the router at this point (do this latter))

once you can see the cerbo on the MFD then connect the router, I think at this point you will have 2 DHCP systems turned on (the router and the MFD) try turning the routers DHCP off. then check if all works fine, if not then the routers IP range will need to be changed to the same range as the MFDs IP range ie 10.0.0.0 or what ever it is. otherwise you will have problems connecting the remote console screens as two different IP ranges would be on the network)

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seb71 commented · Jan 31, 2021 at 10:17 AM

For the BMV, besides the VE.Direct cable (or VE.Direct to USB) between the BMV's display and Cerbo GX, there is also the supplied RJ12 connectors cable (10 m long) between the BMV display and the BMV shunt.

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Answer 1 · 2021-01-31T08:28:11Z

seb71 answered · Jan 31, 2021 at 08:28 AM

As Paul B said, if you have the BMV (which has its own shunt), there is no point to also get a SamrtShunt (or vice versa). Get either the SmartShunt, or the BMV.

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tonyyoung4650 commented · Jan 31, 2021 at 09:26 AM

Thanks for the advice! It takes a bit to get you head around all this gear as it has so much functionality.

I like the idea of the BMV as it presents a simple standalone interface.

Is there any major advantanges of having the smart shunt?

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seb71 tonyyoung4650 commented · Jan 31, 2021 at 09:51 AM

I went with the SmartShunt, because it is cheaper than BMV, less wires and the information shown by BMV's display I can see it via Cerbo GX anyway.

I did not need the BMV's relay, so that was not a factor in my case. Still, I have Cerbo's relays if later needed.

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seb71 tonyyoung4650 commented · Jan 31, 2021 at 10:05 AM

For a boat, a BMV might be the better choice than the SmartShunt, though.

Redundancy for the essential instruments.

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Answer 2 · 2021-01-31T10:45:03Z

tonyyoung4650 answered · Jan 31, 2021 at 10:45 AM

I didn't realise the BMV-712 came with a shunt, so my thoughts now are to drop the smart shunt and run with the RJ12 connection between the BMV-712 and the shunt.

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