question

dwiea avatar image
dwiea asked

Do I need a BMV to use the Smart Battery Sense?

I am waiting for better weather to install my solar charger etc to my campervan so I was looking at the demo mode of the victron app on my phone.

I have a smart solar 100/30 and phoenix ip43 12/30 and in demo mode there are warnings in the low temperature shut off (because I have a lifepo4 battery). Am I reading this right that the battery sense is basically pointless without a BMV?

Is this to force people to buy the BMV for ... reasons?

screenshot-20210216-015514-comvictronenergyvictron.jpg

MPPT SmartSolarLithium BatterySmart Battery Sense
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2 Answers
Matthias Lange - DE avatar image
Matthias Lange - DE answered ·

"for example by a BMV"

You can also use another device.

https://www.victronenergy.com/live/temperature_sensors


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Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) avatar image
Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) answered ·

Hi @Dwiea,

There are lots of good reasons to have a BMV in your system (most importantly for a State of Charge reading), but cold temperature monitoring is possible with the Smart Battery Sense and no BMV.

The Smart Battery Sense, and a SmartSolar MPPT are able to create the VE.Smart network that is described there without requiring a BMV. A BMV-712 is also able to do this without a Smart Battery Sense. They are both able, and do not require each other.

There is a short introduction video and more information about the VE.Smart network and what is required here - https://www.victronenergy.com/media/pg/VE.Smart_Networking/en/introduction.html

Then specific info about the Smart Battery Sense is here:

https://www.victronenergy.com/media/pg/Smart_Battery_Sense/en/introduction.html


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