is my wiring ok?
i have low budget over a long period.
My battery banks are of different a/hrs and bought 1 bank at a time.
my system is as follows
ac (in blue) split input via switches to consumer board
dc - shared negative
bank A - charged by solar mppt, ac-dc charger or alternator (via citrix)
bank B - charged by bank A (via Orian XS)
bank A - supply to
- Hot water boiler (high amp)
- Phoenix 3000w inverter
- non essential 12v devices (via manual switch between bank A and bank B)
- Orion XS
bank B - supply to
- Cerbo
- non essential 12v (as above -via switch)
- essential 12v devices (low power drain)
Will the cerbo be able to monitor all victron devices (except citrix i think??) and control them? if yes how? hard wired or bluetooth??
thanks in advance
What types of batteries are the main bank A and the new bank B.
I think you need to do a bit of reading of some of the manuals or get in touch with an electrician.
- SmartShunts are installed in the negative cable, they can not work in positive.
- Why do you have SmartShunts on the Orion XS input and output, the Orion measures the current and will report this to the Cerbo.
- What are you trying to achieve with the battery protects inlet and outlet of the Orion XS.
- If you have a Cerbo then you do not use Bluetooth network, you cable everything together with VE Direct.
- As the Solar is charging Bank A and the Orion is charging Bank B you will need to be careful how the Cerbo interprets having 2 battery systems, which do you consider your main battery bank.
- Why do you want 2 battery banks, why not just boost the size of Bank A, that would simplify your system.
-
- Fusing needs to be added to the system.
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Batteries are lead. Banks Bought at different times. Different a/hrs and number of batteries. I will upgrade to lithium once system is setup and complete. Second bank is emergency backup and power for always on devices.
My power now exceeds the bank A output so bank B is to last overnight. Probably as bank A is now quite old but won’t scrap as still provides 4hrs power at night.
Was told never mix batteries of different amp hours or ages as bank won’t charge properly otherwise.
Wasn’t sure if I needed shunts but from replies I don’t.
Battery protects were to monitor each bank and to disconnect any supply feeds once low amps. Still unsure if needed
But could you consider not spending all that money on equipment and replace Bank A with a larger bank. You are right, if there is a large discrepancy in age, best not to mix.
only got orion xs, mppt 150/60, phoenix 12v 3000w and ve direct x2 so far. buying midi fuses/holders for each victron device and 2x anl 300a fuses for battery banks to main bus bars and still looking up what needed for phoenix inverter
oh and waiting delivery cerbo gx mk2
and the citrix installed.
1 ok so move from bank neg to main neg bus bar
2 i was trying to measure bank input / output - didnt realise ment to be on negative. orion is direct from bank a bus bar to bank b bus bar. shunts were meant to be after the battery protects bur now as u say meant to be on negative to bank.
3 battery protects are running from bank bus bar then to device bus bar to stop output power to inverter and 12v low amp circuits
4 is that terminal to terminalor can i use the cable dongle shown in diagram
5 main bank is older bank of 4 x 130 ah newer bank by 4years (solar charged always but used 3 times in 3 years) of 3 x 110 ah. this was as i had electric hookup before but now have to become 100% solar sufficient. wind turbine project to follow after solar complete with bank A being lithium.
6 cost. had to get powered asap so could only afford 4 lead acid leisure batteries and at time lithium very expensive. then bought 2nd bank to have as a switch over power supply as my demand increased.
but now as bank 2 is only used for a few hours getting less(will increase towards winter)
it is to be wired for permanent low powered devices such as starlink and network routers/hubs,min lighting,1 cigarette socket with usb fast chargers for phones, water pump and small chest freezer(if fridge goes off i put blue freezer packs in fridge) but not a major drain to battery bank.
7 going to re wire design and post when done
Point 4, SmartShunt, Orion and Solar controller all have a VE Direct terminal and the Cerbo has 3 of them, you use a VE Direct to VE Direct cable to connect them rather than the dongle shown. One of them will need to be a VE Direct to USB.
The SmartShunts are shown as DC Energy meters not battery monitors. The Cerbo is going to have a lot of problems understanding your architecture with 2 battery banks, charging devices on different banks, no battery monitor. I suggest you have a rethink about your system architecture and what you want the Cerbo to do, perhaps have a look at some system schematics and manuals.
after re thinking my design ive come up with this.
how would the victron devices link? i read the battery protect needs to connect to inverter directly. how would cerbo be linked too?
system now
dual array solar to mppt
mppt to newer secondary battery bank B bus bars
battery bank B bus bar to 300a ? fuse to cutoff switch
cutoff switch to 70a fuse to orion XS
orion then charges main bank A
the rest of the system runs from this main bank.
main bank run the main system which has a minor low power circuit for always on devices and the rest runs through the battery protect.
i have made an error with the ac to dc charger which is the positive should be going to bank B not bank A.
can someone tell me how cerbo would connect and if wiring and fuse positioning and sizes enough?
thanks again for help
im using 25mm core copper cable and solar 6mm core cables
600a cutoff switches
each battery has exactly 1 meter lengths for positive and negatives to bank bus bars for each bank
First off, I recommend you approach a Victron installer who deals in marine / vehicle installs.
Some comments.
- Normally the Cerbo and monitoring system is built around a main battery bank with a BMV battery monitor / SmartShunt that then feeds into an inverter and is possibly charged with Solar, an Orion from the alternator, may have other charger and/or loads and there may be a secondary battery bank. You have no battery monitor, you have 2 battery banks, the solar and Orion charging B and the inverter on A so you have no main bank as far as the Cerbo would be concerned. The Cerbo will be able to monitor the equipment but will not form a coherent picture of the system.
- The 12V output from a Battery Protect MUST NOT be connected to the inverter DC input, you have read the manual wrong. The battery protect controls the remote on/off terminal of the inverter and the 12V DC power comes direct from the battery. The inverter will have its own low voltage shut down settings so it does not strictly need to be controlled by the Battery Protect.
- The battery protect does not connect to the Cerbo unless you are using a relay on the Cerbo to turn the Battery Protect on and off.
- You need a VE Bus cable from the inverter to the Cerbo.
- You need VE Direct cables from the Orion and MPPT to the Cerbo
- It is hard to read the text for all the fuses, you need another revision of the drawing first.
