I have a simple RV install, 1x EasySolar 12/1600, 1x additional SmartSolar MPPT 100/30, 1x SmartShunt 300A and a Color Control GX. All devices are connected to the Color Control GX, the two SmartSolar via the direct ports on the Color Control GX and the SmartShunt via a USB to VE.direct cable. The Inverter via VE.bus.
The SmartShunt is used to measure the 12V system consumption (lights, fridge, TV) and alternator charging (the RV had a LiFePO4 capable DCDC installed, which I kept).
It all works well, the only problem I have is the displayed Wattage on the Color Control GX. When I select the SmartShunt as the battery monitor in the Color Control GX, it shows that the 12V system provides most of the power for the inverter and not the battery. For example, if I draw 900W AC, it only shows -90W from the battery and -820W via the 12V System, while correctly it should be 990W from the battery. If no AC load is present / the inverter switched off, it correctly shows the DC power consumption.
The 90W corresponds to the actual power draw of the 12V system, which is also displayed correctly in the devices tab with ~7A of current consumption.
When I set the battery monitor to the EasySolar, it shows the correct power draw for the AC, so it shows 900W but does not display the current draw from the DC consumers at all.
Is there any setting that I am missing? I tried to find them in the Color Control GX and also the Bluetooth connection and app, but I was not able to set it up that the display is correct. Do I need to install an additional battery monitor?
The only connection to the battery minus is to the SmartShunt “battery” connection ?
All other (chargers, consumption) go to system ground, i.e. the “other side” of the shunt ?
Yes, exactly as labeled. I have a bus bar to connect 3 x 150Ah LiFePO4 in parallel. From the bus bar I have the connection to the SmartSolar, the EasySolar, the DC connection for the Color Control GX and the battery side of the SmartShunt which then connects to the existing GND connection from the DC distribution.
The +12V from the DC distribution goes directly to the bus bar, as well as the +12V connection from the SmartShunt.
Like I said, it reads the correct current. I confirmed that via the app and the devices tab in the Color Control GX. It stays at 7A, independent of any current drawn by the inverter.
Connect the negative battery terminal to the M10 bolt on the “BATTERY MINUS” side of the shunt. Tighten the shunt bolt with
a maximum torque of 21Nm.
Note that there should be no other connections on this side of the shunt or on the negative battery terminal. Any loads or
chargers connected here will be excluded from the battery state of charge calculation.
Connect the negative of the electrical system to the M10 bolt on the “SYSTEM MINUS” side of the shunt. Tighten the shunt
bolt with a maximum torque of 21Nm. Make sure that the negative of all DC loads, inverters, battery chargers, solar chargers
and other charge sources are connected “after” the shunt.
Note that up until 2020, the SYSTEM MINUS connection was labelled LOAD MINUS.
Connect the ferrule pin of the red cable with the fuse to the shunt by pushing the pin into to the “Vbatt +” terminal.
Connect the M10 eye terminal of the red cable with the fuse to the positive terminal of the battery.
What do you mean? This is exactly what the manual states? What is wrong in the setup?
Edit: I want to just measure the consumption of the 12V, I did not want to measure the consumption of the AC side, as they monitor their own currents? Also, I do not have the space for a secondary distribution box behind the SmartShunt.
Like I stated before, I can not install the DC GND / negative distribution box after the SmartShunt.
But I should have read the manual more closely. I would have to change the SmartShunt to the “DC monitor” mode, and then change the battery montior to the EasySolar. That should do the trick if I understand it correctly.
Or will the EasySolar only monitor the battery SoC then from its own consumption / charging? I can not find any information about that in the EasySolar manual.
Edit: After reading a bit more, my understanding is that it should work for the DC portion, but not for the external SmartSolar. Can anyone confirm that? So, if I would connect the external SmartSolar to the existing DC distribution (in my case directly adjacent to the existing DCDC converter and thus after the SmartShunt) it should monitor the batter SoC correctly?
Or am I really forced to somehow cramp the SmartShunt directly after the battery and somehow an additional DC bus bar in my already quite limited space?
For a battery monitor to work properly it has to be installed as you have found out with the chassis ground connected to the system side of the shunt, See the FAQ linked below. This is the only way for it to work, all current in and out via the negative cable is counted. Anything else will not work. I think you now understand this but I am linking it anyway.
If the easy solar is set as a battery monitor then it does not know anything about your DC loads so it will be less accurate. If you set the SmartShunt up as a DC meter then this will measure the DC loads but I do not think that this gets transmitted to the EasySolar for it to add this into the consumption.
I think that you are going to have to either accept something less than 100% accurate or swap the chassis ground wire to the SmartShunt.
Because the SmartShunt is not connected where the bus bar is installed. The van was originally designed with a single 100Ah AGM battery. This was then connected via a fused cable to the van’s DC distribution which got all of the fuses, the connection to the original 230V battery and DC/DC chargers.
As I managed to fit 3x150Ah LiFePO4 batteries in that space I just managed to install the bus bar and the connection to the EasySolar in that area but absolutely nothing else. In this state I barely manage to keep the bending radii for all cables.
So I installed the SmartShunt in the origina DC distribution.
If I want to use this for the system ground, I would have to install a secondary bus bar, one for the batteries to be joined, and one for all outputs to go after the SmartShunt in the same place.
This is not possible. Alternatively I’d have to route the EasySolar’s cable to the original DC distribution but it is not rated for these currents and I doubt I could fit it all in that space as well.
So, like I said, it is not feasible without modifying the van’s furniture, which would be a major pain in the ass and something I’d like to avoid at all cost.
If you “daisy chain” the batteries, connect plus to the first, minus to the last you don’t need a busbar at all. The last battery uses the shunt as connection to the rest of the system.
That is quite unfortunate. So although I measure every current in the system, the Color Control Gx has all the information , I cannot calculate it in there?
I mean, it would literally just summing up the individual currents from all the devices and multiplying it with the voltage measured by the shunt.
Heck, at this point I am even happy to just estimate the battery percentage based on the voltage and accept the wrong power display. But if I understand the documents correctly, I will never have accurate battery percentages this way, as the measured Ah will not match up.
Quite sad that the system is this inflexible for the price.
I guess my only option is then creating a custom device that does this via DBUS, correct? However I would lose all the integrated battery synchronisation, etc. But if I create a new BMV device, do the rough calculations there, I should be able to select it via the Color Control Gx’s settings, right?
I’ll read the programming documentation and go from there.
It is not physics. I have the current information for all channels. The EasySolar measures its current, battery voltage and battery temperature, the SmartSolar measures its current, the SmartShunt measures the 12V distribution current and its voltage.
I have all currents that go in and out of the battery. There is no physical reason why I cannot determine the batteries capacity and the correct current.
Like said in a different comment, the only thing that is needed is to sum all of them up. They have the correct polarity, it’s just I_Bat = I_EasySolar+ I_SmartSolar + I_SmartShunt. And from there I can easily calculate the current battery capacity if I integrate over time.
The Color Control Gx is already doing it, as we can see with the negative power that is displayed for the 12V system. It is already doing the P_SmartShunt = (I_EasySolar - I_SmartShunt) * V_Bat. A very similar calculation is already done.
I just hoped that there was a setting to toggle this and use the information that the system already has to display the correct values, but unfortunately it seems like it’s a niche problem I am facing.
What is your goal here? What are you trying to point out with your comments?
Yes, I should have read the manuals more carefully, I would not have spend trice than I would have with other systems, if I would have know the systems limitations, but for me it was quite unexpected that this is not a feature. I guess normally the connected BMS would deliver these information and I can see it being fine for larger installs.
I do not blame Victron for not providing the feature, I understand that It is my fault.
If I would have known it, I could have had the same result with an ESP based solution combined with a few INA236 and home assistant since I’ll now have to do my own developing anyways.
Personally, my expectation was that a system should offer a bit of flexibility, now I will have to do my day job for this system and develop the correct driver. Luckily it seems fairly easy, documentation is quite good, but I hoped there was an easier solution.
My boat is wired with flexible double insulated rubber welding cables rather than standard PVC insulated DC cables because it has better flexibility to radius of 6 x outer diameter in fixed installs. The GB supplier is linked below but there are German suppliers, Helukabel have an equivalent.