I am having trouble finding any information on how to specifically connect the ekrano GX to my Curtis controllers. Any information or links to Victron documentation would be greatly appreciated.
There is plenty of info on every other Can bus connection however I am stumped with this scenario.
It is a new feature of the firmware for a catamaran boat and it’s an exciting concept and will solve a few things for me as monitoring 2 Curtis controllers has been problematic in the past for my boat.
These motor controllers should be connected to one of the can bus ports.
Both controllers will need to be connected to the same port, so different ID’s will need to be programmed into the controllers - unless they self allocate an id.
I’m also waiting for more developments in this line, but have been looking at motor controllers for a few years now.
Are you expecting to get any regeneration from these units?
Thanks for your response. Your advice is valuable to me and I will start with allocating an ID regardless of what features the screen may have.
The controllers are in an electric catamaran (no sails) and regeneration is not a thing on my boat. Even in a 4 or 5 knot current at anchor the props don’t turn even without magnetic load.
Thanks again and I will forge forward with bits of info as I receive them.
It gives most of an explanation however there is still a bit of connecting the dots with respect to the requirements of the Curtis. More detail is given about the Sevcon for example.
First thing to do is to identify whether you have a Curtis F or E/SE series controller.
The second step will be to prepare a modified cable to connect the Curtis controller to the GX device VE.Can port.
The pinout differs between the different Curtis controllers, the details can be found on the github link above.
In your case, connecting multiple controllers, one of the requirement is that they must each have a different node ID.
I would recommend first connecting to a single controller, scanning the bus following the guide mentioned above and writing down the node ID detected (it will be visible in the UI).
Then repeat that process with just the second controller connected. If the node ID detected after the scan is the same as your first controller then you will have to reprogram one of them to use a different node ID.
Please report back if you are having any issues with the process.
I will update this thread once the manuals have been updated.
Thanks for your reply. I have done everything so far as per the documentation however I am struggling to get the information onto the ekrano screen. I’m seeing the two Curtis controllers number 38 and 39. I ran a separate cable with the pin out configurations as per the documentation however I’m not getting the motor data on the screen.The controllers are wired in a Daisy chain with the link for the 120 ohm at the end of the run.
. I’m seeing the two Curtis controllers number 38 and 39.
I’m excited that you guys are interested and I’m sure there’s some basic stuff that I’ve missed however is there a possibility that I need to program one controller as a master and slave or does the Victron become the master with two slaves??
The issue has been identified, Curtis E/SE series controllers with an old OS version (12 in this case) do not support all the required parameters for the integration to work.
The missing parameter (Controller serial number, SDO 0x1018.04) is not critical therefore we will evaluate whether we can relax the requirements to support that controller OS version.
I’ll update the thread once a fix is live or if we’ve found a good reason to leave the requirement.
You are on the money with your assessment of the motor temperature. When the motors were wound they installed thermistors that weren’t compatible with the Curtis so I’ve had to install extra PT to make up the difference however there is a discrepancy in the compatibility between the two. I’ll put more effort into that issue now that I can read it easily.
I’ll be waiting eagerly for the next update.
So glad I reached out to you guys and thanks again for your efforts
I’ve been using the boat page for the last few days.
It’s exactly what I needed. Thanks again
To be informative for future iterations of the boat page I am keen to share with you the critical data that would make the boat page complete for solar sailors.
Motor temps ( which we discussed)
Controller temps
Live solar yield
Battery voltage
As I have absolutely no idea how you populate the screen with data I don’t know how much of this is possible. However these items would round out most of what would be considered the critical data for days on the water managing limited energy and boat speed and weather conditions like tide and wind and currents that will always change throughout the day. This data is still available on other screens but if I had a magic wand I’d love for it to be on the boat page.
We’ve done about 8000 nautical miles on our catamaran and this has been the best improvement made so far. Well done.