I recently converted my RV over to Victron. I purchased the Multiplus ii, bluetooth 500 amp shunt, MPPT Controller, and the Cerbo GX with a screen. The motorhome is already setup with solar, so I simply replaced all my other components with this and am up and running.
We are in the middle of another project where we are adding solar to a box trailer that is often pulled with the motorhome. The box trailer will have its own separate MPPT controller and will assist the motorhome solar setup when needed. That being said, I’m considering using my existing Renogy MPPT controller for the trailer. But my question is what will that do given all the great data I currently get from the Victron setup? Is there a way to ensure that Victron captures that extra solar power coming in or do I need another Victron MPPT controller to accurately collect the data?
To add to what @Skipper suggested, if you want the Renogy data in general, it is unlikely that Victron will read it. But depending on the exact data you need and kind of gear especially batteries you have, there might be other means to get the same data.
I know this was a month ago. We thought we were going to setup differently and had to come back to this idea. I have a second shunt now. But wanted to pick your brain a little more.
When adding a second shunt to the power coming into the rv from a second source of MPPT controllers, can you tell the victron system that the power is another “solar” source so that it shows up on the cerbo display screen? Or is it just going to see another power source that is accounted for?
If it doesn’t have the ability to identify it as solar power, is it definitively needed or if I bring the power in before the existing shunt will it figure everything out ok? I just won’t see the real solar generation numbers?
I’d really like to see the extra solar power I’m generating.
So I finished putting in the second shunt, and set it up as a DC Energy Meter - Solar Charger as shown below. But I’m getting weird results. As the PV generation goes up, so does the “DC Power” usage on the VRM screen. I’m pretty sure I don’t have anything to be pulling that much DC power. I’m suspecting that I wired the 2nd shunt incorrectly. I currently put it essentially parallel to the existing shunt for the rest of the RV. I don’t know enough, but I suspected that running it in “series” with the other shunt would give some duplication of PV generation. Here’s a screen shot of the VRM screen today. And heres a really high quality diagram of the basic setup I’m using. High quality = hand drawn over coffee on the table this morning. Reminder - the reason for the second shunt is that the left panels and MPPT controller(s) are not Victron and are installed in a trailer that I sometimes pull behind the RV. I plug in the trailer and connect it to the existing solar setup on the RV.
