Hi I have a test setup with a Color Control GX, Smart Shunt, SmartSolar Charger MPPT 75/10 rev2.
On the CCGX I can see both Smart Shunt and Solar Charger listed on the Setting Home page. Both are connected via VE.Direct cables to the CCGX. If I go to the VE.CAN Settings and look at devices list only the Solar Charger is listed.
Using Maretron N2KA I can see the Solar Charger in devices list. I was expecting to see the Smart Shunt in CCGX VE.CAN devices list and N2KA in the same way that I can see the Solar Charger.
Thank you,
Simon
Other Victron Devices include Multiplus II on VE.BUS.
One other thing that needs pointing out here is that I am trying to establish a method where I can identify all Victron devices as NMEA2000 instances. Why? Because we have a need to display a large number of Battery Chargers, Inverters etc, in a central control system using NMEA2000.
I appreciate that we could do this in MODBUS, but unfortunately the product is not MODBUS compatible or ready to use VE.CAN direct.
I am able to change Battery, Inverter, Battery Charger PGNs Instances to achieve this, but the Smart Shunt is behaving differently to the Solar Charger.
This is not a DIY project by any stretch of the imagination.
For info, as so far all re-instanced Instances i.e. 0 and 1s that have been reset to unique one as per NMEA2000 requirement are working fine and VRM Color Control etc working fine.
Hi @nickdb I hope you are well. I posted my question some time ago and it appears that the question is not gathered much interest or comment.
The question was very serious and by no means DIY, which you attributed this question to.
As a professional working in the area of Marine Electrical and Electronics and needing a work around to display all Victron Energy chargers, inverters etc on a large yacht using NMEA2000. There is a reason for this. The reason is the intention is to use a specific NMEA2000 HTML server to display all yacht data not just electrical.
As a result I as Applications Engineer have a test bench with a large number of NMEA2000 devices and I have purchased Victron products to experiment with changing NMEA2000 Instances using Actisense Reader which has this ability.
I have successfully changed NMEA2000 instances of Multiplus and Solar Controlers but having added a Smart Shunt and seeing it on the Color Control I have, it does not appear in the VE.CAN list of devices when connected via VE.Direct cable as per the Solar Controller is, which does appear.
I am on a NDA so I can’t be specific about this project but it is for a multi million Euro yacht to be built soon, which will be using a range of our products and looking at changing over from another popular brand or chargers, inverters, batteries, etc to Victron.
I decided to join the community because I thought it was a good way of raising a question without resorting to having to contact Victron directly.
Thank you for your reply. I did think the Color Control might be an issue and that a Cerbo would work better. But the Color Control was up my sleeve and already on my test bench. The question over using VE.Direct and VE.CAN will be important when it comes to product type but there may not be many options as to which products. The current system uses three 4kw inverters in parallel and 4 x 100A chargers for service battery and dedicated engine, generator and thruster battery chargers. We need to be able to monitor all batteries independently, feed back from all units mentioned and ON/OFF control etc. The main issue for me is I am only responsible for the monitoring and control side of the system. I have no control over the builders or the builders suppliers. Thus I need to be able to work around this.
I am not freelance and the company I work for are supplying lots of electrical hardware that we control and monitor with our own products. All products communicate via NMEA2000. The intention is that all other product will come from Victron and we need to monitor all via NMEA2000. Therefore my current activity is ensuring we can achieve what is wanted. If that means we have to stick to certain products then that is fine. That is what I am trying to work out. It might be the case we need to look at interfacing VE.CAN directly using Victron open source information, but we would like to avoid this if possible.
Unfortunately the Marine Industry has adopted NMEA2000 to be the standard that all manufactures need to stick to for compatibility between all types of Navigation, Communications, Power Products, Electrical Monitoring etc. It is lets face it plug and play compared to the Industrial world of MODBUS etc. Yes 40 years ago NMEA0180 0183 was the standard for mainly then Navigation equipment, but there were other competing communication types which were manufacture specific and thus you had to buy kit from the same manufacture if you wanted compatible functions.
NMEA2000 is going TCP IP now and will co exist on Ethernet networks, but it still needs compatibility between all manufactures. Thus NMEA is a useful organisation to ensure this and to ensure full testing and compatibility is maintained so that no other equipment is compromised. There is almost zero way the whole industry can avoid NMEA now.
People want their stereo on their chart plotter and LED RGB light control, they want every function of the yacht on one display and one display from any marine manufacture.
We provide the NMEA2000 HTML5 means to display everything on one device, which is what the OEM boat builders want and so on as they want their branding on the screen and 100% compatibility.
But there are several layers and NMEA2000 devices will have high security policies where once devices are connected, both/all must comply to the NMEA2000 TCP IP standard (OneNet) that no other non NMEA2000 device will be able to control or interact. It is to ensure that no vessel can be hacked from anything on the same network. The main reason for OneNet is to enable the likes of Radar, Sonar and other video type presentation data can be transmitted and to NMEA standard. It might mean one make of radar scanner can be used with multiple makes of multi-function display. Oh and IP CCTV etc.