In my camper, I was considering the Victron Smart Battery Sense to assist my Orion XS with input cable voltage drop.
The voltage drop makes the motor detect algorithm a little difficult, especially with my Euro 6 alternator so I already need to account for large voltage variations. I really need to allow for 11.8V turn on, as the Euro6 will easily allow the battery to go that low, even with the engine running. So a few tenths voltage drop make all the difference.
I remember some critical YouTube video’s lamenting the lack of sense when the Orion XS was introduced, and indeed the lack of sense wires is not ideal.
So I thought to deploy Victron Smart Battery Sense, but some reading makes me understand that the Victron Smart Battery Sense will only be used by MPPT who interprets it as domestic battery voltage. Same for the Orion XS, which takes it as the output voltage, not the input voltage (of course, currently both MPPT and XS already have those, as I have a Smart Shunt)
I think it would be good if both Orion XS and Smart Battery sense were updated in such a way the Sense could be set in “starter battery” mode rather than “domestic battery” mode, and the Orion XS would then use it as input voltage.
All devices would still need to be in the same VE-Smart network, as the Orion would still need to take the Smart Shunt as output voltage (as well as its temperature).
If you already have a smart shunt on your house battery it has an input for a dedicated (non-load carrying) sense wire from the start battery.
Add both to your smart network; the XS will then use the measured start battery voltage as its input voltage while also using the house battery voltage for the output measurement. You’ll have to give up the temperature monitoring, which is not critical if the house batteries are lithium.
So if I set my shunt to measure starter battery voltage, the Orion XS will use it as such?
If so, that would be good, maybe I looked wrong but I did not even got that from the manual. But it would be good, it means the Orion XS part if this functionality already exists.
Anyway, having sealed lead, I really do not want to loose my temperature compensation. If I accidentally boil away water, there is no way to replace it.
Also, house battery (and XS) is in the back and starter in the front. I’d have to run a new wire through the cabin. I really would rather add a smart sense.
In addition to the house battery current draw and voltage the smart shunt allows to monitor one additional input ; start voltage, temperature (of wherever you place the sensor) or the midpoint voltage of a 24V system.
Since you have LA house battery it makes sense to retain the temperature monitoring for optimum charging. Could you not install the smart battery sense on the house battery? It has temperature monitoring too. Then you could dedicate the smartshunt sensor input to the starter battery voltage and retain temperature compensated charging.
But I would still need to run a long sense wire all through the cabin. I thill think a new “mode” feature on the smart shunt is a good enhancement idea, but given any such enhancement will probably take a while, if ever, I will consider your suggestion if/when I need to run some other stuff anyway.
This is not the case (at the moment). The start battery voltage is not transmitted over VE.Smart networking and the OrionXS does not adjust its input voltage with anything received via VE.Smart networking. You can validate this yourself by looking at the VE.Smart networking menu on the OrionXS and checking what it is using.