Dear Victron Team,
Please accept the below feedback from me, it is intended to be delivered in a constructive way from a customer that is overall happy with the products and systems.
Firstly, I am a data centre controls specialist with extensive experience in Modbus, Lora, RS485, analogue, PLC, sensors etc, and my complaint today covers the choices that Victron has made when it comes to cabling their controls systems.
A few years ago, a 42foot yacht was considered absolutely huge, today a 38foot (12m) Catamaran that is 6.5m wide is considered small, entry level. Class A RVs are also becoming more and more common.
Along the way battery technoloigy has changed with Lifepo4 and other chemistries, but you know all this,.
The issue is this, the electrical loads have shot up, and with it the cost and size of power cabling.
What has not changed is the tech (protocols) cables and connectors for controlling all of the fantastic devices the we use to charge and consume and monitor our energy.
I am fortunate to own a 38foot catamaran with a 12 volt system. My equipment list is as follows:
1: Ekrano GX
2: 5 x MPPT - 4 with ve.direct and 1 with ve.can
3 1 x Skylla IP65 with ve.can
4: 1 x Smart inverter 3kva
5: 2 x Orion XS 12/50 with ve.direct
6: Lynx smart BMS with ve.can
7: Smart shunt with ve.direct
8: 4 x Smart Lithium NG batteries
The controls are made up of the following types:
1: Simple two wire cables for the ATD to the SKylla as it does not speak the full Victron language over ve.can
2: RJ45 for ve.can connections
3: VE.direct cables both with USB/Ve.direct and plain ve.direct
4: M8 connections for BMS
5: VE.can to NMEA
Compare the last data centre I built, which was relatively small at 8 Megawatts and about 2000 racks and 5000 meters square dof space. We had the following controls:
1: Plain analogue cabling dry contacts
2: Modbus RTU / RS485 terminated in phoenix contact terminal blocks.
3: Modbus TCP over RJ45
Thats it.
My main complaint is that VE.Direct is a 100% pain in the backside. Connectors fall out, ve.direct cables from factory vary in the tightness of fit. 10m max length which is not enough for my catamaran of 38 feet.
The use of USB extenders in a marine envronment is pure madness. My Startech 10m (x2) extension and Startech industrial USB hub (x2) has cost a total of 280 Euros, which is nearly 50% the cost of the ekrano GX they are connected to. This is a workaround to a deeper problem. THe USB to Ve.direct cables are an additional cost above the 280 euros, and I bought 6 of them…
The only reason I needed them is the 10m limit of ve.direct cables is not enough to reach from the chart table to the engine bays where the Orion XS DCDC chargers are, or to the various locations where the MPPT chargers are.
I prioritised shorter power cables lengths over shorter control cables lengths which is industry best practice, both in data centres AND in the marine world.
My suggestion is to move to a simple phoenix contact connector and use RS485 across the board. Keep the RJ45 connector if you really want, but in the marine world, that one can be prone to corrosion and is harder to repair.
Decent belden shielded RS485 cable can be used by customers like me who have longer cable runs passing through electrically noizy places, and for shorter runs RS485 really doesnt care.
I have no idea how people use your products on much larger boats, or maybe thats why I see images of Victron screens in weird places, and why the remote console in VRM or the new Android app is so popular, but these are all workarounds in my opinion.
I should add that the Scheiber monitoring systems popular and ubiquitous on french built boats (which I detest) don’t have this problem and have a decent concept of CAN bus or LIN bus) and have at least standardised on a connector (which is positively latched and NEVER falls out) and cabling which seems to be very tolerant of lengths…
Anyway, my rant is over, thank you for reading and I hope you take the feedback as intended, constructively.
Best regards,
Alex