What is the rationale for not using standard CAT 6 vs VE direct… This connector disconnects in RV’s routinely during operation especially off road applications, thus I find myself repairing them and glueing them in place.
They are also fragile and routinely i find the male ends bent, thus repair of warranty work. This problem can be prevented quite simply.
Why Victron is in the cable making business makes no sense, even if they were good at it.
The small connector used for VE-direct is probably a legacy hangover. The small processors inside the MPPT’s don’t have the capacity to support an Ethernet connection.
If you are having problems with these connectors shaking loose, the you need to support the cable very close to the connector so it cannot pull out. I sometimes do this by making a small loop in the cable end, and ty-wrapping it to the Battery positive cable. (depending on model).
I am not sure I follow your logic here. OP is not asking for the MPPTs to support ethernet communication, only to use an ethernet / UTP cable for transmission. That should not matter to the processors. It would take more space on the device, but other than that I struggle to see why they couldn’t switch to UTP for VE.Direct from a technical perspective.
Would it be nice, yes, of course! Would it be on my top 50 priority list for Victron to change and bring to market? Nope. None of us speak for Victron and Victron isn’t going to answer questions like this in public anyway. It’s wasted time to post or reply to this.
D’oh! 
Possibly, however, the change not only impacts all MPPT’s, but all GX devices as well. Also there is the legacy problem - which I think is the main reason this connector has never changed.
What will eventually happen I think, is that VE-Direct will eventually be replaced with VE-CAN.
And yet the brand new ac/dc charger ip43 has ve.direct with the horrid connector, and the older skylla ip65 has ve.can with rj45, but ip43 can do dvcc but the skylla cant….
Its all very weird.
But like the OP, i hate that connector (see my rant on the forum), and also have problems with it falling out or the white part separating from the black….
never had that happen… what do you do to them???
WTF!?
Never had that or heard about that before.
Not sure where I saw it but someone 3D printed holders for the VE.direct cables.
Securing cables properly, especially in mobile installations is vital, moreso given often cables are hanging from a device. While I do not favour these, from a design perspective still sensible given space is often at a premium in many installations. I prefer smaller access holes, less cable bulk, smaller devices even and yes going forward there may be other options at the risk of introducing SPOFs with a single connection?
Apply a drop of hot-melt adhesive or a bead of acrylic sealant to secure the connector joint.
In my van every device that has a ve.direct connection (Orion Xs, Smart Solar etc) mounted vertically are oriented so the cables go in from above so are effectively held in by their own weight. Where horizontally mounted the ve.direct cable is supported and tie wrapped about 5cm away from the connection with a slight bend in the cable which creates a constant pressure pushing the connection in. They aren’t great connections for a mobile environment but you can work around it.
I’ve had 2 of my VE.direct connectors break. The bit of the white portion breaks off along the row of pins.
the finished cables with the moulded-on black “strain reliefs”?
smacks of a heavy hand???
The white part is a bit weaker where the pin retaining slots are.
That would be nice if there was a little screw boss on the case…
Installing it upside down does have the disadvantage that, if water gets in—for example, through the capillary effect along the solar cables on MPPTs—it can flood the entire device. But if everything ran over RJ45, we’d have the problem of the signal levels on the cables. We already have CAN and VE.Bus, and adding VE.Direct via RJ45 would make the chaos complete. RJ11 might be an option, but that’s another matter. A small adhesive pad under the VE.Direct connector, securing the cable with a cable tie, and nothing will happen. I’ve already installed quite a few VE.Direct cables and not a single one has broken.
I don’t think it is waste of time, as I spend countless hours playing, finding, straining eyes to fight that stupid little cable. We should be able to plug it, lock it and unplug- unlock with our eyes closed…
Just like I do POE…
FYI: renogy has this feature on the communication hub, I little switch… it’s pretty simple… thus let the end customer choose what works for their implementation vs locking us in to proprietary cables that has very limited length.
Many products are impacted in any motorized application.
The thread was started relating to RVs and as I mentioned I was referring to my van installation where nothing is installed in an environment where water running down cables would be a consideration. If there was water getting into my van/RV I’d be addressing that before any other issues. I’m not supporting ve.direct cable connections at all, I don’t like them either but there are ways to ensure they don’t fall out.
