monitoring

I already have a Smart Shunt that includes the bluetooth connection. I'm pleased with the phone access and Victron app - however I'd like to go ahead and add a physical readout display, something that looks like the BMV-700. However, I don't need to purchase another shunt. Is there a way to add just the monitor readout to my existing Smart Shunt without purchasing the entire BMV-700 kit which also comes with a shunt?

Hi,

does anyone have this kind of manual for the non smart Victron batteries?

https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/Lithium_Battery_Smart/Lithium_Smart_Battery_Manual-en.pdf

Thank you!

I have yet another example of an MPPT monitor stuck in the connecting state after a few day/weeks of successful operation. I understand that I need to update the firmware on the monitor and require a special cable to do so. Can anyone point me to the cable in question? Is there the possibility of getting this supplied free of charge from Victron directly given the nature of the situation? It doesn't feel great having to spend money to fix this issue, to be honest. My monitor was only purchased a month ago, should I have expected it to come with updated firmware? Is requesting a new (pre-updated) unit from Victron an alternative support scenario?

If it matters, the monitor is connected to a SmartSolar 100/50 controller. Both my Android APP and MPPT charge controller are updated to the latest code/firmware.

I've tried to do some digging and haven't found very much in the way of a clear answer or anyone that has done this.

I've recently been upgrading my boats electrical system to all Victron components. I now have a Cerbo GX, 100/50 Solar MPPT charger, and the smart shunt 1000. The rest of my boats electronics are all Raymarine and I have had zero issues interfacing the new components into the existing HS network.

Only missing piece of the puzzle is that I have a Xantrax Marine 3KW inverter charger. It does a great job and I have no reason to spend the extra money to replace it. The Xantrx Marine device does interface with my NMEA 2k network. I can see that device fine from my Raymarine suite. So it is fully NMEA 2k compliant.

Is there a way for me to get the Cerbo GX to detect that there is NMEA 2k inverter charge and display the data it is sending? I understand it is very unlikely to be able to control it, but I want to be able to monitor everything from one location and right now it will not detect any inverter charger.

Thanks for any help you all can give.

Aloha

Nathan

Hi,

I have a boat with two battery banks, 48V for propulsion with a Victron BMS-712 and a 12V for services with a SmartShunt. I also have smart solar and an inverter that goes to the 48V bank. I want to know if its possible to have everything in the same dashboard. As I read in this forum, the system only expect one battery, is there any other more complicated option to have both batteries in the dashboard? Ex. raspi, grafana, etc.

I have a CerboGX with Touchdisplay, a 500A smart shunt monitoring the service battery and the power draw and a ARGO FET for the alternator.

The display showing the system, shows how much amps are going into the batteries or are drawn from the batteries. I have a MPPT for my solar which is shown there as well and in the winter I possibly will upgrade the shore 230V loader to a VICTRON model.

But how can I display and monitor the alternator in my system?

On an old battery monitor the start battery was wired to the load/charge side. I installed bmv 700 and kept the connections the same. Is this correct? It seems like it would be best to connect both batteries to battery side, and all load/charging sources to the other.

Hello friends! I need to receive data from BMV (or SmartShunt) at a distance of 50 meters!

Suggest what options are there?

Includes UPT/RJ12 cable a 10 meters long. Can I take 50 meters away?

With port VE.Direct, can I use VE.Direct cable 50 meters? To connect VE.Direct Bluetooth Smart dongle?

No internet, can't use Venus or Cerbo :(

tnx

Hi community :)

Today I came across the SCQ25 QUADRO DIGITAL SHUNT MODULE from SIMARINE (https://simarine.net/product/scq25-quadro-digital-shunt-module/) This module can monitor up to 4 different consumers like AC, fridge, etc. to monitor their individual loads on the system. So, I was wondering - is there is any solution from or that works with the Victron Cerbo GX?

Could find any topic in the forum so decided to ask right away :)

Are any of the Victron products suitable for load monitoring and output to NMEA, say for a fridge fridge or for lights? I would like to be able to report by day, week or month the current used by some individual circuits.

Hi,

I am wondering if I buy 3 VE Direct to USB cables, a USB splitter and a female to female USB extension, will I be able to hookup my solar controller to my mppt display and also the globallink? I really enjoy my display even though the MPPT is BT. This just seemed like a cheaper option to get my data into VRM than going the GX route. Thanks.

I was hoping to go all-Victron for my van build, but it is beginning to look like I cannot go all-Victron. (See my other question, "Does the MultiPlus 3 kVA Inverter/Charger allow me to set an upper limit on the wattage?")

Here's my current thinking:

• 1x Lithionics GTX12V315A Battery
• 2x-3x Victron Orion Smart DC-DC Charger - 30A
• Victron Solar MPPT 100/50
• Xantrex XC Pro 3000 inverter/charger

1) Assuming I go all Victron, except for inverter/charger, what are my monitoring choices?

2) For example, should I still consider Cerbo GX?

3) If I do go with Cerbo, do I actually need the GX Touch 50 to start with, or can I just use my iPhone to start with, and add the Touch later if I decide it would be useful?

4) On the MPPT, there is Smart and there is Blue. Does getting one versus the other have an impact on monitoring? If so, what?(All of these units will be in close proximity to each other, except for possibly the Touch, in case that matters.)

5) If I go with the Xantrex, I will get their Control Panel. Given that, is there any reason to consider a Victron Smart Shunt? (I am admittedly not entirely sure exactly how and when one would use the Smart Shunt, hence the vague question :-)

For the record, I am brand new to this rodeo, so I am likely to have missed some very basic info. Feel free to correct me and/or redirect me.

Thanks!

Hi - forum newbie here,

I'm looking at upgrading my off grid set up and welcome comments on the proposed works.

I'm keen to take advantage of the solar generation when my battery bank is charged (see No 7 below) and am still looking for solutions. This is one of the main things I'm struggling with so if anyone can help that'd be fantastic.

Having a way to monitor the whole system would also be great. Currently no comms leads run between any of the Victron kit. Maybe there's a monitoring solution built in to the multiplusII - which I haven't found time to fully research yet. So any pointers on how these devices should be talking to each other is also gratefully received.

And the other main thing I'm struggling to find is a resistive element solution that can be wall mounted for my ballast load - which would replace my elecky convection heaters (see No 6 below).

I've included a sketch of my existing and proposed layout to help with the context. The rational behind these changes is to upgrade some of the 9 year old components, to switch from a flooded lead acid to LiFEPO4 battery bank, add heating to the small outbuilding (approx 40 sq m) as part of the renovation works, optimise how things are configured and be able to monitoring the system.

Proposed Upgrade Info

1. Upgrade inverter to a Victron Multiplus II
2. Upgrade battery bank to a 48v 16s 2p prismatic battery solution using 280Ah cells, add a BMS - possibly from overkillSolar, new enclosure with low temp heating solution. Batts will probably be imported from China via AliExpress or Alibaba.
3. Install a new change over unit to create an additional route for the ballast load from the existing hydro. This would divert the ballast to heat water for under floor heating in an outbuilding that's slowly being renovated. I've an M&E engineer who'll build this for me.
4. Install a new 250l unvented tank. Possibly something from Gledhill.
5. Install a new pico hydro scheme that’s designed to run in our wet Welsh winters to generate hot water. Probably using an off the shelf solution like PowerSprout, AmpHydro or StreamEngine
6. Upgrade resistive ballast elements to a wall mounted solution. Still looking and struggling to identify components that could work.
7. Identify a solution to harness energy from the solar PV when the batts are fully charged and also have a way to monitor the entire system.

If anyone spots any errors, has suggestions or can offer any input, all comments are encouraged and welcome.

Thanks in advance

[image]

Hi - I am wondering why you often see both a battery monitor and a GX color control used - in fact the wall mounting from Victron has space for both - surely with the GX there is no need for a BMV item? And you only need the BMV if there is no GX color control ?

I have an off grid shed running on Solar only.

Running a Victron Bluesolar MMMP 150/70-tr.

I want to remotely monitor the system, from another city via my iphone.

What is the easiest way to do this? The shed does have an internet connection, with WIFI.

Hello there,

I likely have an issue with my boat victron setup and would like to find "appliances" shunt, to monitor and breakdown what the fridges draw, the navigation electronics draw and so on. I found this for other brand but seems like victron doesn't do that ?

Current setup:

Quattro 12/5000

Lynx Shunt + Distributor

2x MPPT 150/60

CCGX

Thanks !

Hi All,

I am relatively new to campervan setups, and I do not have a background in 12v electrics.

I have had a Victron 500A Smart Shunt installed in my campervan, which I am really pleased with on first inspection.

There are a number of options in the Victron Connect app to allow configuration of the Smart Shunt, here are those settings.

[image]

Even after looking in the manual, I am not 100% sure what many of them mean, and whether the factory default settings are correct for my specific battery.

I have already changed the Battery Capacity setting to be 110AH to match the battery, but I am not sure about the rest of the numbers (Tail current, charge floor and so forth) in relation to my specific leisure battery.

Question 1

The battery fitted is a brand new 12V 110AH Xtreme AGM Leisure Battery (XR1750) NCC Class A . I am hoping someone on here can either confirm that the default settings are fine, or give me an idea as to what they should be?

Question 2

When I know the battery is 100% I want to click the "Synchronise" button (I am not sure the installer did this). My question here is, do I need to wait for the battery to be at rest (so the voltage has settled), i.e. a couple of hours after dark, or can I just click it during the day when it is in "float mode" (when the voltage would be higher)?

Many thanks for the information.

my 712 monitor will show battery voltage of 12.1 volts, yet the battery % shows 71% and my AH's show -158 out of a 440 AH battery bank. this does not make sense to me. 12.1V should show a battery down 50%, not 71%. 158 AH out of 440 AH should show 36% for the battery %.

my question is, what is a reliable source of info on the state of the battery? should i use the voltage, the battery % or the AH's? Are any of those measures actually accurate? if there is any charging or a draw on the battery, i would think the V is not an accurate measure.

Also, why would my monitor show 71% on the battery but show 12.1 V? is that just because there was a drain on the battery at the time so the V is not accurate? i would think those 2 numbers are tied together.

thank you

Can I use a BMV 700 to monitor a 24 volt starter battery (CCA (EN -18°C): 815 amps)?

The starter motor needs approx. 200 A at start for max. 4 seconds.

We have 2 x 6V 224Ah batteries in series hooked to a WFCO converter and while the converter/charger's bulk voltage is 14.4V (which it only enters after deep discharge), the absorption voltage output on this charger is only 13.6V and float is 13.2V. Meanwhile, my parallel solar charger (Victron 75/15) is set to 14.4V absorption and 13.8V float. Does this mean that the battery will only be fully charged if I have solar charging present? And if so, I'm wondering how to properly configure a BMV-712 monitor in terms of "charged" voltage - if I use 13.2V then the monitor might think the battery is full when it's not, but if I use for example 14V, the monitor may never show a full battery if I'm just charging off the converter (ie. Cloudy day / no solar).

Thank you for your help!

We have a customer with the following installed:
1 x Victron MultiPlus II (48/3000/35-50-230V)

2 x Fronius 3kW Primos (1 on the input, one on the output)

7kWh of BYD batteries

Currently everything is working ok, except there is no pv production being recorded and displayed by any of the Victron devices.

Using the Remote Console I can see that the MultiPlus is aware of both of the inverters. The customer has a Solar.Web monitoring setup for the Fronius inverters, but can only monitor one of them, so the customer can't use Solar.Web to record production data.

All of the devices are connected to the customers wi-fi, though it is not the best signal strength at the inverters.

The customer used to have the PV Production showing on the CCGX, and in the past a reboot through the CCGX would get it to find the Fronius', though this isn't working anymore.

I have had the customer run through a full shutdown of the system and restart, but this hasn't changed anything either.

There hasn't been a firmware update installed since the customer had the ability to measure

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have a 300 watt photovoltaic system on the camper where I live with mixed products Victronenergy (Phoenix, Ve direct cable and rele cyrix ct) and Epever (charge controller and remote monitor).
I can monitor the current produced and the current consumed at 12v through the charge controller.
But I cannot monitor the current consumed by the Phoenix inverter which is the most important part for me.
This is because the manufacturer of the charge controller does not recommend connecting an inverter to it. So the Phoenix is connected directly to the batteries.

I also own the Ve direct cable.
There is a way to monitor this current consumed by the inverter (I think about 20/30 Ah per day by making a calculation with the current produced).
thanks

I have a Multiplus 24/5ooo/120. I would like to connect an external fan to draw air into the cabinet where it is fitted when the temperature goes up (fitted in a mobile home). Is there a connection inside the unit that will switch on 24V to operate the fan when it gets hot?

Hi all, I have a Quattro system with Venus GX and want to know if there is a cut on my AC grid line. I activated the "grid fail monitor" on my Venus GX and disconnect my grid energy but nothing happens.

I can't see any alarm saying that my grid is OFF or an email with the alarm.

There is no alarm in VRM portal or my Venus GX.

Is this option to know if I have a cut off of my grid power? If not, there is any option to know when I haven't energy from grid?

Thanks in advance.

Hi all

I have a very odd issue which has happened maybe 2 or 3 times in the last 4 months, today was the last.

What it looks like is the grid falls away for 0.15-0.3 seconds, when I review the data I can see the current going to zero but not the voltage. See the image below.

I can only assume the system is acting as it should, and that either the dip is just too small/ too quick to be picked up by the Quattro's monitoring, or the voltage sensitivity is set too high. South Africa is known for many things, one of them being an unreliable network, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was a voltage dip.

So I guess first and foremost has anyone else experienced anything similar?

And secondly, is there any way to verify exactly why the system started inverting?/ to what extent did the voltage dip?

[image]

[image]

Regards

Ewald

Hello,

I have read through some threads discussing this, but am still not sure the best course of action. I have the BVM712 hooked up. Everything is hooked up correctly and seems to be working well, but the voltage is consistenly lower than the actual measured voltage at the battery. The only connection that could be faulty is the supplied cable with fuse that plugs into the shunt. I have checked it and it is fine. I measure at the point where the cable connects to the battery and get the proper measurement, but the BVM shows less voltage.

I read that one user subbed in a 1A fuse for the supplied 100A fuse and that corrected the problem, but this seems strange that Victron would supply something that gave a faulty reading when the whole point was it's accuracy.

Is this really the best route to try to solve this problem? What are other users doing to correct this?

Hi,

I intend to replace my burned original charger in my VW T4 California (Westfalia 1994) with a Victron IP67.
On the Westfalia charger, there is a secondary ouput line (around 12v) that feed the electronic unit of the vehicle to display the plug symbol.
I wonder if I can use the optionnal Si output of the Victron to feed the unit... I think it's ok for the voltage, but what about the current intensity ? I would like to avoid burning the central unit...

If someone knows, thank you in advance !

As a WISP (Wireless Internet Service Provider), the ability to remotely monitor everything at our remote sites is absolutely critical. Network uptime is always at the forefront of everyone’s mind in the industry, and we will do whatever it takes to ensure that all of our sites remain stable and online from network infrastructure through to power systems.

WISPs probably have the greatest diversity when it comes to telecommunications carriers. Being a WISP, our power systems range from small solar sites only drawing 10’s of Watts right up to larger sites drawing hundreds of Watts (this is a 24/7 power requirement), to grid power, generator backup, and even wind power. Furthermore, here in New Zealand, we’re known not only to have harsh environmental conditions (probably the worst UV radiation in the world, salt spray in many areas, strong winds and heavy rain – and also snow in the Southern areas), but we are also at the forefront of infrastructure engineering when it comes to telecommunications.

I’ve been in my line of work for several years now, and I’ve certainly seen a lot. It only takes a couple of Saturday night callouts before you realise the necessity of protecting your outdoor cabling and infrastructure – but what about inside the cabinet? We’ve been affected by all sorts of wildlife big and small – from cows chewing unprotected cables, right down to tiny ants making nests inside electronics and ultimately causing premature failure.

So how do we monitor that everything is online and stable? Well, this has been the question that’s been plaguing me since day one. I couldn’t count how many times I’ve posted on various forums and Facebook groups asking about remote monitoring for sites, and the answers always come back the same – some over complicated system with an Arduino or Raspberry Pi that doesn’t quite do what we want it to.

We’ve tried all sorts of solar charge controllers and have never quite had the results we’ve wanted in terms of remote monitoring. Believe it or not, the best way we could find to monitor Lithium battery levels at one of our critical solar sites was with an IP camera pointing at a battery computer screen!

[image]

This solution, along with various DC voltage monitors etc is what we’ve used to “get by”. But it’s been less than ideal. For instance, in bad weather conditions the system above relies on our staff periodically logging in to the camera to check the battery levels! To add to this, we’d never found a one-stop-shop solution – no single portal to monitor ALL of our sites from the office (or as we call it, a NOC – Network Operation Centre) or even smart phone.

We’ve recently secured a regional contract to build over 100 new transmitter sites to deliver internet services to rural communities in NZ. For our small country, that’s fairly substantial. But as they say, with great power comes great responsibility – no matter what, we HAD to find a solution to our power monitoring requirements.

Then finally, in walks Victron – our knight in shining armour (almost).

As part of our contract, we opened our doors to various suppliers to tender for contracts for different parts of our build – from civil work, to radio supply, and of course power delivery. A local company (conveniently located just up the road from our NOC) introduced me to the Victron product range. At first impression, I was hesitant. I’d been here before; some product that doesn’t quite do what I want it to. But regardless, I ordered in some products and got them on the bench for some R&D.

The heart of our requirements turned out to be the Venus GX. Similar to the Colour Control GX (but without the touch screen that would serve no purpose for us), the Venus GX is a little device that interfaces many Victron products to the internet to be displayed on the VRM portal. But what’s more, the GX product range (which has been substantially growing in the last 6 months or so) also has a great feature called DVCC (Distributed Voltage and Current Control) which allows all of the devices connected to the GX device to talk to each other! This in turn, allows sharing of battery BMS, temperature sensors, even telling a grid charger to dial back its current when a parallel solar charge controller is getting lots of sun. This blew me away!

But aside from the Venus GX, the other device that really takes the cake is the BMV-700. Somewhat very similar to the battery computer in the previous photo as shown by our IP camera, the BMV-700 offers one key feature I’ve been asking for – a digital interface to other devices. And that’s just it – when paired with the Venus GX (or any GX device), we can now remotely view our batteries’ SoC (State of Charge) in the VRM portal. And it can even email us when the SoC drops below a predefined percentage!

While we’re only at the early stages of our build, we’ve probably deployed about 10 GX devices to the field – and I’ve been very impressed with the results. Most of our sites also feature a BMV-700 too, however for some of the larger sites we’ve opted to use Pylontech Lithium batteries (which conveniently have official support with Victron) which have a built in BMS which pretty well does the same as a BMV-700.

To add to that, the BlueSolar charge controllers that we’re now deploying (and a small handful of mains chargers) also have a VE.Direct port which can plug into the Venus GX, allowing us to graph and view how many kWh our panels are producing in real time.

So far, I’ve harped on about the great and amazing things that Victron can do for us. But what about the bad things? Well, there is one thing that I wish Victron would catch on to (please Victron, are you reading this?), and that is rackmountable devices. That’s right, not everyone using Victron products is trying to tuck them into the back of an RV or motorhome.

I’d say that around 80% of our sites have (or will have) 19” rack mount enclosures – which is very standard for the telco industry. So far, I’ve had to suck it up and bolt down chargers and charge controllers onto rack shelves. This might not sound like such a big issue, but for one it takes time to mount (remember, we’re talking about close to 100 sites with rack enclosures), but also each large device takes up to about 4-5 RU (1 RU = 44mm), whereas I feel this could be consolidated into 1-2 RU. Space efficiency is important in our industry.

So, while I feel they’re great for the WISP/telco industry, many carriers may overlook Victron products because they look like “consumer-grade stuff” as they are not easily rack mountable. In my opinion, I feel that if some of the larger products such as solar charge controllers, inverter chargers, the higher power end of Orion DC-DC converters (also very handy products!) and the Venus GX devices were available in a 19” rackmount format, this would open up Victron products to a whole world of telco industries that otherwise may have overlooked their product range. Remember, WISPs are very “hands on” and will do whatever it takes to get the job done – whereas some of the larger telcos tend to stick to more of an “industry standard” approach.

So now, we finally have a simple but very comprehensive solution to remotely monitor all aspects of the power system at each one of our sites – and all from a very handy web portal (there is also an app for smart phones). I can be anywhere in the world, and in a matter of seconds can view the power status of all of our sites. You can even sort the list by order of battery SoC or battery voltage.

The Victron product range when coupled to a GX device has been an absolute game changer for us, and now I can spend more of my Saturday evenings enjoying my social life rather than thinking about the status of my network. Thank you Victron!

Richard,
Infrastructure Engineer for StrataNet Limited.

Sterling PMP1 monitor recently fitted by boat yard. Just noticed that when using the inverter (Phoenix compact multiplus 12v 1600va 70A) with a small tool ~ 200W without any engine charging the Sterling unit does not register ay current draw. IS this because the monitor shunt has been installed in the wrong place or is there another reason.

Thanks

Could you please advise with the best monitoring tool for Quattro 48/5000/70 could provide online or offline monitoring without installing color control GX? also, is there any possibility for internal data logging built-in with the inverter?