Hello

I want to use the power of my solar to do other things after my battery’s are charged.

This has been asked in several ways. But let’s make it more general.

Setup:

200W Solar

Mppt smartSolar 75/15

Smart shunt

160Ah AGM battery

I have this setup deployed in several offgrit applications (vans, Garden, etc), the main purpose is to charge the battery’s to store energy for later use. But 80% of the time my battery’s are full and the system just idles. This is wasted potential, therefore I would like to automatically redirect the power from the panels. Let’s stay my smart shut is telling me I’m charged 100% I want to redirect the DC from the panel to another use, and recharge the battery’s if they drop below 90%. I would need to redirect between mppt and Panels to power eg. a solar pump that fills my water tank or let my van act like a small scale balcony power plant.

I understand the smart shunt can not trigger a relay. Just using the Load out put of the Mppt, triggered by battery voltage thresholds, would also drain my battery’s creating unnecessary changes cycles.

Is there any way I can use the information that smart shunt is giving me to redirect where I want to put the energy Im potentially producing?

If no, how can I pull this off?

Edit:

- One way would be to enable the SmartSolar face decisions based on VE.Smart network information. (like it does with a low temperature charge cutoff)

Thanks in advance

Kai

Hi all,

I have Venus OS (on a Pi) running with 3 x MPPT Smart Solar, a SmartShunt and a Mutliplus. All are connected by USB, VE.Direct and MK3-USB. All are appearing on the the Venus Console.

Under the MPPTs, when looking under networked operation, I get the following settings which I cannot change. I have DVCC enabled. I have VE Smart Networking disabled.

Can someone point me to what these settings mean and how to adjust them? Is there a way to network the MPPTs with the Multiplus and Venus? I can't adjust the settings on Venus OS,

Thanks.

[image]

To Victron staff

When is the VE Smart Network going to the support IP65 series Blue Smart Charger. If it is planned will it be a new product, a software upgrade or via an add on device.

The VE Smart network is an excellent product. I use à Victron Shunt, Victron MPPT, and an IP65 12/15.

Thank you

I have a Phoenix Smart IP43 (230v, 12V/50A, 3 output) networked with a BMV-712 and a Smart Battery Sense.

In the VE Smart Network data, it shows it's receiving:

- External battery voltage sense from the BMV-712

- External battery temperature sense from the Smart Battery Sense

It's not showing external battery current being received which I would expect coming from the BMV. I've seen an image in the manual of an IP43 with a Smart Shunt where it's shown.

Is this a display issue in VictronConnect or is it not receiving the data? I'd like it so it accurately calculated the tail current in the charge profile.

[image]

When I turn on VE.Smart Networking, my bluesolar device (it has a VE.Direct Bluetooth Smart dongle Rev.2 connected to it) immediately increases the watts and amperes to about twice what the panels actually give. I can verify this because I have BMW-712 Smart in my system. When I leave Smart Networking, everything is okay again. Why is that?

It looks like this when smart networking is turned of.

IMG_0396.PNG

IMG_0397.PNG

And like this when I have it turned on.

IMG_0398.PNG

IMG_0399.PNG

Problem pairing 3 smart MPPT 100/50 to the Cerbo GX Touch 50 :

1 Distance MPPT to Cerbo GX 5 meters and no cable space available.

2 Not enough VE direct ports in the Cerbo GX

How do I get things tied together. Bluetooth seems to be the solution, but the GX doesn't see it?

Hello colleagues, I have a question, in a camper I have installed the following devices:
- Orion Tr smart 12/12/30A (to charge battery from alternator)
- Smartsolar MPPT 100/50 (solar panel regulator)
- Multiplus 12/1200/50
-Smart battery sense
- Smartshunt 500A/50mV

And the question is the following, when the car is running, the batteries will receive a charge from the Orion and the MPPT, and I would like that at that moment, there would be a maximum charging current to the batteries.

Could I get it if I bought a VE.bus smart dongle and then I could create a VE.smart networking from where I could control the load coming from the MPPT? Because the Orion cannot be added to the VE.smart networking, but the MPPT could be regulated by reading the smartshunt, right?

Let's see if someone can help me, thank you very much!

Smartsolar reports an "undefined". Because there are some charging problems with lead-acid-battery, has this an effect on communication between bmv and smartsolar? Connection symbol in the app is present, green led at the smartsolar blinking...

[image]

I want to upgrade my existing RV solar system by 370 watts. I want to use a Victron SolarSmart MPPT 100/30 solar controller for the new panel. How do I connect the new controller to my VE.Can connected system? What is the difference between VE.Can and VE.Smart? I plan on upgrading my system in November 2023, so I'm looking for information before ordering. The proposed upgrade kit also includes the Victron Energy Smart Battery Sense Long Range Voltage and Temperature Sensor (which only seems to support VE.Smart). Is this compatible with the VE.Can network? Thanks

12V System: 600 AH Battle Born Batteries, 1110 watts solar panels (3 * 370 watts), Victron SolarSmart MPPT 150/85 controller, Victron 12V/24V 220A BatteryProtect, Victron SmartShunt 500A/50mV, Victron Cerbo GX w/display - installed in 2020. Connected via VE.Can. I also have the VictronConnect app to connect to relevant devices.

We have:

1 BMV 712

1 MPPT 150/100

1 MPPT 100/20

With VE smart networking setup, the 100/20 only shows as receiving battery voltage from the BMV 712 whereas the 150/100 shows as receiving battery voltage and current,

Is this a limitation to the smaller controller or a problem with the network?

All firmware should be current based on Victron connect

I’ve tried removing and re-adding the network to the smaller controller with no difference

We are planning on adding 2 MPPT 100/50s shortly and wanted to validate things before we grow the network further

Dear All

I have read some of the older Q&A regarding VE Smart Network vs VE.Direct, but I would like to know more details.

My Shunt and MPPTs (without Bluetooth) are connected to the Cerbo and all is working perfectly together with my Multi ii (VE.Bus).

Checking some of the YouTube video's, some indicates that if you set up the VE Smart Network, all other MPPT's will follow (I assume especially when DVCC is activated).

My question : I prefer hard wire to connect all, but is there any additional advantages when going via Bluetooth (emphasis on VE Smart direct) versus the old fashion way of VE.Direct?

Some have pointed out that you cannot have VE Smart and VE.DIRECT together (not sure if this is still the case) as they do not "talk" to each other (from old posts).

Maybe also a consideration for me, I should get a VE.Direct extender (Via USB) for more ports if this will be in my favour.

Any advise or tricks will be helpful.

Dealer/Installer from New Zealand.

We install a lot of systems with two MPPT's 100/30's and 100/50 SmartSolar are most common.

We have had 2 instalations in recent times where the MPPT's have stopped generating and stayed off until the customer became aware, in both cases as soon as the Virtual Network was disabled, the MPPT's fired up.

Both systems had been running faultlessly for weeks in one case months in the other.

Both were with Smart Shunt.

Interested to hear if others have had this issue?

System: I have 3 SmartSolar MPPT 100/30's connected individually to (3) 335W panels. They are networked together with a BMV-712 and connected to an 800ah LFP battery, with smartsolar battery setting on LFP. I just switched my battery bank to lithium from AGM, but I had the same issue with the AGMs. In the past, my shore charger was mostly charging the bank, but now I need to switch to solar and Multiplus as I will be leaving the dock soon.

Problem: Only one of the chargers is producing significant wattage (264W currently), and it seems to be charging the battery, although network total power shows 0. The other 2 chargers flicker some wattage and then back off to 0. It seems like the master controller is telling the slave controllers to not charge. In the smartsolar history, one can see that the all the chargers are working as they each have history on some past days of significant charging. I need all of the chargers to work together to charge the lithiums which are currently at 13.18v. Another anomaly is that 1 hour ago I was showing total network power of 255W. I removed each controller and the BMV from the VE network to try to reset it and then rejoined them all, BMV first. Now, total network power shows 0W, but the BMV shows positive wattage (175W) going into the batteries. Mostly, I need the chargers to all work together, instead of just 1 at a time, to bulk up the lithiums during the day. It seems like synching between controllers and the app may have glitches that prevent synchronized charging and also an issue with showing total network power.

On a sunny day this system should be pushing 900W plus into the batteries. Any suggestions?

While two of my three SmartSolar 100/30s (A & B) stay in Bulk all day (at this time of year), the third (C) goes into Absorption just before noon and then into Float roughly 2.5 hours later. Consequently my batteries never get beyond 88% charged. (If I disable the inputs to A and B, C remains in Bulk all day.)

SmartSolars A and B are each connected to 2 * 135w panels in series; C is connected to 2 * 170w panels also in series. The battery bank is 4 * Lifeline 125Ah AGMs in parallel.

All three SmartSolars have the latest firmware (v1.61) and the same custom profile:

Absorption voltage: 14.3 (per Lifeline’s recommendation)

Float voltage: 13.3 (per Lifeline’s recommendation)

Adaptive absorption time: ON

Maximum absorption time: 6hrs

Re-bulk voltrage offset: -0.4v

Tail current: 0.1A

Expert mode: OFF

Questions

1. Can anyone explain why C is going to Absorption while A and B remain in Bulk and what can I do to stop C going to Float until the batteries are fully charged?
2. Would setting up the SmartSolars in a VE.Smart Network so that their charging is synchronised help? If so, can I do this without a Smart Battery Sense or BMV in the network?

Hello,

I have a 200Ah LiFeP04 battery being charged by both MultiPlus Compact 12/1600/70-16 and by SmartSolar MPPT 75/15

When the system is attached to the mains, I have seen situations (i.e. early morning) when the MPPT start charging in Bulk mode while the Multiplus is in Float mode. why is this happening?

The MultiPlus is connected to the same VE.Smart network as the MPPT using the VE.Bus SmartDongle. In the system, we also have a SmartShunt 500a

VE.Smart Network details:

• MultiPlus (SmartDongle): transmits battery voltage and battery temperature
• SmartShunt: transmits battery voltage and battery current
• MPPT: reads battery voltage and current from SmartShunt and BatteryTemperature from SmartDongle

Any suggestion? Thanks