Victron little blue box battery monitor

[bespin]

Does anyone know why my victron blue power panel is showing amps going both into and out of the bats when not on charge I got it off eBay do might be faulty but thought id check first if someone knows if I've wired it wrong or set it up wrong

[KenK]

Does anyone know why my victron blue power panel is showing amps going both into and out of the bats when not on charge I got it off eBay do might be faulty but thought id check first if someone knows if I've wired it wrong or set it up wrong

 

Hi

As you haven't given any information about how you wired it, it's not an easy question to answer. Go to the Victron website and in the products section look up Battery monitors, select yours and have a look at the installation instructions, they are very clear, if you have done it like that then the installation is correct. As for the setup download and read the manual.

 

Good Luck

 

Ken

[bespin]

Hi I have I think wired it up as per the instructions from victron and everything else seems to work its just the amps being shown on the monitor going in and out of the battery's so I can not get usage the shunt is wired on the neg near the bats wondering if it should be on the lead to the ground from the engine bay

[Gibbo]

Do you mean...

 

If you have a 20 amp charger on, and you are pulling 10 amps at the same time, the meter shows +10 amps?

 

If so, that's what it's supposed to show.

 

PS. A link to an actual model might help.

Edited September 3, 2012 by Gibbo

[bespin]

Hi I don't think I'm doing a good job of explaining this am I the thing we have is part of the ve.net panel the manual is at

 

http://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/Manual%20-%20VBC%2012-24-48%20-%20rev%2008%20-%20EN%20NL%20FR%20DE%20ES%20SE.pdf

 

When the battery's are powering the charger the arrows are showing that charge is going into them from the dc side so that it shows 100% charge all the time

[KenK]

Hi I don't think I'm doing a good job of explaining this am I the thing we have is part of the ve.net panel the manual is at

 

http://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/Manual%20-%20VBC%2012-24-48%20-%20rev%2008%20-%20EN%20NL%20FR%20DE%20ES%20SE.pdf

 

When the battery's are powering the charger the arrows are showing that charge is going into them from the dc side so that it shows 100% charge all the time

 

Looking through the manual the only display which is a percentage is the State of Charge. Batteries do not power chargers, do you mean the Inverter?

 

You need to explain the system you have. Alternators, Batteries, Charger, Inverter etc.

 

Ken

[bespin]

yes its the inverter charger. i will try my best to explain the system we have.

it goes batterys to pos and neg bus bars. the shunt is connected on this cable. and the mega fuse. the inverter charger and the 12v system is connected on to this also and the power for the monitor too. the panel shows the inverter charger a victron compact 2000w and the battery and what is going in and out. the arrow from the batterys goes to the inverter when not pluged in or charging and it shows how much charge is going out. there is also an arrow going into the batterys which matches the output this should show the 12v output of the batterys i think. but shows the same reading going into the batterys not out as the inverter. im well confused though i think i have the shunt possibly in the wrong place i can not explain it any better im sorry.

[KenK]

[quote name='bespin' timestamp='1346756886' post='933537']
yes its the inverter charger. i will try my best to explain the system we have.

it goes batterys to pos and neg bus bars. the shunt is connected on this cable. and the mega fuse. the inverter charger and the 12v system is connected on to this also and the power for the monitor too. the panel shows the inverter charger a victron compact 2000w and the battery and what is going in and out. the arrow from the batterys goes to the inverter when not pluged in or charging and it shows how much charge is going out. there is also an arrow going into the batterys which matches the output this should show the 12v output of the batterys i think. but shows the same reading going into the batterys not out as the inverter. im well confused though i think i have the shunt possibly in the wrong place i can not explain it any better im sorry.
[/quote]

According to Victron the Compact is not an Inverter / Charger it's an Inverter.

One side of the shunt should be connected to the negative battery terminal the other side should be connected to the boat ground and all the other negative connections should be connected there not to the negative terminal of the battery, see the Note on page 4 of the manual.

Is the system a VE Net with a Blue Power panel or the BMV 600 version?


Ken

[bespin]

the system is a Victron Phoenix MultiPlus Compact and its the ve.net am sorry ken but you have just confused me more now.

[nicknorman]

Bottom line is that one end of the shunt should be connected to the battery -ve. All other -ve connections should go to the other end of the shunt - ie no connections to battery -ve except for the shunt.

Edited September 4, 2012 by nicknorman

[KenK]

[quote name='bespin' timestamp='1346761161' post='933577']
the system is a Victron Phoenix MultiPlus Compact and its the ve.net am sorry ken but you have just confused me more now.
[/quote]

That's OK were getting somewhere now, that equipment [u]is[/u] an Inverter / Charger, the Multiplus bit makes all the difference. A Phoenix Compact is just an Inverter

Are you connected to shore power? If so then then the Multiplus can work both as an Inverter and as a Charger at the same time. So you could be seeing power being fed to the 240V circuit in the boat and DC voltage charging the battery.
It depends on what you have turned on on the boat 240V and how much power is available from the shore supply. So power comming in from the shore, some fed directly to the 240V circuit and some converted to DC to charge the batteries.

The monitor is showing you the output from the batteries to the 12V boat circuits and at the same time the input to the batteries from the charger side of the Multiplus.

As for accuracy that depends, according to the manual, on how it's wired. One side of the shunt and the temp sense wire to the battery negative terminal. The other side of the shunt to the boat metalwork and the other connections to this side of the shunt.

Does that makes sense?

Ken

[Gibbo]

[quote name='KenK' timestamp='1346762518' post='933596']
the Multiplus can work both as an Inverter and as a Charger at the same time.
[/quote]

That would be a neat and pointless trick

[KenK]

[quote name='Gibbo' timestamp='1346764203' post='933619']
That would be a neat and pointless trick
[/quote]

OK yes I know that's not exactly what it doing but I'm trying to explain in a simple fashion without confusing the OP.

It's passing 240V from the shore supply and at the same time charging the batteries.

Happy now Mr Pedant



Ken

[Gibbo]

Pedant: noun, someone who speaks accurately and precisely whilst others around him waffle, wave their arms, and generally get everything wrong.

[KenK]

[quote name='Gibbo' timestamp='1346770737' post='933665']
Pedant: noun, someone who speaks accurately and precisely whilst others around him waffle, wave their arms, and generally get everything wrong.
[/quote]

Sometimes you do.

As you are the battery guru, explain this. Removed six fully charged Numax batteries according to Smartgauge, cleaned up the battery tray and refitted the batteries not in the order in which they were removed. They were out for less than an hour, reconnected the Battery charger which promptly went into overdrive for about half an hour. I have to say I moved them around out of interest to see if it would make a difference.

Sorry OP for going off topic.

Ken

[nb Innisfree]

Gibbo, behave yourself or we will have to put you back on your virtual leash.

ETA: Down boy, down, good boy.

Edited September 4, 2012 by nb Innisfree

[Gibbo]

Sometimes you do.

 

Don't be silly!

 

As you are the battery guru, explain this. Removed six fully charged Numax batteries according to Smartgauge, cleaned up the battery tray and refitted the batteries not in the order in which they were removed. They were out for less than an hour, reconnected the Battery charger which promptly went into overdrive for about half an hour. I have to say I moved them around out of interest to see if it would make a difference.

 

Dodgy connections, insufficient cable size, feed/take off all at one end or a combination of all three. Either and all could cause it.

[frangar]

Just to add that there is a known software fault on the victron bpp panel. Have returned 2 under warranty. Hoping their replacements behave better. One couldn't be programmed at all and the other one refused to show the battery diagram without crashing! Not impressed. Only fitted because the boat concerned had a victron combo fitted. It has confirmed my view that mastervolt have the upper hand at the moment.

 

Cheers.

 

Gareth

[bespin]

right, think i found out what was happening the power for the panel and the monitor were being recorded as going in when on the battery side of the shunt, when i put it to the other side it did not the monitor is still not really acruate at all but at least something is going out now. ive since fitted a smartguage and feel a lot happyer with it as we understand it better.

[Gibbo]

Oh the beauty of apparently simple equipment