Making up lead connecting Victron Shunt to starter battery

Ingwe

Ingwe

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When my lithium set up was installed, a decision was made by the installer to not connect the starter battery to the shunt to allow me to monitor the voltage of the starter battery. I would now like to do this but do not have a lead.

I’ve found one on ebay (see photo) but they want £30 for what looks like a simple lead with a ring connector and a ferrule. Looking at the Farnell’s on-line catalogue, the connectors cost peanuts and the length of cable required to connect (I propose connecting the B2B to the aux socket on the shunt as they are very close to each other) would be less than a metre. Can someone in the know please tell me the exact sizes I need for the cable, ring connector and bootlace type ferrule?

I have a decent crimping tool (quiet at the back please) and baulk at paying such a price for one simple cable!
IMG_1324.png
 
Cant help with the answer but i would like to know where to buy the crimped end that fits into the victron Bto B chargers
Which is what you will need as well
 
The cable to monitor the starter battery voltage is only a thin lead fused at 1amp.

SmartShunt - Victron Energy

The SmartShunt is an all in one battery monitor, only without a display. Your phone acts as the display. The SmartShunt connects via Bluetooth to the...
www.victronenergy.com www.victronenergy.com
Page two of the download
 
What length cable do you need?

Ian
 
The aux voltage input on the shunt is tiny, maybe 0.75mm2.

You just need a fuse at the battery and some thin wire.

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Ingwe said:
When my lithium set up was installed, a decision was made by the installer to not connect the starter battery to the shunt to allow me to monitor the voltage of the starter battery. I would now like to do this but do not have a lead.

I’ve found one on ebay (see photo) but they want £30 for what looks like a simple lead with a ring connector and a ferrule. Looking at the Farnell’s on-line catalogue, the connectors cost peanuts and the length of cable required to connect (I propose connecting the B2B to the aux socket on the shunt as they are very close to each other) would be less than a metre. Can someone in the know please tell me the exact sizes I need for the cable, ring connector and bootlace type ferrule?

I have a decent crimping tool (quiet at the back please) and baulk at paying such a price for one simple cable! View attachment 843409
Click to expand...
If you just want to know the voltage of the starter battery, the Victron B2B app already displays its input voltage, or is it a different B2B without an app?
 
You need the engine running though to see the voltage of the cab battery in the b2b victron connect app.
As said it's only a thin fused wire to the shunt from the b2b, cheap as chips 👍
 
Figaro said:
You need the engine running though to see the voltage of the cab battery in the b2b victron connect app.
As said it's only a thin fused wire to the shunt from the b2b, cheap as chips 👍
Click to expand...
Not on mine you don't, I'm on hook up at the moment engine off, I arrived here about 2pm my B2B is showing an input voltage of 13.2V. There is ofcourse no output voltage, their is a battery master keeping it topped up from the leisure batteries.
 
Figaro said:
You got me wondering now . . . ? I'll have to go have another look tomorrow
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Me too!😄Pretty sure that when the engine’s not running and you select B2B on the Victron Connect app, it doesn’t show the starter battery voltage. But I’ll check.👍
 
Ingwe said:
If it’s me your asking, I’d say at max, 1.5 metres.
Click to expand...

It was.
I have a short length (30cm) of 16mm with bolt through connectors you could have had.

Ian
 
Maybe we're both wrong :rofl:
I had it in mind that it shows nothing with engine off, so I only bother looking when it's running.
I'll check mine tomorrow 😀
 
ChrisL said:
If you just want to know the voltage of the starter battery, the Victron B2B app already displays its input voltage, or is it a different B2B without an app?
Click to expand...
I want to know the starter battery’s voltage when the engine’s off.

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Ingwe said:
I want to know the starter battery’s voltage when the engine’s off.
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Okay thinking about it, it might depend on how you have it wired in, if you have a split charge relay between the starter battery and the B2B then it won't show an input voltage until the relay opens, mine is wired directly to the starter battery so I can see what the starter battery voltage is.
 
You only need very thin cable, it’s a push fit into the shunt IIRC.
 
Googlebot said:
You only need very thin cable, it’s a push fit into the shunt IIRC.
Click to expand...
Yes, that’s what I was thinking with the bootlace ferrule for the shunt and the the same for connecting to the B2B? If the wire went from shunt to starter battery, I’d need a fuse on that wire, I believe.
 
Yes, you do need a fuse.

As close to the battery as you can.
 
Ingwe said:
Yes, that’s what I was thinking with the bootlace ferrule for the shunt and the the same for connecting to the B2B? If the wire went from shunt to starter battery, I’d need a fuse on that wire, I believe.
Click to expand...

You need a fuse next to the b2b if you take the thin cable from there.

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St3v3 said:
You need a fuse next to the b2b if you take the thin cable from there.
Click to expand...
If the B2B is not showing an input voltage, running the cable from there will not show a starter battery voltage at the shunt, it would need to come from the starter battery positive or the starter battery side of the split charge relay.
 
Andy MacD said:
I’m about to fit a SmartShunt, this is the wire they supply to connect to the starter battery. View attachment 843485
Click to expand...
Yes, I should have had one of these supplied with my Shunt but the installers kept it as they didn’t think it necessary to be able to read the starter battery voltage. I should have demanded that they connect it or give me the lead as it was paid for. Anyway, too late now. I should have raised it at the time. Still happy with their installation overall.

Edit: it’s that lead that I resent paying £30 for and sought to make one myself for a fraction of the price.
 
Ingwe said:
Yes, I should have had one of these supplied with my Shunt but the installers kept it as they didn’t think it necessary to be able to read the starter battery voltage. I should have demanded that they connect it or give me the lead as it was paid for. Anyway, too late now. I should have raised it at the time. Still happy with their installation overall.

Edit: it’s that lead that I resent paying £30 for and sought to make one myself for a fraction of the price.
Click to expand...
The leads that you show that cost £30 are a pair of 10mm leads to connect a 30amp IP22 charger to a battery, it's not what you need.
 
Itsmcb said:
The leads that you show that cost £30 are a pair of 10mm leads to connect a 30amp IP22 charger to a battery, it's not what you need.
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You may be right but Victron don’t price the leads supplied with the shunt and it would appear they don’t supply them separately. And I bet if they did, they’d be £30 or more.

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Ingwe said:
You may be right but Victron don’t price the leads supplied with the shunt and it would appear they don’t supply them separately. And I bet if they did, they’d be £30 or more.
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It's not a straight cable it has an inline fuse at the battery end. This is essential so please don't skip it when making up your own lead (y)
 
There is a view that you shouldn't use a wire thinner than 1.5mm sq in a vehicle, simply because of the vibration it would be subjected to, even if in theory a thinner cable would easily take the amps.
 
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Itsmcb said:
The leads that you show that cost £30 are a pair of 10mm leads to connect a 30amp IP22 charger to a battery, it's not what you need.
Click to expand...
You’re right about the lead I showed but the lead I should have been given when I paid for the shunt is that shown by Andy MacD and that has a fuse.

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