Victron connect info please

[Kim and Phil]

Hi all, rather ignorant about this and hoping someone can please advise; can the Victron connect App show me what I am drawing from the battery/solar panel or just what the solar panel is ‘producing’?

Image taken in the evening so obviously panel is showing 0 W

 

[StillGoing]

You need a shunt to measure what’s going into and out of the battery. For example, a Victron SmartShunt.

 

[Ingwe]

I use Victron Connect to look at my Victron Shunt, Solar charger, B2B charger and mains charger and you can see pretty much what you want by using the history button.

I’m not at the van at moment (it’s kept in storage) but these were Monday’s screen shots. No solar as the van is indoors so no daylight.

 

[AdrianChen]

Hi all, rather ignorant about this and hoping someone can please advise; can the Victron connect App show me what I am drawing from the battery/solar panel or just what the solar panel is ‘producing’?

Image taken in the evening so obviously panel is showing 0 W



View attachment 972206

This page shows you what the panel is producing in this case 14.51v with no current in the "Solar" section, and in the "Battery" section what is going out from the controller again in this case the battery voltage (measured at the output terminal on the controller) and what current is flowing, some of which may go to loads like the fridge etc, and the remainder will be going to charge battery.

Normally in good sun the Solar section will show a higher voltage as produced by the panel(s) for EG 25v, and the current produced at that voltage. The controller then reduces the voltage to whatever charge profile you have set in the battery settings 14.2v/13.5v for example and shows the current at that voltage.

Hope that helps.

If you do want to know the net flow into or out of the battery, than as described by Ingwe a Victron smart shunt would give you that information. Nice to have because you can create a Smart Network on Bluetooth to connect the shunt with the solar controller which will then compensate for any voltage drop in the cables to give a more accurate charge. You can also add a temp sensor to the shunt/battery and the controller will then use that for temperature compensation to give the correct charge in cold/hot conditions, its a bit more accurate than what the controller does without the sensor, but not needed for Lithium batteries where the low temp cutoff is more useful

 

[TheCaller]

Hi all, rather ignorant about this and hoping someone can please advise; can the Victron connect App show me what I am drawing from the battery/solar panel or just what the solar panel is ‘producing’?

The Victron Connect app can report on many things, depending on which Victron kit it is connected to. In your case, it's connected to the solar controller, so it is only giving the information that the solar controller has, which is the voltage & current produced by the panel & the battery voltage & charging current from the controller to the battery.

It has no knowledge of the total current flowing into or out of the battery. As others have said, you need to fit a Victron Smart Shunt to the battery negative terminal to measure that. The app can then report on both bits of kit.

Let's say that you were watching the cricket on tv on a hot summer's day, with a compressor fridge keeping your beers cool. The app would show, let's say 8A going to the battery. But if you now switched the app to report on the shunt, it would probably show only 1A going in, because 4A was going to the fridge & 3A was powering the tv, leaving just 1A to charge the battery.

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[Kim and Phil]

Thank you all. That’s a great help. The guy did explain it all when I had it fitted, but I obviously did not retain it!