Optimzing Battery Charging on the Victron MPPT Solar Charge controller using Victron's Smart Sense

[BBL]

I found this item on the Victron website under "Accessories" and thought I would give it a try.  It is called the Victron Smart Sense and is only $40 on amazon.

Watch the Victron video HERE. This was a very easy installation and completely makes sense to provide Voltage and Temperature feedback to the MPPT charge controller to optimze charging. It uses a private virtual network to communicate.

Not sure if it has improved my situation but man, do I feet good about myself...lol

LINK to view product on Amazon

BL 

 

[rich.dev]

Very nice! I'm just wondering about connecting the negative wire of the smart sense directly to the Lithionics battery terminal negative. I know the smart sense is probably drawing very low current, but I was under the impression all negative wires should be connected downstream of the shunt?

[Ollie-Haus]

18 hours ago, Brian and Brandelyne said:

I found this item on the Victron website under "Accessories" and thought I would give it a try.  It is called the Victron Smart Sense and is only $40 on amazon.

Watch the Victron video HERE. This was a very easy installation and completely makes sense to provide Voltage and Temperature feedback to the MPPT charge controller to optimze charging. It uses a private virtual network to communicate.

Not sure if it has improved my situation but man, do I feet good about myself...lol

BL 

 

Curious to learn your results over time. Victron is quite reputable and I'm convinced they know what they are doing. I'm curious if it will effect the built in BMS in the batteries in any way. I'm guessing if you aren't getting any error codes on the Lithionics app you are good to go.

I love your justifying logic humor in the end. 😆 Whenever us guys buy another doodad for our rigs we convince ourselves' "it's a good investment" out of pure masculine preservation. I'm the most guilty of all in this way. 🙄 

 

Edit: PS - I think my Lithionics batteries are the one thing I'm most proud of on Ollie-Haus. I feel like I'm truly on the cutting edge of technology with these batteries and this system on the camper. Every person I talk to about the Oliver is blown away at the fact I can pull the shore power cord and the AC in the camper doesn't even make a click. Then when I tell them it will run like that all night their eyes open even wider. 

[BBL]

33 minutes ago, rich.dev said:

I was under the impression all negative wires should be connected downstream of the shunt?

That is correct in order for you to read how much current you are drawing on your entire system.  As you mentioned, minimal current draw so no factor there.  The important thing is to provide an accurate temp and voltage reading to the MPPT so that it can provide the correct charging profile at all times.

Good observation though.

BL

[BBL]

3 minutes ago, Ollie-Haus said:

Curious to learn your results over time.

Totally agree Chris, buyers remorse is for soft people LOL -- first observation.  For weeks now, my batteries have been at 99% and within 24 hours of installing this little guy, they now show 100%.  You should have seen the spousal eye-roll when I shared that little nugget...

BL

[BBL]

13 minutes ago, Ollie-Haus said:

Edit: PS - I think my Lithionics batteries are the one thing I'm most proud of on Ollie-Haus. I feel like I'm truly on the cutting edge of technology with these batteries and this system on the camper. Every person I talk to about the Oliver is blown away at the fact I can pull the shore power cord and the AC in the camper doesn't even make a click. Then when I tell them it will run like that all night their eyes open even wider. 

Chris - I completely agree.  Use-case example; we were traveling over the 4th of July weekend and found ourselves in Bowling Green, KY without a reservation for the night. It was one of the hottest days of the year (July 2) and I saw a Cabellas and made the comment, we can stay there for free and there are restaurants all around it so we can go out to dinner.

A little hesitation on her part but she said, ok. There were 2 other campers there and we found a nice spot, went in to talk to the manager and they were like heck yeah. We went out to dinner and came back to the trailer around 9:30pm, it was still 89 outside. We ran the a/c all night long and when I got up around 0630 we still had 68% remaining battery!!

Now THAT is impressive!

BL

[rich.dev]

33 minutes ago, Brian and Brandelyne said:

That is correct in order for you to read how much current you are drawing on your entire system.  As you mentioned, minimal current draw so no factor there.  The important thing is to provide an accurate temp and voltage reading to the MPPT so that it can provide the correct charging profile at all times.

Good observation though.

BL

Ah ok that makes sense, thanks!

[topgun2]

1 hour ago, Ollie-Haus said:

I'm the most guilty of all in this way. 🙄

Is this a contest?

If yes - then count me in! 🥴

Bill

[rich.dev]

Brian, sorry another question about how you wired the smart sense to the batteries. I see you have the positive and negative wires connected to one of the batteries, not to both batteries, ie negative to one battery and positive to the other battery like your leads, will that make a difference? 

[topgun2]

2 hours ago, rich.dev said:

will that make a difference? 

Potentially - yes.

If you only wire to a single battery then you will only get readings from that single battery and those readings will not necessarily be the same for each individual battery.

Bill 

[rich.dev]

41 minutes ago, topgun2 said:

If you wire the way Brian did then you will see the readings across all batteries.

 

To me looks like Brian wired it only to one battery? 

[SeaDawg]

@Brian and Brandelyne, what other gear are you communicating with in your Oliver?

I know Oliver changed up this year from some other brand components for various functions. 

Folks who have added, or have, certain  victron bvms and other gear, should definitely read the compatibility,  in the link @Brian and Brandelyne included. I'm sure you read them. Others should, too.

This would not help us in our boat, because of other victron gear, but it may help some of you. 

I do love the Victron components,  and their communication capabilities. But, their array of components can be dizzying.

[topgun2]

52 minutes ago, rich.dev said:

To me looks like Brian wired it only to one battery? 

I went back up and looked Brian's wiring and you are correct.  He wired these batteries in parallel.  This wiring results in being able to use the capacity of both batteries while maintaining 12 volts.  I have gone back and edited my post to reflect this.  Thanks for spotting the error.

As per the Battle Born website:

"The main advantage of wiring batteries in parallel is that you increase the available runtime of your system while maintaining the voltage. Since the amp-hour capacities are additive, two batteries in parallel double your runtime, three batteries triple it, and so on.

Another advantage to wiring batteries in parallel is that if one of your batteries dies or has an issue, the remaining batteries in the system can still provide power. "

This last statement above is what I was referring to when I said that the readings would possibly not be the same for both batteries.

Bill

 

[mossemi]

On 8/2/2023 at 5:56 PM, Brian and Brandelyne said:

Not sure if it has improved my situation but man, do I feet good about myself...lol

I am not up to date on OTT's current solar equipment options, but it does seem that some trailers are equipped with some Victron gear.  Does your Oliver have a Victron BMV-XXX to go along with your Victron solar charge controller?  If so, couldn’t you have accomplished the same functionality by adding a temperature sensor to the BMV-XXX?

Mossey

edit:  SeaDawg beat me to my question!👏👏

Edited August 3, 2023 by mossemi
Update

[SeaDawg]

@mossemi, in some cases, with Victron, it's a waste, in others, its totally incompatible,  and can cause issues. 

Victron is far from "plug and play." It's pretty sophisticated,  components based, which is great, in many respects. Replacing a $40 component,  vs a $400 component,  or more, is great, imo. The list is somewhat "dizzying, " imo.

I also have no idea which Victron components come standard in the newer trailers. My experience is limited to our boat, with Victron gear.

[NCeagle]

16 hours ago, Brian and Brandelyne said:

Totally agree Chris, buyers remorse is for soft people LOL -- first observation.  For weeks now, my batteries have been at 99% and within 24 hours of installing this little guy, they now show 100%.  You should have seen the spousal eye-roll when I shared that little nugget...

BL

@Brian and Brandelyne, you are probably aware of the fact that Lithiums don't like to be kept at 99%-100% all the time like AGMs.  You may be talking about your battery charge during camping (I keep mine full during camping trips) - not sure if you are keeping them fully charged even when you are not camping, but just in case I thought I'd mention it.  Very cool device to assist your MPPT charger!  Thanks for sharing!

[mossemi]

15 hours ago, mossemi said:

 If so, couldn’t you have accomplished the same functionality by adding a temperature sensor to the BMV-XXX?

I answered my own question by reading Victron's user manual for the Smart Battery Sense.

Mossey

When can I use Smart Battery Sense ...and when should I avoid using it?

• Check the VE.Smart Networking compatible products list for compatible Solar Chargers.

• Smart Battery Sense is not needed, or allowed, in systems which are already controlled by a Color Control GX or Venus GX, see FAQ Q6 for more info.

• Smart Battery Sense is not needed for installations which already have a BMV-712 (battery monitor) with a temperature sensor accessory.

• For installations using a BMV-702 together with its optional temperature sensor accessory - for wireless connectivity consider adding a VE.Direct Bluetooth Smart dongle instead of a Smart Battery Sense.

[mossemi]

18 hours ago, rich.dev said:

Brian, sorry another question about how you wired the smart sense to the batteries. I see you have the positive and negative wires connected to one of the batteries, not to both batteries, ie negative to one battery and positive to the other battery like your leads, will that make a difference? 

And your question was also answered by the installation manual.

Mossey

For banks of batteries Smart Battery Sense may be connected to any one of the individual batteries.

[mossemi]

11 hours ago, SeaDawg said:

in some cases, with Victron, it's a waste, in others, its totally incompatible,  and can cause issues. 

I will say that if I am going to waste money on Victron gear, I hope it's only $40!

Mossey

[BBL]

36 minutes ago, mossemi said:

Smart Battery Sense is not needed for installations which already have a BMV-712 (battery monitor) with a temperature sensor accessory.

Thanks for the details, I saw the one about the BMV-712 and was looking into ADDING the temperature sensor (not included in the OTT install) and decided this was the easiest path for me.

BL

[BBL]

6 hours ago, NCeagle said:

ou may be talking about your battery charge during camping (I keep mine full during camping trips)

Yes, I agree and I keep mine topped off when camping. I installed an RV electrical panel on my shop so it does stay plugged in most of the time. The Xantrex Charger/Inverter will keep them topped whether I like it or not while at home so I occasionally un-plug and run the a/c to "exercise" the batteries.

The Smart Battery Sense only applies to the solar charging. The Xantrex uses its own charging profiles.

BL

 

[BBL]

18 hours ago, topgun2 said:

If you only wire to a single battery then you will only get readings from that single battery and those readings will not necessarily be the same for each individual battery.

 

For banks of batteries Smart Battery Sense may be connected to any one of the individual batteries.

From the Victron users manual.  Only need to wire to one battery to achieve desired results.

BL

[BBL]

16 hours ago, mossemi said:

I am not up to date on OTT's current solar equipment options, but it does seem that some trailers are equipped with some Victron gear.  Does your Oliver have a Victron BMV-XXX to go along with your Victron solar charge controller?  If so, couldn’t you have accomplished the same functionality by adding a temperature sensor to the BMV-XXX?

And @SeaDawg Yes, I have a BMV-712 and could have added the temp sensor, as mentioned before, I assessed this and determined this to be a better path.  If you watch the Victron video I linked in my original post, the objective is to give the MPPT Solar Charger the most accurate temperature of the battery and the voltage "at the battery terminals" to provide the most accurate picture for charging.

To answer another question, the current trailers are being delivered with a Victron BMV-712 with BT and a Victron Solar MPPT Charge controller with BT so now there are THREE Victron components that show up in my app (including the Smart Sense).

BL

[BBL]

17 hours ago, topgun2 said:

Another advantage to wiring batteries in parallel is that if one of your batteries dies or has an issue, the remaining batteries in the system can still provide power. "

This last statement above is what I was referring to when I said that the readings would possibly not be the same for both batteries.

 

Keep in mind, unlike Battleborn batteries, the Lithionics batteries have built in BT so I can always check the SOC for each battery individually if I think something is not working properly.

BL

[SeaDawg]

It would be super nice if lithium controllers gave you the choice to charge only to a certain per centage in storage, like Tesla cars, and our Samsung phones and tablets. 

I have all our phones and tablets set to charge only to 85%, to extend battery life, and watch depletion during the day.