Cheap and easy USB power for Lynx Distributor LED card

[KevinC_63559]

I recapped this in my personal journey thread, but wanted to repost under its own heading in hopes it will be useful to someone in the future.

As you may, or may not know, the Victron Lynx Distributor has an LED board that shows the status of each of the fuses, and a power light to show the board is up and running. If any fuse blows, its corresponding LED will light up red, and the power light will change from green to red. That much is pretty common knowledge.

What surprised me is that the LED board is not internally powered. Victron apparently presumed folks would either buy their Lynx Shunt or their Lynx BMS (both a bit pricey). Either of those will power the Lynx Distributor LED board. Alas, where that might have been common in the days of Lead-Acid batteries, today with modern LiFePO4 batteries, which have their own BMS, its rather redundant.

A quick search on Google will find YouTube videos on making a 12-24V to 5V inline adapter cable. Unfortunately, that doesn't work for 48V systems. It did, however, point out that the LED board just wants everyday 5V power. Everyday? Yeah... its what every USB adapter provides:


(early test with one of those ancient USB printer adapters with the end cut off)

No big surprise that the red and black wires provide +5V and ground.

What you need is a package of these and an appropriate crimping tool. I bought this one. Just make sure your buying RJ10, not RJ9, and that the crimping tool can handle RJ10.

After that, its minutes of work. Find just about any USB cable with a USB 1.0 or USB 2.0 connector. USB -> MicroUSB cables are very common, you probably have several lying around your residence. Clip off the MicroUSB (in this case) end, strip back about 1CM (a bit less than a 1/2 inch), isolate the red and black wires, cutting off the other two. Insert the red and black wires in the connect, with black to the far right, and red to the far left, if the locking pin on the connector is facing down. If unsure, look at any telephone plug with a clear connector on it and match the orientation of the black wire. Red goes to the other side. Ah, found an image on my phone, with the locking pin up (so black to the left):



The larger, wired connector is a typical RJ9 - you can see the black wire on the left and a yellow wire on the far right. The smaller RJ10 connector needed for the Lynx Distribution Bus connection is show above it.

Anyhow, simply crimp the RJ10 with the red and black wires on the appropriate sides and plug into either side of the Lynx Distributor Bus connection. If you use a modern USB cable, it should be easily routed through the prongs inside the Distributor and out:



Note, my Distributor is mounted upside down - something that is so common Victron provides a label to make it look up!

Note if you do not have the Distributor fully loaded, the unfused connections will display a red light. Just jumper the fuse block with a small piece of wire and the red light will go out. Obviously, don't run any load on those terminals!

Here is mine all buttoned up with the cover in place. You can see the black USB cable coming out of the provided slots in the upper right:



Finally, plug the other end into a USB port somewhere. I used a spare one on my Victron Cerbo GX - but anything should do.

 

[740GLE]

Cool solution

All cool, but If my fuse pops my inverter lights will be out . .

Lynx power in works for me.

 

[wpns]

I recapped this in my personal journey thread, but wanted to repost under its own heading in hopes it will be useful to someone in the future.

As you may, or may not know, the Victron Lynx Distributor has an LED board that shows the status of each of the fuses, and a power light to show the board is up and running. If any fuse blows, its corresponding LED will light up red, and the power light will change from green to red. That much is pretty common knowledge.

What surprised me is that the LED board is not internally powered. Victron apparently presumed folks would either buy their Lynx Shunt or their Lynx BMS (both a bit pricey). Either of those will power the Lynx Distributor LED board. Alas, where that might have been common in the days of Lead-Acid batteries, today with modern LiFePO4 batteries, which have their own BMS, its rather redundant.

A quick search on Google will find YouTube videos on making a 12-24V to 5V inline adapter cable. Unfortunately, that doesn't work for 48V systems. It did, however, point out that the LED board just wants everyday 5V power. Everyday? Yeah... its what every USB adapter provides:
View attachment 233435

(early test with one of those ancient USB printer adapters with the end cut off)

No big surprise that the red and black wires provide +5V and ground.

What you need is a package of these and an appropriate crimping tool. I bought this one. Just make sure your buying RJ10, not RJ9, and that the crimping tool can handle RJ10.

After that, its minutes of work. Find just about any USB cable with a USB 1.0 or USB 2.0 connector. USB -> MicroUSB cables are very common, you probably have several lying around your residence. Clip off the MicroUSB (in this case) end, strip back about 1CM (a bit less than a 1/2 inch), isolate the red and black wires, cutting off the other two. Insert the red and black wires in the connect, with black to the far right, and red to the far left, if the locking pin on the connector is facing down. If unsure, look at any telephone plug with a clear connector on it and match the orientation of the black wire. Red goes to the other side. Ah, found an image on my phone, with the locking pin up (so black to the left):

View attachment 233439

The larger, wired connector is a typical RJ9 - you can see the black wire on the left and a yellow wire on the far right. The smaller RJ10 connector needed for the Lynx Distribution Bus connection is show above it.

Anyhow, simply crimp the RJ10 with the red and black wires on the appropriate sides and plug into either side of the Lynx Distributor Bus connection. If you use a modern USB cable, it should be easily routed through the prongs inside the Distributor and out:

View attachment 233443

Note, my Distributor is mounted upside down - something that is so common Victron provides a label to make it look up!

Note if you do not have the Distributor fully loaded, the unfused connections will display a red light. Just jumper the fuse block with a small piece of wire and the red light will go out. Obviously, don't run any load on those terminals!

Here is mine all buttoned up with the cover in place. You can see the black USB cable coming out of the provided slots in the upper right:

View attachment 233444

Finally, plug the other end into a USB port somewhere. I used a spare one on my Victron Cerbo GX - but anything should do.

Sounds like a great idea if the source has the same ground reference as the Lynx, could cause 'infinite current' if not...

 

[KevinC_63559]

Cool solution

All cool, but If my fuse pops my inverter lights will be out . .

Lynx power in works for me.

Yeah... in my case, I have an additional 12V 3000 I could plug into. I've a couple of USB multi-slot power adapters powered directly off the 12V batteries - makes sense to extend over to one of them.

 

[KevinC_63559]

Sounds like a great idea if the source has the same ground reference as the Lynx, could cause 'infinite current' if not...

Both the Cerbo and the Lynx have the 48V battery pack as their power source. As long as the batteries are not drained, the Lynx LEDs should reflect reality, even if a fuse is blown.

Thanks for making me think this through.

 

[jeffmc306]

I recapped this in my personal journey thread, but wanted to repost under its own heading in hopes it will be useful to someone in the future.

As you may, or may not know, the Victron Lynx Distributor has an LED board that shows the status of each of the fuses, and a power light to show the board is up and running. If any fuse blows, its corresponding LED will light up red, and the power light will change from green to red. That much is pretty common knowledge.

What surprised me is that the LED board is not internally powered. Victron apparently presumed folks would either buy their Lynx Shunt or their Lynx BMS (both a bit pricey). Either of those will power the Lynx Distributor LED board. Alas, where that might have been common in the days of Lead-Acid batteries, today with modern LiFePO4 batteries, which have their own BMS, its rather redundant.

A quick search on Google will find YouTube videos on making a 12-24V to 5V inline adapter cable. Unfortunately, that doesn't work for 48V systems. It did, however, point out that the LED board just wants everyday 5V power. Everyday? Yeah... its what every USB adapter provides:
View attachment 233435

(early test with one of those ancient USB printer adapters with the end cut off)

No big surprise that the red and black wires provide +5V and ground.

What you need is a package of these and an appropriate crimping tool. I bought this one. Just make sure your buying RJ10, not RJ9, and that the crimping tool can handle RJ10.

After that, its minutes of work. Find just about any USB cable with a USB 1.0 or USB 2.0 connector. USB -> MicroUSB cables are very common, you probably have several lying around your residence. Clip off the MicroUSB (in this case) end, strip back about 1CM (a bit less than a 1/2 inch), isolate the red and black wires, cutting off the other two. Insert the red and black wires in the connect, with black to the far right, and red to the far left, if the locking pin on the connector is facing down. If unsure, look at any telephone plug with a clear connector on it and match the orientation of the black wire. Red goes to the other side. Ah, found an image on my phone, with the locking pin up (so black to the left):

View attachment 233439

The larger, wired connector is a typical RJ9 - you can see the black wire on the left and a yellow wire on the far right. The smaller RJ10 connector needed for the Lynx Distribution Bus connection is show above it.

Anyhow, simply crimp the RJ10 with the red and black wires on the appropriate sides and plug into either side of the Lynx Distributor Bus connection. If you use a modern USB cable, it should be easily routed through the prongs inside the Distributor and out:

View attachment 233443

Note, my Distributor is mounted upside down - something that is so common Victron provides a label to make it look up!

Note if you do not have the Distributor fully loaded, the unfused connections will display a red light. Just jumper the fuse block with a small piece of wire and the red light will go out. Obviously, don't run any load on those terminals!

Here is mine all buttoned up with the cover in place. You can see the black USB cable coming out of the provided slots in the upper right:

View attachment 233444

Finally, plug the other end into a USB port somewhere. I used a spare one on my Victron Cerbo GX - but anything should do.

Kevin, I have a question about the RJ10 connector and what you showed as the RJ9. Perhaps you meant to say the larger is an RJ11, not an RJ9? The RJ9 and RJ10 are the same size according to what I’ve found online.

I ask because I made the same setup as you showed with the 5V but the LED’s on my Lynx Distributor do not work. I even made a cable with a 12V-5V buck transformer using an RJ9 cable and neither work. The RJ9/10 are the size of the old telephone handset connector while the RJ11 is wider and is used as the line cord from the wall to the phone.

 

[KevinC_63559]

Kevin, I have a question about the RJ10 connector and what you showed as the RJ9. Perhaps you meant to say the larger is an RJ11, not an RJ9? The RJ9 and RJ10 are the same size according to what I’ve found online.

I ask because I made the same setup as you showed with the 5V but the LED’s on my Lynx Distributor do not work. I even made a cable with a 12V-5V buck transformer using an RJ9 cable and neither work. The RJ9/10 are the size of the old telephone handset connector while the RJ11 is wider and is used as the line cord from the wall to the phone.

That was not my experience on my Distributor. If you look at the spec sheet for the Distributor (bottom of the manual available on CC) it states an RJ10 connector. If the main power LED is not coming on, either your polarity is backwards or your power is simply not connected to the right pins. Can't think of any other reason it wouldn't work. Again, mine is being fed power via a spare USB port on my Cerbo. So if the Cerbo in-line fuse dies, I'm SOL, but pretty much in that state anyhow at that point. FWIW - my Cerbo is fed power directly off the battery bus.

 

[jeffmc306]

That was not my experience on my Distributor. If you look at the spec sheet for the Distributor (bottom of the manual available on CC) it states an RJ10 connector. If the main power LED is not coming on, either your polarity is backwards or your power is simply not connected to the right pins. Can't think of any other reason it wouldn't work. Again, mine is being fed power via a spare USB port on my Cerbo. So if the Cerbo in-line fuse dies, I'm SOL, but pretty much in that state anyhow at that point. FWIW - my Cerbo is fed power directly off the battery bus.

Thanks for your reply. I opened a case with Victron who passed it to the seller, Dragonfly Energy. I have the positive 5V on Pin 1 and negative on Pin 4. Yes, I have the manual and yes it says RJ10. If you Google RJ10, you’ll see it’s also known as RJ9 and RJ22 depending on regions. I ordered 1’ RJ9 cables from Amazon and used them to make the 5V cables. The Support person at Dragonfly passed it along to their warranty department so we’ll see where it goes from here.

 

[quantum`]

USB sucks salty balls.

If only Jobs hadn't overpriced firewire...

 

[KevinC_63559]

Thanks for your reply. I opened a case with Victron who passed it to the seller, Dragonfly Energy. I have the positive 5V on Pin 1 and negative on Pin 4. Yes, I have the manual and yes it says RJ10. If you Google RJ10, you’ll see it’s also known as RJ9 and RJ22 depending on regions. I ordered 1’ RJ9 cables from Amazon and used them to make the 5V cables. The Support person at Dragonfly passed it along to their warranty department so we’ll see where it goes from here.

I just took a spare USB cable, cut one end off, and crimped on an RJ10 - worked like a champ.