Using a Victron 150/100 Ve.Can and a 100/50 MPPT

[curryitr]

Hello,

I'm building my first solar setup which is going to be 24v. I'm wanting to run a Victron 150/100 Ve.Can on 6 panels and then a 100/50 Mppt for another 3 panels. Is it possible to connect both of these charge controllers to a Cerbo GX via VE.Direct and them be able to communicate to one another to charge my 24 volt batteries? The 100/50 MPPT does not use Ve.Can so I wasn't sure if it was capable of communicating with the new model charge controller? Thanks!

 

[RyGuy]

If I recall correctly you can link the two via Bluetooth without an expensive gx as long as they are both smart solar not blue solar units.

 

[curryitr]

I'm required to use the GX anyway because of the server batteries I'm running so I'm wondering if it could work with that instead of bluetooth?

 

[MaikaiLife]

The 100/50 has a VE direct, do you have a really old model or something?

 

[MaikaiLife]

 

[curryitr]

Yes my model has VE direct. I’m just trying to determine if it’s forward compatible with the 150/100 which uses a canbus connection. The 150/100 literature speaks about being able to daisy chain to other controllers via canbus but not via VE direct.

 

[Q-Dog]

They cannot be connected together through VE Can, but both have VE Direct and should plug right into the Cerbo with VE Direct cables.

 

[curryitr]

Thanks Q-Dog. Will they automatically coordinate themselves or will there be programming I have to do in the Cerbo for them to communicate properly?

 

[Brucey]

Thanks Q-Dog. Will they automatically coordinate themselves or will there be programming I have to do in the Cerbo for them to communicate properly?

You'll need to match the settings manually (for charge voltages etc). Then they will coordinate between bulk, absorption etc together. You can also enable DVCC on the cerbo to allow a max charge rate for the batteries to be configured (taking into account load).

 

[MaikaiLife]

Thanks Q-Dog. Will they automatically coordinate themselves or will there be programming I have to do in the Cerbo for them to communicate properly?

They will communicate with each other and they do require a little programming in the Cerbo GX or in the Victron Connect app to get them dialed in with your preferences.

 

[chrisski]

Even if they didn’t communicate, on the same battery inputs for the two or three stages of charging they will still charge just fine.

I have three Victron controllers that use the Victron virtual network to communicate. I assume this is off Bluetooth, but could very well be WiFi, who knows.

What this virtual network does, I don’t know because specifics aren’t in the docs. Seems to me that all three MPPTs switch to absorb and float at the same time, so it may do that. Also, when I had lead acid and equalized, when I started on one controller, the other automatically went in.

Would not be the end of the world if one controller entered float before another, or if I had to hit equalize on all three controllers.

If you got a specific Victron question not answered here, try
.victronenergy community forums

I have 2 x Victron100/30, 1 x Victron100/50 and a Victron shunt with a non Victron 3k inverter and a 13 kWh battery with Chinese cells and feel no need for a cerbo

 

[Brucey]

I have three Victron controllers that use the Victron virtual network to communicate. I assume this is off Bluetooth, but could very well be WiFi, who knows.

The ve.smart networking is done over Bluetooth.

 

[Q-Dog]

I use Venus OS on a raspberry Pi ... works same as a Cerbo. I had 150/60 and a 100/20 chargers connected with VE Direct to VenusOS, and both seem to coordinate bulk, absorb and float. I replaced the 100/20 with another 150/60, and they also seem to coordinate charging with each other.

Before VenusOS I used VE Smart networking, and they seemed to work together there too.

I should add, Victron says it is fine to mix protocols.

 

[ShirBlackspots]

I use Venus OS on a raspberry Pi ... works same as a Cerbo. I had 150/60 and a 100/20 chargers connected with VE Direct to VenusOS, and both seem to coordinate bulk, absorb and float. I replaced the 100/20 with another 150/60, and they also seem to coordinate charging with each other.

Before VenusOS I used VE Smart networking, and they seemed to work together there too.

I should add, Victron says it is fine to mix protocols.

I have an old Raspberry Pi 2 model B that I'm going to do the same, I just need to buy a 32GB SDCard and another 2.5A power supply for it, since I don't know what happened to the last one.