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diy solar

Victron monitoring accessories

I think I have that mapped out correctly, I’m curious about temperature probe placement into the BMV-712.
 
I went with the cerbo and touch 50 for my van system along with victron solar charge controller, and 3k multiplus inverter. Original plan was 712 battery monitor and the remove control for the inverter. If you go with the smart shunt instead of the 712 and nix the remote invertor controller (and go with the cerbo and touch 50 screen instead), you aren't spending that much more and you get a nice single touchscreen interface and some pretty cool remote monitoring and automation features. My main reason for going cerbo and touch 50 was to get everything on one UX/interface, but the remote stuff is pretty cool too. I'm not sure how much I'll use any of the advanced features, but it's nice to have them there if needed. Plus, the UX on the touch 50 is pretty cool the way is shows power flowing around the various parts of the system with a quick view of battery state, charging status, etc. Some of that is more show than go, but a nice touch.
 
One other comment on the Cerbo - you can run it without the touch 50 screen on you phone or a tablet, etc., but I wouldn't want that as the primary interface. It's fine if you want to look at system status or control the system remotely, but it is very sluggish even when all the components are on the same high speed network. The touch 50 is 10x more responsive with the native HDMI connection.
 
Appreciate the firmest hand experience. It’s a ground up build so no legacy components to try to fit into the solution.

Regarding battery temperature monitoring, are you simply feeding from the battery terminal directly into the Cerbo?
 
I actually have limited first hand knowledge. I’ve got all the components, but still waiting on delivery of my van and also waiting on cells for a battery build. All my experience with the system has been bench testing, but I’ve wired it all up and played/configured a good bit.

There are multiple temp inputs on cerbo and also one on smart shunt and multiplus. Some of the operability stuff seems pretty useful. For example, you can run a dedicated voltage sensing lead from the multiplus to your battery bank and have your solar charge controller also use that voltage reference. You can also configure it to coordinate charging phases (and set aggregate max current) across multiple solar charge controllers and the multiplus.
 
I am running the Cerbo now without the screen... Bought a 39.99 5" screen from Amazon.
The touch doesn't work - but you can just use a USB mouse if you really need it..
Screen.jpg
 
PS once everything is setup - you almost never use the touch... so you can dissconnect the mouse if you use one.
Realistically - it's easier to configure everything over the web. I just use the screen to get quick glances @ the status of my system.
 
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