Victron smartshunt. How long does it take?

[Don B. Cilly]

Installed a smartshunt some... four hours ago.
Yes, bluetooth range is abysmal. There are workarounds, but, hey
Apart from that, it's not making much sense is it.



I wonder how long it will take to start doing so... ;·)

 

[Don B. Cilly]

More than 8 hours later:



How does this make any sense?

 

[curiouscarbon]

is it the time remaining part?

if that is what’s confusing, it only shows time until empty but not time until full. i found that confusing at first personally, unsure if this is the part that is not making sense

 

[Short_Shot]

What's the question?
How long to start doing what?

So I'll take a shot at time remaining:
"Time remaining" is time until depleted, not time until charged.

If you're charging then you're not consuming power and thus not depleting it. The victron isn't smart enough to estimate time based on unknown variables like solar input, future load/charge, or whether you'll move your panels into the shade.

And since it can't know the future it can't give you any estimate on how long it'll be until it's discharged while it's currently charging.

 

[Don B. Cilly]

Well, it's been discharging for some 14 hours (it's 9:40 AM here). It'll start charging soon, but not quite yet (trees to the SE).
Consumed Ah, 0.00?
Time remaining... all right, I guess I haven't been drawing much, but some... fridge on all night and all?

The question was how long for it to work things out and start making sense :·)

 

[Short_Shot]

If it's discharging and says it's charging you have it hooked up physically backwards.

 

[Tecnodave]

It will take a few full cycles from full charge to full discharge for the monitor to really give good data, use it for a few days, the data will start to make sense

 

[Don B. Cilly]

If it's discharging and says it's charging you have it hooked up physically backwards.

No, it doesn't say it's charging, the amps and watts are quite correct for discharge.

It will take a few full cycles from full charge to full discharge for the monitor to really give good data, use it for a few days,

So, a few days is how long it takes :·)
I don't really plan to "full" discharge, quite a few cloudy/rainy days are forecast, so it might be a bit of a bother recharging.
But then, maybe the same days will take care of that (the discharge ;·)

I'll just wait and see then.

 

[Tecnodave]

Well, it does not need full discharge , it needs the cycle usage and your input as to battery size, then it computes discharge, then charge back to the same point several times, now it has enough data to give better data, they keep learning

 

[Short_Shot]

No, it doesn't say it's charging, the amps and watts are quite correct for discharge.

But it does say it's charging...

The amount it's discharging would of course be correct, the problem is it's going the wrong direction. The shunt thinks your discharge current is going into the battery.

If you are discharging it should show a negative wattage value.

This is also why it's showing 0.0ah consumed.

Can you post a photo of your wiring?


My 500a smartshunt immediately showed correct discharging and started counting consumed amp hours within the time it took me to pull my phone out of my pocket and connect to it.

I hadn't even started configuring it for battery capacity yet at that point.

 

[Short_Shot]

You can see here in this photo I conveniently pulled from Google that it shows a negative value when discharging.

 

[tim0shel]

But it does say it's charging...

The amount it's discharging would of course be correct, the problem is it's going the wrong direction. The shunt thinks your discharge current is going into the battery.

If you are discharging it should show a negative wattage value.

This is also why it's showing 0.0ah consumed.

Can you post a photo of your wiring?


My 500a smartshunt immediately showed correct discharging and started counting consumed amp hours within the time it took me to pull my phone out of my pocket and connect to it.

I hadn't even started configuring it for battery capacity yet at that point.

@Don B. Cilly he is correct here, I have one so I'm familiar with it, so it is showing charge and if you are pulling a discharge you need to switch your cables around. When it shows discharge it will show negative -xx.xxv

 

[Short_Shot]

@Don B. Cilly he is correct here and I have one so it is showing charge in so if you are pulling a discharge you need to switch your cables around.

Hopefully OP comes back.

Going to be waiting a whole lot of days for it to sort itself out otherwise.

 

[Don B. Cilly]

Oops. You're right. I know what I did and why - long story.
Short story, cables direction tricked me, and I was in a bit of a hurry for something else.
I'll fix it.
Funny, it seemed to have woken up :·)

 

[Short_Shot]

Surprise surprise.

Glad it's working for you now. Enjoy it.

 

[Don B. Cilly]

Cilly me
I corrected the... er...
You know, sometimes the Universe does conspire. Or at least seem to ;·)

Looking better now (It's charging:·)

 

[Don B. Cilly]

I disconnected the panels. I don't really want the battery to go over 27.2 anyway, do I?



[EDIT] I upped the discharge a bit. With 150W, it gives me 1d 11h. I guess I'm ready for the rainy days ahead

 

[Short_Shot]

I disconnected the panels. I don't really want the battery to go over 27.2 anyway, do I?

View attachment 65469

Do you have a solar charge controller??

Two lithium batteries in series has a max voltage of 29.2 volts.

Two lead acid batteries would be 25.2v or so, but can accept higher for charging.

 

[Don B. Cilly]

I have two LiFePO4s. 24V factory sealed. In parallel, for 220Ah.



My charge controller... it's an Epever tracer 30A.
It says the default charging parameter is good for Lithium. Yesterday I got a full charge... they went to 28.2.
BMS kicked in on both. Red LEDs.
I tried to set "User" parameters on the controller. You can't. You need a cable and software.
I've ordered the cable and downloaded the software. It's for Windows but seems to run with Wine.
I'll see what I can do when I get the cable.
Meanwhile, I'm my own BMS :·)

 

[Short_Shot]

I wouldn't worry about keeping the voltage down manually then.

Likely the BMS needs to be configured higher as you've seemingly figured out.

You could set the charge controller lower as well should you wish.