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hhubred avatar image
hhubred asked

cerbo gx and orion jr

Hello, I recently connected a Victron Cerbo to my system. It is meant to be a controller for my Orion Jr BMS via canbus. Before last weekend the Cerbo had been reporting what I thought to be a correct SOC (My bank started around 50% and rose over about 20 days to 96%, I only have a small solar cell charging it at the moment). This weekend and at the advice of the folks I bought the Orion Jr from...I installed a DC Disconnect that I purchased from them. They said I needed it incase the Victron equipment I have and their BMS didn't play well together and that the Orion Jr. needed a way to disconnect the batteries incase of an over charge.

Since I accomplished that, the Cerbo now only displays 49% SOC. It has stayed at 49% for the last 4 days. If I look at the Shunt from the Cerbo it reads 96%. My question is... Does the measurement I see on the Cerbo readout actually being directly handed off from the Orion Jr to the Cerbo or is the Cerbo running some kind of calculation from what the Orion Jr is passing it? Or maybe is there a time period before everything displays correctly again?

I haven't received any help from the folks I bought the Orion Jr from except during the initial purchase of the equipment.


Thanks in advance... Heath

cerbo gx
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3 Answers
JohnC avatar image
JohnC answered ·

Hi @hhubred

The Cerbo can't calculate an SOC, nor modify it. It can only pass on what it reads. The source is selectible though..

1644473323459.pngThe Auto setting for me results in this..

1644473256980.pngWhat does your system actually show there?

The reading should be real-time, but if you suspect it isn't, try rebooting the Cerbo to see if it changes.

If from the BMS, it's also possible that the BMS signal isn't compatible with what the Cerbo reads. Probably not much can be done about that, even if the BMS does actually purport to transmit SOC.

The 'shunt' you quote is presumably Victron, but still may need tuning in, so take care relying on even that until you gain confidence.



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1644473323459.png (56.8 KiB)
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hhubred answered ·

Thanks John, I appreciate the info. Its good to know that Victron is just passing it on. Now I can focus solely on the Orion Jr.


I didn't know that my Victron shunt was tunable. I will have to investigate it but I may just confuse myself further...:)


Thanks again for the help...

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hhubred avatar image
hhubred answered ·

Hey John, are there instructions to tune the the shunt? Its a Victron Energy SmartShunt 500 amp
Battery Monitor.

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JohnC avatar image JohnC ♦ commented ·

@hhubred

At the risk of confusing you.. :) https://www.victronenergy.com/media/pg/SmartShunt/en/index-en.html

At the very least, make sure it's set to suit Li batts, but it can be surprisingly accurate if you put in the effort to fine tune it.

Plenty of questions been asked about it here too, so search away. Great device..

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