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hobbystuff avatar image
hobbystuff asked

VE.Bus Smart Dongle and GX Device Connection

I have a GX device in my boat that has a Victron Battery Monitor, Inverter/Charger and solar controller all connected to it. We also have a separate 24V bank in the stern that has a VE.Bus Smart Dongle on it - so we can monitor voltage using the Victron Connect App. My question(s) are as follows:

  1. Can I connect the stern 24V battery bank to the GX device so that information from that bank is available on the GX unit and VRM?
  2. If so, how will it show up on the display? As a separate battery bank?
  3. Is the connection to the GX device done using a network cable and a VE.Bus to USB converter?

The existing inverter/charger, battery monitor and solar controller are all concentrated on our 12V house bank. I am hoping that the 24V stern bank would just show up as a separate battery bank that is monitored.

VE.Bus Smart Dongle
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2 Answers
bathnm avatar image
bathnm answered ·

Is the inverter connected to the 12v or 24v battery?

If the 12v then it will confuse the system, as it will supply voltage sense to the inverter and the inverter will pass that to the GX device. The voltage would be displayed under the inverter setup and show battery voltage as opposed to voltage the inverter sense at its terminals. At present the voltage displayed under the inverter is what it is sensing.


the connection would be a standard RJ45 cable between smart dongle and inverter, and inverter and GX device. I suspect you already have these in place.

A smart shunt installed in the negative of the 24v battery terminal and connected to the GX via VE.direct would show the voltage and current on that battery

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hobbystuff avatar image hobbystuff commented ·
Yes, the inverter is on the 12V house battery bank.


So what I am hearing is that plugging in the VE Bus Smart Dongle to the GX device will not work, as the system will assume it is the data from the 12V bank that the inverter/charger is connected to.

This is not what I want - I just wanted to be able to get voltage/battery temp from the 24V bank into the GX device and ultimately VRM.

Thank you for the input.

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Alexandra avatar image
Alexandra answered ·

@Hobbystuff

The VE Bus dongle is designed to be plugged into the inverter itself, not to a GX device to help compensate for temperature and voltage drop on the inverter when it is part of a system.

You can monitor a second battery bank SOC with a bmv or smart shunt as suggested on a GX and with the temp sensor. Just be sure to set the battery monitor for the system to the Multiplus not on automatic.

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