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wysiwyg asked

Lynx Shunt VE.Can did not shut down MPPT charger due to High Battery Temp

A terminal fault in the battery caused one string to overheat, received battery over temp alarm however had to disable solar charger manually as the BMS did not shut off charging. This would have caused the batteries to severely overheat. Does the BMS in the Lynx shunt not provide this failsafe?

Temperature Sensorlynx bmsTemperature Alarmshutdown
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5 Answers
Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image
Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) answered ·

What product are we talking about? There is no Lynx Shunt BMS but there is a Lynx Shunt VE.Can and a Lynx Smart BMS. The latter is a BMS with battery monitor, the other is a battery monitor.

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wysiwyg avatar image
wysiwyg answered ·

Thanks Stefanie, I am using the Lynx Shunt VE.Can as the Lynx Smart Shunt is only for the Victron Lithium batteries.

I have the identical setup as in this diagram attached with the dc loads being the exception.

What is monitoring the charge from the solar charger and battery temperature and limits it if the batteries get too hot in this setup?

screenshot-2022-12-01-at-171740.jpg


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Which batteries do you have in the system, lead acid or lithiums?

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wysiwyg answered ·

AGM Lead Acid batteries

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wysiwyg answered ·

If this was a remote setup with no internet, I would not have received the alarm and the batteries would have been seriously damaged. I am surprised that none of the equipment in the diagram provides any sort of protection from battery bank over temperature?

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Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image
Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) answered ·

If you have the temperature sensor installed , you can use it to control the alarm relay, which in turn controls a BatteryProtect that can be used to prevent the solar charger from charging.

See: https://www.victronenergy.com/media/pg/Lynx_Shunt_VE.Can/en/features.html#UUID-0b5befe8-ce77-e00a-41d6-ede0463afa91

https://www.victronenergy.com/media/pg/Lynx_Shunt_VE.Can/en/features.html#UUID-9bad5350-9145-ef8f-9757-69da1c898f65

https://www.victronenergy.com/battery_protect

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wysiwyg avatar image wysiwyg commented ·

Thank you, I don't have dc loads downstream so I don't have a battery protect, but the MPPT Solar charger has a remote relay switch, when earthed it switches the charger on/off.

So from what you are saying, I can use the alarm relay (Temperature activated) on the Lynx Shunt to switch the solar charger on/off via the remote switch on the solar charger?

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Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ wysiwyg commented ·

Yes, exactly. Use the alarm relay as an on/off switch on the solar charger (instead of the wire loop). See the remote on/off chapter in the manual for your solar charger.

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wysiwyg avatar image wysiwyg Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·
Thank you, the lynx relay os in open state by default, how do i invert the relay as i want it closed and only open if an alarm occurs?
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Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ wysiwyg commented ·

You can't invert the relay.

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wysiwyg avatar image wysiwyg Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·
The shunt has two terminals and the mppt has two terminals, how do I achieve this?

Apologies, but how do I wire this up?

I ran a twin wire cable from both terminals from the mppt to the lynx dual input relay.

This does not work as the relay by default is in open state.

A diagram would be awesome :)

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Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ wysiwyg commented ·

Apologies that I put you on the wrong track. I just learned that the Lynx Shunt has only two terminal connectors for the relay instead of the three that I anticipated, which means that you cannot use it to control the remote on/off on the MPPT.

Another way to achieve this is by using relay 1 or relay 2 of your Cerbo GX, which can be triggered by a temperature sensor. This relay provides exactly what you need.

To connect a temperature sensor to the Cerbo GX, please see:

https://www.victronenergy.com/media/pg/Cerbo_GX/en/installation.html#UUID-572ae5ae-b9c9-b5a8-ea10-4940ba072b03

To make the relay connections, please see:

https://www.victronenergy.com/media/pg/Cerbo_GX/en/installation.html#UUID-1bde23c8-ba85-bf3d-0e32-269450a1a96d

Connect one wire to the remote H input on the MPPT and the other end to COM. Connect another wire to the remote L input of the MPPT and the other end to NC. As long as the temperature relay is inactive (temperature low), the relay contact between NC and COM is closed. If the temperature rises above the set threshold, the contact between NC and COM is open.

To configure the Cerbo GX for temperature relay, please see:

https://www.victronenergy.com/media/pg/Cerbo_GX/en/configuration.html#UUID-ebddd7d2-0e03-b245-047a-0c7923387d50

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wysiwyg avatar image wysiwyg Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·
Not at all, thank you for the follow up, sounds like this is a better workaround. Surprised that this is not a standard protection feature of the mppt or the BMS.
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