question

Jamie Greenaway avatar image
Jamie Greenaway asked

Running an External Charger through the Multiplus AC output.

Not entirely sure if this is possible.. My diesel generators power is a bit dirty and I don't like running my sensitive equipment on it when the Multi is in bypass mode to charge the batteries (albeit rarely). I am going to add an external 60a 48v battery charger and put a smart shunt on its output and label it in the Venus OS accordingly. What I would like to know is.. Can the geni still be connected to the AC IN of the multiplus, and the external battery charger connected to AC OUT 2 of the multi, and configure AC OUT 2 to only use geni power and never inverter power, and disable the internal charger completely. This would allow me to monitor and track generator AC output current without the use of an external AC current sensor. If this is not possible, can the victron CT clamp be used to monitor generator power to the external charger? Thanks.

Multiplus-IIchargerGenerator
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Kevin Windrem avatar image
Kevin Windrem answered ·

The default configuration for AC out 2 is to turn on only when AC input is present. This should disconnect the charger when the Multi is inverting, but it still seems like a feedback loop could exist in some situations.

I think it would be better to just connect the charger to the generator before the Multi.

You can program the shunt for AC Charger however this is not handled properly in the standard flow pages on the GX device. GuiMods provides a DC coupled flow page that does include AC Charger as a separate tile.

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Jamie Greenaway avatar image Jamie Greenaway commented ·

I'd be interested to know how and when a feedback loop could become an issue when used in this way, it did cross my mind and wasn't sure if anyone else had done this configuration before.


As for the DC side of things.. you've poked a hole in my plan there! I was under the impression that named smart shunts would show up as tiles in the GX device.. seems not. I also have a different brand (Morningstar) SCC I want to get a smart shunt for and label accordingly.. a shame this isn't a default feature, I haven't wrapped my head around codes and mods yet.. guess I'll have to give it a go!

Any ideas about using the external CT clamp to display the generators output in the power input tile? I'd hate to have a blank AC tile that doesn't do anything :)

Thanks.


Update: It appears that when the DC Smart Shunt is assigned as a "PV Charger" it then shows up as a tile in the GX device. That works great for my different brand SCC, not entirely ideal for my AC charger, but workable, I can still label it as "AC Charger" but it'll just be a PV tile instead.

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