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jcoutu55 avatar image
jcoutu55 asked

Monitoring 2 separate batteries on Boat (Smartshunt, Cerbo GX, Touch 50)

I have a boat with 2 inboard engines. Each engine has its own 8D flooded battery. These batteries not only start the engine but are also my house batteries as well. I want to set up a monitoring system to start understanding my usage better. My plan was to do 2 smart shunts a Cerbo gx and a touch 50. However I’ve recently been told the touch 50 won’t work that way and won’t show me 2 separate batteries. Only one? Given my situation what would all suggest? Just 2 separate smart shunts and use my phone? Need some suggestions as I’m new to this! Thank you!

cerbo gxSmartShunttouchscreen
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2 Answers
Kevin Windrem avatar image
Kevin Windrem answered ·

It is true the GX will only incorporate one battery into the flow diagrams. However both batteries will appear in the device list, but probably not what you are looking for.

The VictronConnect isn't a bad approach. It can also monitor other Victron gear (like solar charge controllers) and provides a single-page summary of all devices (recent addition).

If you wanted dedicated displays you could install two BMV7xx monitors.

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derrick thomas avatar image
derrick thomas answered ·

The cerbo can show both battery banks on the device page, but only one can be selected as the monitored bank to share data with other victron devices on the same network. You could however use node red with arrow1800 virtual battery driver and aggregate the 2 banks any way you wish. That way you could essentially combine the SOC of both banks and use the average for data purposes to other devices connected to the cerbo.

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