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Craig avatar image
Craig asked

smartshunt as DC meter not counting to consumed

I have a smartshunt IP65 as a dc meter. Lynx shunt as the battery meter, multiplus-II, smart solar mppt all plugged into a cerbo gx. I can see the current load which seems to be what is used in the VRM for the DC load and nolonger calculating the power usage. But I do not beleive the load on the DC is being added to the consumed energy which I beleive it should. The only way I can test is to turn off my multiplus-II which seems to be the only source of energy being counted as consumed. I have a screenshot where there was a constant load on DC of 100-150 Watts which should have resulted in 0.1kwh but nothing was recorded for this time. I was not aware of any other settings that need set to do this other than setting it as a DC meter on the VictronConnect app.

If anyone would have any possible solution I would be grateful.

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VRMdc meter
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4 Answers
JohnC avatar image
JohnC answered ·

Hi @Craig

The Smartshunt should be wired in downstream of the Lynx shunt, so the Lynx itself will already be totalling current. Like this (D as the Lynx)..

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There's also this in Remote Console > System Setup >

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Best check that. Some explanation in the Smartshunt manual. Section 3.7, plus links.. https://www.victronenergy.com/media/pg/SmartShunt/en/installation.html#UUID-414bd4fa-b9c2-68e6-bc21-dad390c3c357


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Craig avatar image
Craig answered ·

Hi @JohnC

Thanks for your reply. I am sorry i did not have this information in the original post but I believe i do have it wired correctly, It is connected to the Lynx distribution on the Load side of the Lynx Shunt where the Multiplus-II and Smart Solar are also. I had also enabled the "has DC system" on the Cerbo GX.


I am unsure if this is related but when in Installed the MultiPlus-II (was installed a few months after the main DC system) and configured the ESS assistant on the multiplus the solar charger status never changed to External control, ESS or anything as described in the setup videos by Victron, i have sense enabled DVCC which has allowed me to operate more as I would expect. I know this is totally different from my initial question but unsure if this is related.

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JohnC avatar image JohnC ♦ commented ·
Ok. If the dc current is passing through the Lynx, then it must be being counted in the total.

I doubt that ESS or suchlike will have any effect. These shunts act 'alone' in producing an output.

VRM and VicronConnect don't actually provide much in terms of kWh figures. Publishing such from sporadic instantaneous figures is fraught with danger if people come to rely upon them too much.


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michaeld answered ·

I haven't looked at this for a while so no promises, but when you set the smartshunt to be a DC meter, did you pick "DC system" for the type or one of the other options? When "Has DC system" is turned on but no extra shunts are configured as "DC system", the DC consumption will be calculated as the total battery monitor current minus MPPTs, inverters etc. When you have at least one shunt set to "DC system", this calculation is no longer done and the DC consumption will instead be the sum of the "DC system" shunts. IIRC the other options for the shunt (alternator, generic load etc) don't do that.

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Craig avatar image
Craig answered ·

Hi @michaeld

Thank you for your feedback. I had set it as a DC meter but seems i had set it to "other DC" I have changed this to "DC system", It did seem to confuse the Cerbo when I made the change with 2 instances of the shunt on the device list. but after a reboot that seems to have cleared itself, on the VRM it has also removed the voltage that used to display under the "DC system" tile, I did a quick test again where i turned the Multiplus off for 1 hour but even though the solar was unable to fully service the load no "consumed" energy was recorded and only the solar, I will run with it for a day or 2 to see if it starts to record properly as I have seen in the past.

I have a smaller system using a Smart Solar 100/20 which is recording the DC load internally without any issues.

I feel i will need to reset this system and build it from the ground up as it was built bit by bit when items became available.

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michaeld avatar image michaeld commented ·
Fingers crossed!
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