question

sv-tango avatar image
sv-tango asked

BVM712 not reading charge sources.

I have a complex large boat 12VDC system. I have a total of 4 battery banks. 2 independent house battery banks can be switched to power a DC buss, only 1 bank at a time. 1 Auxiliary battery is for engine start, anchor windlass, and deck winches. The 4th "bank" is the generator start battery. These 4 battery banks are independently systems charged via a diode based battery isolator.

The boat DC system has a switched analog Amp gauge. It has DPDT switches that connect it to a positive voltage shunt measuring incoming current and a separate ground side load shunt for current draw based on the switched-in house bank being used.

My various charge sources are all controlled/regulated independently with the various sources going to a positive buss which then powers the battery isolator. The negative sides for each source go to a common negative battery buss.

I've installed the BVM712 in series with my "analog load gauge shunt". Within a reasonable level both load measuring systems (analog and BVM) are seeing load current. The BVM never sees a charge current and the State of Charge constantly decreases until it alarms. However, the BVM see's battery voltage correctly irregardless of the charge source.

What could I be missing here?

battery chargingbmv 712bmv
tango.jpg (621.0 KiB)
2 |3000

Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

1 Answer
sv-tango avatar image
sv-tango answered ·

Sometimes you just have to think about things harder. I'm pretty sure the overall problem is that I have the solar, hydrogenertor, alternator, battery charger grounds connected directly to the battery ground buss. I need to move all that to the BVM shunt and it will work as expected. My drawing that I used for planning and wiring assumed all grounds... went to a single ground. I'll get this fixed in the next few days and report back.


Happy Christmas Eve everyone.

1 comment
2 |3000

Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

mvader (Victron Energy) avatar image mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented ·

That should do it indeed, SV-Tango.


Merry christmas!

0 Likes 0 ·

Related Resources

Additional resources still need to be added for this topic