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antea avatar image
antea asked

Smart Battery Sense does not connect to MPPT 100/20

The questions:

a/ how do I make the Smart Battery Sense work with the MPPT 100/20?

b/ how do I make the VictronConnect go back to English?

I installed Smart Solar Charger MPPT 100/20 and Smart Battery Sense. First, the solar output was tiny, less than 2A , and the Battery Sense was blinking blue, indicating it was not connected to the MPPT 100/20. The Battery sense device was at a battery only 3 ft away from the MPPT100/20. To find out what was happening I tried to connect my Android devices, but I found in the manuals my Galaxy Note3 phone and Galaxy TabS2 are listed as not compatible with Victron Connect application. So I bought VE.Direct to USB adapter cable and plugged into my Windows 10 laptop. With the VictronConnect app installed, I was able to change some settings on the MPPT 100/20, but I expected to see something about the Battery Sense device.

Unrelated to my question here, at first I was seeing 35 to 38V coming in from the PVs, but only fraction of an amp drawn. The 12.8 V output was at most 3A and hunting, usually under an 1A. Miraculously, the next morning the output slowly rose to the values I was used to with the BlueSky 2000 controller I took out. It woke up?

Back to the blue blinking Battery Sense: The manual says about connecting the Battery Sense: "on your computer, click the “Scan” button on the left. " There is no Scan button in the window that pops up when I open the VictronConnect. My laptop's BlueTooth settings see both the devices and I was able to pair them, just to see. I moved the Battery Sense to another battery, where it is less than a foot from the charge controller, still blue blink.

On top of that, in settings I unnecessarily clicked on select language: English. It immediately switched to Chinese and won't budge from there. The drop down will not react to clicking English, will react to all other languages, but only in that window, the applications still comes up in Chinese. Very funny.

What a difference a day makes? Now I can select and get any language except English. I used to know some French, so French it is.

Smart Battery Sense
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antea avatar image antea commented ·

Improvement: now I can select and get any language except English. I used to know some French, so French it is.

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antea avatar image antea commented ·

The language problem resolved with v5.3 beta2. But.

I am missing something. There is something called VE Smart Networking , which should be found in Settings. In the Demo Mode, I see it. When you click on the MPPT 100/20, then on the cogg Settings you get a menu: Battery>, Load output>, Street light>, Tx port function, Rx port function and finally VE.Smart networking. On my laptop, the last item, VE.Smart networking, is missing. So I cannot set up a network.

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5 Answers
Paul B avatar image
Paul B answered ·

try using your phone to setup the network.

make sure everything has the latest firmware so keep the phone on the internet and then install the victron connect app and connect to the items

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antea avatar image antea commented ·

Thanks Paul B, since my two Android devices are on the Victron "no fly" list, I may have to borrow a phone to do that, which is not easy for me, particularly since I would have to borrow the owner for the duration of my fumbling. What puzzles me though, that through the three latest upgrades to the VictronConnect application, the crucial "VE.Smart networking" button is always missing in the Settings. Should I try an earlier version? I wish someone from Victron would chime in.

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Paul B avatar image
Paul B answered ·

have you a smart mppt or are you using a VE Bluetooth dongle.

if its the dongle then the early versions of the dongles do not work with the VE smart networking. we had the same issue on a site a few weeks ago and had to swap the dongle out with a latter version.

Victron Edit: You can see the compatible part numbers here:

https://www.victronenergy.com/live/victronconnect:ve-smart-networking

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Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) avatar image
Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) answered ·

Hello Antea,

I think you may have stumbled into a crack in the platform. The Windows version of VictronConnect does not support bluetooth (due to a 3rd party incompatibility), and is documented here.

This may have the side effect of also disabling access to the bluetooth functions of Smart Networking. I will report this to the developers of that software and see if this is an actual limitation or something that accidentally missed out due to the other bluetooth limits.

Either way, I think the most direct path for you is to find an iPhone or Android device that is compatible with VictronConnect for the commission.

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antea avatar image
antea answered ·

Thanks, Paup B, I have the Smart Solar Charger MPPT 100/20 with the Bluetooth built in, but have to use the VE.Direct USB interface cable, because the Windows 10 PC is not compatible with Victron Bluetooth. And thanks Guy Stewart, I will definitely chase down someone with i-phone before I will try to return the Smart Battery Sense device.

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antea avatar image
antea answered ·

Tried the i-phone route. Everything seemed to be progressing as expected, may friends i-6 paired with the Smart Battery Sense device and displayed that battery's voltage and temperature, the i-phone VictronConnect had the line that suggests setting up the network. I gave the network a name and it seemed to create it. The it asked if I want to add the Smart Battery Sense device to the network. Yes I said and it replied: "waiting for data". And it waited and waited. The blue light on the device blinking steadily. No change in the NPPT 100-20 window. Could the problem be with tthe MPPT 100-20?

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Related Resources

Additional resources still need to be added for this topic

Smart Battery Sense Product Page

Smart Battery Sense Manual